Celebrating Gloria Anzaldúa’s Birthday
Editor’s Note: When a person as loved as Gloria Anzaldúa leaves this Earth, their talent and knowledge continues to inspire others nearly 20 years beyond their parting.
Gloria E. Anzaldúa was a Chicana queer writer, poet and scholar. Anzaldúa was born on Sept. 26, 1942, in Harlingen. She is best known for her works, “To Live in the Borderlands” and “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” UTRGV students and faculty celebrated what would have been Anzaldua’s 81st birthday in the University Library courtyard on the Edinburg campus, the Gloria Anzaldúa Plaza.
Two attendees of major importance were Janie Anzaldúa, Gloria’s sister-in-law, and Urbano Anzaldúa III, Gloria’s nephew.
Rolando Serna, a Mexican-American studies graduate student, spoke to Pulse about what Gloria Anzaldúa means to him as a bisexual individual.
“Gloria was raised 11 miles from where I was,” Serna said. “I’m from La Villa. She’s one of the first openly gay writers that I ever heard about from here [in the Valley]. I’m bisexual myself, so I identify with her a lot. Most of my kids are part of the LGBTQIA+ [community]. She pretty much [put out there] that you don’t have to be like anybody else, which is great. … She put the foundation that, ‘It’s alright to be you’ for me and my kids.”
Krista A. Olivarez, a creative writing graduate student, said she wants to learn more about Anzaldúa’s work.
“I’m still learning,” Olivarez said.“This is the first event that I’ve ever been a part of honoring her but I’m happy to be here anyway because it doesn’t really matter to me whether the person is alive or dead. Their significance and their impact lives on. It just feels good to be here and have a sense of community with like-minded people who appreciate art and poetry and her work above all because this event is about her.”
Jo Reyes-Boitel, a creative writing instructor and graduate student, said they met Gloria Anzaldúa when they were younger.
“I don’t think that I realized how much influence her writing had on me,” Reyes-Boitel said. “Both in just identity and realizing that I might feel like I don’t fit somewhere. … [Gloria] wanted to talk with people and connect with them. I got to know her pretty well. When she passed, I was living in Austin and we did the first gathering there for her where folks sat and talked together. She really did help to create a spotlight on Chicanx and queer theories.”
Emmy Pérez, chair of the department of Creative Writing and organizer of the event, said Anzaldúa is all over her latest book, “With the River on our Face,” published in 2016 after she moved to the Valley.
“We are in a really special place geographically here in the Valley and I really love seeing how people are influenced by her work here in particular more than anywhere else,” Pérez said.
Janie Anzaldúa closed off the event by thanking everyone for celebrating her sister-in-law and choosing to remember her as the inspiring woman that she was to her family and everyone else.
An event for Gloria Anzaldúa will take place May 15, 2024 in Edinburg. Pérez said the plan is to meet with speakers at Anzaldúa’s grave in Hargill. The event will be open to the public.
