Nepantla

[...] Nepantla is the space in-between, the locus and sign of transition. In nepantla we realize that realities clash, authority figures of the various groups demand contradictory commitments, and we and others have failed living up to idealized goals. [...] Our perspective’s stability relies on liminality and fluidity... The nepantla mind-set eliminates polarity thinking where there’s no in between, only “ either/or”; it reinstates “and.” Because our perceptions and thinking contain subtle and hidden biases, we need a nepantla brain to prompt the questioning of our usual assumptions and beliefs. Such a brain would facilitate our ability to look atthe world with new eyes. Navigating the cracks is the process of reconstructing life anew, of fashioning new identities. [...]

We’re caught in remolinos (vortexes), each with different, often contradictory forms of cognition, perspectives, worldviews, belief systems—all occupying the transitional nepantla space.

Torn between ways, we seek to find some sort of harmony amid the remolinos of multiple and conflictive worldviews; we must learn to integrate all these perspectives. Transitions are a form of crisis, an emotionally significant event or a radical change in status. During crisis the existential isolation all people experience is exacerbated. Unruly emotions and conflicts break out.

In nepantla we hang out between shifts, trying to make rational sense of this crisis, seeking solace, support, appeasement, or some kind of intimate connection. [...] In nepantla we undergo the anguish of changing our perspectives and crossing a series of cruz calles, junctures, and thresholds, some leading to a different way of relating to people and surroundings and others to the creation of a new world. [...]

Anzaldúa Gloria and AnaLouise Keating.

Light in the Dark : Rewriting Identity Spirituality Reality = Luz En Lo Oscuro.

Duke University Press, 2015