Greasers, gringos and wetbacks: ventriloquizing the U.S. - Mexico borderlands in Gloria Anzaldúa's dramatic monologues

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Date
2018-10-04
Authors
Alexander, Donna Maria
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Oxford University Press
Published Version
10.1093/fmls/cqy063
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Abstract
This article focuses on two dramatic monologues by Chicana writer Gloria Anzaldúa. In ‘We Call Them Greasers’ and ‘sobre piedras con lagartijos’, Anzaldúa uses the voices of an Anglo male colonist and a male border-crosser to ventriloquize the colonial legacy of the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands. Anzaldúa harnesses the oral possibilities of dramatic monologue to use other[ed] voices across race, gender and class divides to mediate the complex border identities produced in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands. Through close readings of the two poems, this article explores the ways in which Anzaldúa underscores the patriarchal, macho vocalities of her male speakers from her perspective as a Chicana feminist writer.
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Keywords
Poetry , Chicana literature , Postcolonial literature , Dramatic monologue , Chicana feminism , Border studies , Migration , Displacement , Violence , Gloria Anzaldúa
Citation
Alexander, D. M. (2018) 'Greasers, gringos and wetbacks: ventriloquizing the U.S. - Mexico borderlands in Gloria Anzaldúa's dramatic monologues', Forum for Modern Language Studies, 54(4), pp. 379-399. doi:10.1093/fmls/cqy063
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https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqy063
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https://hdl.handle.net/10468/7330
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English - Journal Articles
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© 2018, the Author. Published by Oxford University Press for the Court of the University of St Andrews. All rights reserved. This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Forum for Modern Language Studies, following peer review. The version of record is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqy063