Daisy Hernández writes about imagined borderlands in A Cup of Water Under My Bed, drawing on the work of Chicana feminist author Gloria Anzaldúa. These borderlands stand at the intersection of multiple identities, including her ethnicity as a Latina, her positions as an American and as a woman, and her queerness. Like Anzaldúa, Hernández is a queer Latina who uses code-switching, or alternating between Spanish and English, to create a sense of liminality in her writing. Spanish is the language of the private, familial sphere for Hernández, while English is a public language of assimilation and of her schooling. For both writers, the borderland is not found in a single locale, but in many.

Like Anzaldúa, Hernández reflects on syncretistic religious practices as identity-shaping. Her family practices both Santería and Catholicism. The former blends Afro-Cuban religious ideas with Catholic. Although she is not a person of deep faith, Hernández finds comfort in her parents’ mystical traditions, including tarot-card reading and leaving offerings for saints and Elegguá, her father’s favored deity. Hernández both rejects and carries her family with her through religion, just as she does by writing.

Sexuality is also a contentious liminal space.