Norma Elia Cantú, Ph.D., Trinity University Murchison Professor of the Humanities, is no stranger to accolades. Cantú has been a Fulbright Fellow three times. She received an American Folklore Society Lifetime Achievement Award, has been inducted into the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame, and was selected for a Tejano Heritage Award by Texas A&M, Kingsville. The list goes on. But this week’s announcement of Cantú’s 2027 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Institute of Letters (TIL) hits a little different.
“Being recognized by my peers makes it special,” Cantú says. “I’m a folklorist: I’ve been recognized for that. I’m also a literary critic: I’ve been recognized for that. But this one is the first recognition of my long trajectory in creative writing.”
During her decade at Trinity, Cantú has taught courses on the U.S. Latinx experience, Latinx cultural and artistic expressions, folklore, and also creative writing.
Dania Abreu-Torres, Ph.D., associated dean of the Carlos Alvarez School of Arts & Humanities, and a colleague of Cantú’s in the Department of Modern Languages and Literature, says Cantú is not only a prolific writer and scholar, but also an advocate for the arts and writers. “She has used her success to become a sage for many writers and scholars, guiding them, mentoring them, and making sure Latino literature is at the front and center of U.S. letters and classrooms,” Abreu-Torres says.
At Trinity, Cantú has influenced students to explore writing and engage with Latino literature, especially with writers and artists from San Antonio, Abreu-Torres adds. Her classes are always dynamic with guest speakers. “She has brought the San Antonio community to Trinity, and that is a legacy we hope to continue in the Carlos Alvarez School of Arts and Humanities,” Abreu-Torres adds.
Chris Barton, president of the TIL, says Cantú’s selection came at the end of a months-long nomination process reviewed by a council of Cantú’s peers. “The TIL Council chose her both for her accomplishments as a writer of such varied and excellent works and for her influence on legions of other writers whom she has inspired and mentored over the decades,” Barton says.
Growing up in Laredo, Texas, Cantú didn’t read books about Chicanitas growing up near the border. She was motivated to share the story of that life and to counter negative stereotypes of border culture, she says. “It probably sounds cliché, but I did it because no one else was doing it,” Cantú says.
Cantú, who turns 80 in January, plans to retire next spring after 52 years of teaching at four institutions--all of them public universities, except for Trinity, where she’s spent the past decade of her career.
“I have found Trinity to be supportive of interdisciplinary endeavors. I’m a folklorist, I’m also a creative writer, a literary scholar, I did a lot of work with community groups,” Cantú says. “If you can imagine a house that has many rooms–that’s my head with rooms for each discipline. And Trinity allows for that interdisciplinary work.”
The TIL Lifetime Achievement Award puts Cantú in the company of celebrated Texas writers, including Trinity alumna Naomi Shihab Nye ’74 and former faculty member Robert Flynn. Cantú will receive the award, which comes with an $8,000 prize, at a banquet in College Station on May 1, 2027. “The impact that Dr. Cantú and her work have had on others is evident in the public outpouring of celebration since we announced the news on Sunday,” Barton says. “It’s been a delight to see.”
Photo courtesy of Sara Blanco for the Texas Institute of Letters.