II. A
NZALDÚA
AND
C. W
RIGHT
M
ILLS
: T
HE
C
ONTRASTING
S
OCIOLOGICAL
I
MAGINATIONS
Anzaldúa’s thesis on the simultaneity of self and global transformations has close affinities
with what C. Wright Mills called the sociological imagination (1959). In both, the central project
is framed in terms of establishing and deepening a link between the personal and the global,
between the private and the public, between biography and history. In both, the simultaneity of
selfreflective awareness of micro and macro social processes is seen as key to the advancement
of the sociological and the social emancipatory project.
In his classic formulation of the concept “sociological imagination” (1959), Mills
distinguished on the micro level between the “inner life” and the “external career” of the
individual, and on the macro level between the contemporary society and its worldhistorical
context. Anzaldúa’s sociological imagination takes more seriously at the micro level the inner,
reflective, dimension of biographical inquiry into one’s personal troubles and, at the macro level,
the broader worldhistorical dimension of human predicament to frame public issues—at times
cast in the language of mythologies and spiritual symbolisms. However, Mills and Anzaldúa do
not seem to part drastically in regard to recognizing the need to transcend the dualism of personal
and global spacetimes. What set Anzaldúa apart are the intricate strategies she uses to practice her
thesis of the simultaneity of self and global transformation and to transend the dualism of private
and public realms through the very practice of weaving her words and writings.
In what follows, I will briefly expand upon what may be characterized as the distinguishing
features of Anzaldúan sociological imagination in contrast to that of Mills.
6
Convention