Vanessa Flores-Maldonado

Vanessa Flores-Maldonado is a queer Latina, a first-generation Guatemalan immigrant, an organizer, and survivor. She is the co-Executive Director of Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM). Topics in order of discussion include: growing up in Los Angeles, moving to Providence in 2010 to attend Brown, leaving academia to work as a community organizer with PrYSM, earliest work as with direct aid and organizing, how PrYSM’s work evolved, advocating for The Community Safety Act passed in 2017, advocating for queer and trans people of color, and intersectionality. This interview was created as part of the Queering Oral History course, an oral history course at Brown University in Spring 2020 taught by Dr. Virginia Thomas. Students were trained in oral history practices and interviewed members of the Rhode Island LGBTQIA community.