Anzaldúa humanized issues along the U.S./Mexico border through bilingualism and poetry.

Anzaldúa's wrote bilingually, crossing between Spanish and English. Her work explains concepts in a way that makes sense for any bilingual person, or person who spends time in multiple languages. This is a perspective held by large populations along the U.S./Mexico border, a border that forcefully changed and was created by U.S. colonizing powers, and that U.S. governing powers continue to try to strengthen both physically (the wall) and mentally (by demonizing the Mexican "other").

In addition, Anzaldúa embedded poetry into her writing, alongside history and ideology, to humanize the experience of being Chicana, lesbian, bilingual, feminist and someone who grew up on the border of the U.S. and Mexico. She was particularly interested not only in prejudices against native Spanish speakers in the U.S., but in issues within Chicana culture and religion that aim to control women and demonize queer identity.

She considered culture a man-made concept used, together with religion, to falsely ‘protect’ women.

Anzaldúa commented on cultural tyranny: “Culture forms our beliefs. We perceive the version of reality that it communicates. Dominant paradigms, predefined concepts that exist as unquestionable, unchallengeable, are transmitted to us through the culture. Culture is made by those in power – men. Males make the rules and laws; women transmit them… The culture expects women to show greater acceptance of and commitment to, the value system than men.”

She also cross-examined the dynamic between culture and the church, and how they are structured to maintain control over women: “The culture and the Church insist that women are subservient to males. If a woman rebels she is a mujer mala (bad woman). If a woman doesn’t renounce herself in favor of the male, she is selfish. If a woman remains a virgin until she marries, she is a good woman.” Here, Anzaldúa uncovered the challenges both social and religious constructs bring to women, through various demands and expectations. We are witness of this today in the United States, especially regarding reproductive rights: politicians will yield to religion as the ultimate excuse for what a woman should, or should not, be allowed to do with her body.

Anzaldúa used bilingualism to demand acceptance of Mexican heritage, but also observed language as a male construct.

Language was another way Anzaldúa elevated political issues of prejudice against Spanish speakers along the border. She described growing up around white Americans that would say, “Speak American or go back to Mexico." Again, these are prejudices we still hear today in the U.S., aligning with discriminatory politics that have groups chanting, “Build a wall."

Her response to the right to speak her native language interchangeably is still relevant today. “Until I am free to write bilingually and to switch codes without having always to translate," she remarked, "while I still have to speak English or Spanish when I would rather speak Spanglish, and as long as I have to accommodate the English speakers rather than having them accommodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate.” Through this lens, she pushed the boundaries of dominant, white ‘norteamericano’ (North American) culture, criticizing it by saying “…the white laws and commerce and customs will rot in the deserts they’ve created, lie bleached.”

Additionally, she brings to light the ingrained masculinity of Spanish: “Chicanas use nosotros whether we’re male or female. We are robbed of our female being by the masculine plural. Language is a male discourse.” This issue is present in languages that have gendered words, a continuing issue that still discussed today among Spanish-speaking feminists and progressive media outlets across borders.

Ultimately, she believed that the struggle of being mestiza has an answer in feminism.

Anzaldúa said, “It is imperative that mestizas support each other in changing the sexist elements in the Mexican-Indian culture. As long as a woman is put down, the Indian and the Black in all of us is put down. The struggle of the mestiza is above all a feminist one.” Through a feminist lens, all social constructs that oppress populations can be deconstructed. Anzaldúa was not anti-white. She saw herself as a mediator, and believed in the importance of allowing a space for white allies. She strongly believed that people color should voice their needs, and that white society must “own the fact that you looked upon us as less than human, that you stole our lands, our personhood, our self-respect.”