Writing, Community, and Staying with the Work! Today’s episode invites us into a powerful conversation about writing, community, and what it means to stay with the work.

Dr. Vilma Luz Cabán is joined by award-winning poet, performer, educator, and RoblesWrites Productions founder Peggy Robles-Alvarado, whose work spans poetry, performance, and community-centered literary practice.

At the heart of this conversation is her acclaimed poetry collection, Burn Me Back, a work that moves through memory, ancestry, grief, and resilience with striking clarity and force. More than a collection of poems, it constructs an experience shaped by the body, personal history, and the layered realities of identity and belonging.

Peggy reflects on how Burn Me Back emerged through a sustained return to the page, a practice shaped by listening, revision, performance, and community. Over time, this process formed a cohesive manuscript grounded in both personal and collective experience.

This episode offers insight for writers at every stage, including:

• how to move from scattered drafts to a cohesive manuscript
• the role of workshops and literary community
• how to protect your work and navigate publishing with intention
• news about our upcoming event at Yale University, Dwight Hall (Sept. 19)

Peggy also shares the foundation of her nonprofit, Robleswrites Productions, where she creates writing spaces centered on intergenerational storytelling, creativity, and equity.

At its core, this conversation reminds us that writing is nurtured in community and sustained through practice.

Learn more about our Casa de Maria Publisher's FREE WEBINARS to keep you encouraged and focused!

Honorable Mentions: Charlie Vazquez, Dr. Rojo Robles , Ricardo Alberto Maldonado, Bori Books & Cafe, Urayoán Noel ,

Author Website: https://robleswrites.com/

RoblesWrites Productions: https://robleswritesproductions.com/

PURCHASE BURN ME BACK: https://fourwaybooks.com/site/burn-me-back/

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR PUBLIC EVENTS:

What We Carry, What We Claim: Latina Writers on Voice, Memory, and Becoming https://www.eventbrite.com/e/what-we-carry-what-we-claim-latina-writers-on-voice-memory-and-becoming-tickets-1986453897080?aff=oddtdtcreator

https://www.casademariapubli

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In this episode of Write… Reflect… Reimagine, I sit down at Casa de María Publisher's headquarters in Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, for a deeply personal conversation with Nuyorican artist, artisan, and cultural anthropologist Lisa Valle.

Together, we reflect on what it means to create with our hands, to carry memory through art, and to navigate identity across Borikén and the Diaspora.

Lisa shares the stories behind her powerful installation work featured in Arte de Tierra y Mar at Boricua College in New York City, including pieces like La Planta de Mi Abuela, Childhood’s End, and In My Skin. Through her work, she explores ancestry, healing, body image, and the realities of gender-based violence and erasure.

This conversation also marks a new chapter in her journey. As Lisa joins the Casa de María Publisher writing retreat, she begins to transition from visual storytelling into written narrative, exploring what it means to trust her voice on the page.

Together, we explore:
• What it means to create through the hands as a form of storytelling.
• Art as a space for memory, witnessing, and healing.
• The responsibility of socially conscious art.
• Navigating Borikén identity as a Nuyorican artist.
• The vulnerability of transitioning from artist to writer.

Lisa Valle's Instagram:

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In this episode, we return to March 7, 2026. It is a reflection on Grace & Boldness: Latina Voices for Change, the first public event hosted by Casa de María Publisher at Yale University.

We revisit key ideas from the keynote address, beginning with a central truth: storytelling is not separate from social justice. It is often where the work begins. Before policy is debated and community change is ratified, someone tells the story of what is happening. In doing so, this act asserts that their life, and the lives of others, matter.

This episode reflects on what it means to hold story as both power and responsibility. We explore the role of literary spaces in safeguarding memory and dignity.

We return to the voices of the authors who shared their journeys. Each naming the tension between telling the truth and protecting what must be held with care. Their reflections remind us that writing is not only about expression, but it's about responsibility to self, to family, and to community.

This episode also traces the origin of Casa de María Publisher. A commitment to build a literary home for writers. Learn more about each of our speakers and future events. Writing Programs: Retreats, Webinars & Podcast

Media Coverage by Zuleyka Torres. Follow her on Youtube Channel @Inspire Me By Zuly Torres.

Guest Speakers:

Chef Red (Kristina Cruz-Diaz). Follow her on Youtube Channel @Red Kruz

Jill Interlandi, Owner of DoNo Cafe

Rachel Torres (Moderator of Panel Discussion)

AUTHORS:

Daisy Plaza, Author of I Did it for Her: From Trauma and Fear to Pure Love and Strength

Jacquelyn Santiago, Contributing author in the anthologies Becoming Her: A Woman's Path to Purpose, Self Love, and Fulfillment and Live Your Optimal Life: A Transformation Anthology

Dr. Vilma Luz Caban, Author The Heart of an Advocate

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What happens when speaking up becomes more than a single moment of courage?

In Episode 11 of the Casa de María Publisher Podcast — Write… Reflect… Reimagine, Dr. Vilma Luz Cabán sits down with nationally recognized violence-prevention leader and youth advocate Jacquelyn Santiago for a conversation about voice, service, and the legacy that grows from speaking when silence once felt safer. Jacquelyn Santiago is a respected author, community leader, and advocate whose work centers youth empowerment, organizational leadership, and personal development. Jacquelyn has made multiple visits to Washington, D.C., to share her expertise in the violence prevention field with The White House and the U.S. Department of Justice.

This conversation unfolds in Hartford, Connecticut, as Casa de María Publisher prepares for the public literary event Grace & Boldness: Latina Voices for Change at Yale University in Dwight Hall: Center for Public Service and Social Justice. The episode begins with the image of vibrant murals rising from brick walls across Hartford — one of them bearing Jacquelyn Santiago’s face, voted on by the Frog Hollow neighborhood itself as a reflection of her decades of work with youth and families navigating violence, grief, and systemic inequities.

But long before national recognition, policy conversations, or murals painted across Hartford neighborhoods, there was a young girl navigating questions of identity, belonging, and worth.

In this episode, Vilma and Jacquelyn explore the deeper journey behind public leadership:

• how a voice forms when silence once felt like safety
• the tension of cultural identity and belonging • the moment when personal healing becomes service
• how storytelling disrupts systems and liberates people
• and what legacy truly means when communities reflect courage back to those who speak

Together, Vilma and Jacquelyn reflect on a powerful truth: Legacy is rarely built in a single moment. It is built quietly in different spaces and in the decisions to speak when silence would be easier.

Listen to Episode 11: The Legacy of Speaking Up

Voice does more than tell a story. Voice builds a future.

FROGHOLLOW MURAL

HARTFORD HEROES MURAL

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What allows a writer to continue, not just for a single manuscript, but across years of creative life?

In this episode of the Casa de María Publisher Podcast, we explore what it means to sustain a writing life beyond deadlines, publication milestones, or moments of urgency.

Many writers begin during periods of intensity. Perhaps it was after loss, a life transition, or a moment that demands to be written. But sustaining a writing life requires something different. It requires rhythm, care, and the quiet discipline of returning to the page when no one is watching.

This episode reflects on the deeper conditions that allow writing to continue across seasons of change. We explore the difference between practice and performance, the role of environment and ritual, and how writers adapt their creative process as life evolves.

Dr. Vilma Luz Cabán also shares personal reflections on writing during a season of transition...about developing new work while rematriating to Puerto Rico and building Casa de María Publisher.

A sustained writing life is shaped by patience, attention, and the willingness to remain in conversation with the work over time. Join us! DON'T GIVE UP!

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In this episode of the Casa de María Publisher Podcast — Write… Reflect… Reimagine, we reflect on the creative conditions that allow writers to continue their work when the path forward becomes less clear.

Dr. Vilma Luz Cabán explores how literary spaces, both physical and virtual, can help writers return to the page with renewed clarity and discipline. From writing retreats in Puerto Rico, reflective online writing webinars, and the Casa de María curated anthology, this episode introduces the interconnected ecosystem Casa de María Publisher has created to support sustained creative practice.

Rather than focusing on productivity or speed, this conversation centers on something quieter and more enduring: the environments that allow writers to remain present with their work long enough for it to grow.

You may begin to see the podcast itself as a kind of portable writing retreat. It is a powerful small space where writers can pause, reflect on craft, and find their way back to the manuscript that is waiting.

WRITING RETREATS IN PUERTO RICO

FREE WRITING WEBINARS

PODCAST ON APPLE AND SPOTIFY

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In Publishing Pathways Explained, Dr. Vilma Luz Cabán offers a transparent, grounded conversation about publishing models, support structures, and what it truly means to publish with integrity.

This episode examines what self-publishing actually requires of writers, beyond the promise of speed and control. We talk plainly about the professional labor writers are often asked to carry alone—editing, design, distribution, marketing, legal decisions—and the hidden financial, emotional, and cognitive costs that come with that responsibility.

The conversation also addresses institutional perception. Why some self-published books struggle to reach bookstore shelves, public libraries, or classrooms. Not because of a lack of talent, but because institutions rely on visible publishing frameworks to manage accountability, continuity, and access.

This episode reframes publishing not as a race, but as a relationship—with your work, your time, and the systems that hold it. It explores why structure is not about control, but visibility. Not about validation, but access.

There is no single correct publishing pathway. Only the one that aligns with your values, your capacity, and what feels right.

Before closing, Dr. Cabán offers a preview of Episode 9, Community, Retreats, and Creative Spaces, where the conversation shifts from systems to the environments that allow writers to slow down, be witnessed, and write with honesty.

Check out OUR PUBLISHING MODEL on our Casa de Maria Publisher website.

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What happens after survival?
After the body has endured.
After the danger has passed.
When the question is no longer Can I survive this? but instead How do I speak from what I lived through?

In this episode of the Casa de María Podcast, I’m joined by Daisy Plaza, author of I Did It for Her, for a conversation about voice, authorship, and what it means to write from readiness. Together, we reflect on how the meaning of “her” has shifted over time, how a writer knows when a story is truly ready to be told, and the discipline it takes to shape lived experience into language that can hold others.

Recorded from Casa de María Publisher’s home in Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, this conversation explores survival not as an ending, but as a threshold. We talk about what writing can give back, what readers who are still surviving might hear when they encounter a story like Daisy’s, and how survival evolves when it is defined not only by endurance, but by choice.

This episode is an invitation to consider voice as an act of agency, and authorship as a step beyond survival.

Content note: This episode discusses survival and lived experience. Listeners are encouraged to take what they need and leave what they are not ready for.

YOU CAN PURCHASE DAISY PLAZA'S BOOK ON AMAZON.

Follow her on Instagram.

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