Florence Barillas
Florence, a sophomore in Branford College majoring in Humanities, grew up in San Salvador, El Salvador, where she developed a deep interest in her country's history and the broader Latin American region.
In high school, she founded Agenda Gen-Z, an organization focused on educating Salvadoran youth about emerging issues. The program’s initiatives included a financial literacy program addressing Bitcoin's adoption as legal tender in El Salvador and a speaker series featuring professionals, including the Minister of Economy, to discuss the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19.
Fascinated by the complex historical, political, and cultural events that shape Latin American identity, Florence is passionate about cinema as a medium for authentically sharing these narratives. She believes film is a powerful tool to democratize storytelling and cultivate a deeper historical awareness within Latin America and beyond.
At Yale, Florence is actively involved in the Yale Student Film Festival, The Cinemat, and the Yale Political Union. She also works as a Spanish tutor and at the Yale Film Archive. In her free time, she writes film reviews for her blog, Cinematologist.com.
Latin America (artistic fields, in particular film)