Gloria E. Anzaldúa
I CHANGE MYSELF; I CHANGE THE WORLD.
Autohistoria
A key figure in the creation of academic Border Studies and queer theory, Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa (1942-2004) was an internationally-acclaimed independent scholar, cultural theorist, creative writer, and social-justice activist who has made lasting contributions to numerous fields, including Chicanx studies, composition studies, feminism and feminist theory, literary studies, queer theory, and women’s & gender studies. Anzaldúa’s work spans multiple genres, including poetry, theoretical and philosophical essays, short stories, innovative autobiographical narratives, edited collections, and children’s books.
As the author of Borderlands/La Frontera: The NewMestiza, Anzaldúa played a major role in shaping contemporary Chicano/a and lesbian/queer identities. And as editor or co-editor of three multicultural anthologies, she has played an equally vital role in developing an inclusionary, multicultural feminist movement. Anzaldúa’s writings have been included in over 100 anthologies to date.
Anzaldúa was born in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas in 1942, the eldest child of Urbano and Amalia Anzaldúa. She received her B.A. from Pan American University, her M.A. from University of Texas, Austin, and her Ph.D. (awarded posthumously) from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Photo courtesy and copyright Margaret Randall. Do not replicate or use without her express permission.
In her own words
Self Naming
Throughout her life, self-identification and the agency around naming oneself was vital to Anzaldúa. To honor her words and self-naming practices, we’ve collected some of the many ways Gloria chose to self-identify.
1981
I am a wind-swayed bridge, a crossroads inhabited by whirlwinds. Gloria, the facilitator, Gloria, the mediator, straddling the walls between abysses. “Your allegiance is to La Raza, the Chicano movement,” say the members of my race. “Your allegiance is to the Third World,” say my Black and Asian friends. “Your allegiance is to your gender, to women,” say the feminists. Then there’s my allegiance to the Gay movement, to the socialist revolution, to the New Age, to magic and the occult. And there’s my affinity to literature, to the world of the artist. What am I? A third world lesbian feminist with Marxist and mystic leanings. They would chop me up into little fragments and tag each piece with a label.
You say my name is ambivalence? Think of me as Shiva, a many-armed and -legged body with one foot on brown soil, one on white, one in straight society, one in the gay world, the man’s world, the women’s, one limb in the literary world, another in the working class, the socialist, and the occult worlds. A sort of spider woman hanging by one thin strand of web.
Who, me, confused? Ambivalent? Not so. Only your labels split me.
– “La Prieta” Who Are My People
I am a Libra (Virgo cusp) with VI — The Lovers destiny.
– this bridge called my back
Libra Sun
Aries Moon
Sagittarius Rising
1991
I want to be able to choose what to name myself. But if I have to pick an identity label in the English language I pick “dyke” or “queer,” though these working-class words (formerly having “sick” connotations) have been taken over by white middle-class lesbian theorists in the academy. . . .
While I advocate putting Chicana, tejana, working-class, dyke-feminist poet, writer-theorist in front of my name, I do so for reasons different than those of the dominant culture. Their reasons are to marginalize, confine, and contain. My labeling of myself is so that the Chicana and lesbian and all the other persons in me don’t get erased, omitted, or killed. Naming is how I make my presence known, how I assert who and what I am and want to be known as. Naming myself is a survival tactic.
– “To(o) Queer the Writer”
1996
For me the term lesbian es un problema. As a working-class Chicana, mestiza–a composite being, amalgama de culturas y de lenguas–a woman who loves women, “lesbian” is a cerebral word, white and middle-class, representing an English-only dominant culture, derived from the Greek word lesbos. I think of lesbians as predominantly white and middle-class women and a segment of women of color who acquired the term through osmosis much the same as Chicanas and Latinas assimilated the word “Hispanic.” When a “lesbian” names me the same as her, she subsumes me under her category. . . .
– “Violent Space, Nepantla Stage”
2002
“GEA: Feminist visionary spiritual activist poet-philosopher fiction writer.”
TIMELINE
Anzaldúa’s contribution to the movement, academia, and her people extends far beyond her published works. We offer the annotated timeline of her life below, to paint a broader picture of how, through her life, she impacted and changed the world.
For an even more in-depth look at her life and contributions, see the full timeline in the appendix section of The Gloria Anzaldúa Reader.
Right-click on the picture to open the timeline in a new tab and download.
Career Highlights
Over her 30+ year career, Gloria had a prolific writing and creative career. While the numbers to the right provide a snapshot of her published work, Anzaldúa was a prolific writer and has left for us many thousands of pages of unpublished material (essays, poems, fiction, drawings, and more), much of it complete. To view and learn more about her work, check out her books and archives.
Published Books
Short Stories
Best Sellers
Publications
Anzaldúa and her works won numerous awards, including an award from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award, the Lamda Lesbian Small Book Press Award, the Susan Koppelman Award, the Smithsonian Notable Book Award, and the Américas Honor Award. Borderlands/La Frontera was selected as one of the 100 Best Books of the Century both by Hungry Mind Review and by Utne Reader.
“Your resistance to identity boxes leads you to a different tribe, a different story (of mestizaje) enabling you to rethink yourself in more global-spiritual terms instead of conventional categories of color, class, career. It calls you to retribalize your identity to a more inclusive one, redefining what it means to be una mexicana de este lado, an American in the U.S., a citizen of the world, classifications reflecting an emerging planetary culture. In this narrative national boundaries dividing us from the “others” (nos/otras) are porous and the cracks between worlds serve as gateways.”
– Light in the Dark
Events
Nov.4th & 5th, 2022
2022 El Mundo Zurdo Conference (EMZ) • San Antonio, TX
Leave an offering of words.
Make an offering in memorial here.
Contact the Agent
For info on rights, reprints, & permisisons.
Contact the Trust
contact@gloriaeanzaldua.com