Ayer, Hoy, y Siempre — Preserving Mission history

Missionite Andrea Flores calls on locals to share their stories about the town’s history. The artist is hosting an Oct. 12 workshop, also known as a memory share session, at Speer Memorial Library for a film project honoring Mission’s past.

For the workshop called Ayer, Hoy, y Siempre, Flores wants Missionites to share their stories, photos and videos about the Mission area from the 1980s to the present. Then, over the next two months, Flores will compile the memories in an art film for ENTRE — a film center and regional archive based in Harlingen. 

The 25-year-old said she remembers wanting to make movies about the Valley when she was younger. She has a deep appreciation for the region; she wanted to portray its beauty through her lens. It’s a love she developed through her late mother Alejandra Molina-Flores. 

“My mom was always telling us a bunch of crazy stories about her life here in the Valley, and I feel like we really got to see it through her eyes,” the artist said. “And that’s the way I see it. Whenever I think about the Valley, I think about the places that she talked about, the stories that she would tell us and I feel like it goes hand in hand.”

Flores spoke about her mom with tenderness. She was a person who could always convince people to party a little longer, even if they worked in the morning. She had numerous stories and photos from working at the now-closed Foy’s Supermarket. She had a purple-hued Ford Thunderbird that she raced and cruised through the streets of Mission. After she traded the sports car for a minivan, Molina-Flores would cruise with her daughters while sharing memories about her life. 

But as time has marched on, and with her mother’s passing in 2022, Flores said her memories of some of the stories have grown fuzzy. As a response, she is more intentional in trying to preserve the chronicles of the past. And she hopes to gather more stories through the memory share workshop on Oct. 12. The artist said she wants to hear stories about Mission’s past and places that no longer exist, like Foy’s, Greg’s Ballroom and Leo’s Drive In — places in which her mother had many memories.

“A big part of this project is about how there’s been a lot of change going on in the Valley, like so many things that used to be here aren’t here anymore,” she said. “And for me in my personal life, there’s a lot of big transitions and it’s just been a lot of getting used to and accepting that sometimes things don’t always last forever.”

Flores continued.

“Losing my mom while also feeling like so much was changing here, that experience of so much changing outside and inside my own home it almost felt very alienating. Like what’s home, you know,” the Missionite said. “And all your favorite places are starting to be bought out or closed down and it’s kind of like, wow, sooner or later there won’t be anything left.” 

For her film on Mission history, the artist said she wants to focus on the 1980s because that is when her mom grew up. But she wants to learn about other people’s experiences in that era to get a clearer picture of life back then. 

The workshop will run from 1 p.m. – 3 p.m. at Speer Memorial Library. It is free and open to Spanish and English speakers. Participants can bring in physical photos for digitizing, and they will have the opportunity to talk or write down the memories they have to share. No story is too small, the artist said.

“Anybody can have a story about Mission if they lived here,” Flores said. “And any memory that they have is something that is valuable and something that is worth being appreciated and remembered and preserved, as well.”

Flores is in ENTRE’s Artists in Radical Residency (AIRR) program. The three-month residency provides her with a stipend and access to all of ENTRE’s equipment and resources for her film project. Once complete, she will debut her piece Dec. 27 at Harlingen Art Night, but there may be a special viewing in Mission next year, according to ENTRE co-founder C. Diaz. 

Diaz explained that one of ENTRE’s focuses is archiving stories from the Rio Grande Valley through home media donations. They said ENTRE has collected over 2,000 film and video materials since the co-op launched in 2021. Much like with Flores’s project about Mission, ENTRE is trying to protect Valley history. 

“We want to highlight the joy and the beauty of what it is to live in this region, and that’s really told through the stories from an individual perspective, from lenses like home movies or oral histories,” Diaz said. “And a lot of these stories are not preserved because they’re not considered historical fact. But we feel like this is what makes up our culture.”

Despite all the changes happening throughout the Valley and in Flores’s life, she finds solace in sharing stories with those around her.

“You’re going to experience loss and things like that, but I think the silver lining is in still being able to remember and honor the memory of the people who have passed on and the places that are gone,” she said. “Being able to keep that memory alive and appreciating it…I think that’s the best part of it. It’s kind of like all that’s left, right? Just the memory.” 

To contact Flores about memory sharing, email [email protected].