Barrio Stories Credits

Dirt

Written by Elaine Romero

Building a Family Home

Written by Veronica Weatherbie

Meet Cute

Written by Veronica Weatherbie

Bees in the Trap

Written by Channel Bragg

I Know this Place

Written by Lydia Otero

Slap, Slap, Brush

Written by Martin Zimmerman

Curandera

Written By Silviana Wood

That’s Another Story

Written By Marc David Picante

Mujeres Poderosas

Written By Marc David Picante

Chinese Markets

Written By Milta Ortiz

Eva Sierra: Eva is a poet, educator, and cultural advocate from Douglas, Arizona. Eva is the author of two chapbooks, Caña y Limón and RAIN, and her third chapbook, CIELO, is forthcoming. In 2023, she was awarded the Fellowship in Cultural Exchange in the Literary Arts from the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University. Eva is the co-founder and director of The Reading Series, a poetry open mic centered on healing, justice, and the occult. Eva also works at the University of Arizona Poetry Center, where she is the K-12 Education and Outreach Assistant.

Melani “Mele” Martinez is a writer, performing artist, and educator from Tucson, Arizona. Her work weaves personal testimonio with historical context in the tradition of Tucson’s memory keepers. She is the author of the hybrid memoir The Molino (University of Arizona Press, 2024), which traces the history of El Rapido, her family’s tamal and tortilla factory in Tucson’s historic Presidio District. Part food writing and part spiritual reflection, the book explores how food labor and rituals carry memory from one generation to the next in the Borderlands. The Molino was named a 2025 Southwest Book of the Year, received an International Latino Book Award Honorable Mention, and was a finalist for the Nach Waxman Prize. Mele is also an Associate Professor of Practice at the University of Arizona where she leads Borderlands Writing courses.

Mariana Rivera is a Yoeme poet born and raised on the Pascua Yaqui Reservation of Tucson, Arizona. Mariana is a 2026 Fellow of Indigenous Nations Poets, and is currently working to bring more arts opportunities within her reservation. Mariana first began her writing journey with workshops by local poets at Pueblo High School and an open mic series hosted at La Pilita Cultural Center called the Tucson Youth Poetry Slam. Mariana’s goal is to advocate for her community through her poetry work.

Ofelia Zepeda is a Tohono O’odham poet and Regent’s Professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona. Her works include Where Clouds are Formed (2008), Ocean Power (1995), Home Places: Contemporary Native American Writing from Sun Tracks (1995), A Papago Grammar (1983), and When It Rains, Papago and Pima Poetry = Mat hekid o ju, ‘O’odham Na-cegitodag (1982).  She is co-founder and current director of the American Indian Language Development Institute and works as an editor for Sun Tracks, the University of Arizona Press publishing program dedicated to Indigenous and Native voices.  For more than twenty years, Zepeda has served as the board chair of the Tohono O’odham Community College. Her many honors include fellowships from United States Artist and the MacArthur Foundation.