| tatiana de la tierra | |
| Birth Date: | 14 May 1961 |
| Birth Place: | Villavicencio, Colombia |
| Death Date: | 31 July 2012 (aged 51) |
| Death Place: | Long Beach, California |
| Language: | English, Spanish |
| Occupation: | Writer |
Tatiana de la tierra (May 14, 1961 – July 31, 2012) was a Colombian writer, poet and activist. She was the author of the first international Latina lesbian magazine Esto no tiene nombre.
Tatiana de la tierra was born in Villavicencio, Colombia on May 14, 1961.[1] She emigrated to the US in 1969 at the age of eight. Her family settled in Homestead, Florida.[2] At her elementary school, de la tierra volunteered to help in the school library.
De la tierra stated she reportedly knew she was attracted to women around the time she reached the age of 10 or 11, but did not come out as a lesbian until 1982.[3]
De la tierra attended Miami-Dade Community College and received her associate degree in 1981. There, she worked as a library assistant. She later attended the University of Florida, where she earned her bachelor's degree in psychology in 1984. In the 1990s, de la tierra began editing and publishing Esto no tiene nombre, which later became known as Conmoción.
See main article: articles and Esto no tiene nombre (magazine). Esto no tiene nombre was a quarterly Latina lesbian magazine that published the work of renowned Latina writers: including Cherríe Moraga, Achy Obejas, Carmelita Tropicana, Laura Aguilar, Marcia Ochoa, Juana María Rodríguez and Luz María Umpierre.[4] Much of de la tierra's early work was self-published and distributed by hand, including at the Encuentros de Lesbianas Feministas de América Latina y del Caribe ("Gatherings of Lesbian Feminists of Latin America and the Caribbean").[5]
Esto no tiene nombre began as a magazine without a title and de la Tierra tried to get its readers involved in naming the magazine, eventually settling on the current name.[6] Its title is said to be a symbol of rejection towards the heteronormative label and image of Latina lesbians. De la tierra published an article in the journal Aztlán that detailed the internal politics and editorial conflicts surrounding the publication of these magazines, and points of debate connected to the 'sex wars' of the era. The magazine's contents and call for activism were inspired by the feminist work of, and publications such as This Bridge Called My Back.
After a while, Esto no tiene nombre and Conmoción ceased publication due to a lack of funding. 1999, she earned her Master's of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Texas at El Paso De la tierra also earned a Master's of Library Science from the University at Buffalo in 2000. Shortly after earning her second master's degree, she began her Jean Blackwell Hutson Library Residency at the University at Buffalo's undergraduate library. Two years later, she was hired by that same library as an information literacy librarian. Later, she moved to California, where she became the director of Hispanic Services at Inglewood Public Library.
Kidney disease led to de la tierra stepping away from her writing, leaving a memoir unfinished.
De la tierra died on July 31, 2012, some time after being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.[7] Her papers and unpublished materials were donated to the University of California, Los Angeles.[8]
De la tierra's work endured criticism from conservatives due to the nature of her writings.[9] De la tierra did not hold back when it came to eroticism, with some of her work even compared to pornography. She was shameless about discussing sexuality and this encouraged others to speak freely about sexuality, sex, and the human body.[10]
Sandra K. Soto notes that de la tierra's work challenges heteronormative views. De la tierra' became an activist through her work and felt a need to challenge the stereotypes surrounding lesbianism and what it means to be a woman or a woman of color. She also wrote explicitly about fatness as a feminist issue. She wanted schools to incorporate LGBTQ issues and material into their curriculum; more specifically, she hoped this would happen in all English composition classes from elementary to high school to prevent homophobia and educate students on the concept of identity.[11]