Response to "Tlilli Tlapalii..."

            In her article “Tlilli Tlapalli: The Path of the Red and Black Ink” by Gloria Anzaldúa explains to us what writing is to her. She describes how her writing is from deep within her soul and how she creates stories in her head in what she calls the Shamanistic State. She has to pick “out images from her soul’s eye” (223) and then has to choose the correct words to describe said images. Her writing is taken from “the human body – flesh and bone – and from the Earth’s body – stone, sky, liquid, soil.” (225).

            This article is similar to those articles about identity. Anzaldúa constructs her identity from what she picks from her soul. It would seem as if her identity, what’s held within her soul, is largely based off of her culture. This makes me also relate this article to Simtherman and Delpit’s articles; those authors are heavily influenced by their culture, like Anzaldúa.

            I really like this article. It was short, captivating and to the point. It was very descriptive in an imaginary sort of way that made it really easy to get into and it felt like I was reading a good book (some sort of fiction title). It was also short so I could take in the whole article easily.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

1.)

            The significance of Western culture’s ‘individual’ styled art contrasting to the communal aspect of tribal art is that it lets us know how her culture affects her identity. You can tell in reading this article that she is very influenced by her culture. Current literacy/art, I think, is becoming more individual. There used to be a huge demand and want to paint/create religious pieces, I think of centuries ago. Now I feel like a lot of artists are going for things that haven’t been done because there are a lot different ideals these days.

2.)

            I don’t think this article would have been more effective in written in a traditional academic format. The poetic style used in this article was done very well; she must be familiar with creative writing. It kept me captivated the whole time, was more fun to read, and definitely was more interesting than reading what we normally read, which is the traditional academic format. It was refreshing.