Gloria Anzaldua's "Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza," is a novel which encompasses the life of a Chicana living in the United States-Mexico border area. The life, culture, and viewpoints of the Chicana on the border are impacted by a variety of experiences, a specific culture, proud histories, and the physical surroundings of the border. A major factor in the life of a Chicana, especially in the border region is the folk-Catholicism that many of these women embrace. Folk-Catholicism is a form of Catholicism that embraces some of the ideologies of the indigenous Aztecs. Anzaldua goes to lengths to ensure that the religion of the Chicana woman is understood and even devotes a whole chapter in her book to explaining some of the facets of this area. The primary source of the Chicana religion traces back to the Aztec people and their beliefs. The religion that the Chicana embraces makes up her very identity, from her actions down to her very soul.
The origin of religious symbolism in the book relates to the symbol of the serpent. The serpent is an indigenous/Aztec image in this scenario. In the book, Anzaldua first mentions the serpent when she speaks of her childhood experiences. Her mother had told her not to visit the outhouse at night due to the fact that snakes could often be found there. Alzaldua also tells another experience of hers with the creature in her poem Ella tiene su tono in which she describes when she was bitten by a rattlesnake. Her boot received most of the venom and she barely felt a thing. Since that day she viewed the serpent as her animal counterpart and following she both sought and shunned them. Snakes tie into the Aztec deity known as Coatlicue.
Coatlicue was the Aztec earth goddess who was known as both a creator and a destroyer. In Aztec mythology Coatlicue was said to have given birth to the stars and the moon. She was the mother of 400 according to the Aztec beliefs including Huitzilopochtli: the god of war, the sun and human sacrifice, as well as Coyolxauhqui who was a powerful magician.
