Comparison Paper Borderlands vs Always Running In Gloria Anzaldúa's novel Borderlands: The New Mestiza, she uses the ancient Aztec goddess Coatlicue as a gateway to a new consciousness and a new identity for herself, as a Chicana. In a world filled with opposites and polarities, mainstream Western thought often takes a one-sided view of life. In the chapter “The State of Coatlicue,” Gloria Anzaldúa describes her childhood where she felt abnormal. To achieve a new state of consciousness, she describes how she must embrace Coatlicue, the ancient Aztec mother goddess. The first metaphor used by Anzaldúa to bring about the new consciousness of the State of Coatlicue is that of the mirror. In the section “Enfrentamientos con el alma” or “Confrontations with the Soul,” she calls the mirror a gateway to the underworld, as mirrors were once believed to be a gateway to the other side. Because the Aztec goddess transcends both the underworld and our conscious mind, Anzaldua uses the figure of Coatlicue to show how she represents subject and object, self and self. Coatlicue is the part of the self that objectifies itself. Finding Coatlicue means looking in the mirror and seeing that part of you that is her. The part of ourselves that we don't call me, but rather her. To embrace Coatlicue, our hidden and painful parts, we must look at it in our own reflections. We must find beauty in its hideousness and realize that the parts of ourselves that we have always considered unacceptable contain beauty and to recognize it is to become one with those parts of ourselves. The author uses the needles of a cactus, or "Nopal de castillo", as a metaphor for the feeling of defense and the walls we put up to keep us away from...... middle of paper ......e epilogue, as well as a useful glossary of the Spanish terms he uses throughout the book. Rodriguez's autobiographical account, although clogged with occasional philosophical digressions, is a simple, timely, authoritative, and compelling retrospective. There has never been a clearer, more impactful account of the life of a gang member than Always Running, Luis J. Rodriguez's eloquent, passionate and devastatingly vivid chronicle of his youth in Los Angeles at the growing up in Watts and East Los Angeles, Rodriguez joined his first gang at age 11 and was drawn into "la vida loca," the crazy life. Gangs were “how we spun incredible bonds from the threads of nothing,” he recalls. (Luis J. Rodriguez, Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in LA, 1994.) Rodriguez's inspiring story should be read by anyone who cares about the future of children in America..