Editing Ana Castillo (section)

== Life and career ==
Castillo was born in Chicago in 1953, the daughter of Raymond and Rachel Rocha Castillo.<ref name=manriquez>{{cite web|last=Manríquez|first=B.J.|title=Ana Castillo|url=http://latinoamerican2.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1329532?terms=%22ana+castillo%22|work=The American Mosaic: The Latin American Experience|publisher=ABC-CLIO|access-date=April 26, 2013|archive-date=December 8, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191208025445/http://latinoamerican2.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1329532?terms=%22ana+castillo%22|url-status=dead}}</ref> Her mother was Mexican Indian and<ref>{{cite journal|title=none|last=Hampton|first=Janet Jones|journal=Américas|date=Jan–Feb 2000|volume=52|issue=1|pages=48–53}}</ref> her father was born in 1933, in Chicago.<ref name="Shea, Renee H 2000">Shea, Renee H. "No Silence for This Dreamer: The Stories of Ana Castillo." Poets & Writers 28.2 (Mar.-Apr. 2000): 32–39. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Edu. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 151. Detroit: Gale Group, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Web. 12. Sept. 2013.</ref> She attended [[Jones Commercial High School]] and [[Chicago City Colleges]] before completing her BS in art, with a minor in secondary education, at [[Northeastern Illinois University]].<ref name="manriquez" /><ref name="calafell" /> Ana Castillo received her MA in [[Latin American Studies]] from the [[University of Chicago]] in 1979, after teaching ethnic studies at [[Santa Rosa Junior College]] and serving as writer-in-residence for the [[Illinois Arts Council]].<ref name="manriquez" /> She has also taught at Malcolm X Junior College and later on in her life at Sonoma State College.<ref name="Shea, Renee H 2000"/><ref name="calafell" /> Ana Castillo received her doctorate from the [[University of Bremen]], Germany, in [[American Studies]] in 1991.<ref name="manriquez" /> In lieu of a traditional [[dissertation]], she submitted the essays later collected in her 1994 work ''Massacre of the Dreamers''.<ref name="manriquez" /> Castillo, who has written more than 15 books and numerous articles, is widely regarded as a key thinker and a pioneer in the field of Chicana literature.<ref name="calafell" /> She has said, "Twenty-five years after I started writing, I feel I still have a message to share."<ref name="Shea, Renee H 2000"/>

Castillo writes about [[Chicana feminism]], which she refers to as "Xicanisma," and her work centers on issues of identity, racism, and [[classism]].<ref name=chabram>{{cite book|last=Chabram-Dernersesian|first=Angie|title=The Chicana/o Cultural Studies Reader|year=2006|publisher=Routledge|location=London/New York|isbn=0415235154|page=208}}</ref> She uses the term "xicanisma" to signify Chicana feminism, to illustrate the politics of what it means to be a Chicana in our society, and to represent the Chicana feminism that challenges binaries regarding the Chicana experience such as gay/straight black/white. Castillo writes, "Xicanisma is an ever present consciousness of our interdependence specifically rooted in our culture and history. Although Xicanisma is a way to understand ourselves in the world, it may also help others who are not necessarily of Mexican background and/or women. It is yielding; never resistant to change, one based on wholeness not dualisms. Men are not our opposites, our opponents, our 'other'".<ref>{{cite web|last=Juffer|first=Jane|title=On Ana Castillo's Poetry|url=http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/castillo/about.htm|publisher=Modern American Poetry}}</ref> She writes, "Chicana literature is something that we as Chicanas take and define as part of U.S. North American literature. That literature has to do with our reality, our perceptions of reality, and our perceptions of society in the United States as women of Mexican descent or Mexican background or Latina background".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Saeta|first=Elsa|title=A MELUS Interview: Ana Castillo|journal=MELUS |volume=22 |issue=3|year=1997|pages=133–149|doi=10.2307/467659|jstor=467659}}</ref> Castillo argues that Chicanas must combat multiple modes of oppression, including homophobia, racism, sexism and classism, and that Chicana feminism must acknowledge the presence of multiple diverse Chicana experiences.<ref name=herrera>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Herrera|first=Cristina|title=Chicana Feminism|url=http://knowledge.sagepub.com/view/womentoday/n136.xml?rskey=tOwJKD&row=2|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World|year=2011|publisher=SAGE Publications|doi=10.4135/9781412995962|isbn=9781412976855|access-date=April 26, 2013|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Her writing shows the influence of [[magical realism]].<ref name=calafell>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Calafell|first=Bernadette Marie|title=Ana Castillo|url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195156003.001.0001/acref-9780195156003-e-126|encyclopedia=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-515600-3|access-date=April 26, 2013}}</ref> Much of her work has been translated into Spanish, including her poetry. She has also contributed articles and essays to such publications as the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' and ''[[Salon.com|Salon]]''. Castillo is the editor of La Tolteca, an arts and literary magazine.<ref>Castillo, Ana. Ana Castillo. 2013. http://www.anacastillo.com/content/. September 13, 2013.</ref>

She was also nominated in 1999 for the "Greatest Chicagoans of the Century" sponsored by the ''[[Sun Times]]''.<ref name="Shea, Renee H 2000"/>
<references group="Shea, Renee H. &quot;No Silence for This Dreamer: The Stories of Ana Castillo.&quot; Poets & Writers 28.2 (Mar.-Apr. 2000): 32-39. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Edu. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 151. Detroit: Gale Group, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Web. 12. Sept. 2013." />
Her [[archive|papers]] are housed at the [[California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives]] at the [[University of California, Santa Barbara]].