Chapter 3 Post

[oconnorm]

On page 54, Anzaldua talks about the dichotomy that has come about because of the blurry roles of the three “mediators,” Guadalupe, la Chingada, and la Llorona. She writes, “This obscuring has encouraged the virgin/puta (whore) dichotomy… Yet we have not all embraced this dichotomy.” She continues to say that people worship the old spirits under the facade of Christian saints thus ignoring the puta half. This seemed to correlate to the way in which Coatlicue embraces both light and dark, male and female, and life and death, but the fact that over time this duality has faded, resulting in a loss of balanced oppositions and a the male figure becoming dominant. Why over time has one side of the dichotomy been prevalent? Is there any significance in keeping the duality of these gods balanced and how has this affected the history of these people?