Norma Elia Cantú (born January 3, 1947) is a Chicana postmodernist writer and the Murchison Professor in the Humanities at Trinity University.
Early life and education
She was born in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, to Florentino Cantú Vargas and the former Virginia Ramón Becerra. She was reared in Laredo, Texas, the seat of Webb County, and attended public schools there.
Cantú received her A.A. 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 Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1982.
She has been on the faculty of 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.
Awards and recognition
2002: Elli Köngäs Maranda Prize from the Women’s Section of the American Folklore Society, for Chicana Traditions: Change and Continuity (co-editor and contributor)
2002: American Educational Studies Association Critics' Choice Award, Race in the College Classroom (contributor)
2003: Américo Paredes Prize, American Folklore Society
2003: Distinguished Scholar Award from the Division on Chicana and Chicano Literature of the Modern Languages Association
2008: National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies Scholar of the Year
2008: Cátedra Laboris from the Universidad de Monterrey, Monterrey, Nuevo León
2010: Exceptional Texas Woman, by the Veteran Feminists of America, Texas, March 19, Dallas, Texas
2010: UTSA Globalization Award, April
2010: Elvira Cordero de Cisneros Macondo Foundation Award
2011: Fellow of the American Folklore Society
2012: Beca Nebrija de Creación Literaria, Instituto Franklin, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares; Inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters
2013: Yellow Rose of Texas Education Award; HOPE Cultural Arts Award; the Letras de Aztlán from NACCS Tejas Foco
2014: Elected to the board of the American Folklore Society
2015: Outstanding Latina of Kansas City (Women’s History Month), DosMundos Newspaper
2016: Escuela Tlatelolco’s Champion of Change Award for Art, Literature, & Culture, Denver, Colorado
Forthcoming. Cabañuelas: A Love Story. University of New Mexico Press.
Meditación Fronteriza: Poems of Life, Love and Work, under review, University of Arizona Press
2016. Co-editor with Inés Hernández Ávila, Entre Malinche y Guadalupe: Tejanas in Literature and Art. 2016.
2016. Entre Malinche y Guadalupe: Tejanas in Literature and Art. Co-edited with Inés Hernández Ávila, University of Texas Press
Co-editor with Rita Urquíjo Ruiz, The Plays of Silviana Wood. University of Arizona Press
2015. Translator: Borderlands/La Frontera. Universidad Autónoma de Mexico
Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera -- Updated 20th Anniversary Edition, University of New Mexico Press
2014. Diálogo Special Issue: Poetry, co-edited with Juana Goergen
2013. "Los Tecolotes," in ¡Arriba Baseball! A Collection of Latino/a Baseball Fiction. VAO Publishing.
2012. Moctezuma’s Table: Rolando Briseño’s Mexicano and Chicano Tablescapes, Texas A&M University Press
2011. Paths to Discovery: Autobiographies of Chicanas with Careers in Mathematics, Science and Engineering. UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press
2010. El Mundo Zurdo: Selected Works from the Meetings of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa 2007 & 2009, Co-Editor. (Aunt Lute Books)
2010. Inside the Latin@ Experience: A Latino Studies Reader, co-edited with Maria Franquiz (Palgrave/McMillan)
2009. Dancing Across Borders: Danzas y Bailes Mexicanos. Co-edited with Olga Nájera-Ramírez and Brenda Romero. University of Illinois Press.
Prietas y Güeras: Proceedings of the First Conference on the Life and Work of Gloria Anzaldúa. Co-editor. San Antonio, TX: Adelante Project. I embroider borders…. Poetry book, limited edition. Southwest School of Arts and Crafts.
2006. Editor. Flor y Ciencia: Chicanas in Mathematics, Science and Engineering. AAAS Adelante Project.
2001. Co-editor with Olga Najera Ramírez. Changing Chicana Traditions, University of Illinois Press.
Telling to Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios. Co-editor with the Latina feminist Group. Individual pieces included: "Getting there cuando no hay camino," "A Working Class Brujas Fears," and two poems: "Migraine" and "Reading the Body." Duke University Press.
2000.Santuarios: Program Essay. The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center Rockefeller Gateways Program Performance.
2000."Realidad Fronteriza" in Cariatides.
2000."Police Blotter," Colorado Review.
1999.Canícula: Imágenes de una niñez fronteriza. Houghton Mifflin Co.
1999. "Diamond," A Quien Corresponda, Revista Literaria, Cd. Victoria, Tamps.
1998."Tino" and "Perpetuo Socorro," in Aztlán in Viet Nam, University of California Press.
"Capirotada" in Stirring Prose, Texas A&M Press. 1998.
1998."Adios en Madrid," Proyecto Scheherazade, electronic journal.
1998."El luto," in Ventana Abierta.
1998."Decolonizing the Mind" and "Trojan Horse" in Floricanto Sí: U.S. Latina Poetry. New York: Penguin.
1997. Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la frontera. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, paperback edition.
1997."Bailando y Cantando," short story, "Las diosas," "Decolonizing the Mind," and "Fiestas de diciembre," poems in Blue Mesa Review, number 9, University of New Mexico.
1996."Letters Home/Letters from Home," sporadic column of poetry and prose in the monthly LareDOS.
1995."Tino" and "Papi," in In Short. Judith Kitchen and Mary Paumier Jones, eds. New York: Norton.
1995Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la frontera. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. Winner, Premio Aztlán Literary Prize.
1994."Nebraska Family: A Tryptich," Nebraska Humanist.
Chapters 42-44 from Canícula and "Action, Thought, Spirit"(poem) in Prairie Schooner.1992 *"Snapshots of a Girlhood en la frontera," in The Texas Humanist.
"Se me enchina el cuerpo al oir tu cuento", short story. New Chicano/a Literature, University of Arizona Press.
1983."Unemployed", poem, Huehuetitlan.
1983."Untitled", poem, Huehuetitlan.
2015 Letters to the Poet from his Brother, in Aztlán
2010 There Was a Woman, in Journal of Folklore Research
2005 Homegirls in the Public Sphere in National Women’s Studies Journal
1995 "Fiesta, fe, y cultura," in American Folklore Society Journal.
1995 "Carry Me Like Water" in The Washington Post, Book World.
1995 "My History Not Yours: The Formation of Mexican American Autobiography," in Western Historical Quarterly.
1993 "No Short Journeys: The Interplay of Culture in the History and Literature of the Borderlands," in Western Historical Quarterly.
1992 "Footlights Across the Border: A History of Spanish Language Professional Theater on the Texas Stage," Journal of Popular Culture.
1991 "Mixed Blessings," in Texas Humanist, Spring.
1984 "Woman of Her Word," in La Red/The Net.
1984 "Cuentos: Stories by Latinas," in La Red/The Net.
1979 "Chicano Voices," in English in Texas.
1978 "Selina," in Prairie Schooner.
1978 "César Chávez: Autobiography of La Causa," in Prairie Schooner.
