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The fact that we do live in nations makes borders central to any discussion on emerging global formations. The subject of borders has naturally intensified with an expanding globalizing economy that puts into question the efficacy of national identities. One of the effects of this globalization process places borders at the center of capitalist activity by shifting attention from the metropolitan to the peripheral boundaries that separate nations. The increase of communication and mobility through technological advancements also results in intense mobility between nations that do not physically border each other. Population shifts, transnational capital, denaturalizing sexual identities, restructuring of the family, and the down-sizing of post-Cold War economies reflect the tumult of intense mobility in these regions. Gloria Anzaldúa's 1987 text Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza marks this unparalleled view with a new cultural formation she calls the new mestiza . Anzaldúa argues that the new mestiza consciousness blurs the boundaries of identity through the process of having to cross over and negotiate through these limitations. In this interview, Anzaldúa responds to some of the disruptions a border discourse brings into current national discourse.
From this view, we trace how US cultural production attempts to redefine the effects of globalization. By looking more closely at the significance of borders, not only do we witness the rise of a border consciousness in US cultural reproduction, but we see how the process of "crossing over" problematizes all sense of identity. This leads us all to question what is lost or what attained through this decentering impulse in the global sphere. The response thus far has been mixed and contradictory. In the literary field, we see many contemporary artists and intellectuals taking part in the "crossing over. " Some, of course, will view this new moment with optimism. Others simply recognize that borders cannot be sufficiently explained as mere metaphors.
Reality is even less optimistic in the social context. Because any sense of contingency in American pragmatism is tempered with anxiety and concern, we witness the rise of a nationalist discourse posing restrictions on guarantees issued by our government. Usually these restrictions themselves limit state spending on social programs. In the State of California, for example, Proposition 187 passed by a sizeable margin and proved to be...