Estela Portillo-Trambley

Estela Portillo-Trambley (January 16, 1926 – December 1, 1998) was a Chicana poet and playwright. She gained recognition through the publishing of her many plays, prose, and poetry depicting the lives and plight of Chicana women in male-dominated societies.

Biography Portillo-Trambley was born to Mexican immigrant parents on January 16, 1926 in El Paso, Texas. She is the first Chicana to publish a short story collection and the first to write a musical comedy. The historical play Sor Juana reconsiders the double standards that the 17th century nun faced and reimagines her life from a feminist perspective. Additionally, her play The Day of the Swallows can be considered ahead of its time for featuring a lesbian relationship.

Poetry Impressions (haiku poetry), El Espejo Quinto Sol, 1971. (Editor) Chicanas en literatura y Arte (title means Chicana Women in Literature and Art), Quinto Sol, 1974. Rain of Scorpions and Other Writings (short stories), Tonatiuh International, 1976 Trini, Bilingual Press, 1986

Plays The Day of the Swallows (also see below), El Espejo Quinto Sol, 1971. Morality Play (three-act musical), first produced in El Paso, Tex., at Chamizal National Theatre, 1974. (Contributor) We Are Chicano, Washington Square Press, 1974. Black Light (three-act), first produced in El Paso at Chamizal National Theatre, 1975. El Hombre Cosmico (title means The Cosmic Man), first produced at Chamizal National Theatre, 1975. Sun Images (musical), first produced at Chamizal National Theatre, 1976. (Contributor) Roberto Garza, editor, Chicano Theatre (includes The Day of the Swallows), Notre Dame University Press, 1976. Isabel and the Dancing Bear (three-act), first produced at Chamizal National Theatre, 1977. Sor Juana and Other Plays, Bilingual Press, 1983 Autumn Gold (three-act comedy) Broken Moon (three-act play) Los amores de Don Estafa (three-act comedy in English).

Awards and achievements Portillo-Trambley won the 1975 Quinto Sol Award, a literary award presented by Quinto Sol Publications for her short story collection Rain of Scorpions. Later in her career, she attained second place in the 1985 New York Shakespeare Festival's Hispanic American playwright's competition for her play Black Light. The playwright was named Author of the Pass by the El Paso Herald Post in 1990,