Today on Google's home page in the United States is a Doodle, special Google logo, for the 75th birthday of Gloria E. Anzaldúa. Gloria E. Anzaldúa was an American scholar of Chicana cultural theory, feminist theory, and queer theory. She was most well known for her writings and works on the Mexican-Texas border, as she grew up in that space.
Google wrote "today's Doodle celebrates Anzaldúa's ability to live across borders, whether geographical, social, or philosophical. She put it best: "To survive the Borderlands / you must live sin fronteras / be a crossroads."
She was born on September 26, 1942 in Harlingen, Texas and died at the age of 61 on May 15, 2004 in Santa Cruz, California.
Google went on to explain:
Growing up on ranches and farms in Texas-Mexico border towns, Anzaldúa developed a profound appreciation for the earth and its riches. She fell in love with art and writing as a way to capture the magic of the landscape around her. She also faced racism and isolation, but that didn't stop her from becoming a stellar scholar. After graduating from Pan American University in 1969, Anzaldúa taught migrant students, traveling with them to serve as a liaison with school boards.She realized early on that she lived in many worlds at once: she was both American and Mexican, both native and foreigner. "It's not a comfortable territory to live in, this place of contradictions," Anzaldúa noted. She understood that the way forward was not to choose a side, but to embrace a third place — a land of both, not either/or.
Forum discussion at Google+.
