Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa (1942 - 2004)

Born 26 Sep 1942 in Raymondville, Willacy, Texas, United States

Ancestors

Died 15 May 2004 at age 61 in Santa Cruz, California, United States

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Biography

Gloria Anzaldúa is Notable.

Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa was a lesbian Mexican-American poet and scholar of Chicana cultural theory, feminist theory, and queer theory. Her work is informed by her experiences growing up in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, located on the Texas-Mexico border.

Gloria was born in Raymondville, Texas on 26 September 1942 to Urbano Anzaldúa and Amalia García.^[1] Her family lived in poverty, having lost much of their ancestral lands over the years, and when Gloria was a child, her father was a sharecropper and the family worked as migrant laborers.

They moved to Hargill, Texas, and Gloria would later graduate as valedictorian of Edinburg High School. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in English, Art, and Secondary Education from Pan American University, what is now the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley. She earned a Master of Arts in English and Education from the University of Texas at Austin. She moved to California in 1977, where she would remain for the rest of her life.^[2]

Gloria's works often explore the concept of "Nepantla," the Nahuatl word for "in the middle," and "mestizaje," meaning a state "beyond the binary." Growing up on the border, she was never fully Mexican or fully American, and her writings often shift between English and Spanish. In one of her seminal essays, "How to Tame a Wild Tongue," she also writes of the "linguistic terrorism" of her Spanish language being suppressed by the American education system. Her experiences of poverty, racism, and sexism informed her contributions to post-colonial Chicana feminist and queer theory, and her works continue to be taught to this day.^[3] She has also been the subject of several academic conferences. She was featured as a Google Doodle in 2017.^[4]

She died of complications from diabetes in 2004.^[5] Her family had her buried in Hargill, Texas.^[6] Gloria had been working on her dissertation at the time of her death; her PhD was awarded posthumously.

Major Works

• co-editor: This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (1981)
• semi-autobiographical : Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987)
• Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality (2015)

Sources

• FamilySearch ID: L1L6-BBQ

1. ↑ "Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VDGT-7H5 : 1 January 2015), Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua, 26 Sep 1942; from "Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997," database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2005); citing Texas Department of State Health Services.
2. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Gloria E. Anzaldúa," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_E._Anzald%C3%BAa (accessed October 27, 2020).
3. ↑ Jackie Cuevas, “Anzaldúa, Gloria Evangelina,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed April 26, 2023, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/anzaldua-gloria-evangelina.
4. ↑ https://www.google.com/doodles/gloria-e-anzalduas-75th-birthday
5. ↑ "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JGC5-LWY : 11 January 2021), Gloria E Anzaldua, 15 May 2004; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
6. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/46065607/gloria-evangelina-anzaldua: accessed 26 April 2023), memorial page for Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua (26 Sep 1942–15 May 2004), Find a Grave Memorial ID 46065607, citing Valle De La Paz Cemetery, Hidalgo County, Texas, USA; Maintained by A H (contributor 47219401).