Survival

To be human is to have the need for survival. Across all our readings, it became obvious to me that each story told all had one thing in common: survival. From Baumgartner, the story told of four runaway slaves to Mexico involved stealing, lying, escape, and facing dangerous obstacles, all in the name of freedom. Facing those challenges instead of miserable daily living conditions is what many slaves did in order to survive their lives. Running away when they knew the dire consequences they faced if caught gave them the courage they needed to act. Another story told was that of the slaveowner, who left in search of those runaway slaves because they were his “property”. In a way, he was only trying to survive as well. For example, his slaves worked for him, adding to the economy in the community they lived, which ensured survival for the slaves and slaveowners. In “Age of Walls”, there is description of people grouping together to secure their communities, fleeing religious persecution, and forming boundaries that will keep them all safe from outside, and even inside threats. Forming boundaries tells the people “this is your home, this is your community, we must not let outsiders come and disrupt our way of life” tells them that forming borders is for their survival as a community. From Orsi, the history of borders is given to describe that people come together to form identities that separate “them” and “us” and keep outsiders from disturbing the community within. Borders are also used to consolidate power and shape populations, both to ensure survival of one community over another. In Anzaldua, the border the author is speaking about is not only the Mexico/US border but borders in identities and borders within a person that can be traced back to survival. Living between two identities can impact a person’s survival due to the conflicting ideas that exist within them that play a sort of “tug of war” that tears the individual apart from the inside out, for sure impacting survival. Dealing with inner confusion of identity is something that I can relate to all too well and from experience, I can say that when one identity pulls at you the other fades away slowly. For example, identifying as Native American and then not being able to speak my own language irritates me and I know a lot of people who face that same challenge. Practicing western religious and medical practices versus traditional is also confusing. It makes me proud to be Native American but at the same time it makes me partially resent non-Native Americans that influenced our way of life. That, along with the fact that I cannot live without technology and modern-day medicine is what tears me up inside. It’s like I can’t have one without the other and it makes me stress sometimes. That might sound funny or confusing, but I know a ton of other people who face these challenges daily. Back to my point, survival encompasses not just the need for food and water, but it encompasses a whole lot of other aspects such as borders, to help establish the need for survival.