This year, Tejana Atómica will bring together four of San Antonio’s most powerful storytellers, including las cuatas Sarah and Lilith Tijerina, la única Florinda Flores Brown y la jefa Ruby Nelda Pérez, for two magical and electrifying evenings of original performance.

A brief Q and A opportunity will be facilitated after the event.

Originally from Laredo, TX, Florinda Flores-Brown has made San Antonio her home for over 12 years. Flores-Brown will be presenting "The Heights," a short story from her in-progress collection titled Laredo: Barrio Stories.

Twin sisters Sarah and Lilith Tijerina have been collaborating with each other since birth, this time performing together in Chupacabrona, which they describe as “a Jennifer’s-body-meets-TEETH-meets-Cherrie-Moraga-meets-Texan-urban-legend punk rock boy eater.”

Legendary Queen of Teatro, Ruby Nelda Pérez is a beloved Teatrista and Chicana cultural worker. Ruby will be performing Plática y Escenas / Conversation and Scenes (a working title).

“Tejana Atómica is about honoring and celebrating Tejana voices and experiences. I’m grateful to have the artists living and working in our city and that they’re willing to tell us their stories and share their journey so maybe we can find this greater connection most of us search for.” -Clint Taylor, creator and producer. 

About the Artists:

Florinda Flores-Brown is a San Antonio-based performer, writer, and storyteller whose artistry and aesthetic was forged in the dust and 110+ heat of her hometown of Laredo, TX. Her stories explore the human condition and South Texas border culture with all its hilarity, crudeness, beauty, and trauma. Because Laredo’s rich, dynamic (and at times, defiant) language play is a source of pride and inspiration, her short fiction is unapologetic in its use of Spanish, code- switching, and border slang. As a storyteller, Florinda has performed at various shows across San Antonio and Austin, and on most days, you can find her at Gemini Ink, San Antonio’s writing arts center, working hard to empower writers of all ages to bring their own stories to life. 

Sarah and Lilith Tijerina are San Antonio-based performance artists and teaching artists. Their perspectives are major influences in their poetry, scripts, and performance art, as their work explores their relationship with femininity, injustice, and “nepantla”, the “in-between-ness” they balance in their identities as Tejanas. As teatristas, their passion revolves around unapologetically creating and taking up space, as well as encouraging artists and creatives to find healing and empower their voices.

Ruby Nelda Pérez is celebrating 50 years of working as a Chicana Cultural Worker. Recently,she participated in a Film Review Committee as part of the Guadalupe Cultural ArtsCenter 44th CineFestival and last summer she performed in the GCAC Theater Arts production of La Niña Girasol. Ms. Pérez is well known for her role as Doña Juanita in San Antonio's very own smash Christmas hit Las Nuevas Tamaleras. Through her career as an actor, touring artist and arts administrator she has performed in numerous venues including the Whitney Museum in New York, El Rancho Pérez, Smithsonian, the backyard of poet Raúl Salinas’ Resistencia Bookstore and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. As a noted cultural warrior, she has also performed in numerous prisons, juvenile detention centers, women’s shelters, political rallies, schools and universities. According to Ruby, “It’s exhausting and a privilege just thinking about it. Thank you Jump-Start. Thestage has always been my second home.”