Resource Author
Miriam SchachtResource Description
UT is fortunate enough to have recently acquired the papers of Chicana lesbian feminist Gloria Anzaldúa, which are now housed in the Benson Latin American Library. This is an amazing resource, and you do not need to be particularly familiar with Anzaldúa's work in order to incorporate this resource into your class. Anzaldúa's work has been influential in a wide range of areas (Chicano studies, gender and sexuality studies, Third World studies, and so forth), but even if your class has nothing to do with any of these areas, the archives can still be a valuable part of your course. (Why? Well, keep reading!)
For writing courses in particular, the archives are valuable because they allow you to see not only the finished product, but also the process of creation. If you would like to provide your students with a sense of Anzaldúa's context and significance, the July 2004 Esperanza is focused on remembering Anzaldúa's life and work, and has a mixture of poetry and nonfiction that is very accessible to undergraduates. For more background, search for "Gloria Anzaldua" on the Gale Group database (needs UT EID to log on, so the link is to the database rather than search results).
Arrange a time to visit the archives as a class by contacting the archivist, Christian Kelleher, at 495-4581 or kelleher@mail... (Planning ahead is a very good idea!) You will need to give him some guidance for what you'd like to look at, but he can make suggestions if you know what text or what process you would like to look at (for example, explain that you are interested in Anzaldúa's writing process, and that you would like students to look at texts that are available as multiple drafts). Because the archives have only recently been opened (October 2006), there is not a great deal of information about them available online.
For RHE306 and 309 courses, you will probably want to focus more on the process of Anzaldua's writing rather than the content; before you go to the library, you might have your students read a short text of hers, but it is not necessary, and may vary depending on your 309's focus or what book is being used in 306. For E314V or E314L classes, you will have more flexibility to include some of Anzaldúa's work on your syllabus, so adjust your visit to focus on whichever text(s) you are using in class. Her work has been or can be used in classes like Mexican American Literature and Culture, Gay and Lesbian Literature, Reading Women Writers, Literary Contests and Contexts, and Native American Literature and Culture. (Probably also Banned Books and Novel Ideas.)
Focal Points for Your Visit and/or For Student Assignments
* The Writing Process (especially for 306, 309, and 318 courses). Not only was Anzaldúa a prodigious writer, she was also a prodigious reviser. All of her major works went through multiple drafts, often undergoing dramatic changes in the process. For students who are beginning their college writing careers, the idea of revision that goes beyond "cut and paste" is often unfamiliar, and sometimes mystifying. Seeing multiple, physical drafts of work that was later published can help demystify this process, as well as show them that every writer - not just beginners! - goes through multiple drafts of a piece of writing. For 318L, creative writing students in particular often fall prey to the notion that a truly gifted writer simply writes the perfect sentence, the perfect poem, or the perfect story, and gets it all right the first time around. Because we have access to her papers, we can see the revision process that Anzaldúa's published (or unpublished) works went through; you might assign some of her poetry to read before the visit; consult with Christian Kelleher to see what poems are available in the archives.
* Introducing UT Library Resources (useful for every class). Since students often rely on online library databases and full-text-online sources for their research, many have yet to set foot in an actual library. Although few students in 306 and 309 courses are likely to be using archival materials for their papers, a visit to an archive will still instill in them a sense of what you miss if you rely solely on the Internet for your research.
* Peer Review (especially for 306/309 courses). The archive has available Anzaldúa's correspondence with fellow authors, including some of the contributors to the groundbreaking anthology This Bridge Called My Back, which she edited. Because Anzaldúa made carbon copies of her own letters, we have both sides of the correspondence available, and students can track a discussion about a particular text through a series of letters - such as Anzaldúa's questions or suggestions for revision, the contributor's response, further questions or ideas, and so forth.
* Hey! She's From Here! (useful for any class). Anzaldúa comes from the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas and attended the University of Texas; her book Borderlands/La Frontera theorizes this location on the border between the U.S. and Mexico, and much of her work is very focused on place. As students begin to think of themselves as writers and scholars, it can be very helpful to see other writers and scholars who share some of their experiences. If you have a number of ESL students or are teaching a course geared toward ESL, it is well worth pointing out to students that she too spoke English as a second language (she learned it after starting school).
If you decide to have your course meet at the archives, be sure they all know where they're going - it takes maybe 10-15 minutes to walk there from the Tower; the nearest Forty Acres (FA) shuttle bus stop is the stop for the LBJ school.