Elsa María Cross Anzaldúa | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | March 6, 1946 |
| Education | Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México |
| Occupations | Writer, poet |
| Spouse(s) | Alejandro Aura Juan Tovar |
| Children | 2 |
| Writing career | |
| Language | Spanish |
| Notable awards | |
Elsa María Cross Anzaldúa (born March 6, 1946), known professionally as Elsa Cross, is a contemporary Spanish-language Mexican writer and poet.
Cross was born in Mexico City on March 6, 1946. She has a doctorate in Philosophy and Letters from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and is currently a professor in that Faculty. Cross is a researcher in Indian philosophy, philosophy of religion, comparative mythology, Indian poetry, and Indian art. He studied Hindu philosophy in India, where he lived for two years, and in the United States.
She has also published translations, philosophical essays and is known as an authority on Indian philosophy.
According to Octavio Paz, Elsa Cross is one of the most personal voices in recent Latin-American poetry. Her work, already considerable, includes some of the most perfect poems of the last generation of Mexican writers. I say voice and not poetic writing since poetry, although written, must always be spoken. Two opposing notes reconcile harmoniously in Elsa Cross: the complexity of her thought and the clarity of her diction.
Speaking of her poetry, Cross said it is the bond of the internal with the external. In one direction or another, for me poetry always bridges that inside with that of the outside, is the way of passing from one to the other of these spaces, but which unites them. The internal only can expressed when reflected in that outside -that necessary knot-, the outside can be a mirror or vice versa.
In 1989, she was awarded the Premio Nacional de Poesía Aguascalientes for her book of poems El diván de Antar. In 1992 she was given the Jaime Sabines International Poetry Prize, for her book Moira.
In 2007 she received the Xavier Villaurrutia Award. That same year, she won the Jaime Sabines-Gatien Lapointe International Poetry Prize.
In 2016, Cross was awarded the National Prize for Arts in the Linguistics and literature category.
In 2023, she was the recipient of the Alfonso Reyes International Prize.
She was briefly married to the poet Alejandro Aura, and later in life to the playwright Juan Tovar. She has two children, one with each of her husbands.
