Gloria Anzaldúa as philosopher: The early years (1962–1987)

Abstract

It's time that philosophers read Gloria Anzaldúa as a philosopher. Scholars have been hinting at it for some time, but in describing her they still tend to choose the terms “theorist,” “feminist,” and “thinker” instead of “philosopher.” Anzaldúa fits into all of these categories, but from her notes, we know that Anzaldúa also thought of herself as a philosopher. In 2002, for instance, she called herself a “feminist‐visionary‐spiritual‐activist‐poet‐philosopher fiction writer.” This essay argues that we should grant Anzaldúa's wish to be considered a philosopher in addition to the other appellations, and focuses on works that she read and wrote in the first half of her scholarly career, including the publication of Borderlands/La Frontera in 1987. The evidence for the claim that Anzaldúa thought of herself as a philosopher is mostly archival, but some of it also appears in her published works. Once philosophers explicitly begin to recognize Anzaldúa as a philosopher, comparisons between her and other already recognized philosophers will become fuller and bear more fruit.

Feminist theory and intersex activism: Thinking between and beyond

“…11 11 Nepantla is a Nahuatil word. Anzaldúa’s use of it was likely inspired by the Mexican thinker, Miguel León‐Portilla (See Alessandri, 2020). AnaLouise Keating helpfully offers the following definition of the term in The Anzaldúa Reader : “Nahuatl word meaning ‘in‐between space.’ Anzaldúa used this term to develop her post‐ Borderlands theory of process, liminality, and potential change that builds on her theories of the Borderlands and the Coatlicue state.…”

Introduction: Relational Activism in and through Pragmatist Feminism

“…Current pragmatist feminists are, for instance, engaging issues of epistemic justice, food justice, critical and engaged pedagogy, border-crossing, and political activism. To do that work, a number of current scholars are exploring the work of civil-rights activist Grace Lee Boggs (Lake 2020; Pappas 2021; Varner 2021), Latin American philosophers (Pappas 2017), and Chicanx philosophers such as Gloria Anzaldúa (Newton 2017; Alessandri 2019; Tirres 2019; Alessandri 2020; Stehn 2020).…”