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Norma Alarcón (born November 30, 1943) is a Chicana author and publisher in the United States. She is the founder of Third Woman Press and a major figure in
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 ...
. 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 university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
.


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, IUB, or Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana Univer ...
to graduate
Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...
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'', 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 university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...
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 Third Woman Press, 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'', 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 Third Woman Press, 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 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 ...
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 most known for her experi ...
.


Further reading

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See also

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Black feminism Black feminism is a branch of feminism that focuses on the African-American woman's experiences and recognizes the intersectionality of racism and sexism.  Black feminism philosophy centers on the idea that "Black women are inherently va ...
*
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 ...
*
Third-world feminism Postcolonial feminism is a form of feminism that developed as a response to feminism focusing solely on the experiences of women in Western cultures and former colonies. Postcolonial feminism seeks to account for the way that racism and the long- ...
*
List of Mexican American writers The following is a list of Mexican-American writers. A-C *Oscar Zeta Acosta *José Acosta Torres, author of collection ''Cachito Mía'' (1973)Marc Zimmerman, ''U.S. Latino Literature: An Essay and Annotated Bibliography'', MARCH/Abrazo, 1992. ...
*
List of women writers The list of women writers has been split into two lists: * List of women writers (A–L) * List of women writers (M–Z) See also *Chawton_House#Chawton House Library: Women's Novels, Chawton House Library: Women's Novels *Collective 18th-century ...


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 20th-century American women writers 20th-century Mexican writers 21st-century American women writers 21st-century Mexican writers American academics of Mexican descent American feminists American writers of Mexican descent American women academics Chicana feminists English–Spanish translators Latin Americanists Mexican emigrants to the United States Mexican feminists Mexican feminist writers 20th-century Mexican women writers Indiana University Bloomington alumni Purdue University faculty University of California, Berkeley faculty Writers from Coahuila 21st-century Mexican women writers