Elaine Chalmers

Professor Chalmers grew up in South Texas along the US-Mexico Border. She often would sit with her great grandparents who lived in Eagle Pass, Texas, and her Grandparents Camarillo. She was fascinated with oral traditional stories of how her grandparents were told of how in the late 1800s their families had oral traditional stories of how their families fled tribal lands as they had Apache and Comanche heritage as tribes were targeted to be eradicated or pushed out of Texas. Her family’s story is one that many indigenous peoples of the United States endured. She became fascinated with how oral traditional stories of her family’s storytellers were attempts to hold on to indigenous identity as that identity was taken from prior lands held in the placemaking of what was once where their ancestors lived.

Professor Chalmers grew up sitting on her grandparent’s South Texas porch and listening to her 6-foot 4 Grandfather Camarillo speak of how he grew up in Eagle Pass, Texas and would hear and learned how to do tribal whistle speak, that he learned from his mom’s family. Her grandfather spoke of how he and his family witnessed the early militarization of the Texas Mexico border in the early 20th century and how hiding one’s indigenous heritage was seen as a survival strategy during that period of American and Texas History.

It was her reflection of her deep love and admiration for her grandparents, and remembrance of her Grandfather Camarillo sitting on his porch in the heat of South Texas’ Summers where it was over 100 degrees and while his grandchildren would head in to seek cooling from modern central air conditioning, he remained with his rugged sun and wind-swept high cheekbones would singularly remain to watch the Texas sunset. It was the mystery of what her family’s story attempted to hold onto of their long history in America and how oral and written literary devices can tell universal stories and truth which led to her interest in studying marginal voices in literature and rhetorical devices.

Professor Chalmers’ mixed heritage that is Native American, Mexican-American on her maternal side, and Scottish-American on her paternal side led to her feeling that she could uncover universal stories and themes that could be found across many cultures and peoples. Her parents would often remind her that she was blessed to be born in many worlds of understanding and peoples that gave her a unique perspective to be among many people and empathize and related to plurality of ideas. To this day, she is grateful to have mixed heritage and cultural experience to draw creativity and enrich her own fictional writing.