Norma Elia Cantú

Early life and education

Cantú was born on January 3, 1947, in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, to Florentino Cantú Vargas and Virginia Ramon Becerra. She was reared in Laredo in Webb County, Texas, and attended public schools there. She received her AA degree from Laredo Community College in 1970. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in English and political science from Texas A&I University at Laredo, now Texas A&M International University in Laredo, from which she graduated summa cum laude in 1973.

She received her Master of Science degree in English with a minor in political science from Texas A&I University‑Kingsville in 1976 and her PhD in English from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1982. She has been on the faculty of Texas A&M International University, the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. In 2016, she was named Murchison Professor in the Humanities at Trinity University.

Publications

Cantú has authored, co-authored, or edited a wide range of publications. Her books include the 2020 works meXicana Fashions: Politics, Self Adornment and Identity Construction and Teaching Gloria Anzaldúa: Pedagogies and Practices for our Classrooms and Communities (co-editor with Aída Hurtado). In 2019, she co-edited Cabañuelas: A Love Story with Margaret Cantú Sánchez and Candace De Leon Zepeda, and wrote Meditación Fronteriza: Poems of Life, Love and Work (under review).

She co-edited Entre Malinche y Guadalupe: Tejanas in Literature and Art (2016) with Inés Hernández Ávila, and The Plays of Silviana Wood with Rita Urquíjo Ruiz. She translated Borderlands/La Frontera (2015) and released an updated 20th anniversary edition of Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera (2015). Other co-edited volumes include Moctezuma’s Table: Rolando Briseño’s Mexicano and Chicano Tablescapes (2012), Paths to Discovery: Autobiographies of Chicanas with Careers in Mathematics, Science and Engineering (2011), El Mundo Zurdo: Selected Works from the Meetings of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa 2007 & 2009 (2010), Inside the Latin@ Experience: A Latino Studies Reader (2010, with Maria Franquiz), Dancing Across Borders: Danzas y Bailes Mexicanos (2009, co-edited with Olga Nájera-Ramírez and Brenda Romero), and Prietas y Güeras: Proceedings of the First Conference on the Life and Work of Gloria Anzaldúa (2009).

She edited Flor y Ciencia: Chicanas in Mathematics, Science and Engineering (2006) and co-edited Changing Chicana Traditions (2001, with Olga Najera Ramírez). She co-edited Telling to Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios (2001) with the Latina feminist Group, contributing pieces including "Getting there cuando no hay camino," "A Working Class Brujas Fears," and two poems: "Migraine" and "Reading the Body." Her short story "Los Tecolotes" appeared in *¡Arriba Baseball!

Did You Know?

• She served as President of the American Folklore Society from 2020-21.
• Her book Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la frontera won the Premio Aztlán Literary Prize in 1995.