With Heart in Hand: Whiteness, Homonormativity, and the Question of the Erasure of Gloria Anzaldúa's Chicana Identity from the CCCC Gloria Anzaldúa Rhetorician Award

• Published in: College composition and communication Vol. 72; no. 2; pp. 282 - 305
• Main Author: Padilla, J. Paul
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: National Council of Teachers of English 01-12-2020
• Subjects: Awards; Ethnicity; Gender Bias; Homosexuality; LGBTQ People; Mexican Americans; Racial Bias; Rhetoric
• ISSN: 0010-096X
• DOI: 10.58680/ccc202031038

The Queer Caucus created the Gloria Anzaldu´a Rhetorician Award to honor Anzaldu´a's impact on "studies of both rhetoric and queer theory" through forging "connections across difference and oppression in order to dismantle systems of privilege, whether that be heterosexism, heteronormativity, racism, sexism or ableism (as a non-exhaustive list)." However, the text of the Award, along with its impetus, belies these intentions. The Award erases Anzaldu´a's "Chicanidad" from her work and her person through the emphasis on culture-less sexual and gender minority experiences, the redefinition of Anzaldu´a's work as focused on generalized difference and oppression, and the omission of any substantive acknowledgment of her "Chicanidad." This essay examines the erasure of Anzaldúa's "Chicanidad" and the appropriation of Anzaldúa as a race-less and culture-less liberatory figure through the operation of homonormativity and whiteness. I analyze the text and impetus of the Award through an analytical framework rooted in the rhetorical concepts of Kenneth Burke and Gloria Anzaldu´a's own concerns about erasure and appropriation through homonormativity and whiteness. I argue that the meaningful change to the text and its authorship, as well as to meaningful inclusion of queers of color, is necessary for the Award to continue.