New World Border Prophecies, Poems & Loqueras for the End of the Century

by Guillermo Gómez-Peña

Performance texts, poems, and essays explore America's irrational fears of otherness and hybridization.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Theatre

Paperback

First published July 1, 1996

Reviews

[mari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Art can be disruptive (in a "revolutionary" non elitist manner)....algo asi. La frontera tan tan

[Zach]

Hypo

[Noam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book practically goes on more of my shelves than it doesn't go on. As you can tell by the subtitle, this book is pretty varied: poetry, essays, scripts/transcripts of various performances, photos, etc etc. I've also seen tapes of some of his performances in my lit. class. I would especially recommend the NAFTAzteca Pirate TV - it was interesting to read, but it's even better to watch.

This book really pushed my boundaries, took me out of my comfort zone, and forced me to ask myself difficult questions, which is exactly what it should do. I am a European-American, not of Hispanic descent, who is studying to be a Spanish teacher, and I am acutely aware of the care I have to take in celebrating latin@ cultures when I teach about them to my students, without commiting some serious cultural appropriation.

I loved reading the prophesies of the flipped hegemonies, where the currently disadvantaged become the advantaged, and the monolingual anglos struggle for their identities when they are no longer on top. While reading them, I was forced to ask and re-ask: who do I identify with? Who do I have a *right* to identify with? How am I classified by others, and who do I classify without their consent? Can I laugh at caricaturized/exaggerated gring@s without being hypocritical?

I also loved, in the Pirate TV segment, where Gómez-Peña and his colleagues stage a TV-takeover, when an anglo-sounding woman asked GP why he was acting in such a subversive and (seemingly) illegal way, perhaps promoting negative stereotypes, rather than performing in a more conventional and legal way, and he replied something to the effect of "Did it occur to you that the mainstream media is less available to minories, and we *have* to find other ways to get our messages out?" Definitely something I want to bring up to my future students, although I would have to do some censorship in order to only show the PG13 stuff to my adolescent students. I wonder what GP would have to say about that.

One complaint: there could stand to be more chicana/latina/female-in-general representation.

[Ally Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I put this on my wishlist after I saw Gomez Pena at the Mattress Factory. It was a really great collection of essays, poems and performances by the artist. Obviously it is better to see the performances in person but it was interesting to see all his pieces chronicled in one book. I like reading GP because his language is simple but with complex concepts. And he endorses his ideas on hybridity by writing in spanglish and some french. Another quality GP has as writer and intellectual is that he covers the positions of all parties involved. Although every work looked at the role of an immigrant, he included stories of artists, mexicans, chicanos, professors, police and community members and their role in the 4th world countries (new world border). The reverse anthropology performances of indigenous tribes of Guatino interested me the most as well as some of his ironic performances like poetry reading in a public restroom. Some of the pieces were a little strange to read since many of them depended on audience participation but all in all I enjoyed reading his collection.

[Chenelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had to buy this book for my Multicultural Literature class and I loved it. Usually I don't enjoy some of the books that my professors choose but this isn't one of them. Really good read, I'd recommend it to anyone.

[sonny singh suchdev · Rating 5 out of 5]

kick ass!