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La Llorona
Coatlicue and Tonantsi are two different names for the Azteca-Mexica creator goddess, whose associated serpent imagery echoes throughout Anzaldúa’s work. Anzaldúa argues that she was once a single goddess, with both positive and negative aspects, until the patriarchal Azteca-Mexica society split her into two—the good Tonantsi and the evil Coatlicue—and used her as a justification for dividing women into good and evil, too. The Spanish continued the same pattern, adding the Virgin of Guadalupe as the archetype of good femininity and leaving Coatlicue (Indigenous femininity) as the representative of evil. For Anzaldúa, then, the merged figure of Coatlicue/Tonantsi represents an earlier, more complete vision of Chicana femininity, which is free of patriarchy’s influence and can help liberate women from the rigid social codes that oppress them. Anzaldúa specifically associates Coatlicue/Tonantsi with a mode of consciousness that helps her resolve deep-seated internal conflicts, and which she calls the Coatlicue state.
Coatlicue/Tonantsi Quotes in Borderlands / La Frontera
The Borderlands / La Frontera quotes below are all either spoken by Coatlicue/Tonantsi or refer to Coatlicue/Tonantsi. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 1, Section 4: La herencia de Coatlicue / The Coatlicue State
Quotes
There is another quality to the mirror and that is the act of seeing. Seeing and being seen. Subject and object, I and she. The eye pins down the object of its gaze, scrutinizes it, judges it. A glance can freeze us in place; it can “possess” us. It can erect a barrier against the world. But in a glance also lies awareness, knowledge. These seemingly contradictory aspects—the act of being seen, held immobilized by a glance, and “seeing through” an experience—are symbolized by the underground aspects of Coatlicue, Cihuacoatl, and Tlazolteotl which cluster in what I call the Coatlicue state.
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We are not living up to our potentialities and thereby impeding the evolution of the soul—or worse, Coatlicue, the Earth, opens and plunges us into its maw, devours us. By keeping the conscious mind occupied or immobile, the germination work takes place in the deep, dark earth of the unconscious.
Frozen in stasis, she perceives a slight
movement—a thousand slithering serpent hairs,
Coatlicue. It is activity (not immobility) at its
most dynamic stage, but it is an underground
movement requiring all her energy. It brooks no
interference from the conscious mind.
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Coatlicue/Tonantsi Quotes in Borderlands / La Frontera
The Borderlands / La Frontera quotes below are all either spoken by Coatlicue/Tonantsi or refer to Coatlicue/Tonantsi. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 1, Section 4: La herencia de Coatlicue / The Coatlicue State
Quotes
There is another quality to the mirror and that is the act of seeing. Seeing and being seen. Subject and object, I and she. The eye pins down the object of its gaze, scrutinizes it, judges it. A glance can freeze us in place; it can “possess” us. It can erect a barrier against the world. But in a glance also lies awareness, knowledge. These seemingly contradictory aspects—the act of being seen, held immobilized by a glance, and “seeing through” an experience—are symbolized by the underground aspects of Coatlicue, Cihuacoatl, and Tlazolteotl which cluster in what I call the Coatlicue state.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
We are not living up to our potentialities and thereby impeding the evolution of the soul—or worse, Coatlicue, the Earth, opens and plunges us into its maw, devours us. By keeping the conscious mind occupied or immobile, the germination work takes place in the deep, dark earth of the unconscious.
Frozen in stasis, she perceives a slight
movement—a thousand slithering serpent hairs,
Coatlicue. It is activity (not immobility) at its
most dynamic stage, but it is an underground
movement requiring all her energy. It brooks no
interference from the conscious mind.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
