This talk centers Padrejón, an enigmatic and mostly forgotten figure who led a maroon revolt on the French side of Hispaniola between 1676 and 1679. Surprisingly, Padrejón has been a constant feature in Dominican textual accounts regarding the founding of the maroon town of San Lorenzo de los Negros Mina since the early 20th century. Tracing his appearance in French colonial, Haitian, and Dominican historical sources, this talk exposes how Padrejón’s emergence and disappearance from textual sources mask his place as part of a genealogy of Black rebellion that unites both sides of Hispaniola in a larger anti-colonial trans-Atlantic history. 

Massiel Torres Ulloa is a Dominican educator, scholar, and artist based in New Jersey. She holds a PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University and is currently a Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Princeton University. In her writing and visual arts practice, Massiel interweaves historical, ecological, and personal archives with fiction, focusing on Afro-Caribbean oral traditions and the practices of Black women's literary, philosophical, political, and artistic endeavors. 

Massiel has published three short stories, "El Cazador de Ciguapas" (2014), "El Arte de La Pesca" (2016), and "El Simulacro" (2017). Her work can also be found in Kalfou and in Hispanic Image Magazine.

Dedicated to writing and creative practice as medicine, Massiel has worked on various local initiatives focused on creative development and access to arts education in schools, libraries, and in rehabilitation spaces. This work with the community informs her activism and pedagogy in academic spaces. 

Deeply committed to the empowerment of the Latinx community in the United States, Massiel has been recognized for her community and academic leadership by major Martin J. Walsh, the Boston City Council, and in 2017, by El Mundo Boston Newspaper’s  Latino 30 Under 30, a ranking that celebrates the 30 most influential Latinx leaders in the city of Boston each year. In December 2023, Massiel received the “Joven Poderosa” award from The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)’s Boston chapter.

On March 8th, 2016, International Women’s Day, Massiel was selected alongside 6 Dominican women as one of the seven most inspiring Dominican young women of the year by Dominican news channel Noticias SIN.