The Diccionario de la Lengua Española defines ‘dilema’ as: “Situación en la que es necesario elegir entre dos opciones igualmente buenas o malas.” In philosophy, the term is defined as: “Argumento formado por dos proposiciones contrarias disyuntivamente, de tal manera que, negada o concedida cualquiera de las dos, queda demostrada una determinada conclusión.” Synonyms of ‘dilema’ include: disyuntiva, alternativa, problema, duda, encrucijada, opción.[1] Antonyms encompass solution, certainty, straightforwardness, effortlessness, no bother, no trouble. 

First Act

For this exercise, we initially use the term ‘border’ as ‘dilemma’ aiming to reflect on self-perception and perception of other peoples as cultural and linguistic phenomena. 

A border understood as a dilemma is a situation of crisis in which we must choose between monolithic, uniform, developed, rigid notions of culture. 

However, culture is a non-monolithic entity:

“[…] I have also developed arguments against a monolithic conception of culture and its shared hermeneutical resources that called into question blanket statements about the impossibility of expressing, understanding, or interpreting an experience, a problem, an identity, etc. […] For a pluralistic conception of social groups and cultures, it is problematic to say that it is impossible for an experience to be understood within a particular culture. Instead of focusing on complete success or failure, […] understanding oneself and others is a matter of trying as hard as one can, of paying attention to the emerging expressive and interpretative possibilities, no matter how inchoate or embryonic.”[2]

Laura’s proposal is not to locate herself in the position of solving a dilemma that a border entails aiming for certainty, straightforwardness and effortlessness, but to pay attention to cultural diversity, heterogeneity, matters of degree to express, understand, interpret ourselves and others.  

Cultural perception allows the extremely imaginatively theatrical task of shaking disjuncts. I perceive myself from my culture. My culture is Mexican, American, Taiwanese, Chinese and so much more. I perceive myself from my language and language is shaped by my culture. I perceive other peoples from my culture. I perceive other peoples from my language and language is shaped by my culture. You speak Spanish, English, Taiwanese, Chinese and so much more. 

Special Scene 

Amie dear, I would like you to go to the blue track of the university, and respond to the questions: How do you perceive yourself? How do you perceive other people? How do you perceive Laura?

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[1] https://dle.rae.es/dilema?m=form

[2] José Medina “Varieties of Hermeneutical Injustice” in The Routledge Handbook Of Epistemic Injustice (New York and London, 2017), 43.