Ana Castillo

Eilidh AB Hall (University of Aberdeen)

Ed. by Nuala Finnegan, University College Cork
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.7: Chicano/Latino Writing and Culture of the United States.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Nuala Finnegan (University College Cork), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Lori Oxford (Western Carolina University)

Dates

Born 15 Jun 1953
Activity 1977-ongoing

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Cultural Identities

Latino/a US-American

Activities

Primary

Essayist
Novelist
Poet

Resources

Castillo's Works

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Ana Castillo is a poet, novelist, short story writer, editor, playwright, translator, and independent scholar. Born and raised in Chicago, of Mexican American heritage, Castillo’s work deals with the plurality and complexity of the Chicana experience. Through the praxis of ‘Xicanisma’ that she develops in her 1994 work

Massacre of the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanisma

, Castillo explores her version of Chicana feminism that reinserts the “forsaken feminine” into political consciousness (Massacre 12). Xicanisma calls for a reclamation of

indigenismo

and the use of the ‘x’ in the spelling of ‘Xicanisma’ pays homage to Castillo’s indigenous roots by incorporating the Nahuatl language of the Mexica who use the ‘x’ to signify ‘ch’ (Massacre 12). In the essay “A…

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2026 words

Citation: Hall, Eilidh AB. "Ana Castillo". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 July 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5896, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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