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Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives of Feminists of Color
Literary Nonfiction. Fiction. Latino/Latina Studies. African American Studies. Asian American Studies. Native American Studies. A bold collection of creative pieces and theoretical essays by women of color. New thought and new a book that will teach in the most multiple sense of that a book that will be of lasting value to many diverse communities of women as well as to students from those communities. The authors explore a full spectrum of present concerns in over seventy pieces that vary from writing by new talents to published pieces by Audre Lorde, Joy Harjo, Norma Alarcón and Trinh T. Minh-ha.
"At one level or another, all the work in the collection seeks to find ways to understand and articulate our multiple identities and senses of place.... MAKING FACE/MAKING SOUL is an exciting collection of dynamic, important writings that all women of color and white feminists will learn from, enjoy, and return to again and again and again."— Sojourner "...the pieces are stunning in what they risk and reveal..."— The San Francisco Chronicle
"At one level or another, all the work in the collection seeks to find ways to understand and articulate our multiple identities and senses of place.... MAKING FACE/MAKING SOUL is an exciting collection of dynamic, important writings that all women of color and white feminists will learn from, enjoy, and return to again and again and again."— Sojourner "...the pieces are stunning in what they risk and reveal..."— The San Francisco Chronicle
446 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
29 people are currently reading
3017 people want to read
About the author
Gloria E. Anzaldúa
43 books781 followersGloria E. Anzaldúa was a scholar of Chicana cultural theory, feminist theory, and queer theory. She loosely based her best-known book, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, on her life growing up on the Mexican-Texas border and incorporated her lifelong feelings of social and cultural marginalization into her work.
When she was eleven, her family relocated to Hargill, Texas. Despite feeling discriminated against as a sixth-generation Tejana and as a female, and despite the death of her father from a car accident when she was fourteen, Anzaldúa still obtained her college education. In 1968, she received a B.A. in English, Art, and Secondary Education from Pan American University, and an M.A. in English and Education from the University of Texas at Austin. While in Austin, she joined politically active cultural poets and radical dramatists such as Ricardo Sanchez, and Hedwig Gorski.
After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in English from the then Pan American University (now University of Texas-Pan American), Anzaldúa worked as a preschool and special education teacher. In 1977, she moved to California, where she supported herself through her writing, lectures, and occasional teaching stints about feminism, Chicano studies, and creative writing at San Francisco State University, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Florida Atlantic University, among other universities.
(from Wikipedia)
See also: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/onlin...
When she was eleven, her family relocated to Hargill, Texas. Despite feeling discriminated against as a sixth-generation Tejana and as a female, and despite the death of her father from a car accident when she was fourteen, Anzaldúa still obtained her college education. In 1968, she received a B.A. in English, Art, and Secondary Education from Pan American University, and an M.A. in English and Education from the University of Texas at Austin. While in Austin, she joined politically active cultural poets and radical dramatists such as Ricardo Sanchez, and Hedwig Gorski.
After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in English from the then Pan American University (now University of Texas-Pan American), Anzaldúa worked as a preschool and special education teacher. In 1977, she moved to California, where she supported herself through her writing, lectures, and occasional teaching stints about feminism, Chicano studies, and creative writing at San Francisco State University, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Florida Atlantic University, among other universities.
(from Wikipedia)
See also: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/onlin...
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
January 2, 2015
My only disappointment was that there was a complete lack of pieces by or about trans women. Gender is never discussed outside of cisnormativity, and sexual orientation mostly talked about from a lesbian standpoint. Other than this, excellent collection of poetry/essays/short stories!
June 20, 2016
Below is an excerpt from Making Face, Making Soul: Critical Perspectives by Women of Color:
“¡LA CULTURA! ¡LA RAZA!
Sometimes all it means to me is suffering. Tragedy. Poverty. Las caras de los tortured santos y las mujeres en luto, toda la vida en luto. La miseria is not anything I want to remember and everything I cannot forget. Sometimes the bravery in facing and struggling in such life is too little. The courage with which a people siguen luchando against prejudice and injustice is not glory enough…” – Edna Escamill, Corazon de una Anciana
The book is a collection of writings by women of color from all across the United States, gathered and edited by the late, great Gloria Anzaldua.
I had the fortune to learn about the book after a dear friend of mine shared one of its essays with me: Aleticia Tijerina’s Notes on Oppression and Violence. In it, Tijerina speaks of her life with imprisonment since the age of twelve, and describes the herculean feat of finding and maintaining love for herself before an unrelenting enemy, both in the state and in herself. I was riveted by the power of Tijerina’s voice, which was filled as much by rage as it was by beauty.
“We were all imprisoned for various crimes against the State: impersonating men; escaping abusive homes; setting fires; taking drugs; robbery ’cause we were hungry…Most of our so-called “crimes” we’re acts of resistenc or rebellion against an oppressive family, school, society; for many of us, our cultural identity had been battered and abused since birth.”
Though I couldn’t fully comprehend it at the moment, I knew on hearing Tijerina’s voice that I’d found a living, breathing genius, who — most importantly– was in close proximity to my community. Little did I know how many more writers just like her were out there.
In Gloria Anzaldua’s Haciendo Caras, there’s an entire generation of women –like Tijerina but also substantially different– who have published their voices after a lifetime of being silenced.
There’s no doubt about the brilliance of each voice in this endeavor. Gloria Anzaldua and her contemporaries show themselves to be masterful writers who have not only studied their subjects, but who have also taken the time to weave them in terms that pulse vividly with life for the reader.
"She sat cross-legged and still on top of the hill, at first watching and then becoming part of the moonlight, the brilliant sun. Tall yellow grasses stood stiff and dry and were blown down by the first harsh winds of winter. When the rains came, the earth sprouted in green and tender innocence. She listened to the meditative soul of winter and felt the quickening of spring and each of the seasons in turn: she knew that Time was inside of her."
Journeying alongside each writer in the collection, I found myself humbled to learn of their intricate arguments, which reveal difficult positions on how to achieve a total humanity between male, female, and other identities alike.
For example, how should ‘women of color’ identify themselves as women who are distinct from the dominant white women’s feminist movement at the same time that they search for the mutual liberation of both white and non-white women, i.e. all women?
And how can women of color increase the publication of their perspectives when the major industries of publication are themselves caught in a power struggle between white females and their white male counterparts?
Similarly, how do women of color reconcile their relationships with others who call themselves allies, but who are only interested in their own personal gain from the movement?
In Anzaldua’s words, how do women of color resist the imposition of internalized self-loathing on their counterparts?
"Like the (colonizer) we try to impose our version of ‘the way things should be’: we try to impose one’s self on the Other by making her the recipient of one’s negative elements, usually the same elements that the Anglo projected on us. Like them, we project our own self-hatred on her: we stereotype her; we make her generic."
The response to these challenges vary from voice to voice, and themselves only represent a sample of the book’s many subjects, but Making Face manages to place its multiple different perspectives in a way that still indicates a true solidarity between them.
Even with this in mind, there’s far more that can be said about the collection — of its beautiful treatment of dreams, and time, and space, or of its historic lens across the decades — but of course, there’s only so much we can say before time runs out.
For now, check out Making Face, Making Soul for yourself; I assure you you won’t regret it!
“¡LA CULTURA! ¡LA RAZA!
Sometimes all it means to me is suffering. Tragedy. Poverty. Las caras de los tortured santos y las mujeres en luto, toda la vida en luto. La miseria is not anything I want to remember and everything I cannot forget. Sometimes the bravery in facing and struggling in such life is too little. The courage with which a people siguen luchando against prejudice and injustice is not glory enough…” – Edna Escamill, Corazon de una Anciana
The book is a collection of writings by women of color from all across the United States, gathered and edited by the late, great Gloria Anzaldua.
I had the fortune to learn about the book after a dear friend of mine shared one of its essays with me: Aleticia Tijerina’s Notes on Oppression and Violence. In it, Tijerina speaks of her life with imprisonment since the age of twelve, and describes the herculean feat of finding and maintaining love for herself before an unrelenting enemy, both in the state and in herself. I was riveted by the power of Tijerina’s voice, which was filled as much by rage as it was by beauty.
“We were all imprisoned for various crimes against the State: impersonating men; escaping abusive homes; setting fires; taking drugs; robbery ’cause we were hungry…Most of our so-called “crimes” we’re acts of resistenc or rebellion against an oppressive family, school, society; for many of us, our cultural identity had been battered and abused since birth.”
Though I couldn’t fully comprehend it at the moment, I knew on hearing Tijerina’s voice that I’d found a living, breathing genius, who — most importantly– was in close proximity to my community. Little did I know how many more writers just like her were out there.
In Gloria Anzaldua’s Haciendo Caras, there’s an entire generation of women –like Tijerina but also substantially different– who have published their voices after a lifetime of being silenced.
There’s no doubt about the brilliance of each voice in this endeavor. Gloria Anzaldua and her contemporaries show themselves to be masterful writers who have not only studied their subjects, but who have also taken the time to weave them in terms that pulse vividly with life for the reader.
"She sat cross-legged and still on top of the hill, at first watching and then becoming part of the moonlight, the brilliant sun. Tall yellow grasses stood stiff and dry and were blown down by the first harsh winds of winter. When the rains came, the earth sprouted in green and tender innocence. She listened to the meditative soul of winter and felt the quickening of spring and each of the seasons in turn: she knew that Time was inside of her."
Journeying alongside each writer in the collection, I found myself humbled to learn of their intricate arguments, which reveal difficult positions on how to achieve a total humanity between male, female, and other identities alike.
For example, how should ‘women of color’ identify themselves as women who are distinct from the dominant white women’s feminist movement at the same time that they search for the mutual liberation of both white and non-white women, i.e. all women?
And how can women of color increase the publication of their perspectives when the major industries of publication are themselves caught in a power struggle between white females and their white male counterparts?
Similarly, how do women of color reconcile their relationships with others who call themselves allies, but who are only interested in their own personal gain from the movement?
In Anzaldua’s words, how do women of color resist the imposition of internalized self-loathing on their counterparts?
"Like the (colonizer) we try to impose our version of ‘the way things should be’: we try to impose one’s self on the Other by making her the recipient of one’s negative elements, usually the same elements that the Anglo projected on us. Like them, we project our own self-hatred on her: we stereotype her; we make her generic."
The response to these challenges vary from voice to voice, and themselves only represent a sample of the book’s many subjects, but Making Face manages to place its multiple different perspectives in a way that still indicates a true solidarity between them.
Even with this in mind, there’s far more that can be said about the collection — of its beautiful treatment of dreams, and time, and space, or of its historic lens across the decades — but of course, there’s only so much we can say before time runs out.
For now, check out Making Face, Making Soul for yourself; I assure you you won’t regret it!
April 24, 2024
rlly hard to sum up my love for the writers and works in this anthology. loved the slander of academic institutions/elite intellectualism lol. loved the mix of poetry, essay, research, and fiction. loved that there was an entire section dedicated to rage. loved the threads of multiplicity and the love of women and reinvention that were woven into a huge array of topics. this was a really powerful collection for me <3
"Our healings take many forms: our ability to laugh at ourselves, to see through our own foolishness, our pride, hope, love. We are continuing in the direction of honoring others' ways, of sharing knowledge and personal power through writing (art) and activism, of injecting into our cultures new ways, feminist ways, mestiza ways. Adaptability, when we forget to stand firm on some issue or when we allow others to choose the terms of our relationships, can be our biggest weakness. But adaptability is also our biggest strength." (Gloria Anzaldúa)
"Our healings take many forms: our ability to laugh at ourselves, to see through our own foolishness, our pride, hope, love. We are continuing in the direction of honoring others' ways, of sharing knowledge and personal power through writing (art) and activism, of injecting into our cultures new ways, feminist ways, mestiza ways. Adaptability, when we forget to stand firm on some issue or when we allow others to choose the terms of our relationships, can be our biggest weakness. But adaptability is also our biggest strength." (Gloria Anzaldúa)
May 27, 2024
i can’t believe this is out of print! so much love towards julia who gifted me this wonderful book 🥹 i really resonated with the critique of academia, the celebration of difference, and the plethora of distinct opinions and personal pieces from chicanas and more <3
October 1, 2014
"Violent responses in any form they take are accomplices to the wills which have created the need. The availability of drugs is not the problem or the dealer down on 122nd street. They are only players in a far more complex value system of booth which nurtures self-hatred. Self-hatred which is directing a den courage nge people to believe suicide is an option-as is alcohol or drug addiction of the reckless homicide on the highways.
We take from the oppressor the instruments of hatred and sharpen them on our bodies and our souls."
"A radical is born with the will to survive and the strength to make trouble. Yet my hatred was consuming me. For all the talk of hatred against the oppressor, true liberation must being with the liberation of ones self from oneself. I had chosen to cross over, to allow the transcendence of hatred into the opposite:love. It was still for me to act upon this knowledge to perform human acts which would build upon this vision of love. When Martin Luther King jr said he had a dream-a vision of human love- he knew in the deep well of hatred is love. Love which in knows the flesh of every human being is alive with feelings. Still, human love is a vision of love for all of us. Each moment we recall the vision of love we commit an act of resistance against the oppressor."
****
"Can any of you name two or three other women poets from the Harlem Renaissance ? Why does the work of all women die with no river carrying forward the record of such grace? How is it that whether we have written novels or poetry, whether we have raised our children or cleaned and cooked and washed, it is all dismissed as " women's work"; it is all finally despised as nothing important, and there is no trace, no meaning echo of our days upon the earth?"
*******
"I feel I am a captive
Aboard the refugee ship.
The ship that will never dock.
El barco que nunca atraca."
*******
"I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am black. It means that I must undertake to love myself and respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect. It means that I. It's seek to cleanse myself of the hatred and contempt that surround and permeate my identity as a woman and as a black human being in this world. It means that the achievement of self-love and self-respect will require hourly vigilence. It means that I am entering my soul in a struggle that will most certainly transform all the peles of the earth: the movement now galvanizing the true majority of human beings everywhere.
This movement tests the viability of a moral idea: that the legitimacy of the status quo, any governing forces, must be measured according to the experiences of those who are, comparatively, powerless. The conduct of the strong vis a vis the strong tells us nothing about a society. The truth is found instead in the bah oir of the powerful towards those who are weaker, smaller, different. How do the strong, the powerful,treat children? Hw do they treat the aged among us? How do the strong and the powerful treat so-called minority members of society? How do the powerful regard women: how do they treat us?
You can see that according to this criteria, the overwhelming status quo of power and government and tradition is evil, diseased, illite timbre and deserves nothing from us-no loyalty, no accomadtion, no patience, no understanding-nothing but clear minded resolve to utterly change this situation and thereby change our own destiny."
*****
We take from the oppressor the instruments of hatred and sharpen them on our bodies and our souls."
"A radical is born with the will to survive and the strength to make trouble. Yet my hatred was consuming me. For all the talk of hatred against the oppressor, true liberation must being with the liberation of ones self from oneself. I had chosen to cross over, to allow the transcendence of hatred into the opposite:love. It was still for me to act upon this knowledge to perform human acts which would build upon this vision of love. When Martin Luther King jr said he had a dream-a vision of human love- he knew in the deep well of hatred is love. Love which in knows the flesh of every human being is alive with feelings. Still, human love is a vision of love for all of us. Each moment we recall the vision of love we commit an act of resistance against the oppressor."
****
"Can any of you name two or three other women poets from the Harlem Renaissance ? Why does the work of all women die with no river carrying forward the record of such grace? How is it that whether we have written novels or poetry, whether we have raised our children or cleaned and cooked and washed, it is all dismissed as " women's work"; it is all finally despised as nothing important, and there is no trace, no meaning echo of our days upon the earth?"
*******
"I feel I am a captive
Aboard the refugee ship.
The ship that will never dock.
El barco que nunca atraca."
*******
"I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am black. It means that I must undertake to love myself and respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect. It means that I. It's seek to cleanse myself of the hatred and contempt that surround and permeate my identity as a woman and as a black human being in this world. It means that the achievement of self-love and self-respect will require hourly vigilence. It means that I am entering my soul in a struggle that will most certainly transform all the peles of the earth: the movement now galvanizing the true majority of human beings everywhere.
This movement tests the viability of a moral idea: that the legitimacy of the status quo, any governing forces, must be measured according to the experiences of those who are, comparatively, powerless. The conduct of the strong vis a vis the strong tells us nothing about a society. The truth is found instead in the bah oir of the powerful towards those who are weaker, smaller, different. How do the strong, the powerful,treat children? Hw do they treat the aged among us? How do the strong and the powerful treat so-called minority members of society? How do the powerful regard women: how do they treat us?
You can see that according to this criteria, the overwhelming status quo of power and government and tradition is evil, diseased, illite timbre and deserves nothing from us-no loyalty, no accomadtion, no patience, no understanding-nothing but clear minded resolve to utterly change this situation and thereby change our own destiny."
*****
June 1, 2008
This is a wonderful collection edited by Gloria Anzaldua with numerous perspectives that would normally go overlooked. There are short stories, essays, poems, rants etc. There are so many perspectives that are put on the back burner of society's mind/heart/awareness. What I like about this book is that it gives a sampling of voices from otherwise "oppressed" voices without adding to the victim consciousness that often goes along with books like this. In the introduction Anzaldua talks about this collection as picking up where The Bridge Called My Back left off. Enjoy!
May 10, 2007
The first time I fell in love, we read Not Editable by Chrystos together. Fiction, poetry, academic prose, and letters from the heart--Haciendo Caras continues to be a source of power and beauty for me.
April 9, 2013
This was one of the texts for a women's studies course I took many years ago. Unlike most of my texts, I was fond enough of the poetry that I chose not to sell it back at the end of the class. I've used selections from it in classes I have taught since then.
May 22, 2008
Book club.
December 10, 2007
Great feminist reference material. I went back to this book repeatedly throughout college for papers.
May 21, 2008
when i was an undergrad in women's studies, we used to call this "bridge part 2"
read it.
read it.
September 30, 2008
I use this in my US Women of Colors graduate class.
March 17, 2010
I read this in college. This houses a strong collection of moving works.
July 25, 2015
Influenced my feminism more than anything.I connect thro poetry & creative writing. So many perspectives...
March 6, 2014
A MUST READ for all!
Read
June 30, 2015Not sure if I read all of this but much. Textbook for Multicultural Lit at Gally.
June 23, 2016
It was a fabulous and enjoyable while reading history
Read
November 27, 2016Loved the stories. It was such good medicine.
February 22, 2018
read many years ago...still valid
July 25, 2019
Read to this one now and really enjoying it. I love writing style and everything Describe in this book.
Read
March 16, 2025Not totally finished with this anthology. Using it in the spring.
January 2, 2021
Life changing
December 14, 2023
Full of an abundance of info.....but too much info to absorb.
Read
January 15, 2010women's studies,essays
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews