11 May Women Wisdom Teachers: Glora Anzaldúa
In Gloria Anzaldúa’s work there are many indications of her mysticism and philosophy. Anzaldúa self-identified as a feminist, a woman of color, and as a scholar of cultural theory and queer theory. She was also a disabled person and a psychonaut, citing the beneficial use of psychedelic drugs on her creativity. She experienced out-of-the-body experiences four times and was devoted to the Virgen de Guadalupe.
I resonated with the following quote because it reminds me of the transcendental view I held of spirituality before I entered this doctoral program: “The figure of the pristine, transcendent male is always there to take the load off, to promise escape to some better place. He is also always there to offer the false promise that the self can entirely free itself from ground, that mastery and control can win entirely over the deep forces of life and death, that nature can be tamed” (p. 87). In her writings and her life Anzaldúa challenges this “figure” and “escape.” She was writing at a time in second wave feminism when the hegemony of educated white women was not sharing power, and Anzaldúa was one of the prominent voices challenging the status quo. Her spirituality is entwined with her awareness of oppression and worked toward social justice.
On a personal note, I want to add that I attended the art show that Anzaldúa wrote about at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) about six years ago. It was a retrospective of ancient Mexican art, including Aztec and Toltec societies. It was magnificent and world-expanding, tactile and sensuous. Of course, as a white woman I had an entirely different experience than that of a Latina intellectual, but I found it to be respectful and honoring, and it included an acknowledgment that the museum was late to the game of showing the art of different cultures. Even now as I go over it in my mind, I cannot view this exhibit as colonizing at all – are art museums only supposed to show the art of white people of the dominant culture? I hope not. It broadened my world to visit this show, and I believe it did for many others.
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