Gloria E. Anzaldúa Google doodle marks 75th birthday of ‘Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza’ writer

Today’s Google doodle celebrates the author and political theorist Gloria E. Anzaldúa on what would have been her 75th birthday.

Born on this date in South Texas, Anzaldúa grew up on both sides of the America-Mexico border. She graduated from the Panamerican University in 1969 and moved to California in 1977, focusing her writing on a number of political disciplines, including Chicano studies, women’s studies and LGBT theory.

In 1987, she penned her semi-autobiographical novel, “Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza” — arguably Anzaldúa’s most well-known work.

From Google Doodle blog:

Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, alternates between English and Spanish and includes a variety of forms — from poem to prose, from critique to confessional. This striking mix of voices and perspectives earned Borderlands a place on Literary Journal’s list of best books of 1987.

As Google notes, Anzaldúa was both American and Mexican and chose to live her life neither as one or the other, but as both.

“I am a border woman. I grew up between two cultures, the Mexican (with heavy Indian influence) and the Anglo (as a member of a colonized people in our own territory),” writes Anzaldúa in the preface of “Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza.” “I have been straddling the tejas-Mexican border, and others, all my life. It’s not a comfortable territory to live in, this place of contradictions. Hatred, anger and exploitation are the prominent features of this landscape.”

The doodle leads to a search for “Gloria E. Anzaldúa” and includes the usual sharing icon to post the image on social pages or send via email. Here is the full doodle artwork highlighting Anzaldúa and the landscape of her birthplace:

Google says today’s doodle celebrates Anzaldúa’s ability to live across borders as “… both native and foreigner.”