The Puerto Rican Literature Project

Lucia "Lucy" Torres Flores was born in 1932 in Puerto Rico and was a resident of Bloomington and Munster, Indiana. She obtained her MA and PhD in comparative literature from Indiana University Bloomington, where she wrote her thesis “The Black Poetry of Luis Palés Matos.” Throughout her life, Torres Flores faced much discrimination because she was born blind. Longtime friend, Nicolás Kanellos, founder and director of Arte Público Press, remembers, “When Lucy was given the chance to teach—and mostly she was not allowed to because gatekeepers in academic departments discriminated against her for being blind—she was loved by the students, because she was a warm, open and caring teacher. She loved students as much as she loved literature and writing. Also, she had a nearly native command of Brazilian Portuguese, in addition to her flawless Spanish and English.” Torres Flores is the author of Mi Libro–My Book. 

Works Cited

Kanellos, Nicolás. Interview with Claire Jiménez. The Puerto Rican Literature Project, 2023.

“Lucia ‘Lucy’ Torres Flores.” Fife Funeral Home, 2020, www.fifefuneralhome.com/obituary/Lucia-TorresFlores.