“I am a Texana. I am a Chicana. I am a lesbiana mother. I am not going to be scared,” San Antonio artist and author Anel Flores told the Rivard Report on Monday.
Saturday evening’s shooting in Orlando, Fla. during Latin night at Pulse gay nightclub struck a chord with Flores as a Latina lesbian. The shooting resulted in 49 dead and 53 wounded, and is known as the worst mass shooting in United States history.
(Read more: ‘They are Me’: LGBTQIA Community, Allies Mourn Victims of Orlando Massacre)
In response to the attack, Flores is channeling her feelings of hurt, fear, and frustration into words and paintings.
“To me, being in a gay club is so safe,” Flores said. “I want to figure out how, in my artwork or in my writing, to make people feel that same connection I felt at a club.”
Flores and the Pride Center San Antonio will host a candlelight vigil on Thursday, June 16, at 7 p.m. at Crockett Park for those who lost their lives in Orlando, Fla. She will enlist local artists and members of the local LGBTQIA poet community to use art as activism and share their work at the event.
More details about the vigil can be found here.
Top image: Queer artist and author Anel Flores reads from her book Empanada: A Lesbiana Story en Probaditas. Photo by Kathryn Boyd-Batstone.
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Thank you Anel for such a moving expression of the deep sadness we are all feeling in the San Antonio community and across the country.