The Gloria Anzaldua Reader » (New Edition)

Gloria Anzaldúa (1942–2004) was a visionary writer whose work was recognized with many honors, including the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award, a Lambda literary award, the National Endowment for the Arts Fiction Award, and the Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies. Her book Borderlands/La frontera was selected as one of the 100 Best Books of the Century by Hungry Mind Review and the Utne Reader. AnaLouise Keating, Professor of Women’s Studies at Texas Woman’s University, is the author of Women Reading, Women Writing: Self-Invention in Paula Gunn Allen, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Audre Lorde; editor of Anzaldúa’s Interviews/Entrevistas and EntreMundos/AmongWorlds: New Perspectives on Gloria Anzaldúa; and co-editor, with Anzaldúa, of this bridge we call home: radical visions for transformation.

AnaLouise Keating, Professor of Women’s Studies at Texas Woman’s University, is the author of Women Reading, Women Writing: Self-Invention in Paula Gunn Allen, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Audre Lorde; editor of Anzaldúa’s Interviews/Entrevistas and EntreMundos/AmongWorlds: New Perspectives on Gloria Anzaldúa; and co-editor, with Anzaldúa, of this bridge we call home: radical visions for transformation.

A collection of published and unpublished writings of the groundbreaking Chicana writer and self-described "chicana dyke-feminist, tejana patlache poet, writer and cultural theorist" Gloria Anzaldúa.

Publishers Weekly

Keating collects poems, essays, prose and commentaries by Anzaldúa, revealing the public figure—the pathbreaking queer Chicana writer—as well as a sensual and deeply spiritual iconoclast. Anzaldúa’s voice emerges—defiant, mercenary, passionate and unapologetic—as she writes her seminal Borderlands/La frontera while teaching in Vermont, an environment so alien it brought her closer to her roots; as she becomes one of the first to teach Chicano literature to her students; as she compiles the classic feminist anthology This Bridge Called My Back. The book is punctuated by Anzaldúa’s simple drawings, exercises in deconstruction and reconstruction of identity. Her writings capturing her relentless fight to avoid being stereotyped and to empower women of color within and without academia are rich and various, exploring everything from gender, memory and oppression to sex in the afterlife. (Jan.)

Editor's Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Reading Gloria Anzaldúa, Reading Ourselves ... Complex Intimacies, Intricate Connections 1

Part 1 "Early" Writings

Tihueque 19

To Delia, Who Failed on Principles 20

Reincarnation 21

The Occupant 22

I Want To Be Shocked Shitless 23

The New Speakers 24

Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to Third World Women Writers 26

The coming of el mundo surdo 36

La Prieta 38

El paisano is a bird of good omen 51

Dream of the Double-Faced Woman 70

Foreword to the Second Edition (of This Bridge Called My Back) 72

Spirituality, Sexuality, and the Body: An Interview with Linda Smuckler 74

Part 2 "Middle" Writings

Enemy of the State 97

Del Otro Lado 99

Encountering the Medusa 101

Creativity and Switching Modes of Consciousness 103

En Rapport, In Opposition: Cobrando cuentas a las nuestras 111

The Presence 119

Metaphors in the Tradition of the Shaman 121

Haciendo caras, una entrada 124

Bridge, Drawbridge, Sandbar, or Island: Lesbians-of-Color Hacienda Alianzas 140

Ghost Trap/Trampa de espanto 157

To(o) Queer the Writer-Loca, escritora y chicana 163

Border Arte: Nepantla, el Lugar de la Frontera 176

On the Process of Writing Borderlands / La Frontera 187

La vulva es una herida abierta / The vulva is an open wound 198

The New Mestiza Nation: A Multicultural Movement 203

Part 3 Gallery of Images 217

Part 4 "Later" Writings

Foreword to Cassell's Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol and Spirit 229

How to 232

Memoir-My Calling; or, Notes for "How Prieta Came to Write" 235

When I write I hover 238

Transforming American Studies: 2001 Bode-Pearson Prize Acceptance Speech239

Yemayá 242

(Un)natural bridges, (Un)safe spaces 243

Healing wounds 249

Reading LP 250

A Short Q & A between LP and Her Author (GEA) 274

Like a spider in her web 276

Bearing Witness: Their Eyes Anticipate the Healing 277

The Postmodern Llorona 280

Speaking across the Divide 282

Llorona Coyolxauhqui 295

Disability & Identity: An E-mail Exchange & a Few Additional Thoughts 298

Let us be the healing of the wound: The Coyolxauhqui imperative-la sombra y el sueno 303

Appendix 1 Glossary 319

Appendix 2 Timeline: Some Highlights from Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa's Life 325

Bibliography 337

Index 351