Borderlands / La Frontera

This critical edition of text that changed the course of Chicanx, queer, and feminist theory breathes new life into the themes still present in today’s political and social climate. 

At the same time this book offers insight into the construction of Anzaldúa’s philosophies. 

Borderlands was first published in 1987 after an organic composition process, mixing prose and poetry and integrating personal memories with a philosophical search for a consciousness-raising and coalition-building method for the oppressed. Conceptually innovative, visionary, and rebellious at the time, Borderlands has continued to be studied as a distinctive creative work and a spiritual guidebook to heal and empower Chicanxs, queer communities of color, and other marginalized groups. Rooted in Gloria Anzaldúa’s experience as a Chicana, a lesbian, an activist, and a writer, the essays and poems in Borderlands/La Frontera, her first book and signature work, remap our understanding of “borders” as psychic, social, and cultural terrains that we inhabit and that inhabit all of us. 

Drawing heavily on archival research and a comprehensive literature review, this critical edition elucidates Anzaldúa’s complex composition process and its centrality in the development of her philosophy and contextualizes the book within her theories and writings before and after its 1987 publication. It opens with two introductory studies; offers a corrected text, explanatory footnotes, translations, and four archival appendices; and closes with an updated bibliography of Anzaldúa’s works, an extensive scholarly bibliography on Borderlands, and her biography. It also featuress features an afterword by noted Anzaldúa scholar AnaLouise Keating.

Imagine Borderlands as a timeless pyramid of ideas that has been added to, deconstructed, reconstructed, transcribed, translated, and trans-interpreted by every generation of Chicanx and non-Chicanx feminist scholars in the thirty-five years since its publication. This critical edition offers both a painstakingly articulated scholarly scaffolding around Anzaldúa’s original text and a bridge into the life and memory of the author who designed the blueprint of that pyramid. — Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Professor of Chicana/o Studies, English, and Gender Studies, UCLA

Vivancos-Pérez takes readers by the hand in this straightforward, well-crafted edition, offering a detailed introduction describing the eminent author’s iterative process of writing Borderlands. The archival documents—including unpublished poetry and essays with Anzaldúa’s own annotations—add flavor, temperament, and in-depth insight into the complex philosopher’s early writings. Scholars, students, family, soul-mates, and friends of Anzaldúa (myself included) will be thrilled with this long-awaited, noteworthy critical edition. — Emma Pérez, author of The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas into History

Ricardo F. Vivancos-Pérez’s meticulous archival work and Norma Elia Cantú’s life experience and expertise converge to offer a stunning resource for Anzaldúa scholars; for writers, artivists, and activists inspired by her work; and for everyone. Hereafter, no study of Borderlands will be complete without this beautiful, essential reference. — Paola Bacchetta, Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies, UC Berkeley

Readers will delight in the new pathways to Anzaldúan thought thanks to the work of the editors. Whether coming to Anzaldúan thought for the first time or returning again to a much-treasured Borderlands, the editors’ loving care will enable us all to hear her call—no hay más que cambiar ... there’s nothing else to do but change. — Nancy Tuana, author of Beyond Philosophy: Nietzsche, Foucault, Anzaldúa