Norma Alarcón (born November 30, 1943) is a

Chicana Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label ''Chicano'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''Mexican American'', although the terms have different meanings. While Mexican-American iden ...

author and publisher in the United States. She is the founder of

Third Woman Press Third Woman Press (TWP) is a ''Queer and Feminist of Color'' publisher forum committed to feminist and queer of color decolonial politics and projects. It was founded in 1979 by Norma Alarcón in Bloomington, Indiana. She aimed to create a new po ...

and a major figure in

Chicana feminism Chicana feminism is a sociopolitical movement in the United States that scrutinizes the historical, cultural, spiritual, educational, and economic intersections impacting Chicana identities. Chicana feminism is empowering and demands women within ...

. She is Professor Emerita of Chicano/Latino Studies at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

Biography and schooling

Norma Alarcón was born in Villa Frontera, Coahuila, Mexico on November 30, 1943. Her family immigrated to San Antonio, Texas in 1955 in order to find work, and settled in Chicago, Illinois by the end of that same year. There, her father worked as a steelworker and her mother worked as a candy packer for Marshall Fields. Alarcón graduated from the Catholic school St. Thomas the Apostle in 1961 as a member of the National Honor Society and started college at De Paul University, but left in 1962 to marry her first husband. She had her only son, Joe McKesson, in 1964. Later, Alarcón returned to school at

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana University and, with ...

to graduate

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

in 1973 with a degree in Spanish literature and a minor in comparative literature. She then entered the PhD program in Spanish literature at Indiana University. Despite the combined pressures of going through her first divorce, raising a son, making a living, and working on her PhD program, Alarcón founded Third Woman Press in 1979 and completed her dissertation, ''Ninfomanía: El Discurso feminista en la obra de

Rosario Castellanos Rosario Castellanos Figueroa (; 25 May 1925 – 7 August 1974) was a Mexican poet and author. She was one of Mexico's most important literary voices in the last century. Throughout her life, she wrote eloquently about issues of cultural and gend ...

'', a theoretical study of Mexican feminist literary criticism, in 1983. Alarcón taught in the Foreign Language department at

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

in Indiana from 1983 until she received the Chancellors Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley in 1986 and got hired by the Ethnic Studies department there in 1987. She received tenure there in 1993. Alarcón was a Professor of Comparative Ethnic/Indigenous Studies, Women's Studies, and Spanish, as well as the founder and publisher of

, which she began as a journal in 1979 when she realized that "there weren't enough other women of color or Latinas for me to have a conversation with." After printing about six issues of the journal that each focused on a different geographical region of the United States, she transformed the project into an independent press in 1987. The press published more than thirty books and anthologies until 2004, when Alarcón had a health crisis that left no time to continue her unpaid volunteer work with the press and led her to retire from the University. Alarcón is cited for her substantial contributions to "postmodern Chicana feminism."

''This Bridge Called My Back''

Alarcón has a long history with ''

This Bridge Called My Back ''This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color'' is a feminist anthology edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa, first published in 1981 by Persephone Press. The second edition was published in 1983 by Kitchen Tabl ...

'', an anthology of writing by women of color. She published an essay in the 1981 Persephone Press edition of ''Bridge'' called "Chicana's Feminist Literature: A Re-vision Through Malintzin/or Malintzin: Putting Flesh Back on the Object." As founder of

, Alarcón published the third edition of ''This Bridge Called My Back'' from 2002 to 2008. She also co-edited the Spanish translation, ''Esta puente, mi espalda: Voces de mujeres tercermundistas en los Estados Unidos'' along with

Cherríe Moraga Cherríe Moraga (born September 25, 1952) is a Chicana writer, feminist activist, poet, essayist, and playwright. She is part of the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the Department of English. Moraga is also a founding m ...

and

Ana Castillo Ana Castillo (born June 15, 1953) is a Chicana novelist, poet, short story writer, essayist, editor, playwright, translator and independent scholar. Considered one of the leading voices in Chicana experience, Castillo is known for her experiment ...

References

External links

''Esta puente, mi espalda: Voces de mujeres tercermundistas en los Estados Unidos''
(co-translator & co-editor, 1988). San Francisco: ism press. (paperback); (hardcover) {{DEFAULTSORT:Alarcón, Norma 1943 births Living people Writers from Coahuila Mexican women writers Mexican feminist writers American feminists Mexican feminists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American writers 20th-century Mexican writers 21st-century Mexican writers Indiana University Bloomington alumni Purdue University faculty University of California, Berkeley faculty Mexican emigrants to the United States American academics of Mexican descent American writers of Mexican descent English–Spanish translators Chicana feminists Latin Americanists American women academics 21st-century American women

Biography and schooling

''This Bridge Called My Back''

Further reading

See also

References

External links