In a 2013 interview, Gutiérrez y Muhs mentioned that she grew up in Mexico and was named after the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral. Gutiérrez y Muhs received her Ph.D from Stanford University in 2000 in Spanish, Latin American Studies, and US Latinx/Chicanx. She is a well-known scholar in the fields of Chicana and Latin American literature, cultural studies, and feminist theory. Gutiérrez y Muhs received two B.A.s from Occidental College, in Spanish and French, as well as two minors in Anthropology and Sociology and a Latin American Studies minor. She received a teaching credential from UCSC, K-12, clear, bilingual, and holds Administrative Credentials. She worked as Director of Women's Crisis Support and Shelter Services, South County Commission on Alcoholism, Youth Services and as a High School Counselor art Watsonville High School. She also taught French at WHS. Dr. Gutiérrez y Muhs speaks five languages fluently: Spanish, English, French, Italian, and Portuguese. She has taught and presented internationally in Spanish, English and French. She received a graduate studies scholarship from Rotary International to study theatre in Spain, 1984-1985, and also worked with Teatro Campesino's winter productions in the 1980s.
Career
After being tenured in March 2006, Gutiérrez y Muhs was named the 2007-2009 Wismer Professor for Gender and Diversity Studies at Seattle University. She was appointed as the Theiline Pigott-McCone Chair at the University for the period 2018-2020. In 2011, she represented the United States at the Kritya International Poetry Festival held in Nagpur, India, along with two other American poets. She gained attention for her work as First Editor of the 2012 book Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia which discussed the experiences of various women of color in academia and later for her 2013 book Rebozos de Palabras: an Helena Maria Viramontes critical reader, on the contributions of Helena Maria Viramontes. Gutiérrez y Muhs is also a renowned poet whose work has been published in numerous journals and collections in the US, France, Chile, Spain, and Chile.
