Borders, and the experience of living in two different cultures at once, are themes of today’s Google Doodle in the US, which celebrates the work of Gloria E. Anzaldúa.

An author and scholar who died in 2004, Anzaldúa grew up in Texas-Mexico border towns and developed theories about the way marginal cultures can develop. Today would have been her 75th birthday.

Anzaldúa’s writing drew from her experiences growing up as both a Mexican and an American, exploring the ways a person can be shaped by geography, geopolitics, language and myth. Google notes that Anzaldúa’s work has influenced scholars across multiple disciplines including Chicano/a Studies, Women’s Studies, LGBT Studies, and Postcolonial Studies. 

In 1981 she co-edited “This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color” with feminist activist and writer Cherríe Moraga. She is perhaps best known for writing the semi-autobiographical “Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza”, which was published in 1987 and examined the invisible “borders” that exist in society.

Google keeps an archive of previous Doodles here.