Thursday, March 24, 2022
Community
By News and Internal Communications
EDINBURG, TEXAS – El Retorno Al Valle: Literary Landmark Unveiling and Symposium honoring Gloria Anzaldua will be held at her alma mater, UTRGV, on the Edinburg Campus, on Monday, March 28.
The symposium will be 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the UTRGV Edinburg Ballroom, and the unveiling of the literary landmark in Anzaldua’s honor will be at 4 p.m. at the UTRGV Edinburg Library Courtyard.
Zoom webinars will be available for the symposium and unveiling for those who cannot attend in person.
Anzaldua was a queer Chicana poet, writer and scholar, born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley where she worked as a farmworker.
She wrote and published numerous texts, including the groundbreaking Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza and Luz en lo Oscuro/Light in the Dark: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality.
Her work and life are widely hailed as testament to her contributions in numerous areas and fields of study. Presenters will discuss her impact past and present, as well as into the future.
“El Retorno Al Valle” has been organized by the UTRGV Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS), Humanities Texas, and multiple UTRGV, state and local partners.
Scholars, poets, activists and visual artists from the Valley and beyond South Texas will gather to consider Anzaldúa’s work.
Symposium events are free and open to the public. Breakfast and lunch will be available in the Edinburg Campus Ballroom.
The day before the symposium, there will be two community-based pre-symposium events in the Valley on Sunday, March 27. The events will be at 10 a.m. at Valle de la Paz Cemetery in Hargill, with readings of Anzaldua’s work.
The other event starts at 2 p.m. March 27 at the Museum of South Texas History, 200 N. Closner Blvd. in Edinburg. Registration is not needed for the pre-symposium events.
To register for symposium events and the unveiling on Monday, visit here.
Visit the 2022 El Retorno website with schedule here .
For more information or for accommodations, contact cmas@UTRGV.edu.
EVENT CONTACT
Stephanie.Alvarez@utrgv.edu
Director, Center for Mexican American Studies / (956) 665-3212
ABOUT UTRGV
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) was created by the Texas Legislature in 2013 as the first major public university of the 21st century in Texas. This transformative initiative provided the opportunity to expand educational opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley, including a new School of Medicine, and made it possible for residents of the region to benefit from the Permanent University Fund – a public endowment contributing support to the University of Texas System and other institutions.
UTRGV has campuses and off-campus research and teaching sites throughout the Rio Grande Valley including in Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville (formerly The University of Texas at Brownsville campus), Edinburg (formerly The University of Texas-Pan American campus), Harlingen, McAllen, Port Isabel, Rio Grande City, and South Padre Island. UTRGV, a comprehensive academic institution, enrolled its first class in the fall of 2015, and the School of Medicine welcomed its first class in the summer of 2016.