Gloria Anzaldúa was born in South Texas Rio Grande Valley on September 26th, 1942. Her parents were sharecroppers and field workers—people who farm land owned by someone else in exchange for a share of the crops and extremely low wages. When she was 11, Gloria entered the fields as a migrant worker. Realizing that life as a migrant worker would never allow his children to get an education, Gloria’s father had the family settle in Hargill, Texas, where they lived until he died three years later, when Gloria was 14.
The death of her father left Gloria’s family in dire financial straits, and she was obligated to return to farmwork, as she did throughout high school and college while making...
