Borderlands and Linguistic Mestizaje in US Puerto Rican Literature

Abstract The effects of neocolonialism, multilingualism, and forced migration on the United States Puerto Rican community have produced notable literary expressions that merit further study for their use of code-switching and hybridization. Using Gloria Anzaldúa’s concept of the “Borderland” as a framework, this paper explores “Nuyorican” poetry as well as the bilingual, bicultural reality for Puerto Ricans in the United States who cross both physical and metaphorical borders and who find liberation living in between languages and cultures.