Rhetorics of Nepantla, Memory, and the Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua Papers: Archival Impulses explores the intersection of Chicana/o/x studies, Latina/o/x studies, archival studies, and public memory by examining the archival homes of cultural critic Gloria Anzaldua. This book illustrates how her archive mirrors her philosophy of theories of the flesh and contains objects that, when placed together by the rhetor, perform the embodied ways of knowing of which she writes. Anzaldua's archive is a generative space that requires a rhetorical perspective that is expansive, intersectional, and flexible enough to handle interactions between the objects found within and across archives. This book provides an account of how to discuss these interactions in theoretically and experientially meaningful ways. From the analysis of Anzaldua's public speeches, the parallels between her birth certificate and creative writing, the planning documents of the 1995 Entre Americas: El Taller Nepantla artist retreat, and more, the author contributes to the fields of archival methods, gender studies, Anzalduan scholarship, public memory, and rhetorical studies by illustrating why engaging the archives of women of color matters.
Diana Isabel Martinez is associate professor of communication at Pepperdine University.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua Archives Chapter 1 Archival Impulses: Nepantla as MethodChapter 2 Voices from the Archive: Family Names, Official Documents, and Unofficial Ideologies in the Gloria Anzaldua PapersChapter 3 Making Experience Public: Contextualizing Anzaldua's Public Engagements and Redrawing the Boundaries of SpeechChapter 4 Nepantla Autopathograpy and the Politics of CrisisChapter 5 Visuality, Community, and Theories of the Flesh: Art in NepantlaChapter 6 Remembering Gloria Anzaldua Globally through a Documentary Altar: ALTAR Cruzando Fronteras, Building Bridges*Chapter 7 Finding Anzaldua: Memorials, Altares, and Her Many HomesConclusion: Archival Impulses BibliographyAbout the Author
This book has many strengths, but Diana Isabel Martinez's translation of Anzaldua's theories and centering of marginalized voices is an especially significant contribution to current scholarship. Most importantly, Martinez focuses on an Anzalduan methodology for understanding the voices of marginalized communities through the performative, narrative storytelling, and sharing of experiences that curates the rhetorical space in-between the creative process and the memorialization of its tangible lived presence. -- Teresita Garza, St. Edward's University
