Gloria Anzalda 1942-2004

American novelist, poet, short story writer, essayist, critic, editor, and children's author.
Anzalda is recognized as a significant figure in contemporary Chicano literature. Her fiction,
poetry, and essays explore her experience as a mestiza, a woman living on the border between
different countries and cultures. She is respected as an authoritative voice on feminist and
homosexual issues, particularly as they relate to Third World countries and Chicano culture.
Biographical Information
Anzalda was born September 26, 1942, in Jesus Maria of the Valley, a Mexican community on
the Rio Grande in South Texas. Her father was a sharecropper, and she was raised on a series of
corporate farms. From an early age, she worked in the fields with her family. Despite financial
and emotional hardshipsher father died when she was fifteenshe excelled at school and
became interested in writing. Anzalda attended Pan-American University in Edinburg, Texas,
and received a B.A. in English, art, and education in 1969. She received an M.A. in literature and
education from the University of Texas at Austin in 1973 and did further post-graduate study at
the University of California at Santa Cruz. Later she taught high-school English in migrant,
adult, and bilingual programs in Texas. With co-editor Cherre Moraga, Anzalda collected a
series of essays titled This Bridge Called My Back (1981), which became Anzalda's first
publication and received a Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award. The volume
explores the feminist revolution from the perspective of women of color and addresses the
cultural, class, and sexual differences that impact them. In La Prieta (1995), she openly discusses
her lesbian sexuality, a contentious issue that divided her and her family for three years. She has
been an instructor on such subjects as creative writing, feminist studies, and Chicano studies at
several universities, including the University of Texas at Austin, San Francisco State University,
and the Vermont College of Norwich University. Her critical and fictional work is often
published in numerous anthologies and alternative-press journals.Anzalda died on May 15 2004
Major Works
Published in 1987, Borderlands/La Frontera is considered Anzalda's major work. It traces the
historical and personal journey of the people who inhabit the border between Mexico and the
United States and elucidates the socioeconomic, political, and spiritual impact of the European
conquest of indigenous peoples on the borderland as well as the ways in which marginalized
peoples oppress one another. The volume is divided into two sections, the first a series of seven
essays and the second a grouping of several poems. The poetry and essays in the collection are
thematically linked by their focus on the borderland experience as well as the factors that affect
cultural, sexual, and class unity. In the essay La conciencia de la mestiza, Anzalda touches on
the divisiveness of sexism and homophobia to Chicano culture. By calling herself a mestiza, she
rejects gender and sexual boundaries and attempts to create a new identity. Another essay, The
Homeland, Aztln/El Otro Mxico, offers an extensive view of the major historical events that
have resulted in the present-day border between the United States and Mexico. The second half
of the essay provides a collective, familial, and personal perspective on the issue. In How to
Tame a Wild Tongue, Anzalda explores the negative social attitudes toward Chicano ways of

speaking, as well as the deleterious effects of these negative attitudes on the self-identity of
Chicano people living in the borderlands. The last essay in the book, La conciencia de la
mestiza/Towards a New Consciousness, introduces the concept of a mestizaconsciousness,
which is rooted in the borderlands, the breaking down of cultural boundaries, and the synthesis
of different cultures, races, and languages. This amalgamation results in a new awareness,
the mestizaconsciousness, which subverts traditional perspectives on cultural identities to create
a multicultural paradigm. In 1990, Anzalda edited Making Face, Making Soul: Haciendo
Caras, an anthology of essays and poetry written by female students, artists, political activists,
and academics.
Critical Reception
Reviews of Anzalda's work have been highly favorable. The majority of critical attention to her
oeuvre is focused on Borderlands/La Frontera, which critics regard as an important cultural
study. While a few reviewers have criticized Anzalda's style as elliptical and have identified a
tendency in her writing to leave ideas undeveloped, most commend as innovative her approach
to cultural and feminist theory, the scope of her essays, and her articulation of the challenges
facing lesbians and people of color. Feminist interpretations of her work analyze the impact of
her theoretical frameworks of identity andmestiza consciousness on feminist and homosexual
studies. Commentators also praise the combination of historical information and personal
experience in Anzalda's essays. Borderlands/La Frontera is recognized as an influential work in
Chicano cultural theory, and has been a popular text in Chicano, homosexual, and feminist
studies.

Nicholasa Mohr
Nicholasa Mohr was born in New York, New York, after her parents immigrated from Puerto
Rico. Her father died when she was eight years old, leaving her mother with seven children. In
order to escape the poverty that surrounded her, Mohr used her fantastic imagination to express
her feelings. Her artistic talents helped earn her much praise in school and gave her the
confidence, which led to her success as an author.
After graduating from high school in 1953 she went to the Arts Student's League, an art school
located in New York. Here she discovered the works of Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco
which inspired her to study Hispanic art and travel to Mexico City. After a year she returned to
the United States and attended the New School for Social Research. Then in 1959 she went to
Brooklyn Museum of Art School. Throughout her studies Mohr was drawn to this type of art
work because of its powerful message about social change.
Mohr began to express herself using bold letters and symbols in her paintings. She attempted to
tell stories through these works. Eventually she switched from painting to short stories. It took a
few tries for a publisher to offer her a contract, but when he did, she started writing her first
book, Nilda. Many of Mohr's books are about characters growing up in Hispanic neighborhoods
in New York City, much like herself.
Today, Mohr has written thirteen books, primarily aimed towards young adults, and has won
numerous awards for her writing. She currently resides in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn,

where she continues to write. Her latest book, Untitled Nicholasa Mohr, was just released in
February of 1998 and is available in a local bookstore near you!
Works by the Author
Untitled Nicholasa Mohr (1998)
A Matter of Pride & other stories (1997)
Old Letivia & the Mountain of Sorrows (1996)
The Song of El Coqui & Other tales of Puerto Rico (1995)
The Magic Shell (1995)
Nicholasa Mohr: Growing Up Inside the Sanctuary of My Imagination (1994)
All For the Better: A Story of El Barrio (1993)
Going Home (1986)
Rituals of Survival: A Woman's Portfolio (1985)
Felita (1979)
In Nueva York (1977)
El Bronx Remembered: A Novella & Stories (1975)
Nilda (1973)
Analysis of Specific Texts
In Nicholasa Mohr's "The English Lesson" a group of students go to Susan Hamma's class to
learn English in order to better their lives. During once of the classes, Ms. Hamma's asks the
student to talk about where they come from and what they want to do after leaving her class. All
the students, except Diego Torres, want to become American citizens because they know they
will become more successful in the United States than in their own home country. However,
Diego Torres thinks differently and has no desire to become a citizen because he is Dominican
and proud. Torres goes on to argue that he is only in the United States to make money and will be
going back to be happy because he can live a simple life and simply.
One of the themes Mohr is addressing here is the views people have on immigration. This is
interesting because most people in this story really want to work and become successful in this
country so they can eventually give back. For example, all the students in Ms. Hammas class
wanted to be in her English class because they wanted to learn the language in order to better
their lives in America because they understand that they must know the language to become
successful. On the other hand, Diego Torres represents the person who many Americans in
today's society dislike because they are here taking peoples jobs away and "using" the country in
order to become successful elsewhere.
The above theme is controversial because many times all illegal aliens are stereotyped to be
taking away the jobs of American citizen's. By Mohr creating characters who represent both
sides she is trying to challenge the beliefs people have and prove that all immigrants are not the

same and that although some may have a different plan for themselves, many are really in the
United States to better their lives and stay in the country who allowed them to do so.