Serpent Theme in "Borderlands, La Frontera" continued...

        While La facultad is the ability to sense fear and deeper realities, the Coatlicue state is the period in time in which one is becoming more isolated, void of distractions and becoming more knowledgeable and conscious. “Those activities or Coatlicue states which disrupt the smooth flow (complacency) of life are exactly what propel the soul to do its work: make soul, increase consciousness of itself. Our greatest disappointments and painful experiences- if we make meanings out of them- can lead us toward becoming more of who we are” (68). It is also important to note that the serpent is connected to the Coatlicue state in more than one way. Firstly, as seen in the last poem, Anzaldua uses the belly of the serpent to represents  the actual place in which Coatlicue takes place. However, secondly, Coatlicue was a very powerful female deity that was popular before the masculine Azteca-Mexica culture greatly reduced the number of female deities. Sometimes described as the Goddess of birth and death, Anzaldua also describes Coatlicue as: “Simultaneously, depending on the person, she represents: duality in life, a synthesis of duality, and a third perspective- something more than mere duality or a synthesis of duality” (68). In this way, Coatlicue is an important figure within the Chican@ movement. Coatlicue brings together life and death, the serpent and the eagle much in the same way Chican@s are trying to exist in the Borderlands, in between two worlds. Coatlicue, and the serpent theme, are “a symbol of the fusion of opposites” (69). 

Focusing again on that dark shining thing, we can see Anzaldua is trying to illustrate this relationship between Gloria and Coatlicue. The stanza in which Gloria is born the last line is- “sensing that something was missing” (45).  This “sensing” refers back to la facultad, and the ability to be more conscious and open for change. After Gloria is separated from her pain by being reborn through the coatlicue state she encounters the black and “numinous thing” (48). Now in a complete shift, it is no longer just Gloria and Coatlicue: “Here we are four women stinking with guilt/ you for not speaking your names/ me for not holding out my hand sooner” (51-53). I believe the “four women” Anzaldua is referencing is La Virgen de Guadalupe, La Llorona, La Chingada and Gloria. The theme of the serpent is still present in Guadalupe. By the end of the poem all four women seemed to have woven themselves into one indistinguishable voice.

The last stanza helps to portray the way in which one becomes at one with the beasts. The first line says, “I know you are the Beast”, but then the second line goes on to say that you are also the prey. In this way one can become one with the Beast. Anzaldua often said, “Let the wound caused by the serpent be cured by the serpent” (72). Everyone from “the midwife” to “that dark shining thing” is prey to the Beast. Ultimately the last line of the poem reiterates the idea of the Coatlicue state and the image of the serpent as “the fusion of opposites”.

Anzaldua, Gloria. Boderlands, La Frontera: The New Mestiza. 3rd. San Fransisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2007. Print. 

that dark shining thing

   You've shut the door again

   to escape the darkness

   only it's pitch black in that closet.

   Some buried part of you prevailed

   elected me to pry open a crack

   hear the unvoiced plea

   see the animal behind the bars

   of your eyelashes.

I am the only round face,

Indian-beaked, off-colored

in the faculty lineup, the workshop, the panel

and reckless enough to take you on.

I am the flesh you dig your fingernails into 

mine the hand you chop off while still clinging to it

the face spewed with your vomit

I risk your sanity

and mine.

I want to turn my back on you

wash my hands of you

but my hands remember each seam

each nail embedded in that wall

my feet know each rock you tread on

as you stumble I falter too

and I remember

he/me/they who shouted

push Gloria breathe Gloria

feel their hands holding me up, prompting me

until I'm facing that pulsing bloodied blackness

trying to scream

from between your legs

feel again the talons raking my belly.

I remember hating him/me/they who pushed me

as I'm pushing you

remember the casing breaking

flooding the walls

remember opening my eyes one day

sensing that someone was missing.

Missing was the pain, gone the fear

that all my life had walked beside me.

It was then I saw the numinous thing

it was black and it had my name

it spoke to me and I spoke to it.

Her we are four women stinking with guilt 

your for not speaking your names

me for not holding out my hand sooner.

I don't know how long I can keep naming

that dark animal

coaxing it out of you, out of me

keep calling it good or woman-god

while everyone says no no no.

I know I am that Beast that circles your house

peers in the window

and that you see yourself my prey.

   But I know you are the Beast

   its prey is you

   you that dark shining thing

   I know it's come down to this:

   vida o muerte, life or death.

In the first stanza it seems as though the narrator is trying to simulate the Coatlicue state, however unlike the previous poem discussed, instead of the image of the serpent, the narrator is in a closet. Instead of trying to come to terms with the darkness, she is trying to “escape”. Furthermore, also in the previous poem, when the narrator first falls down to the belly of the serpent she does not cast a shadow and thinks lights are shining on her from every direction. In this poem the darkness seems more flat, lacking the energy represented by the serpent. By the second indented stanza it is evident that the other “person” has come to help the narrator escape from the closet. The two obviously have a strong bond because of their ability to communicate nonverbally. By the sixth stanza we are finally revealed the narrative voices: Gloria and the Serpent Goddess, Coatlicue. In an ultimate image of union of characters and identities, Gloria is born from the “pulsing bloodied blackness” and “talons” of Coatlicue (36, 39). After the birth there is a shift in the balance of their relationship. Now Gloria is pushing Coatlicue in the same way that “him /me/they” pushed her.

               Similar to the modern Chican@, the history of Coatlicue is one that has been influenced and censored throughout the years by different groups. “The male-dominated Azteca-Mexica culture drove the powerful female deities underground by giving them monstrous attributes and by substituting male deities in their place, thus splitting the female Self and the female deities. They divided her who had been complete, who possessed both upper (light) and underworld (dark) aspects” (49). Due to that division, the stereotypical depictions of women as either the chaste La Virgen or la Chingada the puta became very culturally engrained.  However, the serpent is reintroduced with the story of Guadalupe. Guadalupe told Juan Diego her name was Maria Coatlalopeuh, which Anzaldua translates the last name from Nahuatl to mean: “the one who is at one with the beasts” (51). 

Serpent Theme in "Borderlands, La Frontera"

Sueno con Serpientes

Dead,

the doctor by the operating table said.

I passed between the two fangs,

the flickering tongue.

Having come through the mouth of the serpent,

swallowed,

I found myself suddenly in the dark,

sliding down a smooth wet surface

down down into an even darker darkness.

Having crossed the portal, the raised hinged mouth,

having entered the serpent's belly,

now there was no looking back, no going back.

Why do I cast no shadow?

Are there lights from all sides shining on me?

Ahead, ahead.

curled up inside the serpent's coils,

the damp breath of death on my face.

I knew at that instant: something must change

or I'd die.

Algo tenia que cambiar.

Serpents, known as coatl, were one of the most notable symbols in pre-Columbian America. Not only was the serpent’s mouth associated with womanhood, Anzaldua says: “[The Olmecs] considered it the most sacred place on earth, a place of refuge, the creative womb from which all things were born and to which all things returned” (56). After giving this brief history in the passage Sueno con serpientes she then writes a poem describing one of her near death experiences in which the serpent appears. “Dead/ the doctor by the operating table said/ I passed between the two fangs/ the flickering tongue” (56 1-2). It is clear from the one-word first line that Anzaldua is not writing this poem to dwell or lament about the death. As she passes between the two fangs and the flickering tongue she is in a very vulnerable position. The choice of the word “flickering” to describe the tongue subtly hints at the use of light and dark. Like the fading light of a small candle that is flickering, the further she goes down into the serpent the more she is overtaken by darkness.

Alongside the darkness imagery that is often associated with the serpent, there always seems to be some degree of fear or uncertainty.  Fear is brought on by the awareness or “sensing” of danger or a break in perception. Anzaldua calls the ability to perceive deeper realities through instantaneous “sensing” La facultad. “Those who are pushed out of the tribe for being different are likely to become more sensitized (when not brutalized into insensitivity). Those who do not feel psychologically or physically safe in the world are more apt to develop this sense. Those who are pounced on the most have it the strongest- the females, the homosexuals of all races, the darkskinned, the outcast, the persecuted, the marginalized, the foreign” (60). Anzaldua goes onto directly relate this to Chicanos and their struggles to assimilate with other cultures: “we only know that we are hurting, we suspect that there is something ‘wrong’ with us, something fundamentally ‘wrong’”(67). However, a key part of La facultad is to be able to detach one’s self from worldly obsessions in order to “see” and reach awareness. At first one must acknowledge the fears they have, but then they must try to understand it.

 “Every increment of consciousness, every step forward is travesia, a crossing. I am again an alien in new territory. And again, and again. But if I escape conscious awareness, escape ‘knowing’, I won’t be moving. Knowledge makes me more conscious. ‘Knowing’ is painful because after ‘it’ happens I can’t stay in the same place and be comfortable. I am no longer the same person I was before.” (70)  

Referring back to the poem in Sueno con serpientes, as the narrator is “curled up inside the serpent’s coils” and feels the “damp breath of death” on her face, the poem goes in a completely different direction. Abruptly at that moment she says, “I knew at that instant: something must change/ or I’d die/ Algo tenia que cambiar” (16-19). In this moment of enlightenment she has more consciousness. While she may not know what exactly it is that needs or has to change, her awareness of the need for change, and the consequence of death, greatly affect her self-identity.

Three Important Concepts:

La facultad is the capacity to see in surface phenomena the meaning of deeper realities, to see the deep structure below the surface. It is in that "sensing", a quick perception arrived at without conscious reasoning. It is an acute awareness mediated by the part of the psyche that does not speak, that communicates in images and symbols which are the faces of feelings, that is, behind which feelings reside/hide. The one possessing this sensitivity is excruciatingly alive to the world.
Those who are pushed out of the tribe for being different are likely to become more sensitized (when not brutalized into insensitivity). Those who do not feel psychologically or physically safe in the world are more apt to develop this sense. Those who are pounced on the most have it the strongest- the females, the homosexuals of all races, the darkskinned, the outcast, the outcast, the persecuted, the marginalized, the foreign.

The Coatlicue State is one of the powerful images, or "archetypes", that inhabits, or passes through, my psyche. We need Coatlicue to slow us up so that the psyche can assimilate previous experiences and process the changes. Those activities or Coatlicue states which disrupt the smooth flow (complacency) of life are exactly what propel the soul to do its work: make soul, increase consciousness of itself. Our greatest disappointments and painful experiences- if we can make meaning out of them- can lea us toward becoming more of who we are. Or they can remain meaningless. The Coatlicue state can be a way station or it can be a way of life.

The new mestiza copes by developing a tolerance for contradictions, a tolerance for ambiguity. She learns to be an Indian in Mexican culture, to be Mexican from an Anglo point of view. She learns to juggle cultures. She has a plural personality, she operates in a pluralistic mode- nothing is thrust out, the good the bad and the ugly, nothing rejected, nothing abandoned. Not only does she sustain contradictions, she turns the ambivalence into something else.

The work of mestiza consciousness is to break down the subject-object duality that keeps her a prisoner and to show in the flesh and through the images in her work how duality is transcended. The answer to the problem between the white race and the colored, between males and females, likes in healing the split that originates in the very foundation of our lives, our culture, our languages, our thoughts. A massive uprooting of dualistic thinking in the individual and collective consciousness is the beginning of a long struggle, but that could, in our best hopes, bring us to the end of rape, of violence, of war.

Anzaldua, Gloria. Boderlands, La Frontera: The New Mestiza. 3rd. San Fransisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2007. Print.

"Letting go" by Gloria Anzaldua