The Gloria Anzaldúa and the Rio Grande Valley Collection
The Gloria Anzaldúa and the Rio Grande Valley Collection is comprised of materials gathered to document the legacy, influence, and remembrance of Gloria Anzaldúa (1942 – 2004) throughout the Valley. Materials within this collection include documents, news articles, journal features, digital publications, photos, flyers, videos, and community and university-sponsored events.
About Gloria Anzaldúa
Valley native, queer Chicana feminist scholar, writer, and poet, Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa was born in Hargill, Texas in 1942. She graduated valedictorian from Edinburg High School in 1962 and graduated from UTRGV’s legacy institution Pan American University with a degree in English in 1968. She continued her education at the University of Texas at Austin (1972) while also teaching within the PSJA school district from 1969-1973. Gloria enrolled in a doctorate program in Comparative Literature at UT Austin in 1974 and later resumed her PhD studies at the University of California Santa Cruz in Literature where she received her degree posthumously.
Gloria is best-known as the author of Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987) and Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality (2015). She also served as editor/co-editor of This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (1981) and several other anthologies. She also published two children’s books entitled Friends from the Other Side/Amigos del Otro Lado (1993) and Prietita and the Ghost Woman/Prietita y la llorona (1995). Other published works include the anthology Making Face, Making Soul = Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color (1990) and co-author of Interviews/Entrevistas (2000).
About the Collection
In this Collection, you may find materials related to the Gloria Anzaldúa Legacy Project, Café Revolución, the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival, El Retorno: El Valle Celebra Nuestra, Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa and El Mundo Zurdo Conference. Additionally, you may find individual biographies of regional writers, poets, and scholars within the UTRGV university system and/or RGV community.
As a living and digital collection, The Gloria Anzaldúa and the Rio Grande Valley Collection honors individuals and collectives who have created communal gatherings, poetry readings, and critical analysis rooted in Gloria Anzaldúa’s writings, theories, and activism within our Rio Grande Valley community.
Special thanks to the following individuals, specifically Emmy Pérez, Priscilla Celina Suárez, Avery Castillo, Kristin Montez, and other community and University staff and professors for their care and dedication to the curation of this Collection.
