Lorna Dee Cervantes

Last updated

Lorna Dee Cervantes
Lorna Dee Cervantes (cropped).jpg
BornAugust 6, 1954
San Francisco, California, U.S.
OccupationPoet, philosopher, publisher, editor, professor
Alma mater
Notable worksFrom the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger; Emplumada
Notable awardsAmerican Book Award, NEA Fellowship, Pushcart Prize
Website
lornadice.blogspot.com
Books-aj.svg aj ashton 01.svg  Literatureportal

Lorna Dee Cervantes (born August 6, 1954) is an American poet and activist, who is considered one of the greatest figures in Chicano poetry. She has been described by Alurista, as "probably the best Chicana poet active today." [1]

Contents

Early life

Cervantes was born in 1954 in the Mission District of San Francisco, to parents of Mexican and Native American (Chumash) ancestry. [2] After her parents divorced when she was five, she grew up in San Jose with her mother, grandmother and brother. [2] She grew up speaking English exclusively. This was strictly enforced by her parents, who allowed only English to be spoken at home by her and her brother. This was to avoid the racism that was occurring in her community at that time. This loss of language and a struggle to find her true identity inspired her poetry later on in life. [3] She attended Abraham Lincoln High School. She received an Associate Arts degree from San Jose Community College in 1976, and a BA in Creative Arts from San José State University in 1984. She attended UC Santa Cruz for a PhD History of Consciousness (all but dissertation), 1984–88. [4]

Professional life

Her brother, Stephen Cervantes had a job at a local library and she became familiar with Shakespeare, Keats, Shelly and Byron who would have the most influence on her self-conception as a poet. By the age of fifteen she had compiled her first collection of poetry. In 1974 she traveled with her brother to Mexico City, Mexico, who played with the Theater of the People of San Jose at the Quinto Festival de los Teatros Chicanos. At the last moment, Cervantes was asked to participate by reading some of her poetry. She chose to read a portion of "Refugee Ship," a poem that enacts the major dilemma of being Chicanx; feeling adrift between two cultures. This reading received much attention and appeared in a Mexican newspaper, as well as other journals and reviews. The poem was later included in her award-winning debut, Emplumada (1981). [5]

Cervantes considers herself "a Chicana writer, a feminist writer, a political writer" (Cervantes). Her collections of poetry include Emplumada , From the Cables of Genocide, Drive: The First Quartet and Ciento: 100 100-Word Love Poems, and Sueño: New Poems, are held in high esteem and have attracted numerous nominations and awards. [6]

In an interview conducted by Sonia V. Gonzalez, the poet states that through writing and publishing, "I was trying to give back that gift that had saved me when I discovered, again, African-American women's poetry. I was having this vision of some little Chicana in San Antonio [Texas] going, scanning the shelves, like I used to do, scanning the shelves for women's names, or Spanish surnames, hoping she'll pull it out, relate to it. So it was intentionally accessible poetry, intended to bridge that gap, that literacy gap." [7] Cervantes was actively involved in the publication of numerous Chicana/o writers from the 1970s onwards when she produced her own Chicana/o literary journal, MANGO "which was the first to publish Sandra Cisneros, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Alberto Rios, Ray Gonzalez, Ronnie Burk, and Orlando Ramírez [co-editor]. Cervantes and MANGO also championed the early work of writers Gary Soto, José Montoya, José Montalvo, José Antonio Burciaga, and her personal favourite, Luís Omar Salinas" [8]

Cervantes has delivered poetry readings, workshops and guest lectures across the US. She was part of the Librotraficante Movement. The 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to Tucson was intended to smuggle books back into the hands of students, after they were boxed up and carted out of class rooms during class time, in order to comply with Arizona House Bill 2281. [9] Cervantes delivered a moving speech to the Movement's supporters outside of the Alamo in March 2012. [10]

The poet was one of seven featured writers to give a reading at the American Literature Association Conference held in San Francisco in May 2012. Ciento: 100 100 Word Love Poems was nominated for a Northern California Book Award in 2012 under the poetry category. [11]

Her fifth collection, Sueño, published in 2013 was shortlisted for the Latin American Book Award in poetry in 2014. [12] A European launch of the collection was hosted by University College Cork, Ireland in June 2014 as part of a symposium on Pathways, Explorations, Approaches in Mexican and Mexican American Studies. [13]

Career

Published works

Awards

Critical studies

  1. Stunned Into Being: Essays on the Poetry of Lorna Dee Cervantes Edited by Rodriguez y Gibson, Eliza. San Antonio, Tx: Wings Press. 2012.
  2. "Anti-Capitalist Critique and Travelling poetry in the Works of Lorna Dee Cervantes and Rage Against the Machine." By: Alexander, Donna Maria. Forum for Inter-American Research. 2012 April; 5.1.
  3. "The Geography Closest In": The Space of the Chicana in the Writings of Gloria Anzaldúa and Lorna Dee Cervantes. By: Alexander, Donna Maria. Boole Library Masters Theses Collections, University College Cork. October 2010. Print.
  4. "'Tat Your Black Holes into Paradise': Lorna Dee Cervantes and a Poetics of Loss." MELUS: Multiethnic Literatures of the United States. 33.1 (2008): 139-155.
  5. Poetry Saved My Life: An Interview with Lorna Dee Cervantes By: González, Sonia V.; MELUS: The Journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, 2007 Spring; 32 (1): 163-80.
  6. Poetry as Mother Tongue? Lorna Dee Cervantes's Emplumada By: Scheidegger, Erika. IN: Rehder and Vincent, American Poetry: Whitman to Present. Tübingen, Germany: Narr Franke Attempto; 2006. pp. 193–208
  7. The Shape and Range of Latina/o Poetry: Lorna Dee Cervantes and William Carlos Williams By: Morris-Vásquez, Edith; Dissertation, U of California, Riverside, 2004.
  8. Loss and Recovery of Memory in the Poetry of Lorna D. Cervantes By: González, Sonia V.; Dissertation, Stanford U, 2004.
  9. Lorna Dee Cervantes (1954-) By: Harris-Fonseca, Amanda Nolacea. IN: West-Durán, Herrera-Sobek, and Salgado, Latino and Latina Writers, I: Introductory Essays, Chicano and Chicana Authors; II: Cuban and Cuban American Authors, Dominican and Other Authors, Puerto Rican Authors. New York, NY: Scribner's; 2004. pp. 195–207
  10. "Imagining a Poetics of Loss: Toward a Comparative Methodology." By: Rodriguez y Gibson, Eliza. Studies in American Indian Literatures . 2nd ser. 15.3/4 (2003/2004): 23–51.
  11. Memphis Minnie, Genocide, and Identity Politics: A Conversation with Alex Stein By: Stein, Alex; Michigan Quarterly Review, 2003 Fall; 42 (4): 631–47.
  12. "Love, Hunger, and Grace: Loss and Belonging in the Poetry of Lorna Dee Cervantes and Joy Harjo." By: Rodriguez y Gibson, Eliza. Legacy 19.1 (2002):106-114.
  13. "Remembering We Were Never Meant to Survive": Loss in Contemporary Chicana and Native American Feminist Poetics By: Rodríguez y Gibson, Eliza; Dissertation, Cornell U, 2002.
  14. Love, Hunger, and Grace: Loss and Belonging in the Poetry of Lorna Dee Cervantes and Joy Harjo. By: Rodriguez y Gibson, Eliza; Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers, 2002; 19 (1): 106–14.
  15. Chicana Ways: Conversations with Ten Chicana Writers By: Ikas, Karin Rosa (ed.), Reno, NV: U of Nevada P; 2002.
  16. I Trust Only What I Have Built with My Own Hands: An Interview with Lorna Dee Cervantes By: González, Ray; Bloomsbury Review, 1997 Sept-Oct; 17 (5): 3, 8.
  17. Bilingualism and Dialogism: Another Reading of Lorna Dee Cervantes's Poetry By: Savin, Ada. IN: Arteaga, An Other Tongue: Nation and Ethnicity in the Linguistic Borderlands. Durham, NC: Duke UP; 1994. pp. 215–23
  18. "An Utterance More Pure Than Word": Gender and the Corrido Tradition in Two Contemporary Chicano Poems. By: McKenna, Teresa. IN: Keller and Miller, Feminist Measures: Soundings in Poetry and Theory. Ann Arbor, MI: U of Michigan P; 1994. pp. 184–207
  19. Divided Loyalties: Literal and Literary in the Poetry of Lorna Dee Cervantes, Cathy Song and Rita Dove By: Wallace, Patricia; MELUS, 1993 Fall; 18 (3): 3–19.
  20. Lorna Dee Cervantes's Dialogic Imagination By: Savin, Ada; Annales du Centre de Recherches sur l'Amérique Anglophone, 1993; 18: 269–77.
  21. Tres momentos del proceso de reconocimiento en la voz poética de Lorna D. Cervantes By: Alarcón, Justo S.. IN: López González, Malagamba, and Urrutia, Mujer y literatura mexicana y chicana: Culturas en contacto, II. Mexico City; Tijuana: Colegio de México; Colegio de la Frontera Norte; 1990. pp. 281–285
  22. Lorna Dee Cervantes (August 6, 1954 - ) By: Fernández, Roberta. IN: Lomelí and Shirley, Chicano Writers: First Series. Detroit, MI: Gale; 1989. pp. 74–78
  23. Chicana Literature from a Chicana Feminist Perspective By: Yarbro-Bejarano, Yvonne. IN: Herrera-Sobek and Viramontes, Chicana Creativity and Criticism: Charting New Frontiers in American Literature. Houston: Arte Publico; 1988. pp. 139–145
  24. La búsqueda de la identidad en la literatura chicana/tres textos By: Alarcón, Justo S.; Confluencia: Revista Hispanica de Cultura y Literatura, 1987 Fall; 3 (1): 137–143.
  25. Chicana Literature from a Chicana Feminist Perspective By: Yarbro-Bejarano, Yvonne; The Americas Review: A Review of Hispanic Literature and Art of the USA, 1987 Fall-Winter; 15 (3-4): 139–145.
  26. Notes toward a New Multicultural Criticism: Three Works by Women of Color By: Crawford, John F.. IN: Harris and Aguero, A Gift of Tongues: Critical Challenges in Contemporary American Poetry. Athens: U of Georgia P; 1987. pp. 155–195
  27. Bernice Zamora y Lorna Dee Cervantes: Una estética feminista By: Bruce-Novoa; Revista Iberoamericana, 1985 July-Dec.; 51 (132-133): 565–573.
  28. Emplumada: Chicana Rites-of-Passage By: Seator, Lynette; MELUS , 1984 Summer; 11 (2): 23–38.
  29. Soothing Restless Serpents: The Dreaded Creation and Other Inspirations in Chicana Poetry By: Rebolledo, Tey Diana; Third Woman, 1984; 2 (1): 83–102.
  30. Interview with Lorna Dee Cervantes By: Monda, Bernadette; Third Woman, 1984; 2 (1): 103–107.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandra Cisneros</span> American novelist, poet, and short story writer

Sandra Cisneros is an American writer. She is best known for her first novel, The House on Mango Street (1983), and her subsequent short story collection, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991). Her work experiments with literary forms that investigate emerging subject positions, which Cisneros herself attributes to growing up in a context of cultural hybridity and economic inequality that endowed her with unique stories to tell. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, was awarded one of 25 new Ford Foundation Art of Change fellowships in 2017, and is regarded as a key figure in Chicano literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherríe Moraga</span> American writer and activist

Cherríe Moraga is a Chicana feminist, writer, activist, poet, essayist, and playwright. She is part of the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the Department of English. Moraga is also a founding member of the social justice activist group La Red Chicana Indígena which is an organization of Chicanas fighting for education, culture rights, and Indigenous Rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ana Castillo</span> American writer

Ana Castillo 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 experimental style as a Latina novelist and for her intervention in Chicana feminism known as Xicanisma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quinto Sol</span>

Quinto Sol was the first fully independent publishing house to surface from the Chicano movement in the Sixties. Editorial Quinto Sol was founded in 1967 at UC Berkeley by Octavio I. Romano, a Professor of Behavioral Science and Public Health, in collaboration with Nick C. Vaca and Andres Ybarra. The name "Quinto Sol" is Spanish for "Fifth Sun" and it refers to the Aztec myth of creation and destruction. Since the beginning of the Chicano movement in the 1960s, this concept has become a pathway to cultural expression. The Fifth Sun has constantly been integrated into the music, art and literature of the Chicano idea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norma Elia Cantú</span> American writer

Norma Elia Cantú is a Chicana postmodernist writer and the Murchison Professor in the Humanities at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

José Antonio "Tony" Burciaga was an American Chicano artist, poet, and writer who explored issues of Chicano identity and American society.

Latino poetry is a branch of American poetry written by poets born or living in the United States who are of Latin American origin or descent and whose roots are tied to the Americas and their languages, cultures, and geography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicano poetry</span> Subgenre of Mexica-American literature

Chicano poetry is a subgenre of Chicano literature that stems from the cultural consciousness developed in the Chicano Movement. Chicano poetry has its roots in the reclamation of Chicana/o as an identity of empowerment rather than denigration. As a literary field, Chicano poetry emerged in the 1960s and formed its own independent literary current and voice.

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.

Mexican American literature is literature written by Mexican Americans in the United States. Although its origins can be traced back to the sixteenth century, the bulk of Mexican American literature dates from post-1848 and the United States annexation of large parts of Mexico in the wake of the Mexican–American War. Today, as a part of American literature in general, this genre includes a vibrant and diverse set of narratives, prompting critics to describe it as providing "a new awareness of the historical and cultural independence of both northern and southern American hemispheres". Chicano literature is an aspect of Mexican American literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American literature in Spanish</span>

American literature written in Spanish in the United States dates back as 1610 when the Spanish explorer Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá published his epic poem Historia de Nuevo México. He was an early chronicler of the conquest of the Americas and a forerunner of Spanish-language literature in the United States given his focus on the American landscape and the customs of the people. However, it was not until the late 20th century that Spanish language literature written by Americans was regularly published in the United States.

Alma Luz Villanueva is an American poet, short story writer, and novelist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francisco X. Alarcón</span> American poet

Francisco Xavier Alarcón was a Chicano poet and educator. He was one of the few Chicano poets to have "gained recognition while writing mostly in Spanish" within the United States. His poems have been also translated into Irish and Swedish. He made many guest appearances at public schools so that he could help inspire and influence young people to write their own poetry especially because he felt that children are "natural poets."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicana literature</span> Form of literature that has emerged from the Chicana Feminist movement

Chicana literature is a form of literature that has emerged from the Chicana Feminist movement. It aims to redefine Chicana archetypes in an effort to provide positive models for Chicanas. Chicana writers redefine their relationships with what Gloria Anzaldúa has called "Las Tres Madres" of Mexican culture by depicting them as feminist sources of strength and compassion.

Latino literature is literature written by people of Latin American ancestry, often but not always in English, most notably by Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and Dominican Americans, many of whom were born in the United States. the origin of the term "Latino literature" dates back to the 1960s, during the Chicano Movement, which was a social and political movement by Mexican Americans seeking equal rights and representation. At the time, the term "Chicano literature" was used to describe the work of Mexican-American writers. As the movement expanded, the term "Latino" came into use to encompass writers of various Latin American backgrounds, including Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and others.

Emplumada is the first collection of poetry authored by Lorna Dee Cervantes. It was published in 1981 by University of Pittsburgh Press.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carmen Tafolla</span> American writer

Carmen Tafolla is an internationally acclaimed Chicana writer from San Antonio, Texas, and a professor emerita of bicultural bilingual studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Tafolla served as the poet laureate of San Antonio from 2012 to 2014, and was named the Poet Laureate of Texas for 2015–16. Tafolla has written more than thirty books, and won multiple literary awards. She is one of the most highly anthologized Chicana authors in the United States, with her work appearing in more than 300 anthologies.

Demetria Martinez is an American activist, poet, and novelist.

Lucha Corpi is a Chicana poet and mystery writer. She was born on April 13, 1945 in Jaltipan, Veracruz, Mexico. In 1975 she earned a B.A. in comparative literature from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1979 she earned a M.A. in comparative literature from San Francisco State University. Corpi's most important contribution to Chicano literature, a series of four poems called "The Marina Poems ," appeared in the anthology The Other Voice: Twentieth-Century Women's Poetry in Translation, which was published by W. W. Norton & Company, in 1976 (ISBN 9780393044218).

References

  1. ↑ ENotes.com bio (accessed March 2008)
  2. 1 2 Ikas, Karin Rosa (2002). "Lorna Dee Cervantes" . Chicana Ways: Conversations With Ten Chicana Writers. Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press. pp.  27–28. ISBN   978-0-87417-492-2.
  3. ↑ "A Spotlight on Lorna Dee Cervantes: Biography". A Spotlight on Lorna Dee Cervantes. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 4 http://www.linkedin.com/pub/lorna-dee-cervantes/3a/818/800 [ self-published source ]
  5. ↑ "Lorna Dee Cervantes". Poetry Foundation. March 9, 2017. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
  6. 1 2 "About Lorna Dee Cervantes". Academy of American Poets. Retrieved March 28, 2023.
  7. ↑ "Poetry Saved My Life: An Interview With Lorna Dee Cervantes." By Sonia V. González. MELUS 32.1 (2007): 163-180. JSTOR. Web. January 25, 2010.
  8. ↑ "Lorna Dee Cervantes." Wings Press. Wings Press, 2009. Web. June 1, 2010.
  9. ↑ Librotraficante Manifesto. Source: "Manifesto". Archived from the original on June 10, 2012. Retrieved June 6, 2012. Access Date: June 6, 2012
  10. ↑ Eliza Rodriguez y Gibson (2012). Stunned Into Being: Essays on the Poetry of Lorna Dee Cervantes. Wings Press. ISBN   978-0-916727-88-8.
  11. ↑ "Nominees announced for Northern California Book Awards". May 9, 2012. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  12. ↑ "Waxwing Literary Journal: American writers & international voices". waxwingmag.org. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  13. ↑ "Pathways, Explorations, Approaches Symposium Schedule" (PDF). Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  14. ↑ "History". English. May 31, 2018. Retrieved March 28, 2023.
  15. 1 2 3 "Lorna Dee Cervantes". Poetry Center. June 10, 2022. Retrieved March 28, 2023.
  16. 1 2 "cervanteslorna". depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu. Retrieved March 28, 2023.
  17. ↑ "A Community Reading with Lorna Dee Cervantes". events.willamette.edu. Retrieved March 28, 2023.
  18. ↑ "Distinguished Alumni". alumni.sjsu.edu. Retrieved March 28, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.