Gloria Anzaldúa, Hybrid History, and the American Imagination

Gloria Anzaldúa’s self-identification as many things simultaneously is not just important to the idea of intersectionality in identity-politics discourse, but to the additional, and perhaps more complicated idea of intersectionality in historical consciousness. With increasing attention to political and geographic border questions regarding the United States and Mexico, it is important to consider more philosophically the idea of borders. Is it realistic to have one history for a country? If so, is it essential to have the most comprehensive history, one that captures what actually happened but from multiple perspectives? Or is it permissible, if not beneficial, to have multiple stories, even if these stories seem to be in conflict, and thus overall incomprehensible? It is the last of these considerations in particular that Anzaldúa helps us to understand, especially as the United States is experiencing the signs of what some call a post-truth culture.