“El Retorno Al Valle” Community Events &

Symposium on Gloria E. Anzaldúa & Literary Landmark Unveiling

March 27th & 28th, 2022

UTRGV Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) and partners invite the campus and community to attend “El Retorno Al Valle,” a symposium and literary landmark unveiling in honor of Gloria Anzaldúa’s work. Scholars, poets, activists, and visual artists from the Rio Grande Valley and from beyond the region will gather to consider the impacts of Anzaldúa’s work with a look to the future. The day before the symposium, there are two community-based pre-symposium events in the Rio Grande Valley.

The events are as follows:

Sunday, March 27, 2022

Pre-Symposium Community Events:

10:00 A.M. CST

Valle de la Paz Cemetery, Hargill, TX

readings of Gloria Anzaldúa’s work

2:00 P.M. CST

Museum of South Texas History

200 N. Closner Blvd, Edinburg, TX 78541

pre-symposium presentation on Gloria Anzaldúa

registration is not required

Monday, March 28, 2022

The symposium and landmark event will be hybrid, taking place in-person at the UTRGV Edinburg campus located at 1201 W. University Drive, Edinburg, TX 78539 (map) with a Zoom Webinar option. Face coverings and social distancing are highly encouraged on campus.

Symposium & Art Exhibit

8:30 A.M.-3:45 P.M. CST

UTRGV Ballroom

Free and open to the public

Light breakfast will begin at 8:30 A.M., and lunch will be available at 11:45 A.M.

Live English/Spanish interpretation will be available.

An art exhibit of work influenced and inspired by Anzaldúa will run simultaneously with the symposium.

Literary Landmark Unveiling

4:00-5:00 P.M. CST

UTRGV ELIBR Courtyard

Closing Reception

5:00-6:00 P.M. CT

UTRGV ELIBR Lobby

To register for the Zoom Webinar option of the symposium & landmark unveiling, please visit this link. To request accommodations, please contact us at cmas@UTRGV.edu.

About Gloria Anzaldúa:

Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa (1942-2004) was a queer Chicana poet, writer, and scholar. She was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley and was a farmworker. She was valedictorian of Edinburg High School in 1962, graduated from UTRGV legacy institution Pan American College in 1968, and taught in the PSJA school district from 1967-1973. Anzaldúa attended graduate school at UT Austin and at UC Santa Cruz, where she obtained a PhD posthumously.

Anzaldúa wrote and published numerous texts including Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza and Luz en lo Oscuro/Light in the Dark: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality. Anzaldúa served as editor/co-editor of several anthologies, including This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color and this bridge we call home: radical visions for transformation. Her work is also collected in Interviews/Entrevistas and The Gloria Anzaldúa Reader edited by AnaLouise Keating. Anzaldúa is also the author of two children’s books: Friends from the Other Side/Amigos del Otro Lado and Prietita and the Ghost Woman/Prietita y La Llorona.

In her book Borderlands/La Frontera (Aunt Lute Books 1987) in the essay "How to Tame a Wild Tongue," Anzaldúa writes about her university experience in the 1960's: "At Pan American University, I, and all Chicano students were required to take two speech classes. Their purpose: to get rid of our accents" (76). Her ensuing work and life are testaments to her contributions in numerous areas and fields of study. Presenters will discuss these impacts--past and present--and look into the future.

Brief History of Events in the RGV:

To our knowledge, Gloria Anzaldúa did not present at her alma mater after her books were published. Public efforts to honor Anzaldúa's work began in her home region after she passed away in 2004. The grassroots and dynamic Gloria Anzaldúa Legacy (GAL) Project formed in 2007, organizing and hosting presentations in the community, making zines, and exhibits, including at Anzaldúa's alma mater campus, UTRGV legacy institution UT Pan American. Local poets and activists were at the forefront of this labor. Charged with helping raise awareness of Anzaldúa's work on her alma mater campus, in 2008 a poetry professor hosted a talk on Anzaldúa by the founder of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa (SSGA) on campus. At that time it was suggested she make an annual campus event with different presenters. "El Retorno" has been an annual campus event since and not possible without the dedication, service, and collaboration between community members, students, faculty, and staff. Most of these events were accomplished with minimal financial support for guest presenters. When UTRGV CMAS was created about a decade ago by many of the same folks working on Anzaldúa events, El Retorno had secured annual support to host one speaker per year. And at the same time of all of this, philosophy professors on campus hosted an Anzaldúa Speakers Series as well.

Needless to say, this symposium and literary landmark represent the RGV community, campus, and the Society's efforts and collaborations for over 15 years. UTRGV CMAS and SSGA applied for the literary landmark with GAL Project support. And once again, we will gather for these events, and this time with greater support across campus and with community sponsors. We look forward to these events. For more information and/or event accommodations, please contact us at cmas@utrgv.edu.