Gloria Anzaldúa

Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa (Jesus Maria off the Valley (Texas), September 26th 1942 - May 15th 2004) was a auteure, poetess, academic and militant Féministe lesbian baffled.

Biography

Anzaldúa was born in the valley from the Río Grande in the South from Texas on September 26th, 1942, of Urbano and Amalia Anzaldúa. Whereas it was eleven years old, its family moved for Hargill (Texas). In spite of racism, the sexism and the other forms of oppression which it undergoes as Texane of the sixth generation, in spite of the death of her father when it was 14 years old, Anzaldúa succeeds in continuing its studies at the university. It accepted a license with the Side American University, and its control with the Université of Texas to Austin.

Adult, it worked a few years as professor of the schools before going to Austin for his control. After having received its diploma, it settled in California where it earned its living in its writings, its conferences, and of the quarters of teaching to the the University of California with Santa Cruz, Atlantic Florida University, and others. It became known by codirigeant This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women off Color (1981) with Cherríe Moraga, while directing Making Face, Making Drunk/Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Prospects by Women off Color (1990), and by codirigeant This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation (2002). She also wrote Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987). Its writings weave the English and the Spanish in only one language, an idea which rises from its situation at the “borders”, a position of multiple identities. Its autobiographical test, “Prieta”, is appeared in English (for the greatest part) in This Bridge Called My Back , and in Spanish (for the greatest part) on '' Esta puente, semi espalda: Voces of mujeres tercermundistas in los Estados Unidos ''). The literary prize of the National Endowment for the Arts rewarded Anzaldúa in 1991 (the same year as Barbara Hammer).

She largely contributed to define in a broader way the Féminisme, just as she took part in the development of the field of the cultural theory Chicana and the theory Queer. One of its contributions consisted in introducing into the university world of the United States the term “Métissage”, in the direction of a state located beyond of a design “is the one the other”. In its theoretical work, Anzaldúa calls some with a “mongrel news” ( new mestiza ), that it describes like a person conscious of her contradictory and inextricable identities. Itself used of the word nahualt " patlache" (lesbian) to describe itself. She employs these new “angles of vision” to exceed the binary thought of the western world. Post-colonial feminism illustrates the way of thinking of the “new mestiza”.

Whereas the Race usually divides the people, Anzaldúa invites people of various races to face their fears with an aim of advancing towards a less odious and more useful world. In " Conciencia of Mestiza: Towards has New Consciousness, " a text which appears in a recurring way in the courses of women' S studies, Anzaldúa announces that the separatism called upon by the Chicanos/Chicanas does not make advance the cause, but maintains same division racial in place. Several of work of Anzaldúa call into question the status quo between the movements in which it engaged, with an aim of rather bringing a real change in the world than for specific groups.

Anzaldúa was interested in spirituality: his/her grandmother was a Curandera (traditional healer). In several of its works, it refers to its devotion for Virgen de Guadalupe (Virgin of Guadalupe), the divinities Nahuatl/Toltèques, and the orishás Yoruba Yemayá and Oshún. In its last writings, it developed the concepts of spiritual activism and of will nepantleras to describe the ways in which the contemporary social actors could combine spirituality with the political militancy to activate the revolutionary change.

She died on May 15th, 2004, at her with Santa Cruz, of complications due to the diabetes. She was at a few weeks to complete her thesis and to receive her doctorate with the the University of California with Santa Cruz.

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