El Retorno al Valle: Literary Landmark Unveiling & Symposium on Gloria Anzaldúa March 28, 2022

ELRETORNOALVALLE: COMMUNITYEVENTS, LITERARYLANDMARKUNVEILING, ARTEXHIBITION & SYMPOSIUMONGLORIAANZALDÚA

March 27 & 28, 2022

UTRGV Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) and partners invite the campus and community to attend “El Retorno Al Valle,” a symposium, art exhibit, and literary landmark unveiling in honor of Gloria Anzaldúa’s work. Scholars, poets, activists, and visual artists from the Rio Grande Valley and from beyond the region will gather to consider the impacts of Anzaldúa’s work with a look to the future. The day before the symposium, there are two community based pre symposium events in the Rio Grande Valley.

Sunday, March 27, 2022

Pre Symposium Community Events

10:00 A.M. CST

Valle de la Paz Cemetery, Hargill, TX Readings of Gloria Anzaldúa’s Work 2:00 P.M. CST Museum of South Texas History 200 N. Closner Blvd, Edinburg, TX Pre symposium Presentation on Gloria Anzaldúa

Monday, March 28, 2022 Symposium

& Art Exhibit

8:30 A.M. 3:45 P.M. CST UTRGV Edinburg Ballroom Free and open to the public

Light breakfast will begin at 8:30 A.M., and lunch will be available at 11:45 A.M. Live English/Spanish interpretation will be available. An art exhibit of work influenced and inspired by Anzaldúa will run simultaneously with the symposium.

Literary Landmark Unveiling

4:00 5:00 P M CST

UTRGV Edinburg Library Courtyard

Closing Reception

5:00 6:00 P M CST

UTRGV Edinburg Library Lobby

ABOUT GLORIA ANZALDÚA

Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa (1942 2004) was a queer Chicana poet, writer, and scholar. She was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley and was a farmworker. She was valedictorian of Edinburg High School in 1962, graduated from UTRGV legacy institution Pan American College in 1968, and taught in the PSJA school district from 1967 1973. Anzaldúa attended graduate school at UT Austin and at UC Santa Cruz, where she obtained a PhD posthumously.

Anzaldúa wrote and published numerous texts including Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza and Luz en lo Oscuro/Light in the Dark: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality. Anzaldúa served as editor/co editor of several anthologies, including This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color and this bridge we call home: radical visions for transformation. Her work is also collected in Interviews/Entrevistas and The Gloria Anzaldúa Reader edited by AnaLouise Keating. Anzaldúa is also the author of two children’s books: Friends from the Other Side/Amigos del Otro Lado and Prietita and the Ghost Woman/Prietita y La Llorona.

In her book Borderlands/La Frontera (Aunt Lute Books 1987) in the essay "How to Tame a Wild Tongue," Anzaldúa writes about her university experience in the 1960's: "At Pan American University, I, and all Chicano students were required to take two speech classes. Their purpose: to get rid of our accents" (76). Her ensuing work and life are testaments to her contributions in numerous areas and fields of study. Presenters will discuss these impacts--past and present-and look into the future.

Bronco Edinburg, Tex: Pan American University, 1966, 1967, 1968 Print

BRIEFHISTORYOF ANZALDÚAEVENTSINTHERGV

To our knowledge, Gloria Anzaldúa did not present at her alma mater after her books were published. Public efforts to honor Anzaldúa's work began in her home region after she passed away in 2004. The grassroots and dynamic Gloria Anzaldúa Legacy (GAL) Project formed in 2007, organizing and hosting presentations in the community, making zines, and exhibits, including at Anzaldúa's alma mater campus, UTRGV legacy institution UT Pan American. Local poets and activists were at the forefront of this labor. Charged with helping raise awareness of Anzaldúa's work on her alma mater campus, in 2008 a poetry professor hosted a talk on Anzaldúa by the founder of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa (SSGA) on campus. At that time it was suggested she make an annual campus event with different presenters. "El Retorno" has been an annual campus event since then and not possible without the dedication, service, and collaboration between community members, students, faculty, and staff. Most of these events were accomplished with minimal financial support for guest presenters. When UTRGV CMAS was created about a decade ago by many of the same folks working on Anzaldúa events, El Retorno had secured annual support to host one speaker per year. At the same time of all of this, philosophy professors on campus hosted an Anzaldúa Speakers Series as well.

Needless to say, this symposium and literary landmark represent over 15years of efforts and collaborations by the RGV community, campus, and the SSGA. UTRGV CMAS and SSGA applied for the literary landmark with GAL Project support. And once again, we will gather for these events, and this time with greater support across campus and with community sponsors. We look forward to these events. For more information and/or event accommodations, please contact us at cmas@utrgv.edu.

BRIEFHISTORYOF ANZALDÚAEVENTSINTHERGV:

In 2007, I drew Gloria E. Anzaldúa to follow the teachings of my mother. She taught me as a seamstress, we dress saints, those divine figures we hear stories about and their struggles resonate with our own humanity. Drawing her portrait was the undressing and dressing for the act of asking and giving at the altar. So I dressed her: I placed halos of water surrounding her head. These swirls Aztec artists created to symbolize the flow of water as life and speech as song. Across her chest, a pin of two snake heads face away from each other; a contradiction, a black and white set of forms with her at the middle in softs shades of gray In her ears, a sun and moon embracing each other in unison. It was a laborious task of forming a representation of Gloria Anzaldúa and her teachings. I was seeking to go beyond the visual and seek the essence of her being in full joy.

Beatriz Guzmán Velásquez

Students have always volunteered their time in numerous ways to help carry out El Retorno and without them, this work would not be possible. Since 2007, we have adopted Guzmán Velásquez's illustration for promotional materials Today, we honor and thank her and the countless other students and community members who have generously given their time, talent & labor to honor Anzaldúa in the RGV at UTPA & UTRGV over the years.

ELRETORNOALVALLE:

LITERARYLANDMARKUNVEILING, ARTEXHIBIT & SYMPOSIUMONGLORIAANZALDÚA

PRE-SYMPOSIUM EVENTS

ANZALDÚA'S RESTING PLACE

Sunday March 27, 2022 10am & 2pm CST

Valle de la Paz Cemetery Hargill, Texas 10am

Readings of Gloria Anzaldúa's Work

EL RETORNO AL VALLE

A PRE SYMPOSIUM TALK ON GLORIA ANZALDÚA

Museum of South Texas History Edinburg, TX 2pm

Featuring Anel I. Flores and Alexandra Nichole Salazar, this presentation, hosted in partnership with the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) and our numerous symposium partners, will focus on the impact of borderlands poet and scholar Gloria Anzaldúa’s work, and the history of the LGBTQIA+ community in the borderlands. The presentation will be moderated by Dr. Carolina Monsiváis (STC).

ART EXHIBIT

NEPANTLA POP-UP EXHIBIT

Curated by Ruby E. Garza, La Chicharra Studio

UTRGV Edinburg Ballroom

FEATURED ARTISTS

Ruby De La Fuente

Anel I. Flores

Nansi Guevara

Alexis Ramos

Nydia Salinas

Monday March 28, 2022 8:30am 3:45pm CST

Celeste De Luna

Michel Flores Tavizón

Beatriz Guzmán Velasquez

Rawmirez

Jessica Denise Villegas

Josie Del Castillo

Ruby E. Garza

QueenKillahBee

Julietta Rivera

SYMPOSIUMONGLORIAANZALDÚA

UTRGV Edinburg Ballroom Monday, March 28, 2022

REGISTRATION & BREAKFAST

INTERPRETACIÓN AL ESPAÑOL DISPONIBLE

MUSIC - DJ QUEENKILLAHBEE

BIENVENIDA

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, Rosalva Resendiz

WELCOME, Emmy Pérez & Stephanie Alvarez

8:30am CST

8:45am CST

PANEL 1 9:00am - 10:15am CST

GLORIA ANZALDÚA, THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY & TEJAS

Priscilla Celina "Lina" Suarez (Gloria Anzaldúa Legacy Project)

Silvia Patricia Solís (UTRGV)

Anel I. Flores (La Otra Taller Nepantla)

Inés Hernández Ávila (UC Davis)

Moderator: Noreen Rivera (UTRGV)

SYMPOSIUMONGLORIAANZALDÚA

UTRGV Edinburg Ballroom

PANEL 2

GLORIA ANZALDÚA’S IMPACT I

10:30am 11:45am CST

Norma E. Cantú (Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa & Trinity U.)

Graciela Sánchez (Esperanza Peace & Justice Center)

Alicia Gaspar de Alba (UCLA)

Moderator: Cynthia Paccacerqua (UTRGV)

LUNCH & POETRY PERFORMANCE

11:45am 12:45pm CST

Host: Priscilla Celina "Lina" Suarez (Gloria Anzaldúa Legacy Project)

Ari Chagoya (doula, sobadora, curandera)

César L. de León (UTRGV)

Daniel García Ordaz (McAllen Poet Laureate 2023 & Texas Tech U.)

Erika Garza (South Texas College)

Amalia Ortiz (SAY Sí)

José Antonio Rodríguez (UTRGV)

Veronica “Lady Mariposa” Sandoval (Washington State University)

Art Statement Presentation: Beatriz Guzmán Velásquez

SYMPOSIUM ON GLORIA ANZALDÚA

UTRGV Edinburg Ballroom

PANEL 3

1:00pm 2:15pm CST

GLORIA ANZALDÚA'S IMPACT II

Rebeca L. Hey Colón (Temple University)

Celeste De Luna (Northwest Vista College)

Sheila Contreras (Michigan State University)

Moderator: Stephanie Alvarez (UTRGV)

PANEL 4 2:30pm 3:45pm CST

GLORIA ANZALDUA'S IMPACT & PERSPECTIVES INTO THE FUTURE

Ana Maurine Lara (University of Oregon)

Sergio Gael Barrera (University of Michigan)

Alexandra Nichole Salazar (Jotxs y Recuerdos & UT Austin)

Moderator: Aaron Hinojosa (UTRGV)

Photo: Giard, Robert

LITERARY LANDMARK UNVEILING

UTRGV University Library Courtyard 4:00pm 4:45pm CST

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Reading of Anzaldúa's Work by Local Poets Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa Gloria Anzaldúa Legacy Project UTRGV Center for Mexican American Studies Texas Center for the Book Member of Anzaldúa’s Family

UTRGV University Library Lobby 5:00pm 6:00pm CST

Painting by Kathy Sosa donated by Sandra Cisneros in partnership with the South Texas Literacy Coalition

SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS

SERGIO G. BARRERA

University of Michigan

Sergio G Barrera is a native of the Rio Grande Valley and alumnus of MAS at UTPA/UTRGV. He is a current Doctoral Candidate in the Department of American Culture at the University of Michigan where his works finds that men of color in homosocial spaces use brotherhood and performance as methods that intervene with heteropatriarchal structures that influence men to behave in hypermasculine tendencies. In addition, Barrera values community formations, inclusive spaces, emotional well being, and expressive freedoms in scholarship, teaching, and practice. He has published essays in Rio Bravo: Journal of the Borderlands and El Mundo Zurdo. He also is a recipient of the 2017 National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Frederick A. Cervantes award for best essay by a graduate student.

NORMA E. CANTÚ

Trinity University

Dr. Norma E. Cantú, a daughter of the borderlands, is the Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. She is the founder and director of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa, and organized El Mundo Zurdo, a gathering of Anzalduistas from 2007 2019. Her most recent publications include two anthologies: Teaching Gloria E. Anzaldúa: Pedagogies and Practices for our Classrooms and our Communities, Mexicana Fashions: Politics, Self Adornment, and Identity Construction, and Entre Guadalupe y Malinche: Tejanas in Literature and Art; Cabañuelas, a novel; and Meditación Fronteriza: Poems of Love, Life, and Labor. She serves on the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center Conjunto de Nepantleras and the boards of the Macondo Writers Workshop and the American Folklore Society as Past President An activist scholar, poet, writer, and folklorist she has published widely in the field of Chicane Studies and Border Studies

ARI CHAGOYA

Ari Chagoya is a 21st century queer, Indigenous Curandera, Mera Nepantlera, Doula/Childbirth Compañera, Writer, Poet, Artist, and Godmother.

SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS

SHEILA CONTRERAS

Michigan State University

Sheila Contreras is Associate Professor of English at Michigan State University She directed MSU’s Chicano/Latino Studies Program from 2008 2015 From 2015 2017, she served as Associate Dean of Curriculum, Diversity and Inclusion, in the College of Arts & Letters at MSU. Her research and teaching interests include Chicanx and U.S. Latinx literature, multi ethnic literatures, comparative indigeneities, & women ' s studies. Her first book, Blood Lines: Myth, Indigenism and Chicana/o Literature (Texas, 2008) examined the archaeology of literary indigenism in Mexican American creative & political writing. Her current research moves in two directions: one explores the relationship between Mexican Americans and land through comparatist settler colonialist contexts, and the other examines Latinx student success in higher education. She has essays in Sociology of Race & Ethnicity (2018), Keywords in Latina and Latino Studies (NYU 2017) and Teaching Chicana and Mexicana Literatures (MLA 2020). A first generation college student, Contreras began her journey to the PhD in the community college system of South Texas.

CÉSAR L. DE LEÓN

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

César L. de León is the author of speaking with grackles by soapberry trees (FlowerSong 2021), which received the 2022 John A. Robertson Award for Best First Book of Poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters. He is a poet organizer for Poets Against Walls and his poetry has been published in various anthologies and journals such as Along the River 2: More Voices From the Rio Grande and Juventud!: Growing up on the Border among other anthologies and journals. De León is a Golden Circle Award recipient from The University of Columbia Press and he holds an MFA in creative writing with a certificate in Mexican American Studies from UTRGV

CELESTE DE LUNA

Northwest Vista College, Metzli Press

Celeste De Luna is an artist/printmaker from the lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas Rooted in a Chicana feminist perspective, she seeks to tease out the intricacies of living in and along the borderlands in her art as well as a narrative world builder who envisions the past, present and futuristic frontera. De Luna is a self taught printmaker whose work includes large scale woodcut prints and fabric installation. She is a co founder of the socially engaged art collective Las Imaginistas, an accomplished home cook, and cultural advocate. Her recipes appear in the book Don’t Count the Tortillas by Adan Medrano & she also appears in his film Truly Texas Mexican advocating for traditional food, street vendors & cultural lifeways. Currently, she lives in San Antonio, works out of her home studio, Metzli Press and teaches Mexican American Studies and Art for Northwest Vista College. “A true daughter of the borderlands, her art celebrates the quotidian and the exceptional on the border,” writes Inés Hernández Ávila.

SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS

ANEL I. FLORES

La Otra Taller Nepantla

Anel I. Flores’ craft manifests as graphic memoir, poetry, fiction, silver, and paintings, as a continuation & evolution of the conversations started by the Xicana/e/x movement in art & literature, now infused by latina/e/x, transfeminism, intersectionality, queer politics & resistencia Her work combines, oscillates between, and blurs these different disciplines in an ultimate goal to provide ancestral healing, present day joy, & a re centering of Womyn of Color, Latina/e/x, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ Womyn, Femmes and Gender Non Binary folx She is founder and director of La Otra Taller Nepantla Residency and an MFA in Creative Writing Her awards include Catalyst for Change, Best Local Poet, Women’s Advocate of the Year, the Nebrija Creadores Award, Best Of SA Author, Chingona in Literature Award, Ancinas Award at Squaw Valley, NALAC Fund for the Arts Award, Acción Women Inspiring Women & others. She is co editor of forthcoming Jota Anthology and author of Lambda award nominated book Empanada: A Lesbiana Story en Probaditas.

DANIEL GARCÍA ORDAZ

McAllen Poet Laureate 2023 & Texas Tech University

TEDx Speaker and Pushcart Prize nominee Daniel García Ordaz, a.k.a. The Poet Mariachi, is a teacher at La Joya Early College and South Texas College. García appears in "ALTAR: Cruzando fronteras/Building bridges,” an homage to our Gloria. He is a co founder of the Gloria Anzaldúa Legacy Project as well as the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival García’s writing appears in Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican In America (2021), I SING: THE BODY (Poems About Body Image) (2021), Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century (2020), Poetry of Resistance: Voices For Social Justice (2016), and Juventud! Growing up on the Border: Stories and Poems (2013). His books include You Know What I'm Sayin'? (2006) and Cenzontle/Mockingbird: Songs of Empowerment (2018.) García earned an MFA in Creative Writing from UTRGV. He is a songwriter, former journalist, a Navy veteran. He will serve as 2023 McAllen Poet Laureate.

ERIKA GARZA South Texas College

Erika Garza grew up in Elsa, Texas, and has been reading and performing her poetry in the Río Grande Valley since 2001 Garza received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Texas Pan American A writing instructor at South Texas College, she lives in McAllen She has served as the poetry editor for New Border Voices: An Anthology (Texas A&M University Press, 2014) and ¡Juventud! Growing Up on the Border (VAO Publishing, 2013). Additionally, her poetry has been featured online in La Bloga, Con Tinta, and Poets Against SB 1070. Her work has also appeared in Texas Observer & BorderSenses. She is the author of the poetry collection Unwoven, published by Flower Song Press.

SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS

ALICIA GASPAR DE ALBA

University of California, Los Angeles

A native of the El Paso/Juárez border, Alicia Gaspar de Alba is a Chicana writer/scholar/activist who uses prose, poetry, and theory for social change With a Ph D in American Studies from the University of New Mexico, Alicia is a Professor of Chicana/o Studies, English, and Gender Studies at UCLA, where she has taught since 1994, when she was hired as a founding faculty member of the César E Chávez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies She teaches courses in Chicana lesbian/feminist literature and theory, border studies, barrio popular culture & bilingual creative writing. Her research focuses on persecuted women across time & culture, particularly those who have been labeled “bad women ” because they defy the sex & gender dictates that patriarchy enforces on the female body. Alicia has published 12 books, among them, award winning novels, poetry and short story collections, anthologies & single authored academic texts. With her wife, Alma Lopez, she is currently working on an illustrated biography of Gloria Anzaldúa. For more about Alicia check out https://aliciagaspardealba.net.

INÉS HERNÁNDEZ-ÁVILA

University of California, Davis

Professor Hernández Avila is Niimiipuu/Nez Perce, enrolled on the Colville Reservation, Washington, on her mother's side, and Tejana on her father's side. A scholar, poet, and visual artist, her research and teaching focus on contemporary Indigenous literature and religious traditions of the Americas. She is one of the six founders of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA). In April 2017, she received the Frank Bonilla Public Intellectual Award from the Latino Studies section of the Latin American Studies Association. In August 2017, she received a Community Award from the Organización de Organizaciones, Chiapas, Mexico, for her work as an ally to the cultural and linguistic revitalization movements of Mayan peoples in Chiapas. She is a member of Luk'upsíimey/The North Star Collective, a Niimiipuu/Nez Perce creative writers’ group. She was an activist in the Movimiento in Tejas she became friends with Gloria in the mid 1970s and considers her a sacred muse.

SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS

REBECA L. HEY COLÓN

Temple University

Dr Hey Colón is Assistant Professor of Latinx Studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Temple University She specializes in Afro Latinx and Latinx Studies, Caribbean Studies, Border Studies, and Afro Diasporic Spirituality Born and raised in Puerto Rico, she earned her bachelor's degree from Haverford College and her Ph D in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University Her current book project, Channeling Knowledges: Afro Diasporic Waters in Latinx and Caribbean Worlds, centers the multi directional flows of water, migration, gender, race, and spirituality in contemporary Latinx and Caribbean cultural production. Hey Colón’s work is forthcoming in Aztlán, and can be found in Chicana/Latina Studies Journal, Latino Studies, and Small Axe, among others. In 2018, she was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship, and in 2017 2018 she was the Carlos E. Castañeda Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS).

AARON HINOJOSA

University of Texas Río Grande Valley Hinojosa holds a Master of Science, College Student Affairs, and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication. Aaron is the Program Coordinator for the Center for Diversity & Inclusion and DREAM Resource Center and has been at UTRGV since August 2017. He has developed and oversees the DREAM Zone Advocate Training which aims to educate the UTRGV community on the realities of DACA/undocumented students and provide support. He has also developed the LEAP Diversity & Inclusion Workshop which is an interactive and educational workshop regarding identity, privilege, language, allyship, and other important social justice elements. Aaron also manages the Ally Safe Zone Training which helps educate the members of the community about LGBTQ+ realities and provides resources for support. Aaron also continues to develop programming efforts that are innovative and interactive with diversity and inclusivity in mind either through collaborations (on and off campus) or through new projects (like the Community Connections, People Series, or Healing Circles)

ANA-MAURINE LARA

University of Portland

Ana Maurine Lara is a national award winning novelist, poet, and scholar She is the author of Erzulie’s Skirt, Kohnjehr Woman, and When the Sun Once Again Sang to the People. Her academic books include Queer Freedom: Black Sovereignty and Streetwalking: LGBTQ Lives and Protest in the Dominican Republic. Lara’s work focuses on questions of Black and Indigenous freedom.

SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS

CAROLINA MONSIVÁIS

South Texas College

Carolina Monsiváis is the author of Somewhere Between Houston and El Paso, Elisa’s Hunger, and Descent A dedicated advocate in the field of domestic violence and sexual assault, she has worked with survivors in Texas, New Mexico and Juárez She earned degrees from the University of Houston (B A), New Mexico State University (M.F.A.) and the University of Texas at El Paso (Ph.D.). Monsiváis currently teaches History at South Texas College in McAllen, Texas, where she also proudly coordinates the Mexican American Studies Program.

AMALIA ORTIZ

SAY Sí

Amalia Ortiz was awarded the 2020 American Book Award for Oral Literature and appeared on three seasons of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO NBC Latino named her book of poetry, Rant Chant Chisme one of “10 Great Latino Books of 2015,” It was also awarded the 2015 Writers' League of Texas Poetry Discovery Prize She was chosen to speak at TEDx McAllen 2015 She was awarded the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation Grant, a writing residency at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, and the 2018 NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant to film videos for her latest book The Canción Cannibal Cabaret & Other Songs. She won a 2021 City of San Antonio Individual Artist Grant to create poetry inspired by women in punk. She is a CantoMundo Fellow and a Hedgebrook writer in residence alumna. Amalia received her MFA in Creative Writing from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

CYNTHIA PACCACERQUA

University

of Texas Río Grande Valley

Dr. Cynthia Paccacerqua is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Affiliate Faculty in MAS at UTRGV. A Baltimore native who spent her formative years in Rosario Argentina, she received her Ph.D in Philosophy from SUNY Stony Brook. Dr. Paccacerqua specializes in social, political, and cultural philosophy within the traditions of Western, Latina o, and Latin American/ Decolonial Philosophy, as well as in Modern Philosophy, Kant’s theoretical philosophy in particular. She earned a MA in Latin American Studies from Stanford University. She is currently working on two research projects: 1 On the underlying epistemological relationships between ideal liberal social contract theory and neoclassical economics, within a framework of critical race theory 2 On the critical philosophy of Gloria Anzaldúa, grounded in the history of deep South and South Texas In 2014 Dr Paccacerqua was awarded the University Teaching Excellence Award. She served as the Department’s Coordinator for the Anzaldúa Speaker Series in Philosophy at UTRGV.

SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS

ROSALVA RESENDIZ

University of Texas Río GrandeValley

Rosalva Resendiz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice

Her work engages Critical Chicana Feminism with a focus on “intersectionality” and identity politics, considering colonialism, decolonialism, and postcolonialism Her activism and research intersect Border Studies/Chicana Feminism/Social Justice/Critical Criminology She is researching and has published on Corridos and Soldaderas as well as indigenous resistance and injustice on the border.

NOREEN RIVERA

University of Texas Río Grande Valley

Noreen Rivera is associate professor of literature and cultural studies at UTRGV and coordinator of the UTRGV Voces of a Pandemic Oral History Project, a public facing digital archive, partnered with the University of Texas at Austin Voces Oral History Center, that preserves stories of Latinx communities affected by the Covid 19 pandemic. Her research studies nineteenth and twentieth century Mexican American cultural producers, via interdisciplinary frameworks, across regional, national, transborder and global geographies. She is currently working on a critical edition titled The Far East Journals and Other Cold War Era Writings of Américo Paredes, which recovers Américo Paredes’s life writing in the context of the global Cold War. Her essays appear in Aztlán, the Journal of South Texas, Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage, Chicana/Latina Studies, and Oxford Bibliographies. Her poetry appears in Reverberations of Racial Violence: Critical Reflections on the History of the Border

JOSÉ ANTONIO RODRÍGUEZ

University of Texas Río Grande Valley

Jose Antonio Rodríguez’s books include the poetry collections The Shallow End of Sleep, Backlit Hour and This American Autopsy, and the memoir House Built on Ashes. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, Latin American Literature Today, the anthology Nepantla Familias, and elsewhere His awards and honors include the Bob Bush Memorial Award from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Discovery Award from the Writers’ League of Texas, finalist citations for the PEN America Los Angeles award, the Lambda Literary Award, the Paterson Poetry Prize, and multiple nominations for the Pushcart Prize, among others. He holds degrees in Biology and Theatre Arts and a PhD in English from Binghamton University He is editor in chief of the national literary journal riverSedge and teaches in the MFA program at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS

ALEXANDRA NICHOLE SALAZAR

University of Texas Austin

Alexandra Nichole Salazar (she/her/ella) is a PhD student in the Mexican American and Latina/o Studies program at UT Austin Her research focuses on queer kinships and untold histories of South Texas through performance ethnography, archives, and narrative collections She is also the host of Jotxs y Recuerdos, a podcast dedicated to archiving queer stories from the Rio Grande Valley and other borderlands Follow Jotxs y Recuerdos @jotxsyrecuerdos podcast

GRACIELA SÁNCHEZ

Esperanza Peace and Justice Center

Graciela follows in the footsteps of her mother and abuelitas, strong neighborhood women of color cultural workers and activists of San Antonio. As a Buena Gente of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, a community based cultural arts/social justice organization, Graciela works with staff and community to develop programs that culturally ground working class and poor people of color, queer people and women, individuals who are survivors of cultural genocide Facilitating conversations on issues of colonization, genocide, power, violence, racism, sexism, and homophobia among others, Graciela works with community members to develop and curate programs such as CineMujer, Uprooted: Tierra, Gente, y Cultura, Palestinians, and Other Occupied Peoples, as well as organize gente to challenge oppressive laws in San Antonio, the United States, and the world.

VERONICA SANDOVAL

Washington State University

Veronica Sandoval is a PhD candidate at Washington State University and graduate of UTPA/UTRGV’s MFA in creative writing program Sandoval’s research interest includes La Chola, the Chola Vida/OG Chola Pinup Network, the Ovarian Psycos, Adelitas, Pachucas, homegirl aesthetics, chola agency, and an emphasis on Chicana feminist epistemology that centers Chicana legacies of resistance. Her frameworks include Chicana feminism, Global Feminism, Chicana Materialism, Motherworks, and Queer of Color Critique. Her research covers a wide array of subjects and political practices such as immigration, the prison industrial complex, cholas, chola agency, Adelitas, Pachucas, lowriders, lowrider arte, and Chola cultural productions such as photography, art, barrio print magazines, social media, podcasts, blogs, and youtube channels. She is also the spoken word artist Lady Mariposa, a sCHOLAr and poet who has been performing for over 20 years. Her writing has appeared in several anthologies and a spoken word CD.

SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS

SILVIA PATRICIA SOLÍS

University of Texas Río Grande Valley

Silvia Patricia Solís is a lecturer in Gender and Women’s Studies and Environmental Studies in the School of Interdisciplinary Programs and Community Engagement

She is the Art Editor of Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies She received her Ph D at the University of Utah in 2020 Her research expands on land and place based epistemologies, pedagogies, and methodologies by tracing saberes curativos, curative knowing, and practices people hold in relation to taking care and curing within family and community. It centers intergenerational learning, remembering, and everyday practices in the home and gardens of Indigenous, Black, and Afro descendant peoples in the diaspora living along the U.S. Mexico border. U.S. Feminist of color, Indigenous Feminists, and decolonial feminist theory are at the center of her theoretical foundations.

PRISCILLA CELINA SUÁREZ

Gloria Anzaldúa Legacy Project

Priscillla Celina “Lina” Suárez is a Mexican American author who was the 2015 17 McAllen Poet Laureate She is co founder of the Gloria Anzaldúa Legacy Project (GAL) which was formed to honor the legacy of Anzaldúa and share her work with a broader public. During her childhood, she lived surrounded by the farmlands of the then small colonia of Las Milpas, TX, where she first heard many of the cuentos she shares in Cuentos Wela Told Me. Her poetry collection, La La Landia: A Journey Through my Frontera CD Shuffle, is forthcoming this Spring from FlowerSong Press.

STEPHANIE ALVAREZ

University of Texas Río Grande Valley

Stephanie Alvarez is an Associate Professor of Mexican American Studies and the Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. She has been recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for Teaching as the U.S. Professor of the Year, the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education with the Outstanding Latino/a Faculty in Higher Ed award, and the University of Texas System Board of Regents with the Outstanding Teaching Award. She is the first ever Director of Mexican American Studies and founding Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies at UTRGV legacy institution, the University of Texas Pan American. She is co editor of AmeRícan: Essays on the Work of Tato Laviera She has authored numerous essays on the intersection of Latinx education, gender, language, identity, and culture You can find her most recent co authored essay in the Harvard Educational Review Her work is motivated by and grounded in her lived experiences as a Latina student, educator, and mother of three

VISUAL ARTISTS

RUBY DE LA FUENTE

Texas based interdisciplinary artist Ruby De La Fuente, has been honing her skills in 2 Dimensional art since, 2011 Originally, Ruby’s practice began in printmaking, oil and encaustic paintings It has evolved from creating evocative paintings of domestic violence to prints on motherhood As her life transforms, she’s found herself going back to her roots in printmaking. Currently, she’s exploring the challenges of motherhood, through race and personal narratives.

CELESTE DE LUNA

Celeste De Luna is an artist/printmaker from the lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. Rooted in a Chicana feminist perspective, she seeks to tease out the intricacies of living in and along the borderlands in her art as well as a narrative world builder who envisions the past, present, and futuristic frontera. De Luna is a self taught printmaker whose work includes large scale woodcut prints and fabric installation. She is a co founder of the socially engaged art collective Las Imaginistas, an accomplished home cook, and cultural advocate. Her recipes appear in the book Don’t Count the Tortillas by Adan Medrano and she also appears in his film Truly Texas Mexican advocating for traditional food, street vendors, and cultural lifeways. Currently, she lives in San Antonio, works out of her home studio, Metzli Press, and teaches Mexican American Studies and Art for Northwest Vista College. “A true daughter of the borderlands, her art celebrates the quotidian and the exceptional on the border,” writes Inés Hernández Ávila. You may find more information about her work at www celestedeluna com

JOSIE DEL CASTILLO

Josie Del Castillo is an artist born and raised in Brownsville, Texas. In 2020, she earned her MFA from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Best known for her vivid portraits, Del Castillo focuses on the empowerment of the female form, personal growth, and reflections of her Mexican American upbringing on La Frontera Like most borderland cities, Del Castillo’s hometown of Brownsville is culturally and politically complex Yet, Del Castillo ignores negative representations and perpetuated stereotypes of the region and its border communities by politicians and news media. Instead, she focuses on representing the region with warmth and positivity through colorful depictions as vibrant as its people. Her work combines self portraiture, portraits of community members, and the scenic landscapes of the Rio Grande Valley. Most recently, she’s incorporated her fondness for plants, which she sees as a symbol of growth. She explains, “We all grow under different conditions and have specific needs to remember to nurture.”

VISUAL ARTISTS

ANEL I. FLORES

Anel I Flores’ craft manifests as graphic memoir, poetry, fiction, silver, and paintings, as a continuation and evolution of the conversations started by the Xicana/e/x movement in art and literature, now infused by latina/e/x, transfeminism, intersectionality, queer politics and resistencia Her work combines, oscillates between, and blurs these different disciplines in an ultimate goal to provide ancestral healing, present day joy, and a re centering of Womyn of Color, Latina/e/x, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ Womyn, Femmes and Gender Non Binary folx. She is founder and director of La Otra Taller Nepantla Residency and an MFA in Creative Writing. Her awards include Catalyst for Change, Best Local Poet, Women’s Advocate of the Year, the Nebrija Creadores Award, Best Of SA Author, Chingona in Literature Award, Ancinas Award at Squaw Valley, NALAC Fund for the Arts Award, Accion Women Inspiring Women & others.

MICHEL FLORES TAVIZÓN

Michel Flores Tavizón is an artist, printmaker and graphic designer born and raised in Matamoros, Tamaulipas. Her work focuses on topics like women ’ s issues, Mexican culture, identity and immigration. She received her BFA in Art with concentration on graphic design from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in 2021. “Ni de aquí ni de allá” is a woodcut print reflecting the duality of cultures in border towns. This is a self portrait inspired by Frida Kahlo’s “Las dos Fridas” painting, portraying my two identities. The Mexican side, which represents my roots, and the American side that represents where I stand now. Standing in between two countries, makes you feel like you belong to neither, and to both at the same time. Gloria Anzaldúa has written about a similar feeling in her books, “Living on borders and in margins, keeping intact one ' s shifting and multiple identity and integrity, is like trying to swim in a new element, an 'alien' element.”

RUBY E. GARZA

Ruby E. Garza is a multidisciplinary Chicana artist from Brownsville, TX who received her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (2019). Garza’s work deals with childhood memories, machismo, and immigration related issues. She has had solo exhibitions at AreVivo Art Studio, Brownsville (2018) and the Carlotta K. Petrina Cultural Center, Brownsville (2018). She has also been included in exhibitions throughout Texas including the Brownsville Fine Art Museum (2018); PlatForm 204, Harlingen (2018); Mi Vida Loca Gallery, Corpus Christi (2019); La Peña and the Visual Arts Center, Austin (2020). Garza has volunteered as an art instructor and gallery assistant at the Carlotta K Petrina Cultural Center for students from low income homes and is currently a small business owner and gallery director of La Chicharra Studio which functions as a community space for exhibitions, workshops, and other public events in Brownsville, Texas

VISUAL ARTISTS

NANSI GUEVARA

Nansi Guevara is a designer, artist, & teacher based in Brownsville, Texas. Originally from Laredo, Texas, she holds a bachelor’s in Fine Arts in Design from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master’s in Education from Harvard University. She is currently focused on design, education, and community public art to create spaces of resistance and affirmation, and economies of community cultural wealth and support. She is a graphic designer, an illustrator, and a textile/rasquache based public artist. She runs her own freelance design & education practice, Corazón Contento, based out of Brownsville, Texas. She is an adjunct lecturer at the School of Art at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Nansi has been awarded residencies, fellowships, & grants from the NEA, Artplace America, a Blade of Grass, NALAC, and most recently the Santa Fe Art Institute Artist Residency.

BEATRIZ GUZMÁN VELÁSQUEZ

Beatriz Guzmán Velásquez is a visual artist and educator living and working in the Texas U.S. Southwest/Mexican border region. She received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is an alumna from the New York Studio School and the University of Texas Pan American. For the year 2021 2022, she is participating in DocX Archive Lab Fellowship with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Recently, she formed part of the National Association of Latinos Arts and Culture Fellowship and completed her residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. In 2019, she joined the New York Foundation for the Arts Immigrant Artist Program and was awarded Artist In Residence at Lazuli Residency in Vermont She is the founder of Juana Simona, a space dedicated to creativity and the stewardship of the land

QUEENKILLAHBEE

aka Beatriz Montejano

Cultivated on both sides of the South Texas/ Tamaulipas frontera, QueenKillahBee fuses past and present sounds and juxtaposes seemingly unrelated genres to stir up both body and soul, keeping music selection as diverse as the Rio Grande Valley cultura She sees art, music, and dancing as a form of connection and expression and her own way of decolonizing and rebelling against the machismo that has been so deeply ingrained From her beginnings with Perreo Peligroso, a series of parties by women, for women and lgbtq+folx, she aimed to create an environment so they could feel safe and completely comfortable dancing and feeling themselves al 100 and to have a space free of machismo and enjoy the night out without getting harassed at every turn. As a woman who has unceasingly worked to uplift others, QueenKillahbBee definitely puts great effort into reminding women+ trans, non gender, & LGBTQs that they are strong, powerful, and deserving.

VISUAL ARTISTS

ALEXIS RAMOS

Texas Born & Valley raised artist Alexis Marie Ramos, originally from Weslaco, currently attends the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, College of Fine Arts pursuing her MFA. Her art is centralized around La Cocina, and the many roles women play and the intricate roles of food, religion, folk medicine, folk healing, and curanderismo play with the cities along the Rio Grande Valle/Mexico border Drawing inspiration from growing up In the Rio Grande Valle many of her sculptures, installations, paintings, illustrate the remedies used to treat these culture bound syndromes. Ramos who completed her BFA at UTRGV with a focus on ceramics was one of the few students who learned the art of Lost wax bronze casting having collaborated on several monumental sculptures in the Rio Grande Valley. Focusing on the process and practice using vignettes from childhood, Ramos is creating an archive of how local Latino/as of the region heal the home, the family, and even how commercial objects are imbued with folk magic. Ramos explores the borders where foods, ingredients, and folk medicine customs blur. View more of her work at IG: @ms.alexisramos/ or https://alexismramos.wixsite.com/alexismramos

RAWMIREZ

aka Josue Ramírez

Rawmirez is a cultural worker and community advocate in the Rio Grande Valley along the US Mexico Border. He is a multi disciplinary artist working through visual art, installation, crafts, and performance. Rawmirez is the Director of Raw Creativity for Trucha, a multimedia collective and online platform focused on the arts, culture and social movements of the region.

JULIETTA RIVERA

Born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley, Julietta Rivera is a lifelong artist, maker, and storyteller. She is currently a graduate student in the Creative Writing Department at UTRGV and is working on a graphic memoir titled Torcida. She brings her authentic and unique voice to bring stories to life both with her artwork and written word. She credits Gloria Anzaldua for allowing her to be her bona fide self both in her writing, art, and personal expression "There is a rebel inside of me the Shadow Beast It is part of me that refuses to take orders from outside authorities. It refuses to take orders from my conscious will, it threatens the sovereignty of my rulership. It is the part of me that hates constraints of any kind, even those self imposed. At the least hint of limitations on my time or space by others, it kicks out with both feet. Bolts." Gloria Anzaldúa

VISUAL ARTISTS

JESSICA DENISE VILLEGAS

Jessica Denise Villegas is a multidisciplinary artist based in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas. She received her Bachelors of Fine Art at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley with a minor concentration in Mexican American Studies. Villegas has dedicated her artistic career to cultivating a new historical narrative, which is inclusive of the Latinx/Chicanx community. Focusing on border culture, politics, and social injustice. She utilizes clay as a tool to create vessels that produce a physical presence and acknowledgment of the long history of oppression and misrepresentation of the Latinx/Chicanx community in U.S. history. Her works have been recently featured at the Lufrano Gallery of Art, The University of North Florida (2021); Art Space Gallery, Richmond, VA (2020); Clay Art Center, Port Chester, NY (2021). View more of her works at jdenisevillegas.com.

NYDIA SALINAS

Nydia Salinas, she/her (b.1998) is a visual artist who grew up in between Progreso, Texas and Nvo. Progreso, Mexico. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a concentration in ceramics from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in 2020 Salinas recently participated in an International Artist Residency: Arquetopia (2021) on Pre Columbian Ceramics in Puebla, Mexico thanks to the support of the Center for Latin American Arts at UTRGV. Salinas explores the dialect of the Rio Grande Valley, and bases the conversation around her work on linguistic theories from text. Her ceramic vessels invite the viewer into a headspace where they can embrace their tongue and reject the idea of a “standard language” The dynamic of her upbringing and the community she has encountered is what inspired her journey in sharing the lived experiences of the people living on forced borderlands. Connect on website the nydiaspace.com or Instagram @ nydias

and

woman with power

is feared.

MUSICIANS

CONJUNTO LOS PODEROSOS

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PSJA Early College High School Director, Minerva Villescas Principal, Alejandro Elías

ANZALDÚA & PSJA

ISD

Anzaldúa taught for six years in Pharr San Juan Alamo ISD. She taught pre school at Vida Clover Elementary (1967 1968) & Henry Ford Elementary (1968 1969), Special Education at John Doedyns Elementary (1969 1970), and English at PSJA HS (1970 1973).

Anzaldúa, PSJA HS Yearbook 1973

LITERARY LANDMARK

ABOUT

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Literary Landmark Program in Texas is made possible by:

United for Libraries

Texas State Library and Archives Commission

Texas Center for the Book Summerlee Foundation

Texas Library and Archives Foundation

Literary Landmark for Gloria Anzaldúa is made possible by application submitted by Emmy Pérez, UTRGV Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) & Norma E. Cantú, Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa (SSGA) to the Literary Landmark Program.

Support for the Literary Landmark application & its maintenance, along with CMAS & the SSGA, is provided by Gloria Anzaldúa Legacy Project (GAL) Project, UTRGV Center for Diversity and Inclusion and DREAM Resource Center, and UTRGV Library.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

UTRGV CMAS wishes to thanks the following individuals & organizations for their support & encouragement

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CMAS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Emmy Pérez Stephanie Alvarez

Samantha López

Ashley Cantú José "Pepe" García Gilling Ruby E. Garza

Paola Hernández

PLANNING COMMITTEE

Marianna Alessandri Jo Reyes Boitel

Karen Dorado María García

Aaron Hinojosa Katherine Moore McAllen

Norma E. Cantú

Christen García Sperry

Priscilla "Lina" Suarez

Shannon Pensa Verónica Sandoval Paul Sharpe

ART WORK

Nansi Guevara

NEPANTLA POP UP EXHIBITION

Ruby E. Garza

WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO

María Carmona Alonso

Miranda Garza

Noemí Martínez

Rene Ballesteros

Francisco Guajardo

John De La Garza

Juan Carlos Ortiz

Alexandra Nichole Salazar Raul Sáenz

Iván Torres Amanda Tovar

Javier Zambrano

PSJA ISD Tesoros Fine Cuisine UTRGV BESO

UTRGV CBS Museum of South Texas History UTRGV TiO

All who helped make more possible and to our participants, students, friends, community members, and families for their time, energy & love.

EVENT SPONSORS

Center for Mexican American Studies

International Programs

School of Art and Design Center for Bilingual Studies University Library Creative Writing Program

Department of Writing and Language Studies Center for Latin American Arts Department of Curriculum & Instruction College of Education & P 16 Initiatives College of Liberal Arts Center for Diversity & Inclusion DREAM Resource Center Graduate College FESTIBA B3 Institute

Department of Literature & Cultural Studies Department of Bilingual & Literacy Studies Department of Philosophy School of Interdisciplinary Studies and Community Engagement Mexican American Studies Program Gender and Women’s Studies Program