This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color

Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua (1942-2004) was an editor for This Bridge. She wrote “Speaking In Tongues” and “La Prieta,” and interviewed Luisah Teish in “O.K. Momma, Who the Hell Am I?”. The daughter of a Spanish American and Native American, she provided her unique perspective having been raised in Texas among fellow fieldworkers, experiencing their discrimination firsthand. She grew up to be an independent scholar, writer, artist, teacher, and “spiritual activist” with a lasting legacy on the fields of feminism, literature, queer studies, and women’s studies. She is known for her style of combining autobiography with cultural theory, and her numerous works span genres such as poetry, philosophical essays, experimental prose, and children’s books. After This Bridge, she wrote one of her most well-known books, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, which similarly explores themes of intersectional identity, specifically in regard to the US-Mexican border.

Barbara May Cameron (1954-2002) was a Hunkpapa Lakota photographer, filmmaker, writer, and political activist who penned “Gee, You Don’t Seem Like an Indian from the Reservation” in This Bridge. She has been nationally recognized for her work for women’s rights, Indigenous rights, and queer rights, and she provides a queer Indigenous perspective.

Andrea Ruth Ransom Canaan (b. 1950) is Black feminist writer, speaker, and organizer from Louisiana. She was first published in This Bridge with her piece “Brownness,” and at the time she was working as Director of Women and Employment to help women find nontraditional jobs, as well as a therapist and counselor for battered women and families. She provides a Black perspective and that of a person who is not a seasoned academic.

Joe Carillo is an award-winning scholar and current Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Indigenous Law Center at UC Hastings Law in San Francisco. She was an undergraduate at Stanford when This Bridge was first published, contributing “And When You Leave, Take Your Pictures with You” and “Beyond the Cliffs of Abiquiu.” Her perspective as an Indigenous American woman is significant in how she sees white people, and more specifically feminists, benefit from people of color while also oppressing them.

Chrystos (b. 1946) is an honored Menominee poet and queer activist, contributing “He Saw,” “I Walk in the History of my People,” “I Don’t Understand Those Who Have Turned Away from Me,” “Ceremony for Completing a Poetry Reading,” “Give Me Back,” and “No Rock Scorns Me as Whore” to This Bridge. At the time, she had never been paid to write before, but she has since published award-winning poetry and prose on sexuality, abuse, womanhood, and Native American heritage and culture, among other topics. Her poetry added an abstract understanding to many of the points This Bridge makes, particularly the trauma of the Indigenous experience in America and the pitfalls of the women’s movement she is disillusioned with.

Cheryl Clarke (b. 1947) is a Black lesbian-feminist poet, activist, and scholar who contributed “Lesbianism: An Act of Resistance” to This Bridge. She currently runs a bookstore with her life partner and maintains a teaching affiliation with the Graduate Faculty of the Department of Women and Gender Studies at Rutgers University. Her contribution provides an academic perspective to This Bridge from a queer Black woman’s point of view.

Gabrielle Daniels (b. 1954) is a poet and essayist, who only recently published her first full-length novel in 2019. She contributed “Millicent Fredericks” to This Bridge after having encountered Gloria Anzaldúa at a writer’s workshop Gloria was running, and she provides the perspective of a young writer who was just getting involved in the Third World feminist movement at the time.

doris juanita davenport (b. 1949) is a lesbian-feminist performance poet, writer, and educator who already had her PhD in Black Literature from the University of Southern California at the time of This Bridge’s publication. She contributed the short essay, “The Pathology of Racism: A Conversation with Third World Wimmin” to This Bridge, but she has since written multiple books of poetry. Her essay provided another academic, queer, Black voice, during a time when most people with her identities were practically nonexistent in literature.

Mary Hope Whitehead Lee is a prize-winning poet, collage artist, and writer who contributed “on not bein” to This Bridge. She currently lives in Arizona and is involved in the Cartonera Collective, a group of book makers working together to produce bilingual book art from Latin American authors and works on migrant rights with a goal of connecting African Americans to the shared cause. Her poetry provided a link between art and Third World feminism, as she came from a Third World artist’s perspective.

Aurora Levins Morales (b. 1954) is a Puerto Rican, Jewish writer, historian, and poet who immigrated to the US at a young age and produced significant work on Latina feminism and Third World feminism in addition to other social justice movements. She contributed “…And Even Fidel Can’t Change That!” to This Bridge, which provides important insight to the sexism she experienced outside of mainstream, Anglo-American culture.

Genny Lim (b. 1946) is a world-renowned Chinese American poet, playwright, and performer who contributed “Wonder Woman” to This Bridge, providing poetry from her point of view growing up in Sand Francisco to an immigrant family.

Naomi Littlebear Morena (b. 1950) is a Chicana lesbian who contributed “Earth-Lover, Survivor, Musician” and “Dreams of Violence” to This Bridge. Her contribution is an important example of Third World women who aren’t capable of activist work, such as writing about their oppression, but rather are in a place where they need to focus on nurturing themselves to heal from the traumas they have survived, in part due to those oppressed identities.

Audre Lorde (1934-1992) was a key figure and household name for her groundbreaking poetry, prose, and essays that tackled issues of race and sexuality, as a Black, queer woman born in New York to two immigrant parents. A self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” her powerful poetry and theory work was trailblazing, revealing the challenges and struggles of an intersectional identity in the face of the civil rights movement and the Women’s movement. Her contribution of “An Open Letter to Mary Daly” and “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” helped to legitimize This Bridge, as she was already an established scholar at the time, and added a critical look at the ways in which women have tried unsuccessfully to oppose the patriarchy.

Cherríe Moraga (b. 1952) is a lesbian-feminist Chicana poet, essayist, playwright, and activist whose career as a public writer truly began after co-editing This Bridge. In addition to co-editing the book, she contributed “For the Color of My Mother,” “La Güera,” and “The Welder.” Born and raised in Los Angeles to a Chicana mother and white father, she was motivated to begin putting together this book alongside her friend Gloria Anzaldúa after one too many women’s movement events to which she was invited as a token woman of color. Her theory work on Chicana lesbianism was pioneering, and she has continued her activism and art through educating and writing. She is currently an English department faculty member at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Rosario Morales (1930-2011), mother to Aurora Levins Morales, contributed “I Am What I Am,” “We Are All in the Same Boat,” and “The Other Heritage” to This Bridge. She was born to two Puerto Rican immigrants in El Barrio of New York City, and she grew up to be an active Latina feminist and member of the Communist Party. She, with her family, moved between the US and Puerto Rico several times, as her daughter reflects in her writing. Her contributions are an important layer to the book, not only for the many identities she addresses in her pieces, but also in providing a multi-generational dimension to This Bridge.

Judit Moschkovich was born and raised in Argentina to Jewish immigrants from Russia and Poland before moving to the US at 14. The challenge of experiencing all her identities, Jewish, Latina, immigrant, woman, reflect in her contribution “—But I Know You, American Woman,” which explored a concept that was overlooked by mainstream feminists of the era—multiculturalism.

Barbara Noda (b. 1953) is a published writer and third-generation Japanese American who was born and raised on her family’s strawberry farm in California. She contributed “Lowriding Through the Women’s Movement” to This Bridge, providing the perspective of someone who had been in the Third World feminist movement early on and was reflecting back on a friend from such circles that had passed away.

Pat Parker (1944-1989) was a self-identified “Black Lesbian Poet” whose writing and work had already been involved in the civil rights movement, the black liberation movement, as well as feminism and gay liberation. A transcript of her speech at the 1980 “¡Basta! Women’s Conference on Imperialism and Third World War” called “Revolution: It’s Not Neat or Pretty or Quick” appears in This Bridge, providing a call to action in the book that focuses on revolution rather than the reform of racist, patriarchal systems.

Mirtha N. Quintanales (b. 1948) is a Latina lesbian feminist who immigrated to the US as a Cuban refugee when she was just 13. She draws from these experiences to contribute “I Come with No Illusions” to This Bridge. Since the publication of This Bridge, she has published a range of writings and earned a PhD in anthropology. She currently teaches at New Jersey City University where she has been the director of the Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies Program for 25 years.

Donna Kate Rushin (b. 1951) is a Black lesbian poet who has received degrees from Oberlin and Brown University and has taught at MIT and Wesleyan University since the publication of This Bridge. She contributed “The Black Back-Ups,” “The Tired Poem: Last Letter from a Typical (Unemployed) Black Professional Woman,” and “To Be Continued…,” all of which situate her specific experiences beyond the white context that was so often the assumption in the women’s movement.

Barbara Smith (b. 1946) is a Black feminist, Lesbian, writer, scholar, publisher, and activist; a leader in the feminist movement (particularly the Black feminist movement) whose work on intersectionality has become a cornerstone to feminism as we know it today. She contributed the interview “Across the Kitchen Table: A Sister-to-Sister Dialogue” with her sister, Beverly Smith, to This Bridge. Since its publication, she has continued to write and edit trailblazing Black Feminist anthologies, including All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave (1982). She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

Beverly Smith (b. 1946) is Barbara’s twin sister. She’s also a Black feminist, lesbian, writer, activist, and educator. She contributed “Across the Kitchen Table: A Sister-to-Sister Dialogue” with her sister, Barbara Smith to This Bridge, and also was involved in “A Black Feminist Statement,” written and produced by the Combahee Collective she was a part of, outlining key components of what Black feminists want and why. Since its publication, she has worked as an instructor and women’s health advocate and published several articles.

Luisah Teish (b. 1950) is an African American poet, writer, educator, political activist, and New Orleans, Louisiana native. She contributed “O.K. Momma, Who the Hell Am I?” to This Bridge, a transcript from when Gloria Anzaldúa interviewed her. In the time since, she published Jambalaya: The Natural Woman’s Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals, and she is a Yoruba priestess and teacher at the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology and the California Institute of Integral Studies. Her contributions to This Bridge provide a spiritual dimension of oppression, identity, and how to heal moving forward.

Formerly Anita Valerio, Max Wolf Valerio (b. 1957) is a Blackfoot and Sephardic poet, performer, and writer, and was born in Germany. He transitioned from female to male in 1989, and he has published a memoir and several books of poems. He contributed “It’s in My Blood, My Face—My Mother’s Voice, the Way I Sweat” to This Bridge, which added important depth and range to the perspectives in the text.

Nellie Wong (b. 1934) is an awarded poet and feminist activist born in Oakland, California, to Chinese immigrants. She has published several poetry books and continued her work as a speaker and organizer since the publication of This Bridge. She contributed “When I Was Growing Up” to the anthology, providing an introductory glimpse of what it meant for her to be Asian American growing up in a society that privileged white skin above all others.

Merle Woo (b. 1941) is a lesbian Chinese Korean American academic, poet, feminist, socialist, and activist who was raised in San Francisco, California. Since the publication of This Bridge, she worked at UC Berkeley, and is currently a retired lecturer in Women and Asian American Studies and published writer. She contributed “Letter to Ma” to This Bridge, which adds an intergenerational component as she explored her relationship with her mother and her own understanding of her identity.