Gloria Anzaldúa has come a long way from growing up in the town of Hargill, Texas, to her current status as university teacher, lecturer in Third World feminism, and accomplished author in the fields of Chicano and women's studies. Critics of Anzaldúa's work recognize the daring and innovative aspect of her mode of writing and they describe her as a writer who has the rare ability to write in a mixture of discursive styles and aims. In her major work to date--Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987)--Anzaldúa writes with the clear, crisp prose of historiography as well as with the rhythms and images of poetry. The distinctive trait of the book is the decorum with which it stands in opposition to the traditional prohibition of mixing genres. In Borderlands Anzaldúa demonstrates the broad range of her talents as...