Ayala: OLLU collection includes work of recluse and poet Angela de Hoyos
Tejana poet Angela de Hoyos started publishing her work at a time when many Latinos weren't being published.It was only by chance that Moises Sandoval was visiting the archives at Our Lady of the Lake University on the same day I did.The 90-year-old retired physicist was there to view the papers of his late wife, Chicana poet, publisher, songwriter and activist Angela de Hoyos, who died in 2009.The archive isn’t easy to find.
She was a self-taught writer and artist, he says, graduating only from high school. Her name was “Angela, or Angelina,” he says. She was called “one of our giants” and “grande dame of Chicano poetry” by the godfather of Chicano literature Rodolfo Anaya and fellow poet Sheila Sanchez Hatch. A master of code-switching between English and Spanish, de Hoyos is also considered foundational for the Chicano writers who followed.