This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color is a feminist anthology edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa first published in 1981 by Persephone Press.
The book centers on the experiences of women of color and emphasizes the points of what is now called intersectionality within their multiple identities,[1] challenging white feminists who made claims to solidarity based on sisterhood.
[6][7] Anzaldúa began writing This Bridge after she experienced discrimination and exclusion at a feminist retreat that she had been invited to by author Merlin Stone.
[9] The two Chicanas initially meant for the book to be a response to white feminists’ racism, but it ended up being a reflection of the conversations women of color were having at the time regarding feminism.
[9][10] Ultimately, the co-editors turned down these works because they hoped to create a non-academic anthology that encapsulated Third World feminism in the US through spiritual, artistic, and theoretical means.
In the introduction of the original version of This Bridge, the co-editors state that this book was the sole focus of their time and money for the two years that it took them to publish it.
[9] The authors of this anthology came from a variety of cultural, economic, and racial backgrounds, and their works span different genres, writing styles, and topics.
[13] In addition to being a feminist piece of literature, this book by Moraga and Anzaldúa touches upon racist remarks for people of Latin American descent.
[13] The use of the term güera, both title of a chapter along with the nickname given to Moraga for her light skin tone, heavily resembles the racial remarks within the book.
While she is part of the latino community and seemingly is recognized to be hispanic, she remains an outlier solely because of her skin color, which creates a bridge contrasting her from her own identity.
[14] While both Moraga and Anzaldúa experience seemingly opposing stereotypes, they face the same challenges together: being judged for simply being born with a skin color.
"[17] In addition to providing the framework for new activist-based coalitions, This Bridge has had a considerable impact upon the world of academia for its linking of feminism, race, class, and sexuality.
She describes how the anthology "has allowed her to offer global perspectives on issues of race, gender, ethnicity, and power against the now antiquated white feminists' utopian ideal of universal sisterhood."
Through questioning the existence of objective "truth" as separate from human construction, and through an analysis of language that acknowledges deep contextual and historical meanings, she highlights the intentions of This Bridge to challenge the forces that put all feminists into one category, as well as the oppositional thinking that makes differences hierarchical instead of inter-related and interdependent.
'"[22] This Bridge "offered a rich and diverse account of the experience and analyses of women of color; with its collective ethos, its politics of rage and regeneration, and its mix of poetry, critique, fiction and testimony, it challenged the boundaries of feminist and academic discourse.
"[26] Cherríe Moraga, Ana Castillo, and Norma Alarcón adapted this anthology into the Spanish-language Este puente, mi espalda: Voces de mujeres tercermundistas en los Estados Unidos.