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On Gomez Peña’s “The New World Border”

Re-reading the New World Border has made me reflect on the ways that society is very divided. Especially in Western cultures. It feels like we are divided on so many fronts: generationally, politically, economically, and so on. This is where intercultural and hybridness must come into play. Gomez Peña pushes for a coalition between artists and writers. We must work together towards a borderless world instead of working individually or even against each other. He puts forth a “fourth world” idea where we are not set in our identities, and cultures. We can be influenced by many different cultures as it pertains to our own experiences and use these intercultural experiences to build a new “world”. 

This connects to what we were discussing in class, about how the machismo and hyper masculine culture in Chicano culture is very hard to live up to. It is socially constructed and enforced on people, but we as writers and artists have a responsibility to speak out against these ideas. By doing this, we can help push the culture in a positive direction, towards a more inclusive and understanding mindset. 

By opening up the confines we are placed in by society, we can help imagine a “borderless: world. A more interconnected world, that can work together on issues rather than work against one another.