Living in the House of Nepantla

Abstract

The year was 1992. I moved into the upstairs of a house in Santa Cruz, California. The place was a writer’s dream: a loft, woodstove, skylights, a deck, and best of all, a view of the ocean only a block away. The house belonged to Gloria Anzaldúa. Gloria’s books This Bridge Called My Back and Borderlands had shaped my feminism, particularly my understanding of women of color. Her work had also been a catalyst in strengthening my identity as a Jewish woman. My parents, who are both Holocaust refugees, had kept their pasts and their Jewish heritage a secret from me. When I read Gloria’s writing I was inspired to understand my own struggles with assimilation. Carrying all of this admiration for Gloria’s books intensified my usual shyness. For the first week I almost avoided Gloria. I couldn’t believe I was living upstairs from this incredible woman.

Nepantla becomes the place you live in most of the time—home.

—Gloria Anzaldúa, “(Un)natural bridges”