Sketching Spirit in Everything: Exploring Spirituality, Interconnectivity, and Creativity in Gloria Anzaldúa’s Archived Drawings

Abstract

Gloria Anzaldúa drew important connections between spirituality, interconnectivity, and creativity when she stated, “the idea that everything is spiritual, that I’m a speck of this soul, this creative consciousness, this creative life force; and so is a dog, a rock, a bird, this bedspread, and this wall…Everything is relative, I’m related to everything” (Interviews 2000).  In asserting a universal relation between all beings based on spiritual affinity, Anzaldúa places spirituality at the core of social justice work.  Furthermore, she expands the scope and applications of spirituality to includes all forms of beings and unsettles the separation and hierarchy between humans and nonhumans. In the introduction, I establish Anzaldúa’s articulation of spirituality as social justice oriented, inclusive of all forms of being, and connected to creativity.  Next, I examine three of Anzaldúa’s archived sketches of animals and nature and place these images into conversation with her written theories. While the archive holds numerous sketches that incorporate an animal or nature, I select drawings that contain nature and at least one animal rendered in a complex patterning style.  In my analysis I explore the questions: How can we read Anzaldúa’s sketches through her writings on spirituality? And conversely, what can we learn about Anzaldúa’s theory of spirituality from her archived sketches? Through compositional analysis, I unpack Anzaldúa uses of imagination to articulate a spirituality that indicates interconnections between humans and our environment.  In conclusion, I reflect on the contributions Anzaldúa’s artwork makes in developing her theory of spirituality that creates personal and social change. I argue that academic disciplines invested in analyzing social issues can benefit from examining both Anzaldúa's written and visual theories because she presents a spirituality that is deeply enmeshed with, not removed from, the concerns of marginalized groups.