This Bridge Called My Back

Cherríe Moraga is a poet, playwright, cultural activist, and educator. Her many books include Native Country of the Heart: A Memoir; A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness: Writings, 2000–2010; and Loving in the War Years: Lo Que Nunca Pasó por Sus Labios. Gloria Anzaldúa (1942–2004) was a poet, metaphysical philosopher, and scholar of Chicana cultural theory, feminist theory, and queer theory. Her books include Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza and The Gloria Anzaldúa Reader, a posthumously published collection of her work.

"These essays and poems do more than just revisit the hopes, fears, frustrations, and accomplishments of women of color circa 1981; they also shed light on concerns women continue to face today … There are lines of poetry here sure to stir the imagination and connect with all ages, races, and genders … This Bridge Called My Back deserves to be picked up by a new generation of radical women." — ForeWord Reviews"Immense is my admiration for the ongoing dialogue and discourse on feminism, Indigenous feminism, the defining discussions in women of color movements and the broader movement. I have loved this book for thirty years, and am so pleased we have returned with our stories, words, and attributes to the growing and resilient movement." — Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabe), Executive Director, Honor the Earth"This Bridge Called My Back … dispels all doubt about the power of a single text to radically transform the terrain of our theory and practice. Twenty years after its publication, we can now see how it helped to untether the production of knowledge from its disciplinary anchors—and not only in the field of women’s studies. This Bridge has allowed us to define the promise of research on race, gender, class and sexuality as profoundly linked to collaboration and coalition-building. And perhaps most important, it has offered us strategies for transformative political practice that are as valid today as they were two decades ago." — Angela Davis, University of California, Santa Cruz"This Bridge Called My Back … has served as a significant rallying call for women of color for a generation, and this new edition keeps that call alive at a time when divisions prove ever more stubborn and dangerous. A much-cited text, its influence has been visible and broad both in academia and among activists. We owe much of the sound of our present voices to the brave scholars and feminists whose ideas and ideals crowd its pages." — Shirley Geok-lin Lim, University of California, Santa Barbara"This book is a manifesto—the 1981 declaration of a new politics ‘US Third World Feminism.’ No great de-colonial writer, from Fanon, Shaarawi, Blackhawk, or Sartre, to Mountain Wolf Woman, de Beauvoir, Saussure, or Newton could have alone proclaimed this ‘politic born of necessity.’ This politic denies no truths: its luminosities drive into and through our bodies. Writers and readers alike become shape-shifters, are invited to enter the shaman/witness state, to invoke power differently. ‘US Third World Feminism’ requires a re-peopling: the creation of planetary citizen-warriors. This book is a guide that directs citizenry shadowed in hate, terror, suffering, disconnection, and pain toward the light of social justice, gender and erotic liberation, peace, and revolutionary love. This Bridge … transits our dreams, and brings them to the real." — Chela Sandoval, University of California, Santa Barbara

• ArtworkEnough Is Enough: Preface to the Fortieth Anniversary EditionCherríe MoragaActs of HealingGloria Anzaldúa and The Gloria E. Anzaldúa Literary TrustCatching Fire: Introduction, 2015Cherríe MoragaForeword to the First Edition, 1981Toni Cade BambaraThe Bridge PoemKate RushinLa Jornada: Preface, 1981Cherríe MoragaIntroduction, 1981Cherríe Moraga and Gloria AnzaldúaPart I: Children Passing in the Streets The Roots of Our RadicalismWhen I Was Growing UpNellie Wongon not beinmary hope whitehead leeFor the Color of My MotherCherríe MoragaI Am What I AmRosario MoralesDreams of ViolenceNaomi Littlebear MorenaHe SawChrystosPart II: Entering the Lives of Others Theory in the FleshWonder WomanGenny LimLa GüeraCherríe MoragaInvisibility Is an Unnatural Disaster: Reflections of an Asian American WomanMitsuye YamadaIt's in My Blood, My Face—My Mother's Voice, the Way I SweatAnita Valerio"Gee You Don't Seem Like an Indian from the Reservation"Barbara Cameron"... And Even Fidel Can't Change That!"Aurora Levins MoralesI Walk in the History of My PeopleChrystosPart III: And When You Leave, Take Your Pictures with You Racism in the Women's MovementAnd When You Leave, Take Your Pictures with YouJo CarilloBeyond the Cliffs of AbiquiuJo CarilloI Don't Understand Those Who Have Turned Away from MeChrystosAsian Pacific Women and FeminismMitsuye Yamada"—But I Know You, American Woman"Judit MoschkovichThe Black Back-UpsKate RushinThe Pathology of Racism: A Conversation with Third World Wimmindoris davenportWe're All in the Same BoatRosario MoralesAn Open Letter to Mary DalyAudre LordeThe Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's HouseAudre LordePart IV: Between the Lines On Culture, Class, and HomophobiaThe Other HeritageRosario MoralesThe Tired Poem: Last Letter from a Typical (Unemployed) Black Professional WomanKate RushinTo Be Continued...Kate RushinAcross the Kitchen Table: A Sister-to-Sister DialogueBarbara Smith and Beverly SmithLesbianism: An Act of ResistanceCheryl ClarkeLowriding through the Women's MovementBarbara NodaLetter to MaMerle WooI Come with No IllusionsMirtha N. QuintanalesI Paid Very Hard for My Immigrant IgnoranceMirtha N. QuintanalesEarth-Lover, Survivor, MusicianNaomi Littlebear MorenaPart V: Speaking in Tongues The Third World Woman WriterSpeaking in Tongues: A Letter to Third World Women WritersGloria AnzaldúaMillicent FredericksGabrielle DanielsIn Search of the Self as Hero: Confetti of Voices on New Year's Night—a Letter to MyselfNellie WongChicana's Feminist Literature: A Re-vision through Malintzin/or Malintzin Putting Flesh Back on the ObjectNorma AlarcónCeremony for Completing a Poetry ReadingChrystosPart VI: El Mundo Zurdo The VisionGive Me BackChrystosLa PrietaGloria AnzaldúaA Black Feminist StatementCombahee River CollectiveThe WelderCherríe MoragaO.K. Momma, Who the Hell Am I? An Interview with Luisah TeishGloria AnzaldúaBrownnessAndrea CanaanRevolution: It's Not Neat or Pretty or QuickPat ParkerNo Rock Scorns Me as WhoreChrystosAppendix Afterword: On the Fourth EditionCherríe MoragaForeword to the Second Edition, 1983Gloria AnzaldúaRefugees of a World on Fire: Foreword to the Second Edition, 1983Cherríe MoragaCounsels from the Firing... past, present, future: Foreword to the Third Edition, 2001Gloria AnzaldúaBiographies of ContributorsBiographies of the Original Contributors, 1981Credits