05/07/2025
Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa (1942–2004) was a pioneering Chicana writer, cultural theorist, and q***r feminist whose work transformed the understanding of identity and borders.
Born in south Texas to a family of migrant farm workers, she grew up speaking Spanish but was forced to speak only English in school—an early experience that shaped her lifelong commitment to honoring linguistic and cultural hybridity.
She suffered from a rare hormonal disorder that caused chronic pain and made her feel different from an early age. After earning her BA and MA in English and Education, she taught creative writing, Chicano Studies, and feminist theory at several universities.
Anzaldúa co-edited the groundbreaking anthology This Bridge Called My Back, which brought together the voices of women of color and helped lay the foundation for intersectional feminism. Her landmark book Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza blended memoir, poetry, and theory.
Her writing fluidly moved between six languages and dialects—including English, Chicano Spanish, Tex-Mex, and Nahuatl—in what she called “linguistic terrorism,” a radical act of reclaiming identity. Openly le***an, she integrated q***r identity, indigenous spirituality, and disability into her work, describing herself as “una herida abierta”—an open wound—and seeing writing as a shamanic act of healing.
