Ana Castillo

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Ana Castillo during a book signing

Ana Castillo (born June 15, 1953 in Chicago , Illinois ) is an American writer and poet of Native American and Mexican descent. She is considered one of the most important representatives of Chicana feminism . Her work deals with Chicanas' identity problems, racism and class segregation.

Career

Ana Castillo grew up in Chicago . She comes from a working class family . Even while she was still at school, she used her talent to write as a form of social protest.

In the early 1970s, Castillo got involved in a group called the Association of Latinao Brotherhood of Artists. In 1975 she received her BA from Northeastern Illinois University, majoring in Art and minor in School Education. From 1975 to 1976 she taught Ethnic Studies at Santa Rosa Jr. College in Sonoma Country, California. Between 1977 and 1979 she wrote for the Illinois Arts Council. In 1979 Castillo received her Masters in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from the University of Chicago with her thesis "The Idealization and Reality of the Mexican Indian Woman". On September 21, 1983, she had a son, Marcel Ramón Herrera. Until 1986 she taught English as a Foreign Language and Mexican and American-Mexican History at various colleges in San Francisco and Chicago. She then returned to California, where she taught creative writing, feminist writing and Chicano literature at various universities and colleges. From 1989 onwards she wrote her collection of poems “I ask the Impossible” and her collection of essays “Massacre of the dreamers”. She did her doctorate in 1991 at the University of Bremen in the field of "American Studies". Instead of a traditional dissertation, she published her essays in the anthology "Massacre of the Dreamers".

Ana Castillo has published numerous novels, short stories, poems and essays. In 1995 she also founded the literary magazine "Third Woman" with Norma Alarcon . Today she lives in Chicago with her son. There she teaches in the English Department at DePaul University .

Themes and motifs

Ana Castillo

Castillo is an advocate of Chicana feminism, which she calls "Xicanisma". Many of their protagonists are independent, sometimes lesbian women. Her works show the influence of "magical realism" and irony. The main themes of her work are sexism in the Chicano movement, sexuality, Catholicism, racism and social class division.

Awards and honors

  • 1987: “Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award” for the novel Mixquiahuala Letters
  • 1993: “Carl Sandburg Literary Award in Fiction” for the novel So Far from God
  • 1994: Mountains and Plains Bookseller Award for the novel So Far from God
  • 1995: Membership of the “National Endowment for the Arts for creative writing”
  • 2015: Lambda Literary Award for Give It to Me in the Bisexual Fiction category
  • 2017: Lambda Literary Award for Black Dove: Mama, Mi'jo, and Me in the category Bisexual Nonfiction

Works

Short stories

  • Loverboys , 1996.

Novels

  • The Mixquiahuala Letters , 1986 (reprinted 1992)
  • Sapogonia: (an anti-romance in 3/8 meter), 1990
  • So Far From God , 1993
  • Peel my Love like an Onion , 1999
  • My daughter, my son, the eagle the dove: an Aztec chant , 2000
  • Watercolor women, opaque men: a novel in verse , 2005
  • The Guardians , 2007

Poems

  • Otro Canto , 1977
  • The Invitation , 1979 (reprinted in 1986)
  • Women Are Not Roses , 1984
  • My Father was a Toltec and selected poems , 1973–1988, 1995
  • I ask the impossible: poems , 2000

Non-fiction

  • The Sexuality of Latinas , edited with Norma Alarcón & Cherríe Moraga, 1991
  • Massacre of the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanisma , 1994
  • La diosa de las Américas (Goddes of the Americas): writings on the Virgin of Guadalupe (1996)

items

  • Salon Magazine, April 12, 1999, " Mothers Who Think; Bowing Out "
  • The Los Angeles Times, April 20, 1997, " THE NATION; The Overlooked Half of the Farm Workers' Triumph"
  • MS., Sept.-Oct. 1996: " A Healing Legacy "
  • The Washington Post, December 11, 1995: " The Real Frida Kahlo: Flamboyant, Yet Private; The Writings of a Tormented Artist Who Loved Life"
  • The New York Times, November 12, 1995: " Chicago Con Salsa "
  • The Nation, May 29, 1995: " Selena aside.Obituary "
  • Essence, June 1993: " A Chicana from Chicago "

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Castillo, Ana
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American feminist, writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 15, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago