ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses life history of Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua, a feminist thinker. Born in south Texas to sixth-generation Mexican-American rancher-farmers, Gloria Anzaldua had a rare hormonal disorder that triggered premature puberty, including monthly menses from the age of six. Anzaldua's sensitivity to difference was heightened when she entered Texas' segregated educational system in 1948 and was treated as inferior because of her Mexican heritage. Whereas most feminist theorists prioritize or focus exclusively on gender, Anzaldua insists that gender must be examined relationally, in dialogue with other identity components, like culture, race/ethnicity, class, geography, health, sexuality, and religion/spirituality. Anzaldua's theory-praxis of spiritual activism is both inspiration for and culmination of her inclusionary politics. Spiritual activism locates authority within each individual by synergistically linking self-change with social transformation. Anzaldua's spiritual activism is a visionary, experientially-based ontology, epistemology, and ethics. She defines "spiritual activism" as an embodied, entirely political endeavor distinct from organized religions and from mainstream "New Age" spiritualities.
