Gloria Anzaldua

This press release came over Melissa's Women Studies listserv, I haven't been able to verify it yet, but the fact that Gloria Anzaldua was Hispanic, Lesbian, and a theorist of hybridity, it is not shocking (rather it is sad) that her death would not be reported right away. She was a very important influence for a whole generation of intellectuals struggling to move past polarized racial designations, helping us to understand "border consciousness" and America's changing cultural reality. If anyone finds reports about this could you please post them in the comments section...
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Internationally recognized cultural theorist and creative writer, Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua passed away on May 15 from diabetes-related complications. She was 61 years old. A versatile author, Anzaldua published poetry, theoretical essays, short stories, autobiographical narratives, interviews, children's books, and multigenre anthologies. As one of the first openly lesbian Chicana authors, Anzaldua played a major role in redefining contemporary Chicano/a and lesbian/queer identities.

And as editor or co-editor of three multicultural anthologies, Anzaldua has also played a vital role in developing an inclusionary feminist movement. Anzaldua best known for Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987), a hybrid collection of poetry and prose which was named one of the 100 Best Books of the Century by both Hungry Mind Review and Utne Reader. Anzaldua published works also include This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (1981), a ground-breaking collection of essays and poems widely recognized by scholars as the premiere multicultural feminist text; Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists-of-Color (1990), a multigenre collection used in many university classrooms; two bilingual children's books--Friends from the Other Side/Amigos del otro lado (1993) and Prietita and the Ghost Woman/ Prietita y la Llorona (1995); Interviews/Entrevistas (2000), a memoir-like collection of interviews; and this bridge we call home: radical visions for transformation (2002), a
co-edited collection of essays, poetry, and artwork that examines the current status of feminist/womanist theorizing.

Anzaldua won numerous awards, including the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award, the Lamda Lesbian Small Book Press Award, an NEA Fiction Award, the Lesbian Rights Award, the Sappho Award of Distinction, an NEA (National endowment for the Arts) Fiction Award, and the American Studies Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
Anzaldua was born in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas in 1942, the eldest child of Urbano and Amalia Anzald?She received her B.A. from Pan American University, her M.A. from University of Texas, Austin, and was completing her doctorate at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

She is survived by her mother, Amalia, her sister, Hilda, and two brothers: Urbano Anzaldua and Oscar Anzaldua, five nieces, three nephews, eighteen grandnieces and grandnephews, a multitude of aunts and uncles, and many close friends. A public memorial will be planned at a later date.