Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa (September 26, 1942 – May 15, 2004) was an American scholar of Chicana cultural theory, feminist theory, and queer theory. She loosely based her best-known book, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, on her life growing up on the Mexico–Texas border and incorporated her lifelong experiences of social and cultural marginalization into her work. Her works are considered to be groundbreaking works in cultural, feminist, and queer theories.
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| Gloria Anzaldúa Photo by Alison Hawthorne Deming 10/22/1991 |
On the occasion of the exhibition To Tame a Wild Tongue: Art after Chicanismo, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s first digital exhibition, they are pleased to present a reading of cultural theorist Anzaldúa’s seminal text Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987). Organized by exhibition curator Alana Hernandez, this reading of Anzaldúa’s text, features artists, academics, curators, and students from around the country to read the text aloud. Timed on the feast day of the Virgin de Guadalupe on December 12, this day-long reading will be streamed via the MCASD’s social media.
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| Alana Hernández |
In her groundbreaking text Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza Anzaldúa established the US/Mexico borderlands as a site where a myriad of languages and cultures coexist—boldly giving birth to an identity that Anzaldúa coined as the “new mestiza.” Her pivotal text continues to be revolutionary in underscoring a livelihood and vernacular specific to those who navigate the borderlands. Throughout the text, Anzaldúa points to language as a source of both identity and cultural hybridity, switching between English, Spanish, and Indigenous dialects. In doing so, she highlights and celebrates the identity of the new mestiza.
Participants included: Gabriel Almedia Baroja, Mely Barragán, Ondine Chavoya, Marissa del Toro, Clarissa Dominguez, Mariana Fernandez, Marco Antonio Flores, Alberto Garcia Rodriguez, Anthony Graham, Raúl Guerrero, Alana Hernandez, Philomena Lopez Rivas, Luisa Martínez, Alessandra Moctezuma, Maurico Muñoz, Omar Pimenta, Christal Pérez, Armando Pulido, Armando Rascon, Katie Ruiz, Cris Scorza, Itza Vilaboys.
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