1. Gloria AnzaldÚa

2. Life & Times I
Queer Chicana writer and poet, cultural and feminist theorist.
Born in South Texas Sept 26, 1942 (Rio Grande Valley)
The daughter of Urbano Anzaldúa and Amalia García Anzaldúa
She was the oldest of four children
Her parents were sixth-generation Mexican-American rancher- farmers
Her father died in 1957, when Gloria Anzaldúa was fourteen
To help support her family after his death, she labored as a fieldworker on weekends and during the summers
She entered America’s segregated school system in 1949
In spite of racism & discrimination, she excelled academically and graduated from Edinburg High School in 1962

3. Education & Teaching
Earned her B.A. in English & Education from Pan American University in Texas in 1969
She initially was enrolled at Texas Women’s University, but due to financial difficulties, she moved back to South Texas and finished her B.A. at Pan American University
She put herself through college by working days and going to school at night
After she graduated she taught in public schools, pursuing her master’s degree during the summers
Earned her M.A. in English at University of Texas at Austin in 1973
She taught creative writing, Chicano studies, and Feminist studies at Universities from Texas to California
She continued her studies at UT and at University of California at Santa Cruz pursuing her PH. D, but she never did complete her degree.
She passed away before she could complete her dissertation.

4. Life & Times II
She was an active member in many nationalist movements from the 1960s
Such as the farmworkers movement and Chicano Youth associations like the Mexican American Youth Organization
However, she was concerned by their male and heteronormative bias
In the 1970’s, she encountered feminist writings and this helped develop a framework for her aesthetics of social transformation and inclusive politics
Even within the feminist writings she was unsettled by the white feminists' limited knowledge of women- of-color feminists and the intersectionality they faced
She moved to San Francisco, California in 1977, determined to become an influential writer – she felt her educational work wasn’t able to help her in her pursuit in making systemic changes in American politics and values
There, she worked several part-time jobs but otherwise devoted all of her time to writing.
1981 – 1985 she moved to and in-between various states on the east coast, including New York and Massachusetts, supporting herself by hosting writing workshops and speaking engagements (supplementing her income with food stamps and the generosity of friends and family).
In 1985, she moved back to Northern California, where she would live the rest of her life.

5. Illness and death
During infancy, Anzaldúa was diagnosed with a hormonal disorder that triggered premature puberty – she started regularly menstruating when she was just six years old
This experience distanced herself from her peers and instilled in her an empathy for outsiders, motivating her social justice work
Eventually, at the age of 38, she had a hysterectomy
In 1992, Anzaldúa was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes
She died in her home on either May 14th or May 15th, 2004 from diabetes-related complications
Her body was found on May 15th, this is the date widely accepted as her death
She was posthumously awarded her PH.D. by UCSC in 2005

6. Writing: Body of Work Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987)
Became Anzaldúa’s most widely acclaimed book
Semi-autobiographical, in it, she describes her experiences as a queer Chicana
“How to Tame a Wild Tongue” is an excerpt from its second edition
“La Prieta” (1997)
She published two bilingual children’s books:
Friends from the Other Side/Amigos del otro lado (1993)
Prietita and the Ghost Woman/Prietita y la llorona (1995)
Both books feature a strong female protagonist
They introduced young readers to an important figure in Chicana culture, La Llorona or “The Woman Who Cries”
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (1981)
Gloria Anzaldúa coedited this collection of essays, poems, personal narratives
This collection became widely recognized as the premiere multicultural feminist text
Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color (1990)
Her second edited anthology

7. Writing: Themes & Characteristics
“At the core of her work is the belief that because metaphors structure the way we think, the metaphorical influences must be reshaped and changed, so that Chicanas can escape the binary of being judged as either a virgin or a whore…”
Her work generally centered on inclusionary feminism, queer theory, language, and social-cultural issues
The use of English and Spanish in her work is a unique written incarnation of verbal code-switching and is prevalent in much of her work
If she did not translate it in her writing, it was a way for her to speak directly to those who could not or chose not to communicate in English
She often mixed her fiction with poetry, social commentary, and personal experiences

8. Legacy & Recognition Anzaldúa has garnered awards such as the:
Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award
Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Small Press
National Endowment for the Arts Fiction Award
Lesbian Rights Award
Sappho Award of Distinction
American Studies Association Carl Bode-Norman Pearson Prize for lifetime achievement
She is internationally recognized as a leading cultural theorist and as an innovative writer
She was instrumental in redefining the Chicana/o and Mestiza terms
After her death, the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa (SSGA) was formed in 2006
the SSGA is housed in the Women’s Studies Institute at the University of Texas at San Antonio
They have since put on multiple conferences highlighting the life and work of Gloria Anzaldúa

9. References
Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine, eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. E. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, Print.
Dahms, Elizabeth Anne, “The Life and Work of Gloria Anzaldúa: An Intellectual Biography" (2012). Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies. Paper Accessed 07 Aug
"Gloria E. Anzaldúa." American National Biography Online. N.p., Apr. 2014, Web. Accessed 07 Aug
"Gloria E. Anzaldúa." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d, anzaldua#poet. Web. Accessed 07 Aug. 2016