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Emma Pérez is an American author and professor, known for her work in queer Chicana feminist studies.


Biography

Pérez was born in
El Campo, Texas El Campo is a city in Wharton County, Texas, United States. Its population was 12,350 at the 2020 Census, making it the largest city in Wharton County. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 7.5&nb ...
in October 25, 1954. In 1979, she received an undergraduate degree in political science and women's studies from the
University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...
. She obtained her master's and doctorate in history from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1982 and 1988, respectively. Pérez was a professor at the
University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public university, public research university in El Paso, Texas, United States. Founded in 1913 as the State School of Mines and Metallurgy, it is the third oldest academic component of the Univers ...
(1990–2003), where she became the Chair of the History Department. In 2003, she became a professor and the chair of the department of Ethnic Studies at the
University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a Public university, public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a Federated state, state, it is the fla ...
and taught in their Ph.D. in Comparative Ethnic Studies. Since 2017, Pérez has been a research social scientist at the Southwest Studies Center at the
University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...
where she is also a professor in the Gender and Women's Studies department. As a scholar, she specializes in Chicana history,
feminist studies ''Feminist Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering women's studies that was established in 1972. It is an independent nonprofit publication housed at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland. Besides scholarly artic ...
, queer history, and decolonial theory.


Writing


Literary contributions

Pérez's first literary work, ''Gulf Dreams'', published in 1996, is a coming of age story set in a small racist Texas town. It touches on childhood sexual abuse, the legacies of colonialism, sexual repression, and same-sex desire and is considered to be one of the first Chicana lesbian novels in print. Her second novel, published in 2009, ''Forgetting the Alamo, Or Blood Memory'', is a historical fiction set against the backdrop of the 1836 battles of the
Alamo The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) was a pivotal event and military engagement in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna reclaimed the Alam ...
and of San Jacinto. It is a tale of travel and adventure that narrates the story of a young
cross-dressing Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes traditionally or stereotypically associated with a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and express onesel ...
tejana and her romance with a mixed race woman, both of whom are witnesses to the racial complexities of the southwest during this turbulent period. It is suggested that the novel "inverts the traditional Alamo narrative" in order to highlight the racial violence of that historic event. ''Forgetting the Alamo'' won the
Christopher Isherwood Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood (26 August 1904 – 4 January 1986) was an Anglo-American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist. His best-known works include '' Goodbye to Berlin'' (1939), a semi-autobiographical ...
Writing Grant in 2009, the National Association for Chicana/Chicano Studies Regional Book Award for fiction in 2011 and was a finalist for the
Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary Foundation, Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ+ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ+ literatur ...
s in 2010. According to Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association "Forgetting the Alamo, Or Blood Memory" proposes that sexuality and gender are inextricably linked to language, culture, and race, something that has been under-theorized in many articulations of queer and feminist theory". Her third book, ''Electra's Complex'' was nominated for the Golden Crown Literary Award. It is an erotic murder mystery set on a university campus that features the sexual adventures of a Chicana lesbian professor, her
trans man A trans man or transgender man is a man who was assigned female at birth. Trans men have a male gender identity, and many trans men undergo medical and social transition to alter their appearance in a way that aligns with their gender identi ...
best friend, and the detective assigned to the case. Critic Kendy Rivera argues that the book reclaims and re-imagines negative stereotypes about masculine women and butches, even as it appropriates and queers the womanizing behaviors associated with ''
machista Machismo (; ; ; ) is the sense of being "masculinity, manly" and self-reliant, a concept associated with "a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity". Machismo is a term originating in the early 1940s and 1950s and its ...
'' cultures for
butch Butch may refer to: People * Butch (nickname), a list of people * Barbara Butch, French lesbian DJ and activist * Butch Patrick, American child actor Patrick Alan Lilley (born 1953), best known for his role as Eddie Munster in ''The Munsters'' ...
women.


Academic contributions

''The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas into History'' (1999) is recognized as one of the founding influences of
decolonial Decoloniality () is a school of thought that aims to delink from Eurocentric knowledge hierarchies and ways of being in the world in order to enable other forms of existence on Earth. It critiques the perceived universality of Western knowl ...
studies and of
queer of color critique Queer of color critique is an analytical framework that insists on the role of racialization in establishing normative gender and sexuality as an organizing principle of capitalism. Queer of Color critique is an analytical framework that centers Rac ...
. It is credited with offering new understandings of Chicano historiography by highlighting the role of archival silences, erasures, and omissions in the production of knowledge. Pérez argues that the shadow of colonialism inflects how history is understood and challenges readers to construct a "decolonial imaginary" as a way to challenge dominant narratives of history. The book develops the idea of third space feminism by looking at different discursive events including Yucatán's Socialist Revolution, El Partido Liberal Mexicano, and Texas social clubs. Pérez's theoretical formation is credited with connecting Chicana and women of color feminist thought to the work of
Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...
,
Jacques Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, ; ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Sigmund Freud, Freud", Lacan gave The Seminars of Jacques Lacan, year ...
, Homi Bhaba and other
postcolonial Postcolonialism (also post-colonial theory) is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic consequences of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and extractivism, exploitation of colonized pe ...
theorists. In 2020, Emma Pérez updated her initial academic contribution, ''The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas into History'' (1999) to ''The Imaginary as Will to Feel: Beyond the Decolonial Turn in Chicanx/Latinx Feminism''(2020). Perez revamped her original work to better represent and further the idea of equality in history regarding gender and the gender experience by taking a more internal, individual approach. Perez argues that her old theory was too broad, generalized, and borrowed as well as did not leave enough room for the individual imaginary. Perez states her new stance will have its own hermeneutics, as well as its own method and theory in comparison to her previous 1999 book, ''The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas into History''. The updated book develops on Perez’s new point and idea of the “will to feel” in which she presses the question of whether or not the world can have the “will to feel” differently about the unjustness of Chicanx/Latinx individuals enough to cut them a space into public history and taken out of the interstitial spaces they currently reside in. Perez’s updated theoretical formation offers new insight and problem-solving ideas from the influence of Michael Foucault, Emmanuel Levinas, Gloria Anzaldua, and other postcolonial theorists. Alongside
Gloria Anzaldúa Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa (September 26, 1942 – May 15, 2004) was an American scholar of Chicana feminism, cultural theory, and queer theory. She loosely based her best-known book, '' Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza'' (1987), on h ...
,
Cherríe Moraga Cherríe Moraga (born September 25, 1952) is an influential Chicana feminist writer, activist, poet, essayist, and playwright. A prominent figure in Chicana literature and feminist theory, Moraga's work explores the intersections of gender, sex ...
,
Chela Sandoval Chela Sandoval (born July 31, 1956), associate professor of Chicana Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara, is a noted theorist of postcolonial feminism and third world feminism. Beginning with her 1991 pioneering essay 'U.S. Third W ...
, Deena Gonzalez, and
Alicia Gaspar de Alba Alicia Gaspar de Alba is an American scholar, cultural critic, novelist, and poet whose works include historical novels and scholarly studies on Chicana/o art, culture and sexuality. Biography Gaspar de Alba was born on July 29, 1958, in El P ...
, she is considered one of the founding theorists of
Chicana feminism Chicana feminism is a sociopolitical movement, theory, and praxis that scrutinizes the historical, cultural, spiritual, educational, and economic intersections impacting Chicanas and the Chicana/o community in the United States. Chicana feminism ...
. In 2020, Emma Pérez was inducted into the
Texas Institute of Letters The Texas Institute of Letters is a non-profit Honor Society founded by William Harvey Vann in 1936 to celebrate Texas literature and to recognize distinctive literary achievement. The TIL’s elected membership consists of the state’s most resp ...
, a distinguished honor society founded in 1936 to celebrate Texas literature and to recognize distinctive literary achievement.


Publications

;Books * ''Electra's Complex'', Bella Books, May 2015. * ''Forgetting the Alamo, Or, Blood Memory''. Austin: University of Texas Press, Chicana Matters Series, September 2009. * ''The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas into History''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, June 1999. * ''Gulf Dreams''. Berkeley: Third Woman Press, 1996. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2009, reprint. * ''Chicana Critical Issues''. Edited by Norma Alarcón, Rafaela Castro, Emma Pérez, Beatríz Pesquera, Adaljiza Sosa Riddell, Patricia Zavella. Berkeley: Third Woman Press, 1993. ;Journal articles * "Gloria Anzaldúa, La Gran Nueva Mestiza Theorist, Writer, Activist Scholar." ''National Women's Studies Association Journal,'' 17:2 (Summer 2005): 1–10. * "Borderland Queers: The Challenges of Excavating the Invisible and Unheard. ''" Frontiers: A Journal of Women's Studies'' 24: 2 and 3 (2003): 122–31. * "So Far From God, So Close to the United States: A Call for Action by U.S. Authorities." ''Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies'', 28:2 (2003): 147–51. * "Women's Studies on the Border: University of Texas at El Paso." With Scarlet Bowen. ''Women's Studies Quarterly'', 30: 3 and 4 (2002): 73–81. * "Oral Narratives as Chicana (His)tory Text." In Working Paper Series, No. 34, Southwest Institute for Research on Women, Tucson, Arizona, 1994, 1–24. * "She Has Served Others in More Intimate Ways: The Domestic Service Reform in Yucatán, 1915–18." ''Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies'' 20:1 (1993): 11–38. ;Book chapters * "Between Manifest Destiny and Women's Rights: Decolonizing Women's History." In ''Entre Guadalupe y Malinche: Tejanas in Literature and Art.'' Eds. Ines Hernandez-Avila and Norma Elia Cantu. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2016, 115–124. * "Decolonial Border Queers: Case Studies of Lesbians, Gay Men and Transgender Folks in El Paso/Juárez." In ''Performing the US Latin@ Borderlands''. Eds. Arturo J. Aldama, Peter J. Garcia, and Chela Sandoval. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012, 192–211. * "It's Not About the Gender in My Nation, But About the Nation in My Gender: The Decolonial Virgen in A Decolonial Site." In ''Our Lady of Controversy.'' Eds. Alicia Gaspar de Alba and Alma López. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011, 148–163. * "Decolonial Critics for Academic Freedom." In ''Academic Repression: Reflections from the Academic Industrial Complex''. Eds. Anthony J. Nocella II, Steven Best, Peter McLaren. Oakland: AK Press, 2010, 364–373. * "Chicana/o Cultural Studies: Marking Interdisciplinary Relationships and Conjunctures." In ''The Chicana/o Cultural Studies Forum: Critical and Ethnographic Practices''. Ed. Angie Chabram-Dernersesian. New York: New York University Press, 2007, 40. * "Staking the Claim: Introducing Applied Chicana/o Cultural Studies." In ''The Chicana/o Cultural Studies Forum: Critical and Ethnographic Practices''. Ed. Angie Chabram-Dernersesian. New York: New York University Press, 2007, 121–124. * "Chicana History." In ''Chicana/o Cultural Studies Reader''. Ed. Angie Chabran-Dernersesian. New York: Routledge Press, 2006. * "Chicanos and Chicanas." ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States.'' Eds. Deena González and Suzanne Oboler. New York: ''Oxford University Press'', Volume 1, 2005, 322–332. * "Feminism-in-Nationalism: The Gendered Subaltern at the Yucatán Feminist Congresses of 1916." In ''Between Woman and Nation: Nationalisms, Transnational Feminisms and the State''. Eds. Caren Kaplan, Norma Alarcón, and Minoo Moallem, 219–39. Durham: Duke University Press, 1999. * "Irigaray's Female Symbolic in the Making of Chicana Lesbian Space and Language: Sitio y Lengua." In ''The Lesbian Postmodern''. Ed. Laura Doan. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. Reprint, ''Living Chicana Theory.'' Ed. Carla Trujillo, 87–101. Third Woman Press, 1998. * "Speaking from the Margin: Uninvited Discourse on Sexuality and Power." In ''Building With Our Hands''. Eds. Adela de La Torre and Beatriz Pesquera, 57–71. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. Reprint, ''Feminist Theory: A Reader''. Eds. Wendy Kolmar and Frances Bartkowski, 490–497. Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing Company, 2000. * "Sexuality and Discourse: Notes from a Chicana Survivor." In ''Chicana Lesbians''. Ed. Carla Trujillo, 159–84. Berkeley: Third Woman Press, 1991. * "A La Mujer: A Critique of the Mexican Liberal Party's Ideology on Women." In ''Between Borders''. Ed. Adelaida Del Castillo, 459–82. Los Angeles: Floricanto Press, 1990. ;Fiction * "Trio." Short Story. ''Jota: Queer Latina Voices.'' T. Jackie Cueves, Anel I. Flores, Candace López, and Rita Urquijo-Ruíz, editors, Korima Press, 2016. * "Here, Eat This." Prose Poem. In ''Edible Baja Arizona: Celebrating the foodways of Tucson and the borderlands'': 14 (2015): 163. * "Chichis." Novel excerpt. In ''JotaZine'' 3 (2006): 16–17. * "Have Your Cake." Novel excerpt. In ''Voces: Chicana/Latina Journal'' 5: 2 (2006): 102–114. * "Gulf Dreams." Novel excerpt. ''In Chloe Plus Olivia: An Anthology of Lesbian Literature From the Seventeenth Century to'' ''the Present.'' Ed. Lillian Faderman. New York: Viking Press, 1994, reprint.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perez, Emma 1954 births Decolonial feminism Living people LGBTQ Hispanic and Latino American people LGBTQ Hispanic and Latino American culture American academics of Mexican descent Chicana feminism Cross-dressing in literature Writers from Texas Queer theorists Tejana feminists American lesbian writers University of California, Los Angeles alumni