Chicana Portraits

Critical Biographies of Twelve Chicana Writers

Norma Elia Cantú

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9780816551811
  9780816551828
• eBook ISBN:
  9780816551835
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Literature

This innovative collection pairs portraits with critical biographies of twelve key Chicana writers, offering an engaging look at their work, contributions to the field, and major achievements.

Artist Raquel Valle-Sentíes's portraits bring visual dimension, while essays delve deeply into the authors' lives for details that inform their literary, artistic, feminist, and political trajectories and sensibilities. The collection brilliantly intersects artistic visual and literary cultural productions, allowing complex themes to emerge, such as the fragility of life, sexism and misogyny, Chicana agency and forging one's own path, the struggles of becoming a writer and battling self-doubt, economic instability, and political engagement and activism.

Arranged chronologically by birth order of the authors, the book can be read cover to cover for a genealogical overview, or scholars and general readers can easily jump in at any point and read about an individual author, regardless of the chronology.

Biographies included in this work include Raquel Valle-Sentíes, Angela de Hoyos, Montserrat Fontes, Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Norma E. Cantú, Denise Elia Chávez, Carmen Tafolla, Cherríe Moraga, Ana Castillo, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Sandra Cisneros, and Demetria Martínez.

Contributors
Cordelia E. Barrera
Mary Pat Brady
Norma E. Cantú
María Jesus Castro Dopacio
Carlos Nicolás Flores
Myrriah Gómez
Maria Magdalena Guerra de Charur
Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs
Georgina Guzmán
Cristina Herrera
María Esther Quintana
Eliza Rodríguez y Gibson
Meagan Solomon
Lourdes Torres
Raquel Valle-Sentíes
Jen Yáñez-Alaniz

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Laredo and Its Discontents: An Introduction
• Raquel Valle-Sentíes: Portrait of a Poet, Painter, and Playwright
• Raquel Valle-Sentíes: Portraits of Self-Empowerment and Cosmopolitan Collective Consciousness
• Angela de Hoyos: A Poet Artivist
• Montserrat Fontes: Teacher and Writer
• Gloria E. Anzaldúa: A Critical Biography
• Norma E. Cantú: Norma-lizing What Is Chicanx, a Life of Beautiful Norms in the Interstice . . .
• Denise Elia Chávez: Staging Theater, Teatroesque Literature, and Chicana Activism in New Mexico
• Carmen Tafolla: Evolving the Spirit—Crisis, Oppression, and Survival
• Cherríe Moraga: Builder of Movements
• Ana Castillo: A Multigenre Author
• Lorna Dee Cervantes: “No Self but in Other Selves”
• Sandra Cisneros: Rebel Mentor for Generations of Hijas de La Mala Vida with a Social Consciousness
• Demetria Martínez: A Critical Biography
• Contributors
• Index