Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro

Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro was born on 29 October 1970 in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, and was raised by her grandparents, Petronila Cartagena and Saturnino Pizarro. She began writing at an early age in school newsletters and newspapers and won drawing and essay competitions at the Colegio San Vicente Ferrer in Cataño. In 1989, she won the intra-university competition of the Bayamón Central University with the story "Vimbi Botella." In 1990, she directed a play entitled ¿A dónde va el amor? (Where Does Love Go?) based on her own script, which was staged in Barrio Amelia, a poor neighborhood in Guaynabo where the author was raised. In 2004, Arroyo published her first book of short stories Origami de letras (Letter Origami). The following year, she published her first novel Los documentados (The Documented), which deals with migration conditions in the Caribbean, specifically from Hispaniola to Puerto Rico. This novel won the PEN Club Prize for 2006. In 2007, she published a new book of short stories, Ojos de Luna (Moon Eyes), in which she explores the ways in which eviction, solidarity, and spiritual barriers marginalize people. The book was selected by El Nuevo Día as one of the best in 2007 and was a finalist in the Puerto Rican Literature National Award. Arroyo has broadcast as a radio host of Kooltureate for Bonita Radio and is the Chief Editor of the literary journal Revista Boreales. In addition to her own publications, she regularly contributes to newspapers such as Claridad, La Expresión, El Nuevo Día, and El Vocero. In 2014, she and her partner, Zulma Oliveras Vega, joined the same-sex marriage case Conde-Vidal v. Rius-Armendariz. Arroyo Pizarro and Oliveras Vega became the first same-sex couple to marry in Puerto Rico. ==Publications==