Born in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, independent scholar and creative writer Gloria Anzaldua was an internationally acclaimed cultural theorist. As the author of Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza, Anzaldua played a major role in shaping contemporary Chicano/a and lesbian/queer theories and identities. As an editor of three anthologies, including the groundbreaking This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, she played an equally vital role in developing an inclusionary, multicultural feminist movement. A versatile author, Anzaldua published poetry, theoretical essays, short stories, autobiographical narratives, interviews, and children's books. Her work, which has been included in more than 100 anthologies to date, has helped to transform academic fields including American, Chicano/a, composition, ethnic, literary, and women's studies. This reader-which provides a representative sample of the poetry, prose, fiction, and experimental autobiographical writing that Anzaldua produced during her thirty-year career-demonstrates the breadth and philosophical depth of her work. While the reader contains much of Anzaldua's published writing (including several pieces now out of print), more than half the material has never before been published. This newly available work offers fresh insights into crucial aspects of Anzaldua's life and career, including her upbringing, education, teaching experiences, writing practice and aesthetics, lifelong health struggles, and interest in visual art, as well as her theories of disability, multiculturalism, pedagogy, and spiritual activism. The pieces are arranged chronologically; each one is preceded by a brief introduction. The collection includes a glossary of Anzaldua's key terms and concepts, a timeline of her life, primary and secondary bibliographies, and a detailed index.
Gloria AnzaldUa (1942-2004) was a visionary writer whose work was recognized with many honors, including the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award, a Lambda literary award, the National Endowment for the Arts Fiction Award, and the Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies. Her book Borderlands/La frontera was selected as one of the 100 Best Books of the Century by Hungry Mind Review and the Utne Reader. AnaLouise Keating, Professor of Women's Studies at Texas Woman's University, is the author of Women Reading, Women Writing: Self-Invention in Paula Gunn Allen, Gloria AnzaldUa, and Audre Lorde; editor of AnzaldUa's Interviews/Entrevistas and EntreMundos/AmongWorlds: New Perspectives on Gloria AnzaldUa; and co-editor, with AnzaldUa, of this bridge we call home: radical visions for transformation. AnaLouise Keating, Professor of Women's Studies at Texas Woman's University, is the author of Women Reading, Women Writing: Self-Invention in Paula Gunn Allen, Gloria AnzaldUa, and Audre Lorde; editor of AnzaldUa's Interviews/Entrevistas and EntreMundos/AmongWorlds: New Perspectives on Gloria AnzaldUa; and co-editor, with AnzaldUa, of this bridge we call home: radical visions for transformation.
Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Reading Gloria Anzaldua, Reading Ourselves . . . Complex Intimacies, Intricate Connections 1 Part One. "Early" Writings TIHUEQUE 19 To Delia, Who Failed on Principles 20 Reincarnation 21 The Occupant 22 I Want To Be Shocked Shitless 23 The New Speakers 24 Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to Third World Women Writers 26 The coming of el mundo surdo 36 La Prieta 38 El paisano is a bird of good omen 51 Dream of the Double-Faced Woman 70 Foreword to the Second Edition (of This Bridge Called My Back) 72 Sexuality, Spirituality, and the Body: An Interview with Linda Smuckler 74 Part Two. "Middle" Writings Enemy of the State 97 Del Otro Lado 99 Encountering the Medusa 101 Creativity and Switching in Modes of Consciousness 103 En Rapport, In Opposition: Cobrando cuentas a las nuestras 111 The Presence 119 Metaphors in the Tradition of the Shaman 121 Haciendo caras, una entrada 124 Bridge, Drawbridge, Sandbar, or Island: Lesbians-of-Color Hacienda Alianzas 140 Ghost Trap/Trampa de espanto 157 To(o) Queer the Writer-Loca, escritora y chicana 163 Border Arte: Nepantla, El Lugar de la Frontera 176 On the Process of Writing Borderlands / La Frontera 187 La vulva is una herida abierta / The vulva is an open wound 198 The New Mestiza Nation: A Multicultural Movement 203 Part Three. Gallery of Images 217 Part Four. "Later" Writings Foreword to Cassell's Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol, and Spirit 229 How to 232 Memoir-My Calling; or, Notes for "How Prieta Came to Write" 235 When I write I hover 238 Transforming American Studies: 2001 Bode-Pearson Prize Acceptance Speech 239 Yemaya 242 (Un)natural bridges, (Un)safe spaces 243 Healing wounds 249 Reading LP 250 A Short Q&A between LP and Her Author (GEA) 274 Like a spider in her web 276 Bearing Witness: Their Eyes Anticipate the Healing 277 The Postmodern Llorona 280 Speaking across the Divide 282 Llorona Coyolxauhqui 295 Disability & Identity: An E-mail Exchange & a Few Additional Thoughts 298 Let us be the healing of the wound: The Coyolxauhqui imperative-la sombra y el sueno 303 Appendix 1: Glossary 319 Appendix 2: Timeline: Some Highlights from Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua's Life 325 Bibliography 337 Index 351
A collection of published and unpublished writings of the groundbreaking lesbian feminist Chicana writer, poet, activist and cultural theorist
"The Gloria Anzaldua Reader samples the bold life-work of a woman whose aims were to relieve suffering and to envision a decolonizing social affinity capable of uniting humanity in love." Chela Sandoval, author of Methodology of the Oppressed "AnaLouise Keating's compilation of Gloria Anzaldua's writings provides a service to scholars, and it is a joy to read Gloria's voice, steeped in 'shaman aesthetics' that impel and move us to radical action. Her impact on various domains, including academic fields such as border studies, women's studies, and American studies, is longlasting and profound."--Norma E. Cantu, University of Texas, San Antonio, founder of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldua "This reader made me see and love Anzaldua anew. Her words have always moved me at a deep aesthetic and intellectual level, and this reader challenged my thinking about identities and representation even more profoundly. Reading the previously unpublished works alongside those that are so familiar was like finding an undiscovered passageway in a house I know well: transformative."--Suzanne Bost, author of Encarnacion: Illness and Body Politics in Chicana Feminist Literature Keating collects poems, essays, prose and commentaries by Anzaldua, revealing the public figure the pathbreaking queer Chicana writer as well as a sensual and deeply spiritual iconoclast. Anzaldua's voice emerges defiant, mercenary, passionate and unapologetic...The book is punctuated by Anzaldua's simple drawings, exercises in deconstruction and reconstruction of identity. Her writings capturing her relentless fight to avoid being stereotyped and to empower women of color within and without academia are rich and various, exploring everything from gender, memory and oppression to sex in the afterlife. Publisher's Weekly, 12th October 2010 "The Reader does a good job of offering a wide range of Anzaldua's writings, from her most famous and well-loved essays that appeared in the seminal Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza to never-before-published poems, experimental fiction, interviews, e-mail communications, and unfinished pieces. Anzaldua was a notorious perfectionist, sometimes revising essays and stories until an editor had to yank them from her hands. Still, this selection would've made Anzaldua proud." - The Texas Obsever
