Internationally recognized cultural theorist, creative writer, and independent scholar Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa was born on September 26, 1942 in Raymondville, Texas, to Urbano and Amalia Anzaldúa. She worked in a wide variety of genres, including poetry, fiction, essays, interviews, anthologies, and children?s books. One of the first openly lesbian Chicana writers, Anzaldúa played a major role in redefining Chicana/o, queer, feminist, and female identities, and in developing inclusionary movements for social justice. Her theories of mestizaje, the borderlands, and the new mestiza, as well as her code-switching, have had an impact far beyond the field of Chicano/a studies. Her insistence on community and coalition-building united feminist concerns with issues of race, gender, class, sexuality, health, and spirituality. Anzaldúa also played a formative role in the development of Queer Theory.
The eldest child of four, Anzaldúa was raised in South Texas. She spent her earliest years on Jesus María, a ranch settlement in the Rio Grande Valley. During this time, her family lived on the various ranches on Jesus María, and one year traveled to West Texas, where they worked as migrant farmers. When she was eleven, the family moved to Hargill, Texas in order to provide the children with greater educational opportunities. Anzaldúa?s intimate knowledge of the South Texas landscape, gained through working on various farms and ranches in order to help with expenses, coupled with her awareness from an early age of the Valley?s legacy of racial discrimination and Tejano land dispossession, influenced her work profoundly. An avid reader as a child, Gloria began experimenting with writing through journal entries, poetry, and short fiction while still in high school. She graduated from Edinburg High School in 1962, and enrolled in Texas Woman?s University that fall. Unable to pay tuition beyond the first year, she withdrew, worked for two years, and began attending Pan-American University, where she earned her bachelor?s degree in English in 1969.
Anzaldúa taught pre-school, special education classes, and high school for several years in the Valley, while also attending summer graduate classes at the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned her master?s degree in English and Education in 1972. She then served as a liaison between migrant camps and school officials in Indiana, and it was during her time there that she began her writing in earnest. In 1974, Anzaldúa decided to return to the University of Texas at Austin to continue her graduate studies at the doctoral level in literature. During these years, Anzaldúa also worked with a variety of political groups, including MECHA, farm worker protests, and feminist organizations and consciousness-raising groups. While at UTA, Anzaldúa taught a course called ?La Mujer Chicana? and realized the profound lack of published materials by and about U.S. women of color. This awareness was the first step in her decision to edit the anthology which would later become
The 1980s were a prolific period for Anzaldúa?s poetry and fiction, as she moved from San Francisco to New York and attended various writers? retreats and workshops. She also began to travel around the country doing her ?gigs,? or speaking engagements, as recognition of her work mounted after the release of
In 1988 Anzaldúa was accepted into the Ph.D. program in literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz. While teaching a women?s studies class at UCSC, she assembled a course reader that became the basis for the anthology
Throughout her successful career as a writer, theorist, and activist, Anzaldúa continued to teach, which she loved to do. She taught formally through Vermont College?s Adult Degree Program in the 1980s, several writer-in-residence and visiting professor appointments, and through Women?s Voices, a creative writing workshop at UC Santa Cruz. She also taught and collaborated more informally, organizing writing groups for women of color. Her book on the writing process was one of many projects she was working on when she passed away.
Anzaldúa received many honors and awards during her lifetime, including the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award for
Gloria Anzaldúa died on 15 May 2004 at her home in Santa Cruz, California, due to diabetes-related complications.
Works Referenced:
Photograph by Annie F. Valva.
Personal and biographical materials, correspondence, written works, research materials, photographs, audiovisual materials, and artifacts document the life and career of Chicana scholar, writer, teacher, and activist Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa. The papers are arranged following as closely as possible Anzaldúa?s original organization, in nine series: Personal and Biographical, Correspondence, Written Works, Gigs and Teaching, Phone Logs, Calendars and Address Books, Photographs and Audiovisual Materials, Collected Materials, Oversized Materials and Artifacts, and the Gloria Anzaldúa Library. Researchers should note that some materials are temporarily restricted at the request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust.
Series one, Personal and Biographical, is a small series that contains Anzaldúa?s birth certificate, diplomas and awards, high school and college yearbooks, materials relating to her interest in spirituality and the occult, information relating to diabetes, and a collection of her obituaries, memorials, and tributes. Anzaldúa's personal journals also make up part of this series, but at in keeping with Anzaldúa's wishes they are closed to researchers for a period of 20 years.
Series two, Correspondence, contains letters written to and by Anzaldúa. The files are arranged primarily alphabetically by individual or organization name, though there is a subseries of correspondence arranged by subject, such as her writing and reprint correspondence, or letters relating to projects such as the Mundo Zurdo reading series or the Third World Women Speakers List. Included among the many correspondents are Norma Alarcon, Ruth Behar, Beth Brant, Norma Cantú, Chrystos, Jamie Lee Evans, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz, AnaLouise Keating, Cherrie Moraga, Elana Nachman/Dykewomon, Emma Perez, Adrienne Rich, Chela Sandoval, and Luisah Teish, and organizations the National Association of Chicano/Chicana Studies, the Smithsonian Institution, the journal Sinister Wisdom, PEN American Center, and the National Women?s Studies Association. Other noted names present in the collection are Rudolfo Anaya, Joan Baez, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, and the White House.
Series three, Written Works, includes manuscripts, production materials, and correspondence relating to Anzaldúa?s poetry, fiction, books, essays, and articles, both published and unpublished. The works are arranged alphabetically by title. Anzaldúa's larger published works--
Series four, Gigs and Teaching, contains correspondence, publicity, administrative materials, and some written works related to her speaking engagements. This series is arranged chronologically. This series also includes material related to Anzaldúa's teaching engagements.
Series five, Phone logs, Calendars, and Address Books, is arranged chronologically within each format of material.
Series six, Photographs and Audiovisual Materials, contains many professional portraits of Anzaldúa, grade- and highschool photographs, as well as black and white and color snapshots, and various photos of other individuals, meetings, or related subjects. Audiotapes include recording of interviews, lectures and readings, tarot and other psychic readings, and other recordings collected by Anzaldúa. A small collection of video recordings consist primarily of Anzaldúa's readings and lectures. This series also includes sketches by Anzaldúa, and some collected artwork by others. The detailed description of this series is located on
Series seven, Collected Materials, consists of articles and clippings collected by Anzaldúa over the course of her professional career. These are arranged in four sub-series: Subject Files, Reference Files, Course packets, and Clippings. Many are scholarly journal articles that appear to have been used for her graduate studies, and other articles, clipped out of popular magazines and newspapers, are of more general interest. Anzaldúa?s interest in immigration and border issues, feminist studies, human rights, the environment, queer studies, and the occult is reflected in this collection. The Subject Files in particular include a number of original notes written by Anzaldúa. This series also documents the cultural, social, and political climate of the 1980s and 1990s, with clippings on California?s Proposition 187, the controversy over the Columbus quincentennial, the Hopwood vs. Texas anti-affirmative action case, and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Also included in this series are manuscripts sent to Anzaldúa by friends and professional acquaintances for her feedback. Manuscripts of note include Sandra Cisneros?s "Loose Woman," Ruth Behar?s "Translated Woman," and Norma Alarcon?s essay ?Tradditora, Traddutora.? The detailed description of this series is located on
Series eight, Oversized Materials and Artifacts, contains primarily large format photographs, gig posters, and other posters and artwork, as well as Anzaldúa's collection of t-shirts. The detailed description of this series is located on
NOTE: Added April 2010, a second accession of Anzaldúa papers acquired from her family's house in South Texas is described in
The Benson Collection is also composing a complete bibliographic list of Anzaldúa's personal library of more than 5000 books. This is an ongoing project, and interested researchers should contact the rare books reading room for this information. The list will be located on
Some materials in the Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa Papers are restricted for a period of time due to concerns about privacy and confidentiality, publication rights, and as requested by Ms. Anzaldúa.
The Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa Literary Trust retains full copyright and publication control over all materials written or produced by Gloria Anzaldúa. Some of the material in this collection may not be photocopied, and permission of the Trust is required before publication, in whole or in part, of any materials written or produced by Ms. Anzaldúa.
Cite as: Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa Papers, Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas Libraries, the University of Texas at Austin.
The Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa Papers are
classified under the following
Includes short biographies by Anzaldúa
*Access to Anzaldúa's transcripts is restricted.
¹At the request of author and by agreement with the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, Anzaldúa's personal journals and scrapbooks are
¹At the request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust this personal correspondence is currently
Correspondence written by Anzaldúa to multiple or unnamed recipients.
¹At the request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust a portion of this correspondence is currently
¹At the request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust a portion of this correspondence is currently
Other correspondence related to Anzaldúa's teaching and lecturing can be found in Series 5: Gigs and Teaching.
Anzaldúa was a special guest editor for an edition of Signs. Includes manuscript submissions and related correspondence.
Includes requests and agreements for reprinting or reissuing Anzaldúa's works.
Anzaldúa's larger published works--
Note that a quantity of electronic mail and manuscript submissions is also available--in some cases only available--for reference on compact disk in an electronic archive. This material may be requested in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room.
¹Anzaldúa's drafted guide on the process of writing. By request of the Anzaldúa estate the manuscript is
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "La artista y su comunidad" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Literary Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Nepantla" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
SEE ALSO: La Serpiente...
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Autohistoria de la artista as a Young Girl" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
A folder on the La Frontera/The Border art exhibit can be found in Subject Files in the Collected Materials series.
¹By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust "Border Arte" versions after the 1993 publication are
¹By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust "Border Writing" is
¹By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust "Carta a Colón" is
¹By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust "Cuerpaso" is
¹By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust "(Des)Conocimientos" is
¹By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust "Doing Gigs" is
¹By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust "Growing Up Chicana" is
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "El Mundo Zurdo" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Nepantla" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
From GEA's gig at Villa Montalvo, October 1995.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "The New Mextiza Nation" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Patlaches: Chicana Dykes" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Proving Ground: Theorizing Ethnic Art-making" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
¹By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Queer Conocimiento" is
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Los remolinos de cambio/The Whirlwinds of Change" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Spiritual Activism: Making Altares, Making Connections" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
¹By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "S.I.C.: Geography of Illness" is
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Subjected To/By Others: The Extramodern Mestiza" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
¹By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, versions of "To(o) Queer the Writer" after the 1991 published version are
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "What Moves in the Streets Like a Woman is Pounced On" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
¹A drafted collection of Anzaldúa's short fiction. By request of the Anzaldúa estate the manuscript is
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Seguin 15" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Sleepwalker" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "La Barranca" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "En el naranjal" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
In folders labeled "El Amoramiento/Love-sickness" Anzaldúa kept this story variously titled "How I Found My Soul Mate," "Soul Mates," and finally "Ms. Right, My True Love, My Soul Mate."
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "La Barranca" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²Includes an early version of "La Serpiente Que Come Su Cola." By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Canción de Cascabel" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Remedios," part of "Chamana," is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Coughing it out" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "The Crossing" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "De reojo" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
¹By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Dolores" is
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "The Dream of the Double-Faced Woman" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "En el camposanto" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "En el hocico del mar" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "En el naranjal/In the Orange Grove" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
Also titled "Con el alma en la boca" and "Soul."
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "En el lugar de las ánimas" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Nepantla" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
Other titles include "The Wall, The Book and JQ: from El Mundo Zurdo and Other Stories," and "Las Paredas de PQ/PQ's Walls."
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Entremados" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "He Couldn't Find the Hole" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust. SEE ALSO: "La serpiente que come su cola"
Also titled "Where Owls Dwell and Satyrs Dance" and "From the Glass Periphery By the Hole of the (White) Apocalyptic Ojo (I) He Says Never."
Also titled "El corrido de una marimacho."
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Intersex" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
Also titled "Urraca Prieta."
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Like a Crow on the Wing" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "El ojo de agua" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
B²y request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Patlaches" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Patlachuía" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Perdida" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
Anzaldúa wrote a number of autobiographical stories with the protagonist of Prieta. Most of the larger "Prieta" stories are listed alphabetically by title elsewhere in this section (SEE: "La serpiente que se come su cola," "La Barranca," "El Paisano Is a Bird of Good Omen" and others). Here are included smaller pieces as well as notes, author's statements, tables of contents, and other materials related to the planned publication of a Prieta book.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Quelite/Movidas of a Baby Butch" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Remedios" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
¹By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Retratos de la artista as a girl" is
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Seguin 15" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Seguin 15/Her First Fuck" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "El segundo corazón" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "La Serpiente Que Se Come Su Cola" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Sleepwalkers" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Song of Cicadas" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Soul" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Susto in the City" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Werejaguar" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
A book length poem or play.
¹By request of the Anzaldúa estate, the manuscript is
¹Drafted collection of Anzaldúa's poetry. By request of the Anzaldúa estate the manuscript is
A note by the Anzaldúa Literary Trust reports "Gloria was approached to help edit a new Heath Anthology -- this appears to be research."
¹By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Identity-Subject to Changes" is
²By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, "Muheres Que Cuentan Vidas" is open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
¹By request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, with the exception of materials created prior to 2000, Anzaldúa's most recent UCSC dissertation is
²Note that folders 8-9 of "Geography of Selves" are open to researchers, but at the request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust no photocopying is allowed.
Anzaldúa's papers included voluminous writing notes with various levels of indexing and identification as noted below. Some were labeled with an alphabetical categorization, some that were entered in her computer had related file names, some are in rough chronological categories, and a number are completely random. Despite their lack of arrangement, these notes provide much information and insight into Anzaldúa's thinking and creative processes.
Some of this material is the keyed in form of the handwritten notes in the section above. Folder titles are transcribed from the original folders or from the documents themselves. Dates are likely the date when the information was data entered, not when it was composed.
Note: file does not include interview text
Note: File contains no interview text
Includes works primarily about Anzaldúa as well as works with briefer references to her. Anzaldúa took an active interest in what was written about her work, and all these items were in her personal possession.
Includes a brief mention of Anzaldúa on second to last page.
Includes correspondence, publicity, administrative materials, and some written works. Most creative materials related to gigs--such as speeches, lectures, and stories--will be found in the Written Works series. A number of publicity posters for Anzaldúa's gigs can be found in the Oversized series, below.
The following three scrapbooks were originally organized by Gloria Anzaldúa. They have been kept in order, but removed from the original book for preservation purposes.
Includes notes, some correspondence, and printed materials filed as potential gigs that Gloria Anzaldúa did not attend. Filed chronologically.
²Note that by request of the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, Anzaldúa's writing handouts and exercises are open to researchers but cannot be photocopied until publication or release by the Trust.
The list of Photographs and Audiovisual Materials, including audio and videotapes, may be found on
This list can be found on
This list can be found on
This list, including more Biographical, Correspondence, Written Works, and Collection Materials, can be found on
The Benson Collection also holds books from Anzaldúa's personal library. Those volumes that include annotations or marginalia or are inscribed to Anzaldúa are described as such in the
A complete list of volumes in Anzaldúa's personal library is being developed and can be accessed by inquiring at the Benson Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room.