Cristina Mitra and Natalia Vigil

Peer Leaders, Lowell High School

"I wanted to nominate Cristina Mitra and Natalia Vigil as a pair for their co-creation and co-curating of Still Here. Since 2012, Still Here has built creative space for LGBTQI artists born and raised in San Francisco to tell our stories of survival. Still Here is an annual multidisciplinary performance that reveals the experiences of Queer/LGBTQI individuals raised in San Francisco and still living in San Francisco/Bay Area. Each year, it is one of the most popular parts of the National Queer Arts Festival in June. Nati and Cristina created this together, seeing a void in telling the stories of native San Franciscans in reclaiming their City, in using arts to do that and in lighting the way for young LGBTQI people. In developing Still Here, Nati and Cristina worked closely with the artists, holding writing workshops to hone their performance and to establish a community of local artists with each year of Still Here. This is the most powerful example of their collaboration which began as friends who were in Peer Resources in the earliest years of the Lowell program, in the mid-late 90s. There, they learned how to support each other, how to listen, how to believe in others and how to turn their visions for their community into reality. This is in addition to the work that they do in their day jobs--Cristina as a children's librarian and now Family Outreach Coordinator with the San Francisco Public Library for many years and Natalia as Communications and Development Manager at LYRIC, the latest in a line of social justice non-profits she has worked with."

Cristina Mitra’s San Francisco story took root in the 1950s when her working class immigrant Mexican and Filipino families met in the Mission. Raised in the Excelsior District, she has lived most of her life in the City and currently lives uphill from the Alemany Farmer’s Market with her pareja/asawa, Aimee. Since 2011, she has dedicated herself to serving youth and families as a public librarian for San Francisco Public Library where developed a deep love for children’s and YA literature. She’s a proud member of the 2020 Pura Belpré Award Selection Committee and a contributing book critic for Kirkus Reviews where she focuses on diverse authors and stories. In 2012, she co-founded Still Here San Francisco with her high school bestie Natalia Vigil and co-curated Still Here’s annual show at the National Queer Arts Festival from 2013-2016. In 2016, she and Natalia received a Local Hero Award from San Francisco Human Rights Commission for their work on Still Here. She has a BA from Smith College in Spanish & Latin American Studies and a MLIS from San Jose State University.

Natalia M. Vigil grew up in San Francisco and is the oldest of 6 in a family of Chicano artists and community organizers. As a San Francisco youth, she was a youth leader through Peer Resources and has continued to work with youth in social justice non-profits. She worked for Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth and with a range of other work experiences including working with religious communities, running a women’s center, and assisting in organizing the first DREAM act lobby day and national conference in DC, before joining LYRIC as Communications and Development Manager. In her work and art, Natalia strives to create moments of cross-racial/cultural/class collaboration. She is the co-founder of Still Here, a performance and community dialogue project that explores the experiences of Queer/LGBTQI individuals raised in S.F. Outside of work Natalia can be found dreaming and scheming with other artists, watching movies, and playing soccer with her little brother.

Photo credit of Cristina and Natalia, Lydia Daniller.

"We met at Lowell High School in the mid-90s and both went to liberal arts colleges in Western Massachusetts. When we came back to the Bay Area and started living our queer lives in the early to mid 2000s, we loved going to queer and trans POC performances--and we noticed that no one was centering the stories of queer people from San Francisco in the queer arts scene. Tired of hearing that “no one is from San Francisco,” we decided to flip this and create a space where queer and trans people raised in the City could come together, build community, create and show art that represented us--our stories, our lives, our truth. That’s why in 2013, we co-founded Still Here San Francisco, to make visible the experiences of LGBTQIA2S+ individuals raised in San Francisco and still living in the San Francisco Bay Area. We had two shows in a tiny performance space in SOMA called The Garage that was sold out to standing ovations. We added another run one month later and those were all sold out. Clearly, we had hit a nerve. But a good one. We started to apply for grants and before we knew it, we were creating something that would have a legacy that still continues today. Since 2013, we have produced 6 performances as part of the National Queer Arts Festival, many readings, a writing workshop series, film screenings, and more. This year, in partnership with Foglifter Press, Still Here will publish an anthology--this is truly a dream. In late 2016, Natalia took on the sole leadership of this project as Artistic Director and it is growing and expanding more than ever. That year we were honored as Local Heroes by the San Francisco Human Rights Commission for our work with Still Here. The vision we started together has truly taken root and has become a “Still Here Community”. We challenge the invisibility that we felt as queer young adults and we don't think it exists in quite the same way anymore because of the impact of Still Here.

"Individually, we both are youth workers. Cristina coordinates youth and family programs citywide for 28 library locations as the Family Engagement Coordinator for San Francisco Public Library. Natalia is part of the Leadership Team at LYRIC where is she Communications and Development Manager. It’s not accident that both of us, with our solid footing in youth development that we gained in Peers, are now adults serving the youth of today’s San Francisco."

Cristina Mitra and Natalia Vigil