El Mundo Zurdo 2013
An international conference on the Life and Work of Gloria Anzaldúa
Activism, Philosophy and Pedagogy
November 14-­­16, 2013
University of Texas at San Antonio, Downtown Campus
One UTSA Circle
San Antonio, TX 78249
SSGA
Soc iety for th e Stud y of Gl or ia An za ldúa
On the Cover: “Querida Maestra: Anzalduista y Muxerista Siempre” by Dr. Anita Tijerina
Revilla, Associate Professor and Director of Women’s Studies at the University of NevadaLas Vegas (UNLV).
Program Design: Rachel Rumpf, Graduate Student, University of Missouri-Kansas City
Welcome! ¡Bienvenid@s!
¡Bienvenid@s! The Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa (SSGA) and the
Women’s Studies Institute (WSI) at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA)
welcome you to El Mundo Zurdo 2013: Activism, Philosophy and Pedagogy.
SSGA was formed in 2006 to provide a space for students, scholars and the
community to come together to continue with Anzaldúa’s vision and passion. In
2007, the WSI became the SSGA’s academic home. Since 2009, El Mundo Zurdo is
the conference where we actualize the goals set forth by the SSGA. Every 18
months, alternating between November and May, we gather as co-­­hosts with the
hope that all who inhabit El Mundo Zurdo enjoy celebrating the life and work of
one of our Tejana sisters whose words have touched the world.
El Mundo Zurdo 2013 is a testament to the interest and commitment of
many people, and we want to acknowledge all who have labored to make it
happen. Without the scholars, artists, and students whose continued engagement
with Anzaldúa’s work energizes and gives SSGA life, without the community’s
desire to remember and keep Anzaldúa’s life and work at the center of much
needed work toward social change, SSGA would not exist. El Mundo Zurdo would
not exist. We hope that you will join us in 18 months at the next conference to be
held in May 2015 in Austin, Texas, hosted by the Center for Mexican American
Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
¡Que viva el mundo zurdo!
Enjoy the conference!
Office of the President
Dear Attendees at the SSGA El Mundo Zurdo 2013 Conference:
On behalf of The University of Texas at San Antonio, I offer a warm Texas welcome to all of
you. UTSA is glad to host El Mundo Zurdo 2013-Activism, Philosophy, and Pedagogy--an
international gathering of artists, scholars and students for a weekend of presentations and
performances on the life and work of Tejana writer and thinker, Gloria Anzaldua. Like the May 2012
El Mundo Zurdo Conference, this one promises to be an engaging and illuminating experience.
We are proud of our 31,000 plus student body, our outstanding faculty, and our excellent
facilities. We also want to recognize UTSA's Women's Studies Institute, which has housed the
Society of the Study of Gloria Anzaldua since its founding in 2005 , and thank the Institute for its
work. UTSA seeks to offer a forum for cutting edge research and teaching, and SSGA's El Mundo
Zurdo Conference offers a venue for scholars from around the world, the nation, our State and our
community to showcase their research and community engagement with the work of Gloria
Anzaldua. Additionally, it brings together artists, writers and community activists.
SSGA's El Mundo Zurdo 2013 is above all a collaborative effort made possible by the
institutional support of UTSA. Students, former students, staff, faculty, and community come
together in order to make the conference a dynamic experience. We hope that you will be
reenergized and find the conference fulfilling.
Finally, it is with great pleasure that we announce that the May 2012 El Mundo Zurdo
proceedings will be available at this year's conference. As with the 2007, 2009, and the 2010
proceedings, the 2012 proceedings are published by Aunt Lute Press. We are proud to be able to
share the work of Anzalduan scholars with the rest of the academic community.
We hope that the events scheduled for this weekend will nurture you on various levels-the
academic and the personal. The events scheduled for the conference and for the community will no
doubt provide material for your own academic endeavors. The UTSA community welcomes you and
we offer our best wishes for your participation during El Mundo Zurdo 2013-Activism, Philosophy,
and Pedagogy: An International Conference on the Life and Work of Gloria Anzaldua, sponsored by
the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldua and the Women's Studies Institute.
iBienvenidas/os! And may your stay in San Antonio provide many cherished memories.
Sincerely ,
Ricardo Romo
President
One UTSA Circle • San Antonio ,Texas 78249-0601 • (210) 458-4101 • (210) 458-4655 fax
SCHEDULE
AT A GLANCE
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 14, 2013
3:00-­­ 5:00 pm
Pre-­­Conference Event: Video
Buena Vista Theater 1.326
6:00-­­9:00 pm
Welcome Reception/Art Exhibit
Southwest Room/Durango
1.214
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2013
8:00am-­­5:00 pm
REGISTRATION
8:30-­­9:00 am
WELCOME
9:00-­­10:00 am
OPENING PLENARY: MARIA FRANQUIZ
10:15-­­11:30 am
CONCURRENT SESSIONS I
Buena Vista Bldg. Lobby
Buena Vista Theater 1.326
IA
Panel: Nagini, Meme, and Marxism: Serpents and Silences en el Mundo Zurdo
Frio 3.402
IB
Panel: Anzaldúa’s Mestiza Consciousness and Social Action
Frio 3.512
IC
Panel: Narratives of Survival: Anzaldúa and Academic Change
Frio 3.520
ID
Panel: Bodies/Acts/Pedagogies: Translating Knowledge across Corporeal Borders
Frio 3.530
IE
Panel: Queerness in Anzaldúa: Queering Nepantla
Frio 3.536
IF
Panel: Anzaldúa in Dialogue with Trans* Studies
Buena Vista 3.324
IG
Workshop: CART[A]S: Rooting Our Purpose as Academics in a Time of Transformation
Buena Vista 1.312
11:30-­­11:45 am
BREAK
11:45 am-­­1:00 pm
CONCURRENT SESSIONS II
IIA
Panel: Popular Culture and Literature through an Anzaldúan Lens
Frio 3.402
IIB
Panel: Nagualas, Narratology, and Nomadic Subjectivities: Anzaldúa’s Potential
Contributions to Posthumanist Thought
Frio 3.512
IIC
Panel: Spiritual Mestizaje and Activism
Frio 3.520
IID
Roundtable: Anzalduista Pedagogies and Activism at UTPA: Radical Interventions to Heal
our Campus and Communities
Frio 3.530
IIE
Panel: Malcread@s y Terc@s: Chican@ Scholars Insisting on Creating Community,
Academic, and Societal Change through Non-­­Traditional Ways
Frio 3.536
IIF
Poetry Performance: New Writings from the Hopeful Hearts of Indigenous Women:
Xanath Caraza, Kim Shuck, LeAnne Howe, and ire’ne lara silva
Buena Vista 1.312
1:00-­­2:30 pm
LUNCH (WITH REGISTRATION)-­­-­­DoubleTree Hilton Hotel
2:45-­­4:00 pm
CONCURRENT SESSIONS III
501 César Chávez Boulevard
IIIA
Panel: Spiritual Activism: Applications, Investigations, Transformations
Frio 3.402
IIIB
Panel: Accountability, Vivencias, and Conocimiento: Grounding Theory
Frio 3.520
IIIC
Panel: Modern Family, Cuban Hip Hop, and Healing Wounds: Anzaldúan Analyses and
Artforms
Frio 3.530
IIID
Panel: Queer Corporealities: Feminisms and Healing
Frio 3.536
IIIE
WORKSHOP: Spirituality as Theory: Understanding and Sustaining Ourselves as Activists
Buena Vista 1.312
4:15-­­5:30 pm
CONCURRENT SESSIONS IV
IVA
Panel: Las Tres Madres: La Malinche, La Virgen de Guadalupe, and La Llorona as Agents
of Social Activism and Empowerment
Frio 3.402
IVB
Panel: ”Doble Saber,” Philosophy and Curanderismo: Decolonizing the Rosary and the
Spirit
Frio 3.512
IVC
Panel: Teaching Writing, Teaching Being
Frio 3.520
IVD
Panel: Queer Spiritualities
Frio 3.530
IVE
Roundtable: Nuev@ Chican@ Poetics
Buena Vista 1.312
IVF
Panel: Spirituality and Religion in the Borderlands and Beyond
Buena Vista 3.324
CULTURAL EVENTS ON YOUR OWN
7:00 pm
Mujeres en la Cancion Mexicana I -­­ Noche Azul at Esperanza Peace & Justice Center
922 San Pedro
9:00 pm
Lunada Poetry Reading at Blue Star Arts Complex above Stella House
1420 S. Alamo
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 16, 2013
8:00 am-­­12:00 pm
REGISTRATION
Buena Vista Lobby
9:00 -­­10:15 am
FEATURED PANEL: Diabetes and Healing: Poetry, Creative Non-­­Fiction, and
Decolonizing Your Diet
Buena Vista Theater 1.326
10:30 -­­ 11:45 pm
12:00-­­1:00 pm
1:00-­­1:30 pm
CONCURRENT SESSIONS V
VA
Conversation: Boxing Shadows: A Conversation with Anissa ‘The Assassin’ Zamarrón
Frio 3.402
VB
Panel: Anzaldúan Readings of Young Adult, Children’s and Science Fiction Literature
Frio 3.512
VC
Panel: Eso no se dice: malcriadas and the violence in silence
VD
Panel: Crossing Geographical, Linguistic and Disciplinary Borders through the
Pedagogical Approaches from and Practices with Gloria Anzaldúa´s Works
Frio 3.530
VE
Panel: Pedagogical Interventions: Science, Language and Experience
Frio 3.536
VF
Panel: Fragmented Stories, Recovering Bodies: Intersections of Borderland Theories,
Femicide, and Disability Studies
Buena Vista 1.312
VG
Roundtable: The Impossible Interstices Between Academic and Organizing Worlds
Buena Vista 3.324
CLOSING PLENARY: CINDY CRUZ
CLOSING CEREMONY
Frio 3.520
Buena Vista Theater 1.326
Buena Vista Theater 1.326
POST CONFERENCE EVENTS
3:00 pm
CANTOMUNDO POETRY READING at the Gallista Gallery
1913 S. Flores
6:30 pm
nos(otros) ¡somos! (performance and discussion) at Esperanza Center
922 San Pedro
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
Thursday November 14, 2013 PreConference Event
3- 5 PM
DVD Viewing: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Keynote address at the historic conference,
“Practicing Transgression: Radical Women of Color for the 21st Century
Celebrating This Bridge Called My Back,” held at UC-Berkeley on February 710, 2002.
Moderator: Norma Alarcón
----------------------------------------------------------
6-9 PM
Welcome Reception
Southwest Room
Durango Building DB 1.214
501 César Chávez Boulevard, San Antonio, TX 78207.
Art Exhibit: Querida Maestra
Curator: Anel Flores
Friday November 15, 2013
8AM - 5PM
8:30- 9AM
Registration
Welcome: Dr. Norma E. Cantú
Buena Vista Lobby
Buena Vista Theater (BV 1.326)
for The Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa
Dr. Sonia Saldívar-Hull
for the Women’s Studies Institute at UTSA
Blessing:
Ari Marta Chagoya- Writer, Artist, Curandera/
Healer y Nepantlera and one of Gloria Anzaldúa’s
close friends
9- 10 AM
OPENING PLENARY:
Buena Vista Theater (BV 1.326)
MARIA FRÁNQUIZ
En palabras y acciones/In words and deeds:
¡Gloria Anzaldúa, presente!
1010:15AM
10:1511:30 AM
BREAK
CONCURRENT SESSIONS I
Buena Vista Lobby
Frio and Buena Vista Buildings
I. A. Room: Frio 3.402
Friday 10:15-11:30 a.m.
Panel: Nagini, Meme, and Marxism: Serpents and Silences en El Mundo Zurdo
Moderator: Josie Méndez-Negrete
1. Magda García, “Re-imagining Activism: Reconfiguring Marxist Feminist Responses to
the Precarity Movement through Gloria Anzaldúa’s El Mundo Zurdo”
2. Natassja Gunasena, “Nagini and Coatlicue: Subjectively Occupying Diasporic Desi
Identity by ‘Entering into the Serpent’ ”
3. T. Urayoan Noel, “Anzaldúa's Meme: Embodied Knowledge and Globalization”
__________________________________________________________________
I. B. Room: Frio 3.512
Friday 10:15-11:30 a.m.
Panel: Anzaldúa’s Mestiza Consciousness and Social Action
Moderator: Keta Miranda
Discussant: William Calvo
1. Ruby A. Hernández and Aída Hurtado, “‘A healing process with my own ‘story’’:
Transforming Paths and Minds of Latinas in STEM through the Process of
Conocimiento and the Creation of Safe Spaces”
2. Mrinal Sinha, “Mestiza Consciousness and the CSUMB Vision Statement: Cultivating
Activism using Assets-based Pedagogies”
3. Karina Cervantez, “Lived Experience and the Commitment to Social Justice”
__________________________________________________________________
I. C. Room: Frio 3.520
Friday 10:15-11:30 a.m.
Panel: Narratives of Survival: Anzaldúa and Academic Change
Moderator: Elsa C. Ruiz
1. Meredyth Grange, “Writing From the Body: Personal Narrative as Pedagogical
Necessity”
2. Ellen Riojas Clark, “The Impact of Gloria Anzaldúa on my Academic and Personal Life”
3. Cristina Golondrina Rose, “Xicana, Filipina, and Euro-American Women’s Spirituality:
Solidarity in Personal, Critical, and Creative Writing: A Mestiza Approach to
Ethnoautobiography and Literary Criticism”
__________________________________________________________________
I. D. Room: Frio 3.530
Friday 10:15-11:30 a.m.
Panel: Bodies/Acts/Pedagogies: Translating Knowledge across Corporeal Borders
Moderator: Rusty Barceló
1. Suzanne Bost, “Objects/Knowledges/Pedagogies”
2. Erica Chu, “Rethinking Hybridity/Reimagining Identity Borders”
3. Tace Hedrick, “History is What Hurts: Alien Feelings and Queer Temporalities in
Gloria Anzaldúa”
__________________________________________________________________
I. E. Room: Frio 3.536
Friday 10:15-11:30 a.m.
Panel: Queerness in Anzaldúa: Queering Nepantla
Moderator: Elisa Facio
1. Margarita E. Pignataro, “Recognizing Anzaldúa’s Nepantla in the Films La Mission and
A Better Life”
2. Robert Gutierrez-Perez, “Thriving in Nepantla: Surviving the Trauma of Higher
Education Spaces”
3. Rico Kleinstein Chenyek, “Dis-ease Sustains Life: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Coatlicue State
and the Physics of Love”
4. Cordelia E. Barrera, “Landscape of Healing: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Ecocritical Leanings”
__________________________________________________________________ I.
I F. Room: BV 3.324
Friday 10:15-11:30 a.m.
Panel: Anzaldúa in Dialogue with Trans* Studies
Moderator: Robyn Henderson-Espinoza
1. Max Valerio, “Trans Reflections on Anzaldúa: Visions from the Borderlands of
Changing Sex”
2. Tala Khanmalek, “The Corporealities of Politics: U.S. Third World Women of Color
Feminisms and Healing Justice”
3. Karla Padrón, “Anzalduán Theories, Rivera's Courage, and the Making of Transgender
Latina Studies”
I. G. Buena Vista 1.312
Friday 10:15-11:30 a.m.
Workshop: CART[A]S: Rooting Our Purpose as Academics in a Time of
Transformation
Moderator: Rita Urquijo-Ruiz
Members: Inés Hernández-Ávila, Yvette Flores, Natalia Deeb-Sossa, Gloria M.
Rodríguez
11:30-11:45 AM
11:45 AM-1:00 PM
BREAK
CONCURRENT SESSIONS II
Frio and Buena Vista
uildings
(F and BV)
II. A. Frio 3.402
Friday 11:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Panel: Popular Culture and Literature through an Anzaldúan Lens
Moderator: Kathleen Palomo
1. Sarah Montoya, “Border Trouble, Gender Wars: Representation of Queer Studies in
Cyberspace”
2. Crystal Serrano, “Latino Ska: healing the Borderlands through Transnational Hybrid
Musical Styles among Latino Youth”
3. Verónica Calvillo, “The Transfonteriza Identity in Female Characters in Contemporary
Films and Documentaries”
4. Trevor Boffone, “Mestiza Consciousness and La Facultad on the Border: Josefina
López’s Detained in the Desert”
__________________________________________________________________
II. B. Frio 3.512
Friday 11:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Panel: Nagualas, Narratology, and Nomadic Subjectivities: Anzaldúa’s Potential
Contributions to Posthumanist Thought
Moderator: Erin Ranft
1. AnaLouise Keating, “Anzaldúa’s Posthumanist Mythos”
2. Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, “The Borderlands of Subjectivity; The Subjectivity of
(the) Borderlands: Nomadism, Mestizaje, and Bodies”
3. Betsy Dahms, “Formalizing Fluidity: Queer second-person narration in Anzaldúa’s
‘Putting Coyolxauhqui Together’ and ‘now let us shift...the path of
conocimiento...inner works, public acts’”
4. Kelli Zaytoun, “‘Now Let Us Shift’ the Subject: Tracing the Path and Posthumanist
Implications of La Naguala/The Shape Shifter in the Works of Gloria Anzaldúa”
__________________________________________________________________
II. C. Frio 3.520
Friday 11:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Panel: Spiritual Mestizaje and Activism
Moderator: Susana Ramírez
1. Irene Lara, “Embodying Serpentine Conocimientos and Enacting Erotic-Spiritual
Change”
2. Theresa Torres, “Interpreting Las Guadalupanas' Vision”
3. Dara Nix-Stevenson, “Border Thinking as a Prerequisite for Disaster Resistance and
Resilience:"
4. Maira Álvarez, “Speaking from the BorderL Fronterizos along the 1,933 Mile Border
Region”
II. D. Frio 3.530
Friday 11:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Roundtable: Anzalduista Pedagogies and Activism at UTPA: Radical Interventions
to Heal our Campus and Communities
Moderator: Aída Hurtado
Members: Stephanie Alvarez, Marci R. McMahon, Emmy Pérez, and Cynthia Paccacerqua
_______________________________________________________________
II. E. Frio 3.536
Friday 11:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Panel: Malcread@s y Terc@s: Chican@ Scholars Insisting on Creating Community,
Academic, and Societal Change through Non-Traditional Ways
Moderator: Sonia Valencia
1. Marcos Del Hierro, “And You Don’t Stop: Hiphop Embodied Knowledges as Tools for
Survival”
2. Catalina Bartlett, “Being Malcriada: Reclaiming Chicanism@, Indigeneity, and
Cultural Memory”
3. Crystal Bustamante, “Establishing Cultural Validity in the Classroom”
__________________________________________________________________
II. F. Buena Vista 1.312
Friday 11:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Poetry Performance: “New Writings from the Hopeful Hearts of Indigenous
Women: Xánath Caraza, Kim Shuck, and ire’ne lara silva”
Moderator: T. Urayoan Noel
1:00-2:30
PM
LUNCH
(included with
registration)
Double Tree Hilton Hotel—501 César
Chávez Boulevard
2:45-4:00
PM
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
III
Buena Vista and Frío Street Buildings
III. A. Frio 3.402
Friday 2:45-4:00 p.m.
Panel: Spiritual Activism: Applications, Investigations, Transformations
Moderator: Alexandra Araiza
1. Allison Davis, “Organizing with Spirit: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Spiritual Activism as a
Community Organizing Model”
2. Jessica Camp, “Wounded Interconnections: A Dialogue Between Gloria Anzaldúa and
Thich Nhat Hahn”
3. April Michels, “Devaluing the Spiritual: The Privileging of Secularity in Women’s and
Gender Studies and the Dismissal of Gloria Anzaldúa’s Transformative
Spiritualized Politics in Academic Scholarship”
4. AnaLouise Keating, “Learning from Anzaldúa: Towards a Theory-Praxis of Womanist
Self-Recovery”
__________________________________________________________________
III. B. Frio 3.520
Friday 2:45-4:00 p.m.
Panel: Accountability, Vivencias, and Conocimiento: Grounding Theory
Moderator: Sonia Saldívar-Hull
1. Rufina Cortéz, “How to De-Academize Theory: Accountability and Representation”
2. Bert María Cueva, “Conocimiento - A Pedagogical Tool Grounded to Activism, Healing,
and Survival”
3. Judith Estrada, “Reflexiones Uncertain Futures: (Un)documented Youth in the
Midwest”
III. C. Frio 3.530
Friday 2:45-4:00 p.m.
Panel: Anzaldúan Analyses of Modern Family, Cuban Hip-Hop, and Death
Moderator: Jane Madrigal
1. Bernardita Yunis Varas, “Politics of Being Gloria - An Anzaldúan Analysis of Modern
Family's Sofía Vergara”
2. Silvia Galis-Menéndez, “Vamo a Vencer: Las Krudas, Feminist Activism, and Hip-Hop
Identities across Borders”
Borderlands”
3. Mary García, “Death and Transformation in Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands“
_____________ ______
_______________________________________________
III. D. Frio 3.536
Friday 2:45-4:00 p.m.
Panel: Queer Corporealities: Feminisms and Healing
Moderator: Andrea Figueroa
1. Rocío Prado, “To Exist Is To Resist: A Conscious Re-application of Borderlands
Theory”
2. Michael Lee Gardin, “Reading Cherríe Moraga’s A Xicana Codex through New
Tribalism: Queerness, Indigeneity, and Transgender Identity”
3. Christina Gutiérrez, “Bodily Betrayals: Illness, Trauma, and Transformation in Gloria
Anzaldúa’s Autohistorias”
__________________________________________________________________
III. E. Buena Vista 1.312
Friday 2:45-4:00 p.m.
WORKSHOP: “Spirituality as Theory: Understanding and Sustaining Ourselves as
Activists”
Moderator: Rose Rodríguez Rabin
Amy Foss
_____________________________________________________________
III. F. Buena Vista 3.324
Friday 2:45-4:00 p.m.
Panel: Healing Our Wounds: Transforming Selves through Creativity, Art Forms,
and Anzaldúa
Moderator: Patricia Portales
1. Adrianna Michelle Santos, “Healing our Wounds through Our Words: Anzaldúa,
Violence, and Storytelling”
2. Sara A. Ramírez, “Tolerating Anxiety, Tolerating Ambiguity: Decolonial Feminist
Tactics for Self-Healing in the Work of Adelina Anthony”
3. V. June Pedraza, “Freeing the Female Voice: A Discussion of the Arts as Healing and
Trans-formative Agents for the Self-Injurer”
4:00-4:15 PM
4:15-5:30 PM
BREAK
Concurrent Sessions IV
Buena Vista and Frío Street
Bldgs.
IV. A. Frio 3.402
Friday 4:15-5:30 p.m.
Panel: Las Tres Madres: La Malinche, La Virgen de Guadalupe, and La Llorona as
Agents of Social Activism and Empowerment
Moderator: Cynthia Cortez
1. Kristina López, “Reclaiming Malinche: The Resistance and Empowerment of Malinche
through New Mestiza Consciousness”
2. Elizabeth G. Chapa, “Social Activism, Empowerment, and La Virgen de Guadalupe in
the Classroom: Teaching Heroes and Saints through an Anzaldúan Lens in a
Hispanic Serving Institution
3. Jody A. Briones, “La Llorona and the Academy: Wailing/Writing as Activism and
Empowerment”
IV. B. Frio 3.512
Friday 4:15-5:30 p.m.
Panel: ”Doble Saber,” Philosophy and Curanderismo: Decolonizing the Rosary and
the Spirit
Moderator: Elizabeth de la Portilla
1. Sandra Pacheco, “‘Doble saber’: The Rosary and the Transformative Mysteries”
2. Helane Androne, “Gloria Anzaldúa as Salpicón Philosophy in Story, Service and Spirit”
3. Freyca Calderón & Karla O’Donald, “Vivir y cruzar con orgullo”
__________________________________________________________________
IV. C. Frio 3.520
Friday 4:15-5:30 p.m.
Panel: Teaching Writing, Teaching Being
Moderator: Elsa Ruiz
1. Kendra Dority, “Readerly Facultad: Toward an Ethics of Linguistic Play in Latino/a
Literatures”
2. Erin Ranft, “Writing and (Re)Visions: An Anzaldúan Pedagogical Approach”
3. Candace Zepeda & Isaac Hinojosa, “Reflecting on the Rhetoric of Reflection:
Identifications of Writing the Flesh”
__________________________________________________________________
IV. D. Frio 3.530
Friday 4:15-5:30 p.m.
Panel: Queer Spiritualities
Moderator: Sara Ramírez
1. María Cristina Vlassidis Burgoa, “Queering the Spirits”
2. Sarah Becker, “Queering the Divine: Re(conciling) the Feminist Spiritualties of Gloria
Anzaldúa and Lydia Cabrera”
3. Sara Salazar, “The Curandera’s Daughters: Spiritual Activism in the Lives and Works
of Chicana Artists”
_________________________________________________________________
IV. E. Buena Vista 1.312
Friday 4:15-5:30 p.m.
Roundtable: Nuev@ Chican@ Poetics
Moderator: June Pedraza
Members: Christopher Carmona, Gabriel Sánchez, Rossy Evelin Lima, and Isaac
Chavarría
__________________________________________________________________
IV. F. Buena Vista 3.324
Friday 4:15-5:30 p.m.
Panel: Spirituality and Religion in the Borderlands and Beyond
Moderator: Lucila Ek
1. Anne M. Martínez, “Catholicism in the Borderlands of Empires, 1905-1935”
2. Felipe Hinojosa, “Decolonizing the Church: Chicana/o and Puerto Rican Struggles to
Reclaim the Space of the Church from New York to South Texas, 1969-1973”
3. Darcy Rendón, “Mapping Women’s Altared Catholicism in the U.S.-Mexico
Borderlands”
4. Albert Palacios, “Entre el machismo franciscano y la pared: La mujer indígena
in the 18th-century San Antonio Missions”
DINNER ON YOUR OWN (SEE LIST OF RESTAURANTS IN THE AREA)
1
Friday Night Cultural Events in the Community
LUNADA POETRY READING
Friday, November 15th at 8 PM
Keller-­­Rihn Studio
Blue Star Arts Complex
1420 S. Alamo
SA, TX 78210
Upstairs above Stella House,
Halcyon Coffee House and Barraca's.
Enter back entrance off Probandt.
Mujeres en la Canción
Part II
Join us for Noche Azul de Esperanza at the
Esperanza Peace and Justice Center
Friday, November 15, 2013 at 8 p.m. for
the “Mujeres en la Canción part II. A $5
donation is suggested.
Visit Esperanza.org for more information.
8:00 AM –
12:00 PM
9:00 AM10:15 AM
10:15 AM to
10:30 AM
10:30AM to
11:45AM
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Registration Buena Vista Lobby
FEATURED PANEL
Diabetes and Healing: Poetry, Creative NonFiction, and Decolonizing Your Diet
Buena Vista Theater
Moderator: Sonia García
(BV 1.326)
1. ire'ne lara silva, Reading from
blood∙sugar∙canto
2. Amelia María de la Luz Montes, “Glucose Logs:
Anzaldúa and the Story of Blood”
3. Luz Calvo & Catriona Esquibel, “Decolonize
Your Diet: Borderlands Foods to Fight
Diabetes”
BREAK
CONCURRENT
SESSIONS V
Buena Vista Lobby
Frio and Buena Vista Buildings
(F and BV)
V. A. Frio 3.402
Saturday 10:30 to 11:45 a.m.
Conversation: Boxing Shadows: A Conversation with Anissa ‘The Assassin’
Zamarrón
Moderator: Rhonda Gonzalez
Gonzáles
Anne Martínez, “A Conversation with Anissa ‘The Assassin’ Zamarrón”
_________________________________________________________________
V. B. Frio 3.512
Saturday 10:30 to 11:45 a.m.
Panel: Anzaldúan Readings of Young Adult, Children’s and Science Fiction
Literature
Moderator: Margaret Cantú-Sánchez
1. Laura López, “Navigating through the Coatlicue State: A Young Chicana’s Path to
Conocimiento in Kelly Parra’s YA Novel Graffiti Girl”
2. Sonia Alejandra Rodríguez, “‘Conocimiento Narratives’: (Re)imagining the
Künstlerroman for Latina Girls in Latina/o Children’s and Young Adults
Literature”
3. Susana Ramírez, “Nepantler@ Cosmologies: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Science Fiction
(Re)imagining Alternative Realities with Transpecies, Transspatial, and
Transtemporal Subjectivities”
_________________________________________________________________
V.C. Frio 3.520
Saturday 10:30 to 11:45 a.m.
Panel: Eso no se dice: malcriadas and the violence in silence
Moderator: Antonia Castañeda
Chair: Irene Mata
Abrecaminos: Bianca Sapet
1. Fabiola Torralba, “Mojada, por afuera y de adentro: Learning Privilege and Power
Within Social Justice Communities”
2. Genevieve Rodríguez, “Ahora Is Not the Time y Aquí Is Not the Place for Your Angry
Malcriada Ways”
3. Jessica O. Guerrero, “Struggling with The Struggle: Transitions, Stage Fright, and
Name Dropping”
4. Deborah Kuetzpal Vasquez, “Dando a Luz a La Justicia Con Las Palabras de Nuestras
Antepasadas—Bringing Justice to Light With The Words of Our Ancestors”
_________________________________________________________________
V. E. Frio 3.536
Saturday 10:30 to 11:45 a.m.
Panel: Pedagogical Interventions: Science, Language and Experience
Moderator: Joleen García
1. Jean Aguilar-Valdez, “New Mestiz@ Science: Latin@s as Scientific Nepantler@s”
2. Cecilia Suárez, “Unbreaking Her Back: Rehumanizing the Brown Girl Student
Through Critical Education and Love”
3. Rob Johnson & Debbie Cole, “‘How to Tame a Wild Tongue’: Gloria Anzaldúa and the
1960's-era ‘Speech Test’ at Pan American College”
______________________________________________________________________
V. F. Buena Vista 1.312
Saturday 10:30 to 11:45 a.m.
Panel: Fragmented Stories, Recovering Bodies: Intersections of Borderland
Theories, Femicide, and Disability Studies
Moderator: Ana Juárez
1. Casie C. Cobos, “’Estoy loca?’: Borderland Logics and Mental Disabilities”
2. Stephanie Wheeler, “Gloria Anzaldúa, Frida Kahlo, and the Fragmentation of the
‘Unwanted Immigrant’”
3. Aydé Enríquez-Loya, “Atravesando la Mujer: Border Rhetorics of Femicide in the
‘Murder Capital of the World’”
_________________________________________________________________
V. G. Buena Vista 3.324
Saturday 10:30 to 11:45 a.m.
Roundtable: The Impossible Interstices Between Academic and Organizing Worlds
Moderator: Norma Alarcón
Members: Kamala Platt and Marisol Cortez
12:001:00 PM
1:00 PM to
1:30 PM
CLOSING PLENARY: CINDY CRUZ
Buena Vista Theater (1.326)
Notes on Crossing Disciplinary
Borderlands: Anzaldúan Pedagogies and a
Defense of Experiential Knowledges
CLOSING CEREMONY: Ari Marta
Chagoya
Buena Vista Theater
(1.326)
Saturday November 16, 2013
CANTOMUNDO POETRY READING
Laurie Ann Guerrero, Urayoan Noel, and ire'ne lara silva
3pm at the Gallista Gallery, 1913 S. Flores St, SATX
Please join us for this special reading and book-­­signing event!
nos(otros) ¡somos!
6:30 p.m. Doors Open
Discussion with Performers to Follow
Admission by Donation $7-$10
Esperanza Peace and Justice Center
San Antonio, TX 78212
For more information call (210) 228-0201
www.esperanzacenter.org
nos(otros) ¡somos! is a multimedia live performance that presents multiple facets of the
immigration experience. In a collage of short works, individuals share narratives that
reflect their experiences as (undocumented) immigrants in the U.S. Stories of wit,
resiliency, compassion, and imagination unravel through photography, song, performance,
multimedia, video, and dance revealing the diversity of a human experience.
Titled in reference to Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua’s writings on the other, nos(otros) ¡somos!
is an opportunity for first voice immigrants and those directly engaged to speak for
themselves.
Performers: Karen Becerril, C.E.C.M., Mario S. Espinosa, Araceli Herrera of Domésticas
Unidas, Allan Horwath of Horwath Productions, Eleonor Maciel, Gabriel Medina, Allis Angela
Ozornia, Francisco Javier Sánchez, Fabiola Torralba, and Melissa Toscano Lazcano.
Concept design by Fabiola Torralba.
Initial showing at Gallista Gallery July 27, 2013 with support from Lady Base Gallery.
For more information visit http://ladybase210.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/fabiola-torralbanosotros/
Shoe Drive!
Lightly to fairly used adult tennis shoes and boots are being collected in conjunction to the
performance. The donation will benefit Casa del Migrante Nazareth located in Nuevo Laredo,
Tamaulipas, Mexico, which provides relief services to immigrants along the U.S. and Mexico border.
Shoe donations will be accepted at the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center on the evening of the
performance. Monetary donations will also be accepted.
For more information on Casa del Migrante Nazareth please visit
http://www.migrante.com.mx/AguaPrieta.htm
Schedule Summary: El Mundo Zurdo 2013
Activism, Philosophy & Pedagogy
An international conference on the work of Gloria E. Anzaldúa
Thursday, November 14
3:00-­­ 5:00 p.m. DVD Viewing: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Keynote address at the historic conference, “Practicing
Transgression: Radical Women of Color for the 21st Century Celebrating This Bridge Called My Back,” held at UC-­­
Berkeley on February 7-­­10, 2002—Buena Vista Theater 1.326
6:00– 9:00 p.m. Welcome Reception and Art Exhibit—Southwest Gallery, Durango Building
Friday, November 15
9 a.m.-­­10 a.m.
10:15 a.m.-­­11:30 a.m.
11:45 a.m.-­­1:00 p.m.
1:00 p.m.-­­2:30 p.m.
2:45 p.m.-­­4:00 p.m.
4:14 p.m.-­­5:30 p.m.
6 p.m.-­­9 p.m.
Opening Plenary, María Fránquiz, University of Texas at Austin
Sessions IA-­­IG
Sessions IIA-­­IIF
Lunch (with registration)
Sessions IIIA-­­IIIE
Sessions IVA-­­IVF
Cultural Events in the Community
Saturday, November 16
9:00 a.m.-­­10:15 a.m.
Featured Session
10:30 a.m.-­­11:45 a.m.
Sessions VA-­­VF
12 p.m.-­­1 p.m.
Closing Plenary, Cindy Cruz, University of California at Santa Cruz
Plenary Speakers
María E. Fránquiz is an associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and
Instruction in the Bilingual-­­Bicultural Education program area at the University of Texas at
Austin. Her previous teaching positions were in Literacy and Bilingual-­­Multicultural
Foundations of Education at the University of Colorado in Boulder (1995-­­2002) and in
Bilingual-­­Bicultural Studies at the Univeristy of Texas at San Antonio (2002-­­2008). Dr.
Fránquiz teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on the theoretical foundations of
bilingual education, biliteracy, and writing in bilingual contexts. She is also a teaching
consultant for the National Writing Project. Her research is based on ethnographic
examination of language and literacy practices in K-­­12 classrooms. Most recently her
scholarship examines how Latino critical race theory elucidates the relationship between
heritage culture and the evolving identities of future teachers. Dr. Fránquiz is an affiliate
faculty in the Cultural Studies in Education program.
Cindy Cruz is an assistant professor in the Department of Education at UC Santa Cruz. She is
a critical ethnographer and her work with LGBTQIA street youth is grounded by her use of
testimonio methodologies, US Third World feminisms, and critical pedagogy. She received
her doctorate from UCLA in 2006, was a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University through
2008, and is a member of the Decolonial Feminisms Research Group at UC Berkely and the
Human Rights and Decolonial Feminisms Research Cluster at UC-­­Santa Cruz. Her work has
been recognized with the Antonia Castañeda Prize from the National Association of Chicana
and Chicaco Studies in 2012 and the 2012 Best New Article of the Queer SIG of the
American Educational Research Association. Her work can be read in Excellence & Equality
in Education, Curriculum Inquiry, Chicana/Latina Education in Everyday Life: Feminista
Perspectives on Pedagogy and Epistemology (edited by Dolores Delgado Bernal and Sofia
Villenas), Theory into Practice, the Encyclopedia of Lesbianism, Body Movements: Pedagogy,
Politics and Social Change (edited by Sherry and Svi Shapiro), and the Los
Angeles/Berkeley-­­based queer ‘zine JOTA.
Featured Artist
Anita Tijerina Revilla is an activist scholar, Associate
Professor and Director of Women’s Studies at the University of
Nevada- Las Vegas. She loves art and has painted weekly since
2011. Her research and teaching focuses on student movements
and social justice education, specifically in the areas of
Chicana/Latina, immigrant, feminist and queer rights activism.
Her expertise is in the areas of Jotería Studies, Chicana/o
Education, Chicana/Women of Color Feminism, and Critical
Race/Ethnic Studies. In her personal life, she paints to heal
personal and communal wounds. She paints her community of
queers and feminists to reveal the beauty and fierceness that is
radical queer/feminist love, and she paints as a way to portray
queer/feminist triumph, liberation, and magnificence. Revilla submitted the image selected by the Organizing
Committee to grace the cover of the El Mundo Zurdo 2013 Program and the front of the conference t-shirt.
QUERIDA MAESTRA
El Mundo Zurdo 2013
Acitvism, Philosophy, Pedagogy
University of Texas at San Antonio
Anel I. Flores, Curator
Nov14-17, 2013
Curator’s Statement: Querida Maestra
In the ethno-poetics and performance of the shaman, my people, the Indians, did not split the
artistic from the functional, the sacred from the secular, art from everyday life. The religious,
social and aesthetic purposes of art were all intertwined.
--Gloria Anzaldúa
When working with my hands on writing or painting, I open myself up to listening to the
whispers of my ancestors that come in the form of gentle nudges of my imagination and my
ability to see beyond what is directly in front of me but rather what is inside, under, beyond
and in between the physical and spiritual. All of my work intertwines.
While gathering the artwork for the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa exhibition, the
same process of opening up and connecting the artistic with the functional and the sacred with
the secular is priority. On a physical level, I also reread everything I can get my hands on,
everything which Anzaldúa had her hands on, and listen to our Querida Maestra whisper and
nudge us all into one ceremony, one dance, one altar de arte.
I am honored to be given the chance to work through our Querida Maestra in this exhibition
and in my everyday life as an artist and writer.
Gracias, maestr@s
Querida Maestra: Anzalduista y
Muxerista Siempre
Medium: Oil paint
CELESTE DELUNA
litebluna@me.com
Red Coatlicue and
Viva La Gloria
JOSH T. FRANCO
jtobiasfranco@gmail.com
In tlilli, in tlapalli: three Tejanos in red
and black
NANCY GUEVARA
nancyguev@gmail.com
¡Arriba Mi Gente!
INES HERNANDEZ-AVILA
ighernandez@ucdavis.edu
Homenaje a Gloria--Mariposa Sagrada--Musa
Eterna
MEAGAN A. LONGORIA
Lupe la Fuerte
Medium: Photography and
Digital Art
MARICELA OLGUIN
Maricela.Olguin@gmail.com
River and Serpent
Medium: Vinyl and Papel Picado
RENE RIO YANEZ & SARAH GUERRA
rio@somarts.org> <saranflas@gmail.com
Comprometida: Flowers or Maiz?
Medium: Photography and Digital Art
GENEVIEVE RODRIGUEZ
riotsareforlovers@gmail.com
Sin Vergüenza on the Line
LUIS VALDERAS
macuiltochtli005@gmail.com
There Was A Time
LILIANA WILSON
Niña y luna
CLAUDIA ZAPATA
claudiaelisazapata@gmail.com
En boca cerrada no entran moscas (Flies
don't enter a closed mouth)
ABSTRACTS: PAPERS, WORKSHOPS, ROUNDTABLES AND READINGS
Jean Aguilar-Valdez (University of North Carolina at Greensboro)
Title: New Mestiz@ Science: Latin@s as Scientific Nepantler@s
Latin@ science educators explore teaching science with Latin@ students engaged in codeswitching between
students’ home language and culture, and school scientific concepts and experiments. Ethnographic and narrative
examples are provided to show how Latin@ students do science as an act of straddling many identities in Spanish,
English, Latin@ home culture, school culture, and the world of scientific dialogue and content. The paper presents
a transformative notion of Latin@ science learning as “living on the bridges” of many dialogic and cultural
practices, firmly in “Nepantla,” where Latin@ students thrive in the inbetween spaces, and where transformation
and healing are possible.
Maira E. Álvarez (University of Houston)
Title: Speaking from the Border: Fronterizos along the 1,933 Mile Border Region
The analysis of a counter discourse from fronteriza writers comes from a need to address the marginalization not
only of the geopolitical space, but also a discourse by fronterizas. Analyzing the Mexican - United States militarized
border as a physical space rather than a metaphor is essential nowadays because it allows to rethink this space by
questioning discourse of power, and present a counter discourse by fronteriza writers who explore in their work
humanized border zones, subjects rather than objectified fronterizos, and landscapes that otherwise are erased by the
nation/state and institutions discourse of power.
Stephanie Alvarez (University of Texas—Pan American)
Roundtable Title: Anzaldúista Pedagogies and Activism at UTPA: Radical Interventions to Heal our Campus
and Communities
This roundtable panel brings together Mexican American Studies faculty at the University of Texas--Pan American
whose teaching pedagogies are driven by Anzaldúa’s philosophies of border theory and conocimiento. Such
pedagogical approaches are reflected in the undergraduate and graduate courses we have taught in the last several
years that are entirely devoted to the study of Gloria Anzaldúa, including a Graduate Course on Anzaldúa’s writings
taught in the Modern Languages and Literature Department, a single author undergraduate course on Gloria
Anzaldúa taught in the Department of English, a graduate Chican@ Poetry and Poetics course grounded in
Anzaldúa’s writings taught in the Creative Writing Program, and an undergraduate Chican@ Philosophy course
centered in Anzaldúa’s theories in the Philosophy Department. Through our roundtable, we hope to generate a
dialogue on how such courses may serve as models to provide our students with the knowledge and critical tools to
challenge the persistent militarization and linguistic terrorism in the US-Mexico borderlands in the 21st century, a
reality documented by Anzaldúa in Borderlands decades ago.
Helane Androne, PhD (Miami University of Ohio)
Title: Ritual Performance in Chicana Fiction: Gloria Anzaldúa as Salpicón philosophy in Story, Service and
Spirit
Using ritual thoughtfully and actively in engaging Chicana texts theoretically necessitates participation in what Tey
Diana Rebolledo calls “Salpicón Analysis,” the utilization of “a bit of this and a bit of that” (Androne 35). This
paper explores how Chicanas tweak compulsory ideas of heroism and power, the separation between characters
living and dead, and the transformative processes that the use of ritual as both an analytical tool and a narrative
paradigm can provide as an enactment of Gloria Anzaldúa’s requests set forth in Borderlands/La Frontera, where
“this” is the literature itself and “that” is decidedly ritual and performance studies.
Cordelia E. Barrera (Texas Tech University)
Title: Landscape of Healing: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Ecocritical Leanings
Gloria Anzaldúa’s environmentalism holds the promise of psychic integration seeded in an awareness of a mythic
interconnectedness between people, nature, and all things. In “Let us be the healing of the wound: The
Coyolxauhqui imperative,” Anzaldúa discusses her yearning to pass onto future generations the spiritual activism
that she has inherited from her cultures. Additionally, throughout the pages of her unpublished “Later Works,” held
at the Benson Collection at UT Austin, are various pieces that underscore the promise of a place-based ethics and
traditional forms of knowledge supported by a holistic indigenous ancestry. Anzaldúa’s “spiritual mestizaje” is
united by the relational activities that bind people, animals, plants, and nature. Spiritual mestizaje underscores the
negotiations and connectionist modes of thinking found in her theories of conocimiento and nepantla. These postBorderlands epistemologies entwine Anzaldúa’s palimpsestic consciousness; they are like the profusion of spirals
we find scattered throughout her unpublished works of art.
Catalina Bartlett (Texas A&M University—College Station)
Title: Being Malcriada: Reclaiming Chicanism@, Indigeneity, and Cultural Memory
Gloria Anzaldúa in Borderlands/La Frontera grappled with a personal, cultural, and historical understanding of the
borderlands wherein resided “the prohibited and forbidden,” or “los atravesados” (3). This presentation similarly
weaves testimonio, family history, and theory to illuminate one family’s struggle with the Chican@-Indigenous
historical legacy in New Mexico: captivity and violence; the “Hispanicization of family history; displacement from
home and culture; the role of Indian heritage; and identities forged over centuries of colonization and gender
inequity. Claiming indigenous heritage would be considered at best in poor taste and at worst a heretical act. In
short, being malcriad@, being atravesad@.
Sarah Becker (University of Houston)
Title: Queering the Divine: Re(conciling) the Feminist Spiritualties of Gloria Anzaldúa and Lydia Cabrera
“But the skin of the earth is seamless / The sea cannot be fenced, /el mar does not stop at borders. / To show the
white man what she thought of his arrogance, / Yemayá blew that wire fence down,” Gloria Anzaldúa writes in the
first pages of Borderlands / La Frontera, thereby invoking one of the most powerful female deities in AfroCaribbean religious tradition as an introduction to her groundbreaking volume; both are also themes and areas of
expertise for renowned Cuban ethnographer and author Lydia Cabrera, who, like Anzaldúa, had a marked
identification with the great orisha of the sea- she who, without her, life would not exist. Through a transnational
inquiry into the works of Anzaldúa and Cabrera, this study aims to draw parallels of identity and spiritual
consciousness, and further examine the intersections of syncretic spirituality, gender and sexuality and their
significance for two women considered pioneers of their field, one that transcends borders and oceans.
Trevor Boffone (University of Houston)
Title: Mestiza Consciousness and la facultad on the Border: Josefina López’s Detained in the
Desert
This presentation is centered on the play Detained in the Desert by Josefina López and the transformation that the
main character, Sandi, undergoes, emphasizing her metaphysical border crossing and development of la facultad
based on the theory of Anzaldúa. Sandi’s conceptualization of a border feminist thought process is a result of the
injustice and racial profiling as a result of Arizona Senate Bill 1070. Due to the oppression that Sandi experiences,
she is forced to implement survival tactics and a new way of critical thinking, la facultad.
Suzanne Bost (Loyola University Chicago)
Title: Objects/Knowledges/Pedagogies
Bost begins with her corporeal experience in the Anzaldúa archive, more specifically, the experience of handling,
arranging, and photographing the material objects in the file folders of the Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa Papers at
The University of Texas at Austin. Bost has been exploring how the interaction among objects in the archive forms
and transforms her ideas. The corporeal foundation of insights drawn from the archive, the understanding that
knowledge is formed in material contexts and communities, is something we should strive to replicate in the
classroom, Bost will argue. But how?
Jody A. Briones (Texas A&M University-Kingsville)
Title: La Llorona and the Academy: Wailing/Writing as Activism and Empowerment
La Llorona’s hegemonic master narrative has historically served as a cautionary tale to control unruly children and
has created a dichotomous “bad mother” archetype for Chicanas. Her wailings were meant to scare women and
children into submission. But Gloria Anzaldúa was not afraid of La Llorona; she was empowered by her: “To me
she was the central figure in Mexican mythology which empowered me to yell out, to scream out, to speak out, to
break out of silence” (Anzaldúa, Interviews/Entrevistas 229). Anzaldúa, as well as other Chicana feminist scholars,
has reclaimed the mythology and symbolism of La Llorona to create a counter narrative that calls on Chicanas to use
their “wailings” as voice for social activism and empowerment. As a Chicana academic and educator, my “wailings”
for activism and empowerment, my voice, is heard through written form. This is often not valued within the
academy, however. The “publish or perish” doctrine of the academy has commodified student and faculty writing by
placing more value on research-based, canonically “publishable” works rather than on works written to empower
and inspire activism in the author and readers. In this presentation, I will explore Anzaldúa’s unfinished doctoral
dissertation “Lloronas—Women Who Wail: (Self) Representation and the Production of Writing, Knowledge, and
Identity” to discuss how Chicana academics can use their wails/voices, in written form, as activism and
empowerment to resist the hegemonic forces of the academy.
Crystal Bustamante (Texas A&M University—College Station)
Title: Establishing Cultural Validity in the Classroom
Both Gloria Anzaldúa and Paolo Freire’s focus on intellectual oppression and cultural legitimacy is an important
pedagogical tool. This paper will focus on the active deconstruction of traditional power structures both in the
classroom and in a real-world setting. By utilizing visual and print media including film, television, advertisements,
and various news sources, students can see how modern rhetoric and cultural discourse is used to both disperse and
dispel restrictive cultural and social assumptions. By analyzing media depictions of border culture, educators can
help reestablish the borderland as a discursive creative force, and ultimately, a legitimate power structure in itself.
Freyca Calderón (Texas Christian University)
Title: Vivir y cruzar con orgullo
Making use of Anzaldúa’s concepts of Nepantla and mestiza consciousness, the authors argue for the creation of
spaces in education that allow for the expression of individual vivencias shared through testimonios. Those spaces
serve as means to develop a critical consciousness aimed to provoke praxis. This process intends to construct a
living curriculum of orgullo that embraces one’s identity in connection to places of consuelo.
Veronica Calvillo (Gettysburg College)
Title: The Transfonteriza Identity in Female Characters in Contemporary Films and
Documentaries
This paper focuses on how female characters construct a tranfonteriza identity. I analyze three feature films (Babel,
Spanglish, and Under the Same Moon) and two documentaries (Maid in America and Made in L.A). Female
characters in the films live and construct their identity in that third space that Anzaldúa calls borderlands. Women’s
transfronteriza identities are created in the borderlands between the intersection of the private and the public sphere
where traditional motherhood conflict with transnational motherhood. In this new transnational space, the female
characters are not only mothers, but often the sole provider for their family. Ultimately, this empowers women.
Luz Calvo (Cal State East Bay)
Title: Decolonize Your Diet: Borderlands Foods to Fight Diabetes
This project is rooted in our personal and familial experience with cancer, diabetes, and other diseases associated
with the Standard American Diet (SAD). Our goal is to highlight the wealth of Mexican and Mexican American
culture in regards to traditional foods, herbs, and remedios, and to teach the next generation of students how to
reclaim their heritage and eat healthy. As Ethnic Studies professors, we bring a critical analysis of the legacies of
colonization, political resistance, and cultural resilience to our study of the daily practice of preparing and eating
healthy, ancestral food. Calvo will focus on heritage food for the prevention of diabetes. Esquibel and Calvo start
with the concept “a pot of beans is a revolutionary act” and will share accessible preparation of nopales, chia seeds,
and tepary beans. They will also discuss how to honor and acknowledge the work of cooking in a relationship or a
family. Esquibel will discuss the reclamation of heritage foods among Native peoples, drawing from the work of
Devon Mihesuah, Winona La Duke, and the Tohono O’odham peoples of the borderlands. She will also discuss
Anzaldúa’s poem “To Live in the Borderlands Means You” in relation to the Decolonize Your Diet cookbook
project.
Jessica Camp (Texas Woman’s University)
Title: Wounded Interconnections: A Dialogue between Gloria Anzaldúa and Thich Nhat Hahn
This paper examines Gloria Anzaldúa’s and Thich Nhat Hahn’s discussions of wounds in relation to healing. By
discussing the role of Anzaldúa’s theories of la facultad and conocimiento in the healing of personal and collective
wounds, I argue that the scars left by global destruction and injustices create an interconnection among the wounded.
By juxtaposing these two modern philosophers, this paper seeks to encourage new readings of Anzaldúan, and
discuss new ways of theorizing commonalities.
Xánath Caraza (University of Missouri-Kansas City)
Poetry Reading Title: New Writings from the Hopeful Hearts of Indigenous Women Xánath Caraza, Kim
Shuck, LeAnne Howe, and ire’ne lara silva
Both my poetry and short stories reflect female voices that use at least two languages and in some cases three. I
celebrate my background in my writing, Indigenous, Spanish and African in addition to my U. S. Latina identity.
Anzaldúa has been a great inspiration.”
Christopher Carmona (University of Texas – Brownsville)
Roundtable Title: Nuevo@ Chican@ Poetics
Because of the current political atmosphere both in the United States (anti-Latin@ policies and sentiments) and
Mexico (the Drug War atmosphere), a new poetic form has emerged. There is a growing number of poetry readings,
chapbooks, magazine publications, and CDs of Latin@ writers who have begun to identify with the political
aspirations of the Chican@ movement. This project asks the questions: What has triggered such an interest in
Chican@ in recent times? What types of poetry, writing, and art is being created and what are the social factors that
have led to a new Chican@ poetics?
Karina Cervantez (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Title: Lived Experience and the Commitment to Social Justice
This presentation will use Anzaldúa’s (1987) conceptualization of a new mestiza consciousness to understand young
women’s commitment to the public good (González & Padilla, 2007). Research examining Latina/o students'
engagement in social action has demonstrated the power of higher education to reinforce their values and
commitment to social justice, particularly the importance of strong social networks, student organizations, and
exposure to ethnic and women studies courses (Bernal, Aleman, & Garavito, 2009; Hurtado, 2009; Villalpando,
2003). We will discuss how the lived experiences of women living in the borderlands, and practicing a mestiza
consciousness, engage in political work and activism on behalf of their communities (Hurtado, 2009).
Elizabeth G. Chapa (Texas A&M University –Kingsville)
Title: Social Activism, Empowerment, and La Virgen de Guadalupe in the Classroom
Teaching Cherríe Moraga’s Heroes and Saints through an Anzaldúan lens not only helps us understand and
appreciate the play, it also calls upon us to follow in its characters’ footsteps. Using Anzaldúa’s concepts of theory
of the flesh, mestiza consciousness, and conocimiento, in this presentation I will explain Cere’s identity
transformation from one of perceived insignificance to one of spiritual activism that invokes qualities of La Virgen
de Guadalupe as interpreted by Anzaldúa. I will then discuss how Cere’s social and spiritual activism empowered
my students.
Isaac Chavarría (South Texas College)
Title: Nuevo@ Chican@ Poetics
(See Christopher Carmona)
Erica Chu (Loyola University, Chicago)
Title: Rethinking Hybridity/Reimagining Identity Borders
Chu looks to prose and poetry from Borderlands / La Frontera to compare hybridity to identity variation—including
identities not yet expressed. Focusing on issues of material identity such as race, biological sex, disability, and
ethnic descent, Chu notes the resilience of Anzaldúa’s work in the face of a rapidly changing list of identities and
theoretical models while also acknowledging the limitations of Anzaldúa’s assumptions about identity origins. Chu
argues Anzaldúa’s work represents an early move toward identity positivity that other identity theorists are only now
beginning to address.
Casie C. Cobos (Illinois State University)
Title: “¿Estoy loca?”: Borderland Logics and Mental Disabilities
Through borderland logic, Anzaldúa privileged storytelling techniques that allowed her to place her body and
mind—together—at the center of her consciousness on her own terms rather than through the logic of neo-liberal
public and academic systems that often incite feelings of madness, exclusion, and anxiety for marginalized peoples.
This paper argues that Anzaldúa’s experiential approach can become a methodology for Chican@s to work through
their own feelings and/or diagnoses of mental disabilities in order to resituate their own logics as valid experiences
of the body and mind in their public, private, and academic consciousness.
Debbie Cole (University of Texas --Pan American)
Title: How to Tame a Wild Tongue”: Gloria Anzaldúa and the 1960’s-era “Speech Test” at Pan American
College
In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa describes a “speech” class required of all Mexican-American
students at Pan American College. She uses this course—designed to rid students of their accents—as a dramatic
example of linguistic colonization. Dr. Cole and Dr. Johnson interviewed two professors in the Educational
Leadership Program at UTPA who took the speech test and the speech classes in 1963 and thus provide a crucial
context for Anzaldúa’s educational experiences at a border college in the mid-1960’s. In addition, they interviewed a
retired professor who administered the test and taught the class. Their testimonies confirm Anzaldúa’s harsh
criticism of the humiliating experience that was the speech test at Pan American College. In addition, Dr. Cole and
Dr. Johnson described how these historical materials related to the “Speech Test” can be utilized in a classroom
discussion of linguistic colonization and Anzaldúa’s work.
Marisol Cortez (Esperanza Peace and Justice Center)
Title: The Impossible Interstices between Academic and Organizing Worlds
We look to Anzaldúa and others who have been successful at negotiating the “impossible interstices,” attempting to
understand the unwieldy compromises made, and we will look to our own future projects. Marisol Cortez will
discuss the trajectory that led her from full time teaching in an American Studies program to organizing work with
the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center; she will share future plans at Esperanza Peace and Justice Center as she
envisions the impossible-- bringing her academic studies to play in tandem with commitments to community
education.
Rufina Cortez (University of Illinois)
Title: How to De-Academize Theory: Accountability and Representation
By interrogating our own ethics, positionality, responsibility, and representation in our research, we can solidify the
perspectives with which we approach our work. The two main questions addressed are: (1) What accountability do
Chicana/Latina scholars have in the production of new knowledge, and (2) How should scholars of color represent
their own research when directly associated with those same communities from which they are from? Gloria
Anzaldúa’s work recommends that we need to de-academize theory and connect communities to the academy. This
paper addresses the intersectionalities and juxtapositions of what it means to conduct research in our own backyards.
Bert María Cueva (University of California, Los Angeles)
Title: Conocimiento - A Pedagogical Tool Grounded to Activism, Healing, and Survival
I use Anzaldúa’s writings in “Now let Us Shift…The Path of Conocimiento…” as a pedagogical tool for
Chicanas/Latinas in higher education that is grounded in activism. Anzladúa’s works teach us to reemerge as “active
politicized agents” using our memories and lived experiences in the service of helping others via activism that also
honors humanitarian principles. In this way, we not only heal ourselves, but we also engage in a larger political
movement rooted in humanizing the experiences of the oppressed. Through the stages of conocimiento we shift our
understanding of how knowledge is constructed, and we learn to reconceptualize knowledge from the in-between
spaces that honors the body, mind, and spirit connections. In this way, Anzaldúa reminds us to work diligently to use
our lived experiences in the service of helping /guiding others that struggle throughout the educational pipeline.
Betsy Dahms (University of West Georgia)
Title: Formalizing Fluidity: Queer second-person narration in Anzaldúa’s “Putting Coyolxauhqui Together”
and “now let us shift...the path of conocimiento...inner works, public acts”
This presentation focuses on the uncharacteristic use of second-person narration in two of Anzaldúa’s later pieces,
“Putting Coyolxauhqui Together” (1999) and “now let us shift...the path of conocimiento...inner work, public acts”
(2002). Exploration of this narrative shift reveals the possible queer ramifications of this technique. In using secondperson narration, I propose that Anzaldúa employs the posthuman ability to travel fluidly between and among
differing perceptions and narrative voices to model a formal application of the theoretical content of the two
aforementioned essays and her nepantlera philosophy.
Allison Davis (Texas Woman’s University)
Title: Organizing with Spirit: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Spiritual Activism as a Community Organizing Model
This paper applies Anzaldúa’s spiritual activism to social justice organizing. Community organizers and their
organizations are too often characterized by isolation, fragmentation, and burnout. As an alternative to organizing
models that reinforce the mind/body/spirit separation, spiritual activism offers a holistic approach to the
transformation of individual and collective wounds. By connecting inner and outer change processes, organizers can
do social justice work in ways that embody love and interconnectedness as they build movements that reflect these
core values.
Natalia Deeb-Sossa (University of California, Davis)
Workshop Title: CAR[T]AS--Rooting Our Purpose as Academics in A Time of Transition
This workshop presents the book project, CAR[T]AS: Letters to the Next Generation. The template for selfawareness that Gloria Anzaldúa provides in her essay “now let us shift . . . the path of conocimiento . . . inner work,
public acts,” frames our writing. Our collection of letters is organized so that each of the 7 stages of the process
represents a section in the book: 1. The Rupture; 2. Nepantla; 3. The Coatlicue State; 4. The Call to Action; 5. ReMembering Coyolxauhqui; 6. The Clash of Realities; 7. Spiritual Activism.
Marcos del Hierro (Texas A&M University—College Station)
Title: And You Don’t Stop: Hiphop Embodied Knowledges as Tools for Survival
Like the work of Gloria Anzaldúa, hiphop culture seeks change and transformation through
knowledges rooted in communities of color. Using performance, testimonio, and autoethnography, this presentation
examines how hiphop culture uses embodied knowledges to create resistance and survival for marginalized peoples
and communities. In spite of the massive commodification of hiphop music, artists like Lauryn Hill and Ana Tijoux
continue supplying audiences with songs of resistance, self-love, and critiques of power and privilege. As a youth
subculture rooted in struggle against colonialism and white supremacy, hiphop offers a space where theory and
practice are rooted in the body through practices such as rapping, graffiti art, deejaying, and dancing.
Kendra Dority (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Title: Readerly Facultad: Toward an Ethics of Linguistic Play in Latina/o Literatures
Drawing from Gloria Anzaldúa’s notions of la facultad and reader flexibility, this paper considers how a collectivity
of Latino/a literatures respond to and reshape current political and pedagogical paradigms in the US. I read
Anzaldúa’s hybrid theory alongside literary works by Norma Elia Cantú and Juan Felipe Herrera to consider how
these texts locate the capacity for both recognizing and transforming institutionalized social and linguistic
inequalities in the act of reading. Diverging from dominant literacy models that privilege monolingual fluency and
automaticity, these texts and Anzaldúa’s work in particular reveal the ethical implications of reshaping reading
practices through linguistic play.
Aydé Enríquez-Loya (Fayetteville State University)
Title: Atravesando la Mujer: Border Rhetorics of Femicide in the “Murder Capital of the World”
Gloria Anzaldúa says that borders are imposed upon bodies and lands. Furthermore, she says that while the border is
her home, for la mujer indocumentada, it’s a “thin edge of barbwire” where she is in constant danger (34-5). From
1993 through 2003 approximately 370 women were murdered in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico; 30 more
annually since then. The border has become a dumping site, “no man’s land,” and the bodies represent a danger by
their existence. The stories their bodies tell and the stories told about their bodies establishes a dangerous discourse
that displaces, others, and seemingly tolerates the violence.
Catriona Esquibel (San Francisco State University)
Title: Decolonize Your Diet: Borderlands Foods to Fight Diabetes
(See Luz Calvo)
Judith Estrada (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Title: Reflexiones Uncertain Futures: (Un)documented Youth in the Midwest
This examines the political, educational, and cultural contexts that Latina/o High School students face in a midsize
town in the Midwest. Her paper uses an autoethnographic approach in which she uses her bicultural and bilingual
Chicana identity to decipher many of the tensions and possibilities that surfaced while organizing a Latina/o Youth
Conference (Anzaldúa, 1999; Elenes, 2003). Her paper will reflect on conversations with a wide range of people,
including: high school counselors, principals, parent liaisons, and undergraduate Latina/o youth committee
members, university administrators, and community members. Estrada’s identity and politics surfaced throughout
the various meetings that led up to the conference, thus her testimonio is linked to the very heart of this paper.
Yvette Flores (University of Californa, Davis)
Workshop Title: CAR[T]AS--Rooting Our Purpose as Academics in A Time of Transition
(See Natalia Deeb Sossa)
Amy Foss (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Workshop Title: Using Anzaldúa’s Mestiza Way: A Workshop
Though out her work, Anzaldúa encourages us to scrutinize our connection to the spiritual world(s). This workshop
will provide participants with the opportunity to examine and analyze how our connection to indigenous and other
spiritual paths facilitate our activist projects and philosophical systems. The culmination of the workshop will be the
creation of altars/sacred spaces that honor activist spirituality.
Silvia Galis-Menéndez (Wellesley College)
Title: Vamos a Vence: Las Krudas, Feminist Activism, and Hip-Hop Identities across Borders
Through their hip-hop music and activism, Las Krudas are able to cross borders that many Cubans cannot. In
addition to the 90-mile border between Cuba and the United States, Las Krudas have been able to navigate the
borders in Cuban society and in their own hearts and minds through feminist activism and self-determination.
Examining the connection between Las Krudas and identity formation through hip-hop requires a foundation in
Gloria Anzaldúa’s theoretical work. Using Anzaldúa in conjunction with other queer theorists illuminates not only
the tensions that are inherent in Las Krudas’ music, but also how transnational hip-hop is an important space for
anti-imperialist, queer Latin@ activism.
Magda García (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Title: Re-imagining Activism: Reconfiguring Marxist Feminist Responses to the Precarity Movement through
Gloria Anzaldúa’s El Mundo Zurdo
Marxist feminists such as Kathi Weeks have joined the precarity movement by calling for new anti-work
collectivities and subjectivities that challenge work’s dominance over life. Defined as a state of life without
predictability or stability, precarity has become a concept through which to recognize the present’s increasingly
permanent lack of employment and link the experiences of (former) workers. While gender has become an important
consideration in building such collectivities due to interventions by feminists such as Weeks, women of color’s
gendered/racialized identities have been dismissed as divisive. This paper examines how Anzaldúa’s concept of El
Mundo Zurdo disrupts and helps us re-imagine feminist calls for anti-work collectivities and subjectivities.
Mary García (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Title: Death and Transformation in Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands
Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands challenges normalized U.S. notions of death in regard to identity. Anzaldúa’s
writing articulates the transformative event of death, reconceptualizes our perceptions of death and “the dead,” and
imagines transgressors as “those who cross over, pass over, or go through confines of the normal” as rooted in a
framework of death. Death represents the possibility for transformation of one’s social awareness, bodily acceptance
and one’s family and community. Chicana/o texts are heavily influenced by Anzaldúa’s call to re-conceptualize our
notions of death in literature. Death, as an imaginary, is instead explored to show the permeability of all borders.
Michael Lee Gardin (University of Texas at San Antonio)
Title: Reading Cherríe Moraga’s A Xicana Codex through New Tribalism: Queerness, Indigeneity, and
Transgender Identity
In this project, I place the most recent publication by Cherríe Moraga, A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness:
Writings, 2000-2010, in dialogue with selected works of Gloria E. Anzaldúa. Utilizing Anzaldúa’s vision of new
tribalism, I posit Moraga’s endeavor to voice the specificity of the colonial history of oppression of women of color
and assert it as a needed central focus (of feminisms, of queer activism, or more generally of activist efforts) results
in her fears, including her view of transmen as a threat to womanhood and queerness. Examining Moraga’s text and
new tribalism helps illuminate possibilities for coalitions.
Meredyth Grange (Wellesley College)
Title: Writing From the Body: Personal Narrative as Pedagogical Necessity
The body is an active text. While bodies, especially the bodies of queer people of color, are subjected to
consumption and appropriation, the body is also a vital location for practicing resistance. It is for this reason that
Anzaldúa stresses the importance of listening to one’s body. Creating personal narratives can facilitate the
translation of bodily knowledge into transformed consciousness. I use Anzaldúa’s theories pertaining to embodiment
to construct a personal narrative that illustrates the mutualistic relationship between writing and the physical use of
the body in creating theory. Additionally, I highlight the need for pedagogies that allow students to extend their
political imaginary through personal narrative.
Jessica O. Guerrero (Independent)
Title: Struggling with the Struggle: Transitions, Stage Fright and Name Dropping
In the social justice community, there is an expectation to be better. We, especially the mujeres, are expected to
function at a higher level; we embody conciencia. We are ‘Master Nepantleras’, expected to knowingly negotiate
various spaces and maneuver effortlessly through creepy caves and see infinite possibilities through tiny crevices.
We inhabit a space of contradiction. What happens to my work and credibility if I’m shut out because I didn’t
indulge the right person? Why don’t we drop the act, admit we can’t do everything and work to really respect each
other?
Natassja Gunasena (University of Texas, Austin)
Title: Nagini and Coatlicue: Subjectively Occupying Diasporic Desi Identity by “Entering into the Serpent”
A critical transnational engagement of Anzaldúa’s “Coatlicue State” alongside diasporic desi identity, this paper
uncovers the potential for radical solidarity and subjectivity through “entering into the serpent” that is the racialized
and gendered diaspora. Uncovering the serpent body within desi diasporas allows for subjective occupation of
spaces often controlled by hegemonic nationalist imaginaries. “Entering into the serpent” allows us to decolonize
imperialist logics of language and belonging by critically engaging the psychic borderlands of our experience and
thus reframing our ancestral mythos to reflect contemporary realities. By juxtaposing Nagini with Coatlicue, desi
with Chicana, diaspora with la frontera, we can uncover new spaces of hybridity, critical engagement and what
Chela Sandoval conceptualizes as a radical, transnational politics of love.
Christina Gutiérrez (University of Texas at San Antonio)
Title: Bodily Betrayals: Illness, Trauma, and Transformation in Gloria Anzaldúa’s Autohistorias
I examine two moments in which Anzaldúa describes her somatic differences as betrayals of the body. These two
passages, which appear in two different texts published fifteen years apart, reflect Anzaldúa’s ongoing process of
making meaning from her life-long struggles with illness. Anzaldúa’s narrativization of her bodily betrayals
ultimately bespeaks a body in resistance, a body that resists being subsumed under the dominant narrative and
instead “compose[s] a new history and self” (Anzaldúa 558). That is, a reading of these two passages yield a more
nuanced understanding of how the experience of illness significantly contributed to Anzaldúa’s conceptualization of
self in relation to her body, and to society. Moreover, I contend that her struggles with illness contributed to
Anzaldúa’s reconceptualization of illness and the “sick” body outside of heteropatriarchal, pathologizing
representations. As such, Anzaldúa effectively reconstitutes her body as a site of embodied, and empowered,
knowledge production.
Robert Gutierrez-Perez (University of Denver)
Title: Thriving in Nepantla: Surviving the Trauma of Higher Education Spaces
Utilizing Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa’s theory of the flesh, this book chapter argues that healing is not
painless, and by embracing nepantla, queer of color educators and students hold possibilities for surviving and
thriving within higher education spaces. By examining the intersectional privileges and potential for agency
embodied by a queer, Xicano male educator and student, the writer enfleshes meaning to the liminal state of
nepantla, an often disorienting, fragmenting, and confusing state one is thrust into after experiencing moments of
trauma, that queer people of color can expect to experience within higher education. Through the mixed-method of
autobiographical performance and performative writing, the writer attempts to create a space in/between the archive
and the repertoire that facilitates the process of transforming identities for the reader and the writer. In the end,
critical self-reflection on transformative pedagogy, queer theory, and nepantla implicates us all in the healing
process of changing identities in relation to the intersectional structures of power and privilege that we each must
navigate in our everyday
Tace Hedrick (Loyola University Chicago)
Title: History is What Hurts: Alien Feelings and Queer Temporalities in Gloria Anzaldúa
This paper focuses on historical and corporeal borders. Anzaldúa believed that the indigenous spirituality which the
mestiza carries in her blood—literally, in her body—could be tapped into psychically, bringing up, as if from the
depths, an indigenous sensibility. Anzaldúa used this ultimately queer feeling to reframe the idea of historical
change through time as, instead, a spatial and therefore crossable distance. In this paper, Hedrick asks how we can
complicate, in the classroom, our students’ received, abstract notions of “history” and “progress” through
Anzaldúa’s complex, queer and healing vision of a bodily and psychic space outside historical time.
Robyn Henderson-Espinoza (Iliff School of Theology)
Title: The Borderlands of Subjectivity; The Subjectivity of (the) Borderlands: Nomadism, Mestizaje, and
Bodies
Subjectivity and identity formation remains an important feature in Anzaldúan studies. What is often overlooked is
the way nomadism is a central organizing feature of Anzaldúa's borderlanded subjectivity that points beyond a
humanist orientation to subjectivity. This paper will put Rosi Braidotti in conversation with Gloria Anzaldúa to help
unmask a new nomadic theory of subjectivity that "borders" on a post/humanist identity and subjectivity that I
believe is seen in Anzaldúa's work. With a focus primarily on anthropocentric forms of subjectivity in the
humanities, Anzaldúa gives us a new and different approach to subjectivity and identity formation.
Inés Hernández-Avila (University of California, Davis)
Workshop Title: CAR[T]AS--Rooting Our Purpose as Academics in A Time of Transition
(See Natalia Deeb-Sossa)
Ruby A. Hernández (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Title: “A healing process with my own ‘story’”: Transforming Paths and Minds of Latinas in STEM through
the process of Conocimiento and the Creation of Safe Spaces
Chicanas/Latinas are increasingly pursuing STEM careers (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and
are often uninformed about the career paths available to them. The Adelante! Conference held during the annual
MALCS (Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social) conference was designed to alleviate this gap. Professional
Latinas/Chicanas in STEM fields created a “safe space” by voicing their life narratives and initiating the process of
conocimiento. A qualitative analysis of the attendees’ responses in a questionnaire indicated that the process of
getting to “know” the life stories of Chicana/Latina STEM professionals inspired them to renew their commitment.
Felipe Hinojosa (Texas A&M University-College Station)
Title: Decolonizing the Church: Chicana/o and Puerto Rican Struggles to Reclaim the Space of the Church
from New York to South Texas, 1969-1973
In the 1960s and early 1970s Chicana/o and Puerto Rican activists literally “took over” evangelical churches in their
barrios. Believing that the church had a corporate responsibility to the community, activists from New York to South
Texas demanded that church leaders open their churches and promote community programs and other social
services. These were more than isolated cases. This paper will document these struggles and argue that these
attempts to decolonize the church presents us with a new way to think about the ways in which Chicana/o and
Puerto Rican activists engaged and sought to transform institutions that by the 1960s had become quite prominent in
their barrios.
Isaac Hinojosa (Northwest Vista College)
Title: Reflecting on the Rhetoric of Reflection: Identifications of Writing the Flesh
Anzaldúa writes why writing seems so unnatural to her, regardless of feeling compelled to write as a means to
“become more intimate with [herself] and [her audience].” Our paper examines the physiological aspects of bodily
practices through metacognitive actions, like reflection. We utilize Anzaldúa, who relies on metacognitive action as
a means to explore her multiplicity and plurality in border identity, to develop approaches toward spatializing bodies
within the classroom, specifically those pertaining to marginalized students as well as faculty.
Aída Hurtado (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Title: “A healing process with my own ‘story’ ”: Transforming Paths and Minds of Latinas in STEM through
the process of Conocimiento and the Creation of Safe Spaces
(See Ruby A. Hernández)
Rob Johnson (University of Texas—Pan American)
Title: "How to Tame a Wild Tongue": Gloria Anzaldúa and the 1960's-era "Speech Test" at Pan-American
College (See Debbie Cole)
AnaLouise Keating (Texas Woman’s University)
Title: Anzaldúa’s Posthumanist Mythos
This paper focuses on Anzaldúa’s potential contributions to philosophy. In part one, I explore Anzaldúa’s
development of a posthumanist subjectivity–decades before posthumanism made its way into academic thought and
post-poststructuralist theory. I argue that Anzaldúa’s posthumanism offers a useful correction and expansion of
contemporary feminist theorists and nonfeminist philosophers’ more limited versions of posthumanism. In part two,
I put Anzaldúa’s posthumanist subjectivity in dialogue with post-positivist realism. I argue that Anzaldúa’s
posthumanist perspective– especially as seen in her concepts of Coatlicue and La Llorona–offer a provocative
alternative to post-positivist realism.
AnaLouise Keating (Texas Woman’s University)
Title: Learning from Anzaldúa: Towards a Theory-Praxis of Womanist Self-Recovery
Drawing from Anzaldúa’s life, my experiences working with Anzaldúa, and Anzaldúa’s theory of spiritual activism,
I offer preliminary recommendations for a theory and praxis of womanist self-recovery. As I define the term (and
the practice), womanist self-recovery represents a post-secular approach to personal and collective well-being and
transformation based on a metaphysics and ethics of interconnectedness. In addition to offering a preliminary
definition of womanist self-recovery, I outline several practical tactics which nepantlera scholars and other socialjustice actors can adopt and revise for their own situations.
Tala Khanmalek (University of California, Berkeley)
Title: Corporealities of Politics
My paper uses the work of Gloria Anzaldúa as well as other U.S. Third World Women of Color (WOC) feminists to
explore the humanizing possibilities of creatively narrating a legacy of biological dispossession through an in-depth
review of the concept “theory in the flesh.” I am interested in how the multi-genre works of Gloria Anzaldúa,
particularly the narration of her own health and its relationship to her philosophical writings, treats the archive of the
flesh and its historical records.
Rico Kleinstein Chenyek (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Title: Dis-ease Sustains Life: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Coatlicue State and the Physics of Love
Gloria Anzaldúa’s writings have consistently served as curandera-scholar-activist texts. Following Gloria
Anzaldúa’s passing, scholars have critically analyzed and discussed her writings as such. In particular, authors have
examined the scholarly implications of her writings on notions of healing. Specifically, her discussion of the
Coatlicue state in Borderlands/La Frontera (1987) provides much literary sustenance for analyzing and articulating
these notions of healing. However, Gloria Anzaldúa’s later writings and interviews are fundamental to a clear
understanding of her proposed Coatlicue state paradigm and the embedded philosophies of dis- ease and healing.
Furthermore, Chela Sandoval’s analytical framework—the methodology of emancipation grounded in the physics of
love—is an invaluable tool for dissecting these philosophies and recognizing their fundamentally queer, differential
and confrontational nature, especially within the context of science and medicine.
Irene Lara (San Diego State University)
Title: Embodying Serpentine Conocimientos & Enacting Erotic-Spiritual Change
In this autohistoria-teoria essay, Lara bridges sexuality and motherhood as part of her spirituality. Drawing on
Anzaldúan thought and the decolonial feminist work of other Xicanas who reclaim holistic indigenous approaches to
womanhood, sex, and spirit, Lara discusses the challenges she faces in forging an erotic life path as a “spiritual
activist” (Anzaldúa) who strives to integrate her whole self as a thinker, writer, teacher, mother, and lover. She
engages the multivalent serpent symbol as she meditates on the ongoing process of renewal, transformation, and the
remaking of a fluid yet grounded and “whole” identity. Exploring erotic maternal identity and what she calls
“serpentine conocimientos,” Lara infuses her work with the language of spirited desire and erotic spirit.
ire’ne lara silva
Independent, Austin, TX
Poetry Reading Title: New Writings from the Hopeful Hearts of Indigenous Women: Xánath Caraza, Kim
Shuck, LeAnne Howe, and ire’ne lara silva
I feel very much that the stories in my new collection, flesh to bone, speak to Anzaldúa’s call for spiritual activism
in order to heal the ‘herida abierta’ of the border and its violence toward the feminine body/spirit. I deeply believe
that the struggles of transformation—imagining it, learning it, examining it, teaching it—are what these stories strive
to express.
ire’ne lara silva (Independent, Austin, TX)
Title: Reading from blood·sugar·canto
ire’ne lara silva will be reading from her new poetry manuscript, blood·sugar·canto, which focuses on lived and
familial experiences of diabetes, fear and its relation to diabetes, and emotional/spiritual/creative approaches to
healing from diabetes’ non-physical wounds.
Rossy Evelin Lima (University of Houston)
Title: Nuevo@ Chican@ Poetics
(See Christopher Carmona)
Kristina López (Texas A&M University-Kingsville)
Title: Reclaiming Malinche: The Resistance and Empowerment of Malinche through New Mestiza
Consciousness
In Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, Gloria Anzaldúa advocates for tolerance and inclusiveness in a
hybrid identity, or the mestiza consciousness. While Anzaldúa’s work touches on various social issues that affect
Mexican American women, a part of her work focuses on retelling the story of La Malinche, who has served as a
negative archetype by which women in the Mexican culture have been measured against. What is known of La
Malinche is that she was a woman who juggled multiple cultures throughout her lifetime. It is a matter of historical
irony that she, an example of mestiza consciousness, would in time become a negative archetype. Malinche’s
identity includes Aztec nobility, enslavement, betrayer, reverence, paganism, Christianity, and “mother of mestizos.”
Historically, La Malinche became La Chingada, transforming her into a passive victim of a male dominated culture.
Laura López (University of the Incarnate Word)
Title: Navigating through the Coatlicue State: A Young Chicana’s Path to Conocimiento in Kelly Parra’s YA
Novel Graffiti Girl
This presentation focuses on the literary representation of Angel Rodríguez, a young, working-poor, California
Chicana, the protagonist in Kelly Parra’s young adult novel Graffiti Girl. I read Parra’s novel as constructing a
young Chicana protagonist who develops a facultad consciousness and one who reclaims herself as a capable
Chicana artist via the Coatlicue state of identity transformation. As Anzaldúa contends, when home, school, or city
is not a safe space, Chicanas, like other oppressed people, develop facultad consciousness along a path of
conocimiento; this “survivor” defense mode that assists them during physical and emotional challenges to the self,
and this process is reflected in Parra’s young adult Chicana protagonist
Anne M. Martínez (University of Texas, Austin)
Title: Catholicism in the Borderlands of Empires, 1905-1935
The southwestern United States, northern Mexico, were on the periphery of the Spanish Empire in the 16th-18th
centuries, Mexico in the 19th century, and the American Empire of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These
conditions produced a range of Catholic practices and Catholic stakeholders in the borderlands of multiple empires.
This paper theorizes a Catholic Borderlands which negotiated the intersection of these empires in the brown bodies
that occupied the ragged edges of the national landscape. Mexican and Indian counter-Catholicisms served their own
spiritual needs, but also played into a larger “American” Catholic vision for the Universal Church.
Anne M. Martínez (University of Texas, Austin)
Title: Boxing Shadows: A Conversation with Anissa "The Assassin" Zamarron
In 2005, San Angelo native Anissa "The Assassin" Zamarron defeated San Antonio's Maribel Zurita to win her
second women's boxing world title and retired due to injuries. Boxing Shadows tells the story of Anissa's bumpy
ride to champion including learning disabilities, mental illness, and drug addiction. Anissa's life before boxing was
an herrida abierta -- a gaping wound shaped by her race, gender, and mental illness. Boxing served as the means to
develop her mestiza consciousness -- a hard-earned, positive sense of self in the face of great odds. Anissa shares her
journey back from the brink in the brutally frank terms of a survivor.
Marci McMahon (University of Texas--Pan American)
Title: Anzaldúista Pedagogies and Activism at UTPA: Radical Interventions to Heal our Campus and
Communities
(See Stephanie Alvarez)
April Michels (Texas Woman’s University)
Title: Devaluing the Spiritual: The Privileging of Secularity in Women’s and Gender Studies and the
Dismissal of Gloria Anzaldúa’s Transformative Spiritualized Politics in Academic Scholarship
While WGS aims to disrupt dualistic paradigms, one binary prevails: the “indisputable” distinction between
spirituality and secularity. In perpetuating this oppositional logic, WGS inadvertently claims that “serious”
scholarship is uninfluenced by spiritual sensibilities and facilitates the scholarly dismissal of Gloria Anzaldúa’s
spiritualized theories. To promote academic validation of Anzaldúa’s spiritual politics and activism, I argue that
Anzaldúa’s reconceptualization of spirituality, which transcends dominate frameworks, ignites a holistic activist
consciousness that dismantles rigid categorizations and recognizes the interconnectedness of all beings. Thus,
Anzaldúa’s spiritualized epistemology of radical interconnectivity ultimately has the power to achieve the
actualization of a globally just world.
Amelia María de la Luz Montes (University of Nebraska, Lincoln)
Title: Glucose Logs: Anzaldúa and the story of blood
This paper is a creative non-fiction reading and analysis on glucose daily readings and the stories they tell: scientific,
medical, historical, genetic, familial, and emotional.
Sarah Montoya (University of Texas at San Antonio)
Title: Border Trouble, Gender Wars: Representations of Queer Bodies in Cyberspace
Has the increased role of computer technology as a means of gathering information and in providing new forums for
queer visibility fundamentally changed how queers conceptualize, process, and enact their sexual identities and
gender identities? How do we merge Anzaldúa’s work with emergent queer digital cultures? I utilize personal
reflection and draw on Anzaldúa’s conceptualizations of queer identities to explore representations of queer
identities and queer bodies in online forums and video blogs. I focus specifically on the representations of trans- and
butch- masculinities, the impact of technology (both virtual and medical), and the complex dialogues occurring
between these queer communities.
Dara Nix-Stevenson (The University of North Carolina at Greensboro)
Title: Border Thinking as a Prerequisite for Disaster Resistance and Resilience
The 2010 Earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane Katrina, the Indian Ocean Tsunami, and the resource colonization of
Vieques, Puerto Rico represent an opportunity to critique the naturalness of disasters and to teach about what Henry
Giroux (2006) defines as the biopolitics of disposability. Specifically, this paper utilizes Anzaldúan theory to explore
the resilience and mobilization strategies of social actors who embody Anzaldúa’s concept of nepantleras to survive
them. Among these social actors, the common denominator considered is what Anzaldúa refers to as El arrebato, or
rupture that embeds itself in local community contexts to supply volunteer and survivor networks to provide
demolition and construction crews, housing, community kitchens, health clinics, neighborhood councils, and
schools.
T. Urayoán Noel (University at Albany, SUNY)
Title: Anzaldúa's Meme: Embodied Knowledge and Globalization
This paper applies meme theory to Anzaldúa's writings in an effort to address how she theorizes embodied
knowledge in the context of globalization. It argues that Anzaldúa's work involves an exploration of knowledge
understood as shareable information, and where the body is defined by what she calls “ancestral information stored
beyond the files of personal memory.” It then reads Anzaldúa's own online presence, from her influence on the
“Quantum Demographics” of the Librotraficante project to her appearance in the “Feminst Ryan Gosling” Internet
meme, as embodying both the promise and the pitfalls of a counterpolitics of the meme.
Karla O’Donald (Texas Christian University)
Title: Vivir y cruzar con orgullo
(See Freyca Calderón)
Cynthia Paccacerqua (University of Texas--Pan American)
Title: Anzaldúista Pedagogies and Activism at UTPA: Radical Interventions to Heal our Campus and
Communities
(See Stephanie Alvarez)
Sandra Pacheco (California Institute of Integral Education)
Title: “Doble saber” Philosophy and Curanderismo: Decolonizing the Rosary and the Spirit
Navigating meaning and re-creating and co-creating new ways of being between cultures is a familiar Chicana
experience. However, navigating between cultures, within one’s own culture, remains a relatively unexplored and
uncomfortable space. One particular uncomfortable within culture tension can be seen between Chicanas who
embrace Catholic spirituality and Chicanas who reject and critique the Catholic Church as an institution of colonial
and patriarchal oppression. This results in an unspoken division entre nos/otras. Using the Rosary as a space to
“shift,” I will be presenting the Transformative Mysteries that reflect Anzaldúa’s “doble saber.” It is a space to hold
both critique and love of Catholicism.
Karla Padrón (University of Minnesota-Twin Cities)
Title: Anzaldúan Theories, Rivera's Courage, and the Making of Transgender Latina Studies
Human experience cannot be compartmentalized into discreet academic fields. Gloria Anzaldúa understood this very
well and her life’s work sought to create new ways of thinking about knowledge production, more specifically the
untold stories of marginalized people. The experiences of “l@s atravesad@s,” or people who defy gendered and
geographical borders, often go unheard. Transgender Latina immigrants have stories that are difficult to tell within
the confines of specific academic fields. Throughout her life, Gloria Anzaldúa worked to defy the boundaries that
rendered some stories illegitimate. From Mestiza Consiousness, to Nepantlera, her frameworks opened new paths
for the telling these stories. This paper demonstrates the theoretical utility of Anzaldúas’s work on transgender and
migrant studies while illustrating that this type of analysis has the potential to construct new paths to voice the
stories emanating from transgender Latina bodies.
Albert A. Palacios (University of Texas, Austin)
Title: Entre el machismo franciscano y la pared: La mujer indígena in the 18th-century San Antonio Missions
For the Franciscans, la mujer indígena incited or succumbed more readily to sin, held back the productivity of men,
and reared heterodox children—all interruptions to the frontier missionary project. Primarily analyzing a friar’s 1787
cognitive mapping of Mission Purísima Concepción in San Antonio, Texas, I argue the misogynistic missionaries
socially and spatially relegated the feminine body to the mission’s periphery to sequester this internal ‘enemy’ force.
In the process, I posit Native women undertook what Anzaldúa calls “una lucha de fronteras” where they negotiated
cultural domination, and literally and metaphorically gave birth to “la conciencia de la mestiza.”
V. June Pedraza (Northwest Vista College)
Title: Freeing the Female Voice: A Discussion of the Arts as Healing and Trans-formative Agents for the SelfInjurer
This presentation will provide a definition of Self Injury while unveiling the different modes of female self-injury.
In addition, this presentation will look at how hegemonic and patriarchal societies promote the silencing of women’s
voices in terms of fear, anger, or anxiety; therefore, robbing the female spirit of a necessary language. Finally, this
presentation will look at how Chela Sandoval’s and Gloria Anzaldúa’s works provide transformative methods of
healing for the self-injurer through art and testimonio.
Emmy Pérez (University of Texas—Pan American)
Title: Anzaldúista Pedagogies and Activism at UTPA: Radical Interventions to Heal our Campus and
Communities
(See Stephanie Alvarez)
Margarita E. Pignataro (Whitman College)
Title: Recognizing Anzaldúa’s Nepantla in the Films La Mission and A Better Life
Gloria Anzaldúa’s edited anthology this bridge we call home: radical visions for transformation (2001) offers a safe
space for nepantla which in this 21st century is found in many societies and displayed in art form, particularly film.
Some of our new bridges are built between the firm heterosexual Chicano belief and the courageous adolescent
homosexual; the day laborer and the university student; the conformist and the social justice motivator. Anzaldúa
states that the “politics of exclusion based on traditional categories diminishes our humanness” a sentiment alive in
United States since to embrace humanity is to understand the history of humanness, the society in which one lives,
and in the case of the U.S. acknowledge a population that includes Latinidad Mexicanidad and Caribbean.
Kamala Platt (Independent Scholar)
Roundtable Title: The Impossible Interstices between Academic and Organizing Worlds
Kamala Platt will share plans that culminate two decades of interaction with Chicana and other women’s
environmental justice cultural poetics. Additionally, she ponders an extra-academic career without employment that
sustains; development of the Meadowlark Center (begun 2004) as a place for practicing and learning alternatives in
education, arts and cultural traditions and environmental practices based on critical analysis and diversified cultural
traditions. We each hope to invite previous students to share relevant reflection and to give ample time for audience
discussion since we think the topic is important to many in El Mundo Zurdo.
Rocío I. Prado (California State University, Fullerton)
Title: To Exist Is To Resist: A Conscious Re-application of Borderlands Theory
This paper will demonstrate that Gloria Anzaldúa’s work in Borderlands is applicable wherever there is resistance
due her emphasis of intersectionality. This allows for autonomy through concepts of duality and mestizaje. Gloria
Anzaldúa’s concepts of basura ajena and nepantla provide tools that allow for healing and community building
within oppressed communities. However, Smadar Lavie misinterprets Anzaldúa, claiming her work is inapplicable
to Palestinian struggles. Lavie places Mizrahi forms of resistance at opposition with that of the mestiza but this paper
aims to show how they are both utilizing the same concepts to allow their own communities to exist and resist.
Sara A. Ramírez (University of California, Berkeley)
Title: Tolerating Anxiety, Tolerating Ambiguity: Decolonial Feminist Tactics for Self-Healing in the Work of
Adelina Anthony
This presentation engages what Gloria Anzaldúa calls “a tolerance for ambiguity” as a Decolonial methodological
approach to understanding the anxiety plaguing Xicana mindbodyspirts today. Ramírez posits that a predominant
“intolerance for ambiguity” contributes to the development of an anxious self—one who fears not knowing and
nonbeing. The presenter ultimately weaves together existentialist theories of ontological anxiety, Anzaldúa’s
emphasis on meaning-making, and evidence of the self-healing possibilities of tolerating ambiguity in the work of
Xicana multigenre artist Adelina Anthony.
Susana Ramírez (University of Texas at San Antonio)
Title: Nepantler@ Cosmologies: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Science Fiction (Re)imagining Alternative Realities with
Transpecies, Transspatial, and Transtemporal Subjectivities
Many people familiar with Gloria Anzaldúa’s work are unaware that she was an avid reader of science fiction, and
also wrote science fiction herself. Notably, Anzaldúa’s science fiction introduces unique dimensions of Anzaldúa’s
under theorized “nepantleras” who function as transspecies, transspatial, and transtemporal subjects. Nepantler@s
are agents constantly moving in-between time, space, and beyond the material body to challenge/expand/reimagine
the “reality” of these constructs. While much of Anzaldúa’s scholarship has focused understandably on the material
disembodiment of the borderlands, I introduce a “nepantler@ cosmology” as an epistemic paradigm healing false
dichotomies between material and spiritual worlds.
Erin Ranft (University of Texas at San Antonio)
Title: Writing and (Re)Visions: An Anzaldúan Pedagogical Approach
AnaLouise Keating describes Anzaldúa’s writing process and the difficult task in editing the Chicana queer
theorist’s works due to Anzaldúa’s “perfectionist sensibilities.” Not only committed to producing written work,
Anzaldúa was also invested in the acts of rewriting and revising. Her various pieces underwent multiple drafting and
editing phases, and I argue that students benefit from the recognition that authors and theorists, particularly
Anzaldúa as a groundbreaking queer, Chicana, and Border theorist and author, struggle with their ideas and writing
– a struggle worth undergoing in order to produce work that may move the writer, and others, towards spiritual
activism.
Darcy Rendón (University of Texas, Austin)
Title: Mapping Women’s Altared Catholicism in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
This paper examines private and public altaring religious practices in New Mexico, South Texas, and East Los
Angeles using Anzaldúa’s borderlands theory to illuminate how Mexican-American women have laid claim to
borderland zones and fostered mestiza consciousness within their historically marginalized communities. It argues
that women’s strategically placed altars transcend national, generational, and lay/church divides. Altars in the
private domain and the public sphere not only alter the perspectives of their creators, but also often lead, in
Anzaldúa’s words, “to the transformation of outer reality.”
Ellen Riojas Clark (University of Texas at San Antonio)
Title: The Impact of Gloria Anzaldúa on my Academic and Personal Life
Gloria Anzaldúa’s works changed my personal and professional worlds. What provocative statements to read for
they hit me in my most inner being. That I am not so odd, that I am many things, is what I explore in this personal
essay. To finally be exposed to ideas that dealt with my own experiences and thoughts was groundbreaking. Never
before had I read work like this collection. Her theoretical works revolutionized where I work, the academy. To go
beyond what existed in the literature, to infuse it with this new way of thinking and seeing was her charge to us.
Genevieve Rodriguez (Independent)
Title: Ahora Is not the Time y Aqui Is Not the Place for Your Angry Mal Criada Ways
Institutional violence doesn’t stop at the doorways of our sacred spaces, union halls, or bedrooms—it has found its
way through the cracks in the walls. My mal criada-ness, my big mouth, my righteous anger, my state of
questioning and answering back, are “assets” that have been used by the Non-Profit Industrial
Complex until these “assets” begin to address institutional violence within that same structure. Through mi historia,
my paper uses Anzaldúa’s theories of the borderlands, nepantla, and mestiza consciousness to challenge the binary
narrative in our experiences with violence within movements beyond victim/perpetrator with a vision of restorative
justice.
Gloria M. Rodríguez (University of California, Davis)
Workshop Title: CAR[T]AS--Rooting Our Purpose as Academics in A Time of Transition
(See Natalia Deeb-Sossa)
Sonia Alejandra Rodríguez (University of California, Riverside)
Title: Conocimiento Narratives: (Re)imagining the Künstlerroman for Latina Girls in Latina/o Children’s
and Young Adults Literature
This presentation employs Gloria Anzaldúa’s conocimiento process and puts it in conversation with Latina/o
Children’s Literature. Through an analysis of Juan Felipe Herrera’s Super Cilantro Girl and Luis Rodríguez’s
América Is Her Name I challenge the künstlerroman, the novel of artistic development, and juxtapose “conocimiento
narratives” as a new way of understanding the relationship between creativity and subjectivity experienced by
Latino children. I focus on the experiences of young Latinas and the healing process through creative acts that
allows them to transform the violence they experience at home, in their communities, and as subjects of the U.S.
nation.
Cristina Golondrina Rose (California Institute of Integral Studies)
Title: Xicana, Filipina, and Euro-American Women’s Spirituality Solidarity in Personal, Critical, and
Creative Writing: A Mestiza Approach to Ethnoautobiography and Literary Criticism
Anzaldúa’s description of la Mestiza consciousness encourages a healthy dialogue between the Indigenous and
Euro-American aspects within Mestizas, both internally and communally. Without a healthy dialogue, Mestizas are
inevitably restless; indeed, this dialogue begins with a relationship in which White privilege is acknowledged and
deconstructed. My work explores solidarity through allied relationships in my personal journey and in literature.
Employing a Mestiza approach to an ethnoautobiographical framework and to literary criticism, this paper explores
the potential for transformative integration within and between Mestiza Xicanas and Filipinas and Euro-American
allies. This integration fosters nepantlera and babaylan-inspired healers as writers.
Sara H. Salazar (California Institute of Integral Studies)
Title: The Curandera’s Daughters: Spiritual Activism in the Lives and Works of Chicana Artists
This study explores the sacred arts of curanderismo and spiritual activism through the work of Elena Avila and
Gloria Anzaldúa, as spiritual tools to transform the world. I examine the use of curanderismo as a spiritual tool that
provides an authentic connection to pre-conquest ritual and spirituality and that offers individuals agency to reenvision the future. I explore the spiritual framework of spiritual activism, which encourages a reconnection to
spiritual lineage, honors multiple ways of knowing, supports the transformative power of story and lived experience,
and maps a spiritual path which requires new consciousness, heightened awareness, and inclusivity. I argue that
these transformative theories and practices, exhibited in the lives and works of Lila Downs, Cherríe Moraga, and
Favianna Rodriguez, artists who live outside of the Catholic Church, offer an alternative to healing the wounds of
colonialism, one grounded in spirituality. In addition, I believe that these artists and practices stand in contrast to
traditional practice of religion and spirituality by presenting an innovative approach to spirituality.
Gabriel Sánchez (The Raving Press)
Title: Nuevo@ Chican@ Poetics
(See Christopher Carmona)
Adrianna Michelle Santos (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Title: Healing our Wounds through Our Words: Anzaldúa, Violence, and Storytelling
Anzaldúa wrote of the border as an open wound, suggesting the trauma that border-crossers encounter in passing
between worlds. Chicana writers have broken the silence around gender based violence by writing “survival
narratives.” By incorporating a mestiza consciousness, Chicanas participate in an active process that Anzaldúa
suggests could be the beginning of a long struggle to end violence. My work aspires to new understandings of
writing as resistance by studying literature as a means to understanding bodily and psychological harms and as a
catalyst for healing from trauma. I focus on how we use these texts and others like it as pedagogical tools.
Crystal Serrano (University of Texas at San Antonio)
Title: Los Angeles Ska: Mexican and Chicana/o Youth Healing the Borderlands through a Transnational
Hybrid Musical Style
I argue that through the rise of transnational hybrid musical styles, specifically the emergence of Latino ska music in
Los Angeles, California, Latino youth are able to recover their language and culture and reinforce their identity
against oppressive forces, as their working class ethnic backgrounds become the foundation of the music. Overall, I
believe that Latino ska music becomes a form through which they can make sense of their identities as youth of
Latino/Mexican descent within the U.S. as the music becomes an embracement and reflection of their biculturalism,
empowering them as they reconnect with the parent culture.
Kim Shuck (Independent, San Francisco, CA)
Poetry Reading Title: New Writings from the Hopeful Hearts of Indigenous Women: Xánath Caraza,
LeAnne Howe, Kim Shuck, and ire'ne lara silva
Reading the work of Gloria Anzaldúa was one in a series of profoundly galvanizing moments I've had in my life. I
am someone whose work in writing could never have been considered without women like Anzaldúa laying a sound
foundation. Before her, before Joy Harjo, before Carol Lee Sanchez and Paula Gunn Allen and Leslie Marmon Silko
there was no space in which to write from the hopeful heart of an indigenous woman. Her bravery and trust in self,
have contributed immeasurably to my work in staking out an urban indigenous territory.
Mrinal Sinha (California State University, Monterey Bay)
Title: Mestiza Consciousness and the CSUMB Vision Statement: Cultivating Activism using Assets-based
Pedagogies
This presentation discusses parallels between Anzaldúa’s notion of mestiza consciousness and the Vision Statement
of California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB). CSUMB is a “Hispanic” serving institution in northern
California located on the former Fort Ord. The Vision Statement functions as an organizing document designed to
drive all of the universities’ activities. In effect, this document has institutionalized values embedded in core
Chicana feminist theoretical principles, particularly in terms of the emphasis placed on collaboration, use of assets
based pedagogies, and a commitment to social justice. I analyze student projects from a history course in light of
these parallels.
Cecilia Suarez (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign)
Title: Unbreaking Her Back: Rehumanizing the Brown Girl Student through Critical Education and Love
Traditional Westernized classrooms burden the mind and bodies of students to conform to a way of learning that
does not take into consideration culture, family, and feelings. As such, students, specifically Brown girls, are viewed
as information receptacles, and the context of their daily life experiences is not taken into consideration. Through
personal reflection, narratives, dramatic interpretation, preliminary research data, and application of critical
education perspectives of Gloria E. Anzaldúa and other scholars, this paper aims to call attention and action to the
lack of dialogue and love in current education practices for the Black and Brown girl.
Fabiola Torralba
Title: Mojada, por afuera y de adentro: Learning Privilege and Power within Social Justice Communities
Queer women of color began the movement that challenged the dominant white middle class feminist. Other
communities have since begun to voice their sense of “otherness” within U.S. mainstream society and within their
ascribed communities. This includes foreign nationals and undocumented immigrants. As we continue to work
around the recently popularized issue of (im)migrant justice, Mexican Americans grapple with their own open
wounds and recently obtained privilege and power. This paper will critically explore questions of privilege and
power within movements based on personal experiences as a mojada por afuera y de adentro the social justice
community of San Antonio.
Theresa Torres (University of Missouri, Kansas City)
Title: Interpreting Las Guadalupanas’ Vision: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Pathway to Conocimiento
Anzaldúa’s writings address the complexities and confluences of identity as well as the significant role that
Catholicism plays to limit and impede women. Latinas live our lives within the contexts of our families’, friends’,
and communities’ expectations. My research on Las Guadalupanas, devotees of Our Lady of Guadalupe, focuses on
the women’s spirituality that caused them to fight their bishop to save their local parish church from closing, yet the
women’s self-awareness and knowledge of the confluences of power from within and in the church and society that
limit their own power and ability as leaders.
Max Wolf Valerio (Independent Scholar)
Title: Trans Reflections on Anzaldúa: Visions from the Borderlands of Changing Sex
Gloria Anzaldúa was first and foremost a visionary writer. The imagination was foundational to her practice of
writing, and to her life journey. Anzaldúa spent a lifetime struggling with identity and labels, attempting to exorcise
her sense of limitation and stifling contradiction, to clarify the essential and abiding feral nature of her imagination
and spirit. As Anzaldúa, do trans people imagine ourselves into being, resolving seeming contradictions with an
insistence on the primacy of the imaginative faculty? In exploration, I will discuss the relation of trans people,
particularly those who medically transition -- transsexuals, to key Anzaldúan concepts including: “coatlicue state,”
“conocimiento,” “la facultad,” “borderlands,” “nagual,” and “nepantla” and “nepantlera.”
Deborah Kuetzpal Vasquez (Our Lady of the Lake University)
Title: Dando A Luz a La Justicia Con Las Palabras de Nuestras Antepasadas/Bringing Justice to Light with
the Words of Our Ancestors
With the powerful and wise words of our ancestor’s, this visual presentation will bring to light the need for reform in
the non-profit power structure, and dictator, top-down management style. The silence and continual overturn of
employees does not allow the person in power to grow and develop a healthier approach to problem-solving and
working with co-workers and community. The goal is to dialogue on how we can better approach situations so we’re
not perpetuating this disillusion within our cultural and social justice organizations. We would like to invite
participants to join us and share their words to remove these stories, which may be trapped within our bodies, so that
we may heal ourselves as we heal our community.
Maria Cristina Vlassidis Burgoa (Harvard Divinity School)
Title: Ways of Knowing/Conocimientos
In an attempt to interrupt the Western European Christian normative interpretations of creation, I offer a glimpse
into indigenous creations stories from the Popol Vuh, the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life, Gloria Anzaldúa’s
Borderlands/La Frontera, and my own ethnographic work within the Jotería/LGBTQ2 communities in Puerto Rico
and Colombia. It is my hope that in deploying and unfolding counter narratives before the hegemonic
heteronormative discourse, a more inclusive, multicultural, and complex understanding of identity formation,
gender, gender expressions, and spirituality itself might emerge.
Stephanie Wheeler (Texas A&M University—College Station)
Title: Gloria Anzaldúa, Frida Kahlo, and the Fragmentation of the “Unwanted Immigrant
This paper analyzes Frida Khalo’s 1932 painting “Self Portrait between the Borderline of
Mexico and the United States” to argue that dis/abling the body of the “undesirable immigrant” requires the
fragmentation of the relationship between the physical body and the body politic to the point where, as Anzaldúa
argues, “you’re given only two choices: assimilate completely or separate out completely.” Ultimately, Khalo’s
painting demonstrates the ways in which the immigrant body is forced to navigate between the constructions of the
body of the desirable American citizen and the body of the undesirable Mexican immigrant.
Bernardita M. Yunis Varas (Pennsylvania State University)
Title: Embracing and Challenging Representations of Latina Women on Television: The Politics of Being
Gloria: Sofia Vergara and Modern Family Representations of The Latina Female On Television
Modern Family introduces Sofia Vergara to mainstream American popular culture as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, a
Colombian divorcee married to an older American man. Engaging Gloria Anzaldúa’s work on borderlines and
identity, this analysis looks at representation of this Latina to situate the intersection between Vergara, the woman,
the actress’s public persona, and Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, the role, as a central point of tension. It will look at the
blurring of lines between the person, the public personality, and the role, and how conversations of borderlines,
immigration, transnationals, Latinidad, and female stereotypes play out in the process of representation and
identification.
Anissa Zamarron (Independent)
Title: Boxing Shadows: A Conversation with Anissa "The Assassin" Zamarron
(See Anne Martínez)
Kelli Zaytoun (Wright State University)
Title: Now Let Us Shift” the Subject: Tracing the Path and Posthumanist
Implications of La Naguala/The Shape Shifter in the Works of Gloria Anzaldúa
In this paper, I trace Anzaldúa’s use of the concept of “la naguala” in her published and unpublished works, and
develop my argument that la naguala in “now let us shift” represents a significant change in Anzaldúa’s treatment of
the concept with profound implications for theories of subjectivity. I propose that Anzaldúa’s la naguala provides
evidence for posthumanist and queer visions of subjectivity in which subject/selves are strengthened, not undone, by
their relationships. I claim that Anzaldúa invokes the shape shifter as a trope for what is required of individuals and
collectives in their quest for a more just world.
Candace Zepeda (Our Lady of the Lake University)
Title: Reflecting on the Rhetoric of Reflection: Identifications of Writing the Flesh
(See Isaac Hinojosa)
Moderators, Discussants, Chairs,
NAME
SESSION
Norma
Alarcón
VG
IIIA
Alexandra
Araiza
Rusty
Barceló
ID
Margaret
Cantú-Sanchez
VB
Norma E.
Cantú
William
Calvo
IB
Antonia
Castañeda
VC
Ari M.
Chagoya
Cynthia
Cortez
IV A
Elizabeth
de la Portilla
IV B
Lucila
Ek
IV F
Elisa
Facio
IE
Andrea
Figueroa
III D
Anel
Flores
Joleen
Garcia
VE
Rhonda
Gonzáles
VD
Robyn
Henderson-Espinoza
IF
Aída
Hurtado
IID
Ana
Juárez
VF
Jane
Madrigal
III C
Irene
Mata
VC
Josie
Méndez-Negrete
IA
Keta
Miranda
IB
T. Urayoan
Noel
IIF
Kathleen
Palomo
II A
V. June
Pedraza
IV E
Patricia
Portales
IIIF
Sara
Ramírez
IV D
Susana
Ramírez
II C
Erin
Ranft
IIB
Rose
Rodríguez Rabin
III E
Elsa C.
Ruiz
I C & IVC
Sonia
Saldívar-Hull
III B
Bianca
Sapet
VC
Rita
Urquijo-Ruiz
IG
Sonia
Valencia
IIE
and other Participants
EMAIL ADDRESS
nalarcon@berkeley.edu
alearaiza@gmail.com
nbarcelo@nnmc.edu
margaret_@hotmail.com
cantun@umkc.edu
wcalvo@umail.ucsb.edu
acastaneda@stmarytx.edu
arichagoya@gmail.com
cynthiacortez2002@yahoo.com
edelaportilla@alamo.edu
lucila.ek@utsa.edu
elisa.facio@colorado.edu
afigueroa@mswomenscenter.org
anelflores@me.com
jgarcia@mswomenscenter.org
rhonda.gonzales@utsa.edu
irobyn@me.com
aida@chicst.ucsb.edu
a.juarez@txstate.edu
janeskam@yahoo.com
imata@wellesley.edu
josephine.mendeznegrete@utsa.edu
marie.miranda@utsa.edu
urayoannoel@yahoo.com
kathleenbcis@yahoo.com
junepedraza@yahoo.com
patriciaportales@gmail.com
sramirez@berkeley.edu
srblinky@sbcglobal.net
erin.ranft@utsa.edu
roserodriguezrabin@gmail.com
ecruiz@satx.rr.com
sonia.saldivarhull@utsa.edu
sapet2@yahoo.com
rurquijoruiz@trinity.edu
sonia.valencia@utsa.edu
PRESENTERS
Name
Jean Aguilar-Valdez
Maira Álvarez
Stephanie Alvarez
Helane Androne
Cordelia Barrera
Catalina Bartlett
Sarah Becker
Trevor Boffone
Suzanne Bost
Jody A. Briones
Crystal Bustamante
Freyca Calderón
Verónica Calvillo
Luz Calvo
Jessica Camp
Xánath Caraza
Christopher Carmona
Karina Cervantez
Elizabeth G. Chapa
Isaac Chavarría
Erica Chu
Casie C. Cobos
Debbie Cole
Marisol Cortez
Rufina Cortez
Cindy Cruz
Bert Maria Cueva
Betsy Dahms
Allison Davis
Natalia Deeb-Sossa
Marcos del Hierro
Kendra Dority
Aydé Enríquez-Loya
Catriona Esquibel
Judith Estrada
Yvette Flores
Amy Foss
Maria Fránquiz
Silvia Galis-Menéndez
Magda García
Mary Garcia
Michael Lee Gardin
Meredyth Grange
Jessica O. Guerrero
Email Address
msrockford@gmail.com
mealvarez@uh.edu
smalvarezm@utpa.edu
Adamshd@miamioh.edu
cordelia.barrera@ttu.edu
catbartl7@tamu.edu
sevargas@uh.edu
Trevor.Boffone@gmail.com
sbost@luc.edu
Jody.Briones@tamuk.edu
crystalbustamante05@hotmail.com
f.calderonberumen@tcu.edu
vcalvill@gettysburg.edu
luz.calvo@csueastbay.edu
jessicarcamp@gmail.com
carazax@umkc.edu
christophercarmonapoet@gmail.com
kcervant@ucsc.edu
echapa1207@gmail.com
ichavarria@utpa.edu
echu@luc.edu
casiecobos@gmail.com
dcole@utpa.edu
cortez.marisol@gmail.com
rufina.cortez@gmail.com
ccruz3@ucsc.edu
bcueva@ucla.edu
betsydahms@gmail.com
allisonclairedavis@gmail.com
ndeebsossa@ucdavis.edu
mdelhierro@tamu.edu
kdority@ucsc.edu
aenrique@uncfsu.edu
ktrion@gmail.com
estrada.judith@gmail.com
drayflores@gmail.com
amy_foss@umail.ucsb.edu
maria.franquiz@gmail.com
silviagmenendez@gmail.com
garcia.magda@yahoo.com
magarcia@umail.ucsb.edu
michael.gardin@utsa.edu
mgrange@wellesley.edu
aspanglisholive@gmail.com
Session
VE
IIC
IID
IVB
IE
IIE
IVD
IIA
ID
IVA
IIE
IVB
IIA
*
IIIA
IIF
IVE
IB
IVA
IVE
ID
VF
VE
VG
IIIB
**
IIIB
IIB
IIIA
IG
IIE
IVC
VF
*
IIIB
IG
IIIE
**
IIIC
IA
III C
IIID
IC
VC
Natassja Gunasena
Christina Gutiérrez
Robert Gutierrez-Perez
Tace Hedrick
Robyn Henderson-Espinoza
Inés Hernández Avila
Ruby A. Hernández
Felipe Hinojosa
Isaac Hinojosa
Aída Hurtado
Rob Johnson
AnaLouise Keating
Tala Khanmalek
Rico Kleinstein Chenyek
Irene Lara
ire'ne lara silva
Rossy Evelin Lima
Kristina López
Laura López
Anne M. Martinez
Marci McMahon
April Michels
Amelia María de la Luz Montes
Sarah Montoya
Dara Nix-Stevenson
T. Urayoan Noel
Karla O'Donald
Cynthia Paccacerqua
Sandra Pacheco
Karla Padrón
Albert A. Palacios
V. June Pedraza
Emmy Perez
Margarita E. Pignataro
Kamala Platt
Rocío Prado
Sara Ramirez
Susana Ramírez
Erin Ranft
Darcy Rendón
Ellen Riojas Clark
Genevieve Rodríguez
Gloria M. Rodriguez
Sonia Alejandra Rodríguez
Cristina Golondrina Rose
Sara Salazar
Gabriel Sánchez
gunasena@mnstate.edu
christina.gutierrez82@gmail.com
robertgutierrezperez@gmail.com
tace@ufl.edu
irobyn@me.com
ighernandez@ucdavis.com
ruaherna@ucsc.edu
fhinojosa@tamu.edu
yhinojosa@sbcglobal.net
aida@chicst.ucsb.edu
rjohnson@utpa.edu
analouisekeating@gmail.com
tala@berkeley.edu
rcheny2@illinois.edu
ilara@mail.sdsu.edu
irenelarasilva@yahoo.com
r.e.limapadilla@gmail.com
lopez.kristina@gmail.com
laura.l@sbcglobal.net
ammtz@gmail.com
mcmahonmr@utpa.edu
amichels@mail.twu.edu
amontes2@unl.edu
smontoyacw@hotmail.com
daranixstevenson@gmail.com
tunoel@albany.edu
k.odonald@tcu.edu
Paccacerquacm@utpa.edu
spacheco@ciis.edu
padr0009@umn.edu
palacios.hrc@gmail.com
vpedraza@alamo.edu
Poetaperez@gmail.com
pignatarochile@yahoo.com
kamalap@earthlink.net
rociop@csu.fullerton.edu
sara.ramirez@berkeley.edu
srblinky@sbcglobal.net
erin.ranft@utsa.edu
darcyrendon@utexas.edu
ellen.clark@utsa.edu
riotsareforlovers@gmail.com
gmrodriguez@ucdavis.edu
srodr021@ucr.edu
cristyroses@gmail.com
sarazalas@gmail.com
sixthsunghs@gmail.com
IA
IIID
IE
ID
IIB
IG
IB
IVF
IVC
IB
VE
IIB & IIIA
IF
IE
IIC
IIF
IVE
IVA
VB
IVF & VA
IID
IIIA
*
IIA
IIC
IA
IVB
IID
IVB
IF
IVF
IIIF
IID
IE
VG
IIID
IIIF
VB
IVC
IVF
IC
VC
IG
VB
IC
IVD
IVE
Adrianna Michelle Santos
Crystal Serrano
Kim Shuck
Mrinal Sinha
Cecilia Suárez
Fabiola Torralba
Theresa Torres
Max Wolf Valerio
Deborah Kuetzpal Vasquez
Maria Cristina Vlassidis Burgoa
Stephanie Wheeler
Bernardita Yunis Varas
Anissa Zamarron
Kelli Zaytoun
Candace Zepeda
* Featured Panel
** Plenary Speaker
adriannasantos@gmail.com
crystal.serrano@utsa.edu
kshuck@tsoft.net
msinha@csumb.edu
suarez7@illinois.edu
vuelodelviento@gmail.com
torresth@umkc.edu
valerio.max@gmail.com
cafecitlali@gmail.com
mcv518@mail.harvard.edu
skwheele@tamu.edu
bernardita.yunis@gmail.com
kelli.zaytoun@wright.edu
ckleon77@gmail.com
IIIF
IIA
IIF
IB
VE
VC
IIC
IF
VC
IVD
VF
IIIC
IV G
IIB
IVC
Announcements
Books by many of our presenters are for sale in the Buena Vista
Assembly Room (BV 1.338) as well as Bridging: How Gloria Anzaldúa’s
Life and Work Transformed Our Own. Aunt Lute Books will be selling
many titles, including El Mundo Zurdo 2012 and Borderlands: La
Frontera (4th Edition).
******
Don’t forget to fill out the evaluation form and turn it in to the
registration desk.
******
Mark your calendars for El Mundo Zurdo 2015 to be held in May at the
University of Texas at Austin.
Acknowledgements
The Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa (SSGA) and the Women’s Studies Institute (WSI) at
the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA) wish to thank the following individuals for their
support and encouragement:
Dr. Sonja Lanehart, Brackenridge Endowed Chair in Literature and the Humanities, UTSA
Dr. Joycelyn Moody, Sue E. Denman Distinguished Chair in American Literature; Director,
African American Literatures and Cultures Institute, UTSA
Dr. Nancy “Rusty” Barceló, President, Northern New Mexico College
Dr. Arturo Madrid, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, Trinity University
Mexico, The Americas, and Spain (MAS) Program, Trinity University
Inclusion & Community Engagement (ICE) Program, UTSA
UTSA Women’s Studies Institute
UTSA Department of English
Organizing and Program Committee
Norma Alarcón
Norma E. Cantú
Anel L. Flores
María Fránquiz
Christina Gutiérrez
Larissa Mercado-­­López
Carolyn Motley
Elvia Elisa Nieble
Elsa C. Ruiz Sonia
Saldívar-­­Hull Rita
Urquijo-­­Ruiz
Artwork:
Anita Tejerina Revilla
To all members who provided funding for registration scholarships and to all our friends,
students and family for their time and energy, we are grateful.
¡Gracias!
Th e Cantú Sis te rs Su ppo rt th e Soc iety fo r th e Stu dy of Gloria Anzaldúa
The Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa
http://www.ssganzaldua.org
The Women’s Studies Institute at UTSA
http://www.utsa.edu/wsi/
One UTSA Circle
San Antonio, TX 78249