Somos una gente

 September 26, 1942 – May 15, 2004

 "Asombra pensar que hemos quedado en ese pozo oscuro donde el mundo encierra  a las lesbianas. Asombra pensar que hemos, como feministas y lesbianas, cerrado nuestros corazones a los hombres, a nuestros hermanos  los jotos, desheredados y marginales como nosotros. Being the supreme  crossers of cultures, homosexuals have strong bond with the queer white, Black, Asian, Native American, Latino, and with the queer in Italy, Australia and the rest of the planet. We come from all colors, all classes, all races, all time periods. OUR ROLE IS TO LINK PEOPLE WITH EACH OTHER- the black with Jews with Indians with Asians with whites with extraterrestrials. It is to tranfer ideas and information from one culture to another. Colored homosexuals have more knowledge of other cultures; have always been at the forefront (although sometimes in the closet) of all liberation struggles in this country; have suffered more injustices and have survived them despite all odds. Chicano need to aknoledge the political and artistic contributions of their quuer. PEOPLE, LISTEN TO WHAT YOUR JOTERÍA IS SAYING."

Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands, San Francisco, 1987(p. 108)

  "I, for one, choose to use some of my energy to serve as a mediator. I think we need to allow whites to be our allies. Though our literature, art, corridos, and folktales we must share our history with them so whem they set up comittees to help Big Mountains Navajos or the Chicaano farmworkers or los Nicaragüenses they won't turn people away because of their racial fears and ignorances. They will come to see that they are not helping us but following our lead.

  Individually, but also as a racial entity, we need to voice our needs. We need to say to white society: We need you to accept the fact that chicanos are different, to acknoledge your rejection and negation of us. We need you to own the fact that you looked upon us as less than human, that you stole our lands, our personhood, our self-respect. We need you to make public restitution: to say that, to compensate for your own sense of defectiveness, your strive for power over us, you erase our history and our experience because it makes you feel guilty -you'd rather forget your brutish acts. To say you've split yourself from minority groups, that you disown us, that your dual consciousness splits off parts of yourself, transferring the "negative" parts onto us (...) to say that you are afraid of us, that to put distance between us, you were the mask of contempt. Admit that mexico is your double, that she exists in the shadow of this country, that we are irrevocably tied to her. Gringo, accept the doppelganger in your psyche. By taking back your collective shadow the intracultural split we heal. And finally, tell us what you need from us."

Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands, San Francisco, 1987(p. 108)