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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1992)
ju s t out ▼ a p ri 1 9 9 2 ▼ 13 Walking a tightrope Gloria Anzaldua walks a tightrope suspended between white and Chicana cultures by Marilyn Davis loria Anzaldua is probably best known among lesbians as the co- editor (with Cherrie Moraga) o f This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women o f Color, pub lished in 1981 by Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. She is also the author of Border lands! La Frontera: The New Mestizo, published in 1987 by Spinsters-Aunt Lute, and chosen as oneofthe38best books of 1987 by the Library Jour nal. M ost re cently she has edited Haciendo Caras: Making Face, M aking Soul (Aunt Lute Foundation, 1990), an anthol ogy of creative pieces and theoretical essays by women of color which tackles issues of spiritual and cultural identity, racism, feminism, and m ul tilingual, multi-ethnic literacy. Anzaldua is also the narrator o f Prieta Has a FriendJPriettita tiene un amigo, a bilingual children’s book published in 1991 by Children’s Book Press. In 1991 she was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Grant in Fiction. Borderlands!La Frontera , Anzaldua’s explo ration of her personal history as well as her cultural history, is an intricately textured book, woven from prose and poetry, history, fable, and personal experience. It alternates between En glish and Spanish. Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz, writing about the book inThe Village Voice, says: "Anzaldua moves with grace and erudition through a sprawling landscape, nothing less than a history o f the people o f the Southwest, a survey o f both sides o f the border, a critique o f Western patriarchal civilization, and a manifesto o f true counterculture: the nondominants, the Third World, women, queers, outsiders." In her autobiographical essay, “La Prieta,” from This Bridge Called My Back, Anzaldua describes herself as a “third-world lesbian femi nist with Marxist and mystic leanings.” She says, “The mixture o f blood and affinities, rather than confusing or unbalancing me, has forced me to achieve a kind of equilibrium. Both cul tures deny me a place in their universe. Between them and others, I build my own universe, ElMundo Zurdo. I belong to myself and not to any one people.” Anzaldua walks a tightrope suspended be tween worlds. While recognizing that many women of color reject alliances with white people because educating them “takes too much time and energy,” she has chosen to mediate between white and Chicana cultures. She says, “We must share our history with them so that...they won’t turn MOVING TO VANCOUVER? WE ARE HERE TO SERVE YOU! With offices in Vancouver and Portland we have access to buyers and sellers on both sides of the river. V ancouver R epresentatives: Ricky Kendall G (206) 737-8013 P R O D IG Y ® ID # M GXB84A Patricia Farrell (206) 574-5683 ...celebrating rhe Don Dentei spirit of Woman in (206) 256-7911 sculpture, LARGE ENOUGH TO SERVE ... SMALL ENOUGH TO CARE photography and fine jew elry VANCOUVER OFFICE 1508 NE 88th St. Vancouver, WA 98655 ( 800 ) 847-5729 ( 206 ) 573-5513 people away because of their racial fears and ignorances. They will come to see that they are not helping us but following our lead." In her Foreward to the Second Edition of This Bridge Called My Back, Anzaldua says, “We have come to realize we are not alone in our struggles nor separate nor autonomous but that w e-w hite black straight queer female m ale-are connected and interdependent. We are each accountable for what is happening down the street, south of the border or across the sea.” The topic of Anzaldua’s address at Portland State will be the need for multi-culturalism at the university. Anzaldua is well acquainted with universities. She has taught Chicano Studies at the University of Texas, and W omen’s Studies at San Francisco State. She has also served as Chicana Artist in Residence in Chicano Studies at Pomona College in California. Currently she is enrolled in the doctoral program at U.Ca. Santa C ruz. D raw ing on her ex p erien ces w ith “multiculturalism in the university,” Anzaldua says in Borderlands: 1 am the only round face, Indian beaked, off-colored, in the faculty lineup, the workshop, the panel and reckless enough to take you on. Gloria Anzaldua, Chicana tejana lesbian- feminist poet, fiction writer, teacher, healer, and cultural theorist, will speak at Portland State University in the Vanport Room on Tuesday, April 14, at 7 pm. TWENTY-THIRD AVENUE BOOKS 1015 NW 23rd Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97210, (503) 224*5097 Monday' Friday 9:30 am - 8 pm □ Saturday 10 am - 8 pm □ Sunday 11 am - 4 pm OREGON OFFICE 4772 N. 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