Gloria Anzaldúa was a Chicana-tejana-lesbian-feminist poet, theorist, and fiction writer from South Texas. In addition to authoring Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (Aunt Lute, 1987), she was the editor of the critical anthology Making Face/Making Soul: Haciendo Caras (Aunt Lute, 1990) and co-editor of This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (Persephone, 1981), winner of the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award. Her works also include Interviews/Entrevistas (Routledge, 2000) and This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation, edited with AnaLouise Keating (Routledge, 2002). She also authored three bilingual children's books, including Prietita Has a Friend/Prietita tiene un amigo. She taught Creative Writing, Chicano Studies, and Feminist Studies at University of Texas, San Francisco State University, Vermont College of Norwich University, and University of California Santa Cruz.

Gloria Anzaldúa passed away in 2004 and was honored around the world for shedding visionary light on the Chicana experience by receiving the National Association For Chicano Studies Scholar Award in 2005. Gloria was also posthumously awarded her doctoral degree in literature from the University of California Santa Cruz. A number of scholarships and book awards, including the Anzaldúa Scholar Activist Award and the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Award for Independent Scholars, are awarded in her name every year.