“El Retorno Al Valle” Community Events & Symposium on Gloria E. Anzaldúa & Literary Landmark Unveiling
Sunday and Monday, March 27–28, 2022
Chicana theorist and feminist Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa (1942 - 2004) was from the Valley, living her early life on the ranchos of Jesus Maria and Los Verjeles before relocating to Hargill, Texas. Gloria graduated Valedictorian of Edinburg High School (1962) and later attended our legacy institution Pan American University, graduating with a degree in English in 1968. She also taught at PSJA schools (1969 - 1973) while also pursuing a Masters degree in English and education at University of Texas at Austin (1972). In 1974, Gloria enrolled in the doctoral degree in comparative literature at UT-Austin, later resuming a Ph.D. program in literature at University of California, Santa Cruz.
Her time studying in Austin and working with migrants in Indiana in the 1970s, proved to be formative years for Gloria's social and political activism. Soon after moving to California in 1977, Gloria began editing the anthology This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, which was published in 1980. She is perhaps best-known as author of Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987), which remains popular in UTRGV coursework and studies. In 1990, Gloria published another anthology Making Face, Making Soul = Haciendo Caras and co-published Interviews/Entrevistas (2000), which included selected interviews with Gloria from 1982 to 1999.
Some may be surprised to know that Gloria Anzaldua also published two children's books, Friends from the Other Side/Amigos del Otro Lado and Prietita and the Ghost Woman/Prietita y la llorona.
View the rest of the exhibit online: Rio Grande Valley Women's History Poster Exhibit 2022
On Monday, March 28, 2022 the Literary Landmark for Dr. Anzaldúa was unveiled at the University Library in Edinburg. The marker is located in the courtyard outside the south entrance to the library.
The literary landmark represents the RGV community, campus, and the Society's efforts and collaborations for over 15 years. UTRGV Center for Mexican American Studies and Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa (SSGA) applied for the literary landmark with GAL Project support. The efforts of Dr. Emmy Perez, Dr. Norma E. Cantú, and Dr. Stephanie Alvarez, in particular, made this marker a reality.
Learn more about Gloria's history, “El Retorno: El Valle Celebra Nuestra Gloria”, Anzaldúa Speaker Series in Philosophy, and class projects inspired by her via the UTRGV Center for Mexican American Studies.
Teaching with PSJA
Glover, Lloyd H. The Pharr Press (Pharr, Tex.), Vol. 41, No. 21, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 24, 1973, newspaper, May 24, 1973; Pharr, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth848458/m1/4/?q=%22gloria+anzaldua%22: accessed August 11, 2021), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Pharr Memorial Library.
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