Estela Portillo Trambley

Estela Portillo Trambley (1926-1998), an El Paso native, was an award-winning fiction writer, playwright, and poet known for vivid portrayals of strong and independent Mexican and Mexican American women in Texas and its borderlands. Recognized as one of the first Chicano Renaissance authors, she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English literature from the University of Texas at El Paso. She taught high school in El Paso for more than 40 years, including over two decades as a teacher of home-bound students, and lectured extensively at universities across the United States and Europe. Trambley was co-founder of Los Pobres, a bilingual theater in El Paso, and her plays premiered in theaters across the country, including the Chamizal National Memorial Theater and the Chicano Theater of El Paso Community College. In 1972, she became the first woman to win the Premio Quinto Sol, a prestigious literary prize recognizing the work of Chicano and Chicana authors. In the 1960s, she hosted Stella Says, a political radio show, and in the 1970s she directed and wrote Cumbres, a television cultural program. Her contributions to the arts, higher education, and Chicana literature formed an important part of El Paso’s artistic legacy and inspired many writers who fought gender stereotypes.

El Paso, Texas · United States