Cruz-Ventura 1

Antonio Cruz-Ventura

Professor Batty

English 102

December 11, 2017

The Final Struggle

The struggle for acceptance has always been one of humanities biggest struggle. In the

poem, Cibuatlyotl, Women Alone by Gloria Anzaldua, the author talks how Raza affected her life

growing up as a female, queer woman. Race or in other words Raza is a topic that is very

controversial in society because people have to follow certain traditions and culture to be

accepted. Many poem reviews talk about Anzaldua's life and how she became a very proud and

strong woman that fought for queer, Chicano (a) movements, and female identities, so they relate

her poems to her life. Many might argue that Anzaldua wrote about how she was a strong woman

and how she fought against Raza to become a happy queer woman. I'm suggesting that she wrote

about the thoughts of dying from diabetes and how death will soon help her escape from the

Raza, she expresses this idea through her poem by using literary devices like imagery, and

diction.

The use of symbolism can be used to relate this poem to Anzuldua life, and it makes sense

to me that she was using this poem to express how a race was affecting her life. At the beginning

of the poem, Anzaldua character seems like she hates Raza with the passion. She wrights

Many years I have fought off you hands. Raza

Father mother church your rage at my desire to be

With my self, alone (1-3)

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In other words, the reader sees that she describes Raza as culture, religion, family traditions by

using father, mother, and religion in the poem. It makes sense that she was struggling for years

because she comes from a family that has a strict tradition and culture, so they make rules and

regulations that are applicable laws to the Raza. In her case, she has done wrong to the Raza

because she's a Chicana lesbian. And to the Raza being gay or lesbian is prohibited, well it used

to be but now a day is more accepted. Anzaldua uses the words "with myself, alone" to represent

an idea of reaching the end of her life. She knows that she will die soon and she doesn't have to

worry about traditions because when people die they leave everything behind and they die only

by themselves. Some poem critics might say that she was not writing about death that she was

most likely writing about overcoming to be strong women. In the poem review "Gloria

Anzalda: Place, Race, Language, and Sexuality in the Magic Valley" by Maria Herrera-Sober

say that Aduzaldua was fighting for personal freedom but also to fight for her own beliefs against

culture and traditions. It is true that she was fighting to be strong women but the fight against

Race doesn't end. before Anzaldua died she was still fighting for change.

Adding to the imagery that creates this theme about death. Aduzaldua writes

This lifelong battle has ended,

Raza I don't need to flail against you.

Raza india Mexicana norteamericana, there's no-

Thing more you can chop off (26-29)

Anzaldua is restating that she has fought this battle where she was being picked on for being

lesbian. It's interesting that in this part of the poem she names three different races, her

indigenous, Mexican, and North America. Which makes me believe that Anzaldua was suffering

to be herself and not only was she being picked on by the Mexican Raza but also the Raza that
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was around which included mostly everyone around her. Anzaldua ends this part of the poem

with a thought which would represent her saying that when she dies no one could pick on her for

being a lesbian because she could finally be free and alone.

Diction in this poem applies as a key to understanding why Aduzaldua was talking about

her future death. For example, the word Cibuatlyotl means a female spirit. This word choice is

interesting because spirits usually belong to the other world. When the title of the poem

combines with spirit, it has a great significance because Cibuatlyotl and Women Alone show an

image of Aduzaldua think that she will soon die an become one of these spirits as she's heading

to the other world. She knew that her life was coming to an end because diabetes might kill her.

In the article, "Gloria Anzaldua (1942-2004): as a "threshold person," a nepantlera, Anzaldua

moved among worlds in her art, her politics, and her spirituality AnaLouise Keating." Lets

readers know that many of the people that knew Anzaldua didn't realize that she had diabetes.

Some people knew her were shocked that she had died from diabetes. The word choice in this

part of the poem makes me think that Anzaldua was using words to hide messages that show that

she was going to die but didn't want people to know.

The separation of three different languages is important because it shows that Aduzaldua

felt like she was no accepted in three different cultures. She uses language to manipulate the flow

of the poem. At the beginning of the poem, she uses Raza to represents her family and cultural

beliefs but then she uses it to define multiple races. This makes me think that Aduzaldua was a

woman that was struggling a lot with acceptance in her community. Of course, many will

probably disagree with this assertion of her struggle. In one of Anzaldua biography, says that she

said we should belong to ourselves and only to ourselves. To put it differently, it meant that

culture should not control who a person is. But in her case, she felt death was going to help her
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escape the suffering from all types of races because she knew that when she died, she was not

going to suffer anymore.

As a result, in this poem, we could see that Anzaldua was using literature to express what

was going on her real life. By analyzing this poem, I see that Anzaldua was trying to find an

escape from the Raza; her escape was that she was going to die from diabetes and no longer had

to suffer from the bad that Raza creates. Like Anzaldua, many people suffer race, and the only

thing that helps you get away from a race is death when their alone.
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Work cited

"Gloria Anzaldua." Gay & Lesbian Biography, edited by Michael J. Tyrkus and Michael

Bronski, St. James Press, 1997. Literature Resource Center,

library.lavc.edu Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.

Herrera-Sobek, Mara. "Gloria Anzalda: Place, Race, Language, and Sexuality in the Magic

Valley." Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Lawrence J. Trudeau, vol. 350,

Gale, 2014. Literature Resource Center, library.lavc.edu Accessed 23 Sept. 2017.

Keating, AnaLouise. "Gloria Anzaldua (1942-2004): as a 'threshold person,' a nepantlera,

Anzaldua moved among worlds in her art, her politics, and her spirituality." The

Women's Review of Books, Oct. 2004, p. 1+. Literature Resource Center,

library.lavc.edu. Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.