Gloria Anzaldúa

1942-2004

Chicana lesbian feminist, poet, activist, and educator, Anzaldua was born in South Texas Rio Grande Valley to parents who were field workers. Her childhood and young adult years were spent working in the fields alongside her family while attending high school and college. She received her B.A. in English, Art, and Secondary Education from Pan American University and her M.A. in English and Education from the University of Texas. She worked with a wide variety of students from preschool aged to emotionally and mentally handicapped students. Later in her career, she worked to educate college students about feminism, Chicana/o Studies, and creative writing at such institutions as Vermont College of Norwich University and San Francisco State University. Anzaldua co-edited the pathbreaking anthology, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (1981), and wrote many later essays that were widely circulated among feminist activists. Bridge revolutionized the thinking of U.S. feminists, challenging white women to face institutionalized racism within feminism as well as in the larger society. Anzaldua's writing on "mestijae" consciousness opened up new ways of thinking about the multiple identities that women occupy and helped feminism become more inclusive. In her work, Anzaldua uses a blend of languages to convey to the non-bilingual speaker their own outsider status, which creates an understanding of the complicated lives lived by Chicana lesbians. Awards for her work include: NEA Fiction Award, the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award for  This Bridge Called My Back, and the Sappho Award of Distinction.

Source: Voices from the Gaps, University of Minnesota