Tierra Tremenda: The Earth’s Agony and Ecstasy in the Work of Gloria Anzaldúa

Abstract

This essay looks at “Un Agitado Viento/Ehécatl, The Wind,” the second half of Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. I frame my reading within the context of my own study of Nahuatl philosophical foundations, because like many of us, Gloria¹ was inspired by this tradition, and embraced and re-visioned many of the concepts to register in our contemporary settings. I want to draw attention to the power of Gloria’s creative process, as she has articulated it, and demonstrate how hers is a visionary spirit deeply grounded in the earth and moved by the force of her hunger for justice, her demand for personal autonomy, and her love for the universe. I also want to link her spiritual work in the “path of conocimiento,” which she elaborates in “now let us shift …the path of conocimiento … inner work, public acts” to her earlier spiritual work in Borderlands.

Querida Gloria, Tortuga Woman, estamos en tiempo de invierno, y las rosas de tu espíritu están brotando la evidencia de la Diosa Antigua. Tú, hermana, eres Tierra Tremenda.