Yovani Flores participated in Tucson’s Save Ethnic Studies Cinco de Mayo event featuring with Dr. Ana Castillo to support students, attend the public readings of two of Castillo’s banned books and learn from the Saturday writing workshop led by Dr. Castillo. Flores reports, “After two days of student and community discussions, I had the privilege of attending the writing workshop with a group of powerful mujeres, teachers and students from the Mexican American Studies Program. Maestra Castillo invited me to document the events and ‘tell a story.’†Below is Yovani Flores’s photo essay of these events, which is a Las Pilonas Production, © copyright by Las Pilonas Productions.
Yovani Flores is a Puerto Rican published writer, poeta, filmmaker and Chicago native. Flores has lived in Phoenix, Arizona for over twenty years. Her award-winning story “El Llorón,†has been published by Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social, Curbside Splendor Publishing and has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered.
Las Pilonas Productions is a Phoenix-based collective of three mujeres launched in 2011 during the filming of their award-winning, debut film Thresholds. The collective includes Linda Garcia Merchant, Director, Writer and Founder of Voces Primeras, LLC; Yovani Flores, Poeta, Writer and Producer; Evon Flores Barrera, Visual Artist, SpokenWord Performer and Writer.
Dear Colleagues,
This film was excellent. I attended the first part of Dr. Castillo’s event in Tucson with my high school baby sister. We are both natives of Arizona
pero we live in the north. Dr. Castillo’s dedication, passion, and commitment was so inspiring to me. I am moving to Tucson as we read/speak.
She is awesome and I hope to one day be half as cool.
Abrazos mujeres,
Juliette Maiorana
Yovani, this is great! Thank you for sharing your digital story and keeping us all informed about local events. I like the soundtrack! Theresa