Lorna Dee Cervantes
Encyclopedia
Lorna Dee Cervantes is an award-winning Chicana-Native American
poet who is considered one of the major Chicana poets of the past 40 years. She has been described by Alurista
, as "probably the best Chicana poet active today." Lorna Dee Cervantes was born in 1954 in California. She grew up in San Jose, speaking English exclusively. This was strictly enforced by her parents, who allowed only English to be spoken at home by her and her brother. This was to avoid the racism that was occurring in her community at that time. Lorna Dee Cervantes was an associate professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder until 2007. She considers herself "a Chicana writer, a feminist writer, a political writer" (Cervantes). Her collections of poetry, Emplumada, From the Cable of Genocide, Drive: The First Quartet and Ciento: 100 100-Word Love Poems are held in high esteem and have attracted numerous nominations and awards. She is currently the Regents Lecturer at UC Berkeley, California for the 2011/12 year. In an interview conducted by Sonia V. Gonzalez, the poet states that through writing and publishing, “I was trying to give back that gift that had saved me when I discovered, again, African-American women’s poetry. I was having this vision of some little Chicana in San Antonio [Texas] going, scanning the shelves, like I used to do, scanning the shelves for women’s names, or Spanish surnames, hoping she’ll pull it out, relate to it. So it was intentionally accessible poetry, intended to bridge that gap, that literacy gap.” Cervantes was actively involved in the publication of numerous Chicana/o writers from the 1970s onwards when she produced her own Chicana/o literary journal,MANGO "which was the first to publish Sandra Cisneros, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Alberto Rios, Ray Gonzalez, Ronnie Burk, and Orlando Ramírez [co-editor]. Cervantes and MANGO also championed the early work of writers Gary Soto, José Montoya, José Montalvo, José Antonio Burciaga, and her personal favourite, Luís Omar Salinas"
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
poet who is considered one of the major Chicana poets of the past 40 years. She has been described by Alurista
Alurista
Alurista is the nom de plume of Alberto Baltazar Urista Heredia , a Chicano poet and activist.-Youth and education:...
, as "probably the best Chicana poet active today." Lorna Dee Cervantes was born in 1954 in California. She grew up in San Jose, speaking English exclusively. This was strictly enforced by her parents, who allowed only English to be spoken at home by her and her brother. This was to avoid the racism that was occurring in her community at that time. Lorna Dee Cervantes was an associate professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder until 2007. She considers herself "a Chicana writer, a feminist writer, a political writer" (Cervantes). Her collections of poetry, Emplumada, From the Cable of Genocide, Drive: The First Quartet and Ciento: 100 100-Word Love Poems are held in high esteem and have attracted numerous nominations and awards. She is currently the Regents Lecturer at UC Berkeley, California for the 2011/12 year. In an interview conducted by Sonia V. Gonzalez, the poet states that through writing and publishing, “I was trying to give back that gift that had saved me when I discovered, again, African-American women’s poetry. I was having this vision of some little Chicana in San Antonio [Texas] going, scanning the shelves, like I used to do, scanning the shelves for women’s names, or Spanish surnames, hoping she’ll pull it out, relate to it. So it was intentionally accessible poetry, intended to bridge that gap, that literacy gap.” Cervantes was actively involved in the publication of numerous Chicana/o writers from the 1970s onwards when she produced her own Chicana/o literary journal,MANGO "which was the first to publish Sandra Cisneros, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Alberto Rios, Ray Gonzalez, Ronnie Burk, and Orlando Ramírez [co-editor]. Cervantes and MANGO also championed the early work of writers Gary Soto, José Montoya, José Montalvo, José Antonio Burciaga, and her personal favourite, Luís Omar Salinas"
Education
- Abraham Lincoln High School, San Jose: School year, 1972
- San Jose Community College: Associate Arts (high honours), School year, 1976
- San Jose State University: BA Creative Arts (high honours), School year, 1984
- UC Santa Cruz: PhD History of Consciousness (all but dissertation), 1984-88
Life and career
- Instructor: UC Santa Cruz, August 1985 - May 1986
- Associate Professor of English: University of Colorado at Boulder, August 1988 - August 2007
- Visiting Scholar: University of Houston, 1994 - 1995
- Ethnic Studies Lecturer: San Francisco State University, 2006 - 2007
- Independent Scholar: Poet, Philosopher, San Francisco Bay Area, 2007 - Present
- UC Regents Lecturer: UC Berkeley (English Department) August 2011 - Present
- Cervantes has presented over 500 poetry readings, lectures and performances (Yale, Stanford, Harvard, Vassar, Mt. Holyoke, Princeton, Brown, Cornell.
Published works
- Ciento: 100 100-Word Love Poems (2011; Wings Press)
- DRIVE: The First Quartet
- From the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger (Arte Público PressArte Público PressArte Público Press, in Houston, Texas, is the largest US publisher of contemporary and recovered literature by US Hispanic authors, part of the University of Houston. It publishes approximately 30 titles per year....
, 1991) - Emplumada (1981; American Book AwardAmerican Book AwardThe American Book Award was established in 1978 by the Before Columbus Foundation. It seeks to recognize outstanding literary achievement by contemporary American authors, without restriction to race, sex, ethnic background, or genre...
). - Red Dirt (co-editor), a cross-cultural poetry journal
- Mango (founder), a literary review
- Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry (eds. Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Jennifer Gillan, 1994)
- No More Masks! An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Women Poets (ed. Florence Howe, 1993)
- After Aztlan: Latino Poets of the Nineties (ed. Ray González, 1992).
Awards
- Patterson Prize For Poetry
- Battrick Award For Poetry
- Latino Book Award
- Latin American Book Award (Second Place)
- Denver Book Award (Finalist)
- Pushcart Prize (x2)
- California Arts Council Grant for Poetry (x2)
- Hudson D. Walker Fellowship Award at The Fine Arts Work Center
- Colorado Poet Laureate (Finalist)
- Vassar Visiting Writers Award
- Mexican-American Studies Center Visiting Scholar Award
- The National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Scholar Award
- San Jose State University Outstanding Alumnus
- San Jose Community College Outstanding Alumnus
- The White House Third Millennium Evening with Poets Laureate Attendee (invited by President and Hillary Clinton as one of the best 100 poets in The United States)
- Library of Congress Reading (x2)
- American Book Award (1982)
- National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grants for Poetry (1979 and 1989)
- Lila-Wallace Reader’s Digest Foundation Writer’s Award for Outstanding Chicana Literature (1995)
Critical studies
(as of march 2008)- Alexander, Donna Maria. "The Geography Closest In": The Space of the Chicana in the Writings of Gloria Anzaldúa and Lorna Dee Cervantes. Boole Library Masters Theses Collections, University College Cork. October 2010. Print.
- Poetry Saved My Life: An Interview with Lorna Dee Cervantes By: González, Sonia V.; MELUS: The Journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, 2007 Spring; 32 (1): 163-80.
- Poetry as Mother Tongue? Lorna Dee Cervantes's Emplumada By: Scheidegger, Erika. IN: Rehder and Vincent, American Poetry: Whitman to Present. Tübingen, Germany: Narr Franke Attempto; 2006. pp. 193–208
- The Shape and Range of Latina/o Poetry: Lorna Dee Cervantes and William Carlos WilliamsWilliam Carlos WilliamsWilliam Carlos Williams was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine, having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania...
By: Morris-Vásquez, Edith; Dissertation, U of California, Riverside, 2004. - Loss and Recovery of Memory in the Poetry of Lorna D. Cervantes By: González, Sonia V.; Dissertation, Stanford U, 2004.
- Lorna Dee Cervantes (1954-) By: Harris-Fonseca, Amanda Nolacea. IN: West-Durán, Herrera-Sobek, and Salgado, Latino and Latina Writers, I: Introductory Essays, Chicano and Chicana Authors; II: Cuban and Cuban American Authors, Dominican and Other Authors, Puerto Rican Authors. New York, NY: Scribner's; 2004. pp. 195–207
- Memphis MinnieMemphis MinnieMemphis Minnie was an American blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. She was the only female blues artist considered a match to male contemporaries as both a singer and an instrumentalist.-Career:...
, GenocideGenocideGenocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
, and Identity PoliticsIdentity politicsIdentity politics are political arguments that focus upon the self interest and perspectives of self-identified social interest groups and ways in which people's politics may be shaped by aspects of their identity through race, class, religion, sexual orientation or traditional dominance...
: A Conversation with Alex Stein By: Stein, Alex; Michigan Quarterly Review, 2003 Fall; 42 (4): 631-47. - "Remembering We Were Never Meant to Survive": Loss in Contemporary Chicana and Native AmericanNative Americans in the United StatesNative Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
Feminist Poetics By: Rodríguez y Gibson, Eliza; Dissertation, Cornell U, 2002. - Love, Hunger, and Grace: Loss and Belonging in the Poetry of Lorna Dee Cervantes and Joy HarjoJoy HarjoJoy Harjo is a Native American poet, musician, and author of ancestry. Known primarily as a poet, Harjo has also taught at the college level, played alto saxophone with a band called Poetic Justice, edited literary journals, and written screenplays. She is a member of the Muscogee Nation and...
. By: Rodriguez y Gibson, Eliza; Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers, 2002; 19 (1): 106-14. - Chicana Ways: Conversations with Ten Chicana Writers By: Ikas, Karin Rosa (ed.), Reno, NV: U of Nevada P; 2002.
- I Trust Only What I Have Built with My Own Hands: An Interview with Lorna Dee Cervantes By: González, Ray; Bloomsbury Review, 1997 Sept-Oct; 17 (5): 3, 8.
- Bilingualism and Dialogism: Another Reading of Lorna Dee Cervantes's Poetry By: Savin, Ada. IN: Arteaga, An Other Tongue: Nation and Ethnicity in the Linguistic Borderlands. Durham, NC: Duke UP; 1994. pp. 215–23
- "An Utterance More Pure Than Word": Gender and the CorridoCorridoThe corrido is a popular narrative song and poetry form, a ballad, of Mexico. The songs are often about oppression, history, daily life for peasants, and other socially important information. It is still a popular form today, and was widely popular during the Mexican Revolution and Nicaraguan...
Tradition in Two Contemporary ChicanoChicanoThe terms "Chicano" and "Chicana" are used in reference to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. However, those terms have a wide range of meanings in various parts of the world. The term began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement, mainly among Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's...
Poems. By: McKenna, Teresa. IN: Keller and Miller, Feminist Measures: Soundings in Poetry and Theory. Ann Arbor, MI: U of Michigan P; 1994. pp. 184–207 - Divided Loyalties: Literal and Literary in the Poetry of Lorna Dee Cervantes, Cathy SongCathy SongCathy Song is an Asian-American poet. She is the 1982 winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award for her collection Picture Bride. Song now resides in Kahala, Hawaii.-Personal life:Song was born in Wahiawa, Hawaii...
and Rita DoveRita DoveRita Frances Dove is an American poet and author. From 1993-1995 she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a position now popularly known as "U.S. Poet Laureate"...
By: Wallace, Patricia; MELUS, 1993 Fall; 18 (3): 3-19. - Lorna Dee Cervantes's Dialogic ImaginationMikhail BakhtinMikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin was a Russian philosopher, literary critic, semiotician and scholar who worked on literary theory, ethics, and the philosophy of language...
By: Savin, Ada; Annales du Centre de Recherches sur l'Amérique Anglophone, 1993; 18: 269-77. - Tres momentos del proceso de reconocimiento en la voz poética de Lorna D. Cervantes By: Alarcón, Justo S.. IN: López González, Malagamba, and Urrutia, Mujer y literatura mexicana y chicana: Culturas en contacto, II. Mexico City; Tijuana: Colegio de México; Colegio de la Frontera Norte; 1990. pp. 281–285
- Lorna Dee Cervantes (6 August 1954 - ) By: Fernández, Roberta. IN: Lomelí and Shirley, ChicanoChicanoThe terms "Chicano" and "Chicana" are used in reference to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. However, those terms have a wide range of meanings in various parts of the world. The term began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement, mainly among Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's...
Writers: First Series. Detroit, MI: Gale; 1989. pp. 74–78 - Chicana Literature from a Chicana Feminist Perspective By: Yarbro-Bejarano, Yvonne. IN: Herrera-Sobek and Viramontes, Chicana Creativity and Criticism: Charting New Frontiers in American Literature. Houston: Arte Publico; 1988. pp. 139–145
- La búsqueda de la identidad en la literatura chicana/tres textos By: Alarcón, Justo S.; Confluencia: Revista Hispanica de Cultura y Literatura, 1987 Fall; 3 (1): 137-143.
- Chicana Literature from a Chicana Feminist Perspective By: Yarbro-Bejarano, Yvonne; The Americas Review: A Review of Hispanic Literature and Art of the USA, 1987 Fall-Winter; 15 (3-4): 139-145.
- Notes toward a New Multicultural Criticism: Three Works by Women of Color By: Crawford, John F.. IN: Harris and Aguero, A Gift of Tongues: Critical Challenges in Contemporary American Poetry. Athens: U of Georgia P; 1987. pp. 155–195
- Bernice ZamoraBernice ZamoraBernice B. Ortiz Zamora is a Chicano poet, "one of the preeminent poets to emerge from the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s".-External links:* at the University of Minnesota* Juanita Luna Lawhn, *...
y Lorna Dee Cervantes: Una estética feminista By: Bruce-Novoa; Revista Iberoamericana, 1985 July-Dec.; 51 (132-133): 565-573. - Emplumada: Chicana Rites-of-PassageRite of passageA rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's progress from one status to another. It is a universal phenomenon which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures....
By: Seator, Lynette; MELUS, 1984 Summer; 11 (2): 23-38. - Soothing Restless Serpents: The Dreaded Creation and Other Inspirations in Chicana Poetry By: Rebolledo, Tey Diana; Third Woman, 1984; 2 (1): 83-102.
- Interview with Lorna Dee Cervantes By: Monda, Bernadette; Third Woman, 1984; 2 (1): 103-107.
See also
- List of Mexican American writers
- List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas
- Latino poetryLatino poetryAlthough the term is the source of some controversy, Latino poetry has generally come to identify writing by different groups of Latino heritage within the United States, including Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban-Americans....