Teaching Gloria E. Anzaldúa

Pedagogy and Practice for Our Classrooms and Communities

Edited by Margaret Cantú-Sánchez, Candace de León-Zepeda, and Norma Elia Cantú

The University of Arizona Press

Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa—theorist, Chicana, feminist—famously called on scholars to do work that matters. This pronouncement was a rallying call, inspiring scholars across disciplines to become scholar-activists and to channel their intellectual energy and labor toward the betterment of society. Scholars and activists alike have encountered and expanded on these pathbreaking theories and concepts first introduced by Anzaldúa in Borderlands/La frontera and other texts.

Teaching Gloria E. Anzaldúa is a pragmatic and inspiring offering of how to apply Anzaldúa’s ideas to the classroom and in the community rather than simply discussing them as theory. The book gathers nineteen essays by scholars, activists, teachers, and professors who share how their first-hand use of Anzaldúa’s theories in their classrooms and community environments.

The collection is divided into three main parts, according to the ways the text has been used: “Curriculum Design,” “Pedagogy and Praxis,” and “Decolonizing Pedagogies.” As a pedagogical text, Teaching Gloria E. Anzaldúa also offers practical advice in the form of lesson plans, activities, and other suggested resources for the classroom. This volume offers practical and inspiring ways to deploy Anzaldúa’s transformative theories with real and meaningful action.

Contributors
Carolina E. Alonso
Cordelia Barrera
Christina Bleyer
Altheria Caldera
Norma E. Cantú
Margaret Cantú-Sánchez
Freyca Calderon-Berumen
Stephanie Cariaga
Dylan Marie Colvin
Candace de León-Zepeda
Miryam Espinosa-Dulanto
Alma Itzé Flores
Christine Garcia
Patricia M. García
Patricia Pedroza González
María del Socorro Gutiérrez-Magallanes
Leandra H. Hernández
Nina Hoechtl
Rían Lozano
Socorro Morales
Anthony Nuño
Karla O’Donald
Christina Puntasecca
Dagoberto Eli Ramirez
José L. Saldívar
Tanya J. Gaxiola Serrano
Verónica Solís
Alexander V. Stehn
Carlos A. Tarin
Sarah De Los Santos Upton
Carla Wilson
Kelli Zaytoun

Brilliantly weaving [Anzaldúa’s] writings and theories into their curriculum and pedagogies, the authors in this volume demonstrate practical yet innovative ways to transform the classroom experience through Anzaldúan approaches that critique and resist oppressive hegemonies within Western education systems. This is an inspiring and necessary collection for higher education and K–12 educators who have ever wondered, How do I teach Anzaldúa?’—Larissa M. Mercado-López, co-editor of (Re)mapping the Latina/o Literary Landscape: New Works and New Directions

‘This is a brilliant collection of scholars who ‘do work that matters’ in the classroom and offer us ways to engage in Anzaldúan pedagogical praxis.’—Dolores Delgado Bernal, co-author of Transforming Educational Pathways for Chicana/o Students: A Critical Race Feminista Praxis

Margaret Cantú-Sánchez is an instructor of English at St. Mary’s University, where she teaches Latinx theory and literature. Her research emphasizes the identity conflict that Anglocentric institutions of learning impose on Latinx students. As an instructor at a Hispanic-serving institution, she strives to include multicultural texts in all courses.

Candace de León-Zepeda is an associate professor of English at Our Lady of the Lake University. Her research explores how Hispanic-serving institutions can better serve their population of Latinx students by supporting culturally relevant pedagogies, programming, and curriculum.

Norma E. Cantú is a scholar-activist who currently serves as the Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison Professor of the Humanities at Trinity University. She is founder and director of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa. She has published fiction, poetry, and personal essays in a number of venues.

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction

PART I . CURRICULUM DESIGN
Breaking the Mold: Redesigning Curricula for the “Planetary Citizen”
Margaret E. Cantú-Sánchez
1. Nepantla Connection: Testimonio and Anzaldúa’s Poetry
Miryam Espinosa-Dulanto, Freyca Calderon-Berumen, and Karla O’Donald
2. Toward Wholeness: Anzaldúan Theorizing Used to Imagine Culturally Accepting Educative Spaces for Black Girls
Altheria Caldera
3. Accessing Gloria Anzaldúa Through Utopia
Cordelia Barrera
4. Irreverent Pedagogies: Las palabras sabias y poderosas de Gloria Anzaldúa
Anthony Nuño
5. Untaming the Wild Tongue: Reconocimento and a History of Linguistic Terrorism on the U.S.-Mexico Border
Dagoberto Eli Ramirez and José L. Saldívar
6. Writing Autohistoria through Conocimiento
Verónica Solís

PART I I . PEDAGOGY AND PRAXIS
Enacting a Pedagogical Praxis of Healing and Hope in Civil Unrest
Candace de León-Zepeda
7. “Now Let Us Shift”: A Conocimiento Praxis with Students of Color in an English Classroom
Stephanie Cariaga
8. “May We Do Work That Matters. Vale la pena”: Putting Community Coyolxauhqui Together and the Anzaldúa Seminar
Dylan Colvin, Christina Puntasecca, and Kelli Zaytoun
9. Teaching Anzaldúa: Strategies in the Physical and Psychological Borderlands in Civilian and Military Classrooms
Sarah De Los Santos Upton and Leandra H. Hernández
10. Beyoncé’s Path of Conocimiento
Alma Itzé Flores
11. Speaking for Ourselves: Teaching Borderlands/La frontera Through Primary Materials
Patricia M. García and Christina Bleyer
12. Tracing the Borders: Approaches to Teaching Gloria Anzaldúa
Patricia Pedroza González
13. Teaching Gloria Anzaldúa’s Theories in Practices in México en palabras e imágenes
Nina Hoechtl, Rían Lozano, and María del Socorro (Coco) Gutiérrez-Magallanes
14. Disrupting the Colonial Project: Walking the Path of Conocimiento in Pedagogical Practices of Teaching Research
Socorro Morales and Tanya J. Gaxiola Serrano

PART I I I . DECOLONIZING PEDAGOGIES
Decolonial Practices in and out of the Classroom
Norma E. Cantú
15. Teaching Gloria Anzaldúa: Decolonizing, Writing, and Healing in the Classroom
Carolina E. Alonso
16. The Alchemist and the Welder: An Anzaldúan Approach to Composition Studies
Christine Garcia
17. Unsettling Women’s and Gender Studies’ “Settler” Logics Through Gloria Anzaldúa’s Essay “Now Let Us Shift . . . The Path of Conocimiento . . . Inner Works, Public Acts”
Carla Wilson
18. Teaching Gloria Anzaldúa as an American Philosopher
Alexander V. Stehn
19. How to Liberate Wild Tongues: Anzaldúan Approaches to Competitive Speech and Debate
Carlos A. Tarin
Contributors
Index

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