ESTELA PORTILLO TRAMBLEY
Written by Teresa Palomo Acosta
Produced by KUT for Texas Women's History Month in cooperation with the Ruthe Winegarten Memorial Foundation for Texas Women's History. First broadcast on Austin radio station KUT in March, 2011.
Ruíz, Vicki and Virginia Sánchez Korrol. Latinas in the United States, A Historical Encyclopedia, Vol. 1. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.
Estela Portillo Trambley was a late twentieth century playwright and writer who became one of the first female Mexican American writers to achieve a national reputation. She drew inspiration from the people and experiences of her native El Paso: the play Puente Negro (Black Bridge), one of her best known, focuses on immigration, a continuing national issue. Just as importantly, she created works with a feminist voice, in which women challenge the subordinate roles to which many are consigned. In Day of the Swallows, a play for which she won the Quinto Sol Award in 1972, the leading character rebuffs marriage and eventually enters a lesbian relationship. In other works, Portillo Trambley’s female characters emerge as strong persons who learn to live independent lives regardless of societal condemnation.