“I will have my serpent’s tongue – my woman’s voice, my sexual voice, my poet’s voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence.”

― Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza

The term serpent’s tongue and the inspiration behind the name of this journal was first coined by Gloria Anzaldúa; a Chicana, feminist, and writer of the boundary between Mexico-USA, who lived from 1942 to 2004 .

Anzaldúa has contributed many important works to the field of study of Chicana feminism, queer theory, and diaspora studies. Besides This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, her best-known work is Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza.

In Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, Gloria Anzaldúa writes the quote above.

There are many ways to interpret this quote.

Serpent’s tongue in this context means multiple things: but mainly, how serpents have been considered evil, wild, and untamed creatures. Oddly enough, women have faced the same kind of expression –after all, in some mythologies, snakes are the symbol of feminine power and companions of goddesses.

Despite their dual oppression, Gloria utilizes the term serpent’s tongue to reclaim her narrative and life story as a woman writer. Simultaneously, Gloria reclaims herself and overcomes the tradition of silence, which is often expected of women, but more so for women of color.

The tradition of silence feels heavier under the skies of the borderlands.

There are two cultures in each side of the river, and both demand women’s silence as sacrifice. In Juárez, gender violence is systemic: girls and women die each day due to femicides. Femicide is, in essence, the murdering of a woman due to her gender. The prevention, as well as the cause for these crimes, are rooted in misogyny. Such preventive measures include women to not go out, to not dress «provocatively»; in short, women must be silenced if they want to live. but what kind of life is a silent life?

On the Santa Fe International Bridge, a link between Mexico and the US, lies a pink wooden cross that. This pink cross is called Cruz de Clavos, or cross of nails. Each nail represents a victim of femicide.

Fighting against the tradition of silence is one of the multiple goals of Serpent’s Tongue Journal (STJ).This journal is, almost coincidentally, located in the same borderlands that Gloria Anzaldúa wrote, thought, walked, and lived in.

But one of the reasons why I started this journal is the following question: how many Gloria Anzaldúas have we lost to violence? How many Susan Sontags have we lost to femicide? How many bell hooks are writing but dare not share their thoughts?