Myrna Manzanares

Myrna Manzanares was born in Gales Point, a small village in Belize District, British Honduras, on 30 October 1946.[1] Her mother was the town's craft instructress. At age 8, she left her home village to attend St. John’s Anglican Primary School in Belize City.[4][5][1]

She moved to the U.S. state of California in 1965 to join family who had already left after Hurricane Hattie.[5] She obtained a degree in psychology at Pepperdine University, as well as taking English as a second language classes at the University of Southern California. She completed postgraduate studies in psychology at California State University, Long Beach.[1]

During her time in California, Manzanares became deeply involved in the Belizean diaspora community of Los Angeles, which she was active in organizing.[2]

Manzanares returned to Belize in 1986 and became involved in community organizing there, including through the now-defunct PRIDE Belize.[6]

She was a longtime activist and organizer around black identity and Belizean Creole (Kriol).[2][7]

In 1995, she co-founded the National Kriol Council, which aims to promote the culture and language of Belizean Creole people.[1][8] She was also a longtime president of the institution.[5]

Her cultural activism included extensive oral history work.[1] Manzanares also fought for women's rights and sexual and reproductive health,[1] as well as for substance abuse prevention[9] and against HIV/AIDS, serving as chair of the National AIDS Task Force and president of the Addiction Alert Rehabilitation Center.[10] She was also involved with the Belize History Association and the Belize National Library Service Board,[1] and she was politically involved in the United Democratic Party, including an unsuccessful run for the Belize City Council in 1999.[11]

Manzanares worked for Peace Corps Belize, the Belize Teachers College, and the University of Belize.[1][10] She was appointed a Justice of the Peace.[10]

Manzanares wrote poetry, prose, and nonfiction.[4] Her work was included in both Volumes I and II of Memories, Dreams and Nightmares, an anthology of short stories by Belizean women writers published by the Belizean Writers Series.[12][13][14]

She contributed to Tek Mi! Noh Tek Mi!, a collection of Caribbean folktales,[15][16] and edited Kriol language materials and journals.[1] She took part in creating the dictionary of Kriol and translating the Bible into Kriol.[17]

Her other published works include Tell Me a Story (folklore); Life Lines (poetry); Traditional Games of Belize (compiled for UNICEF);[18] Faith-Based Response to HIV and AIDS; and Healing Circle,[1] a 2017 poetry collection in collaboration with teenager Azizi Hoy.[19]

In 2008, she was honoured as a Member of the Order of the British Empire "for services to education, culture and social development."[20][10] The same year, she was honored in Belize's Outstanding Women Awards.[21]

In 2018, she was named one of the first-ever Artists Emeritus by Belize's National Institute of Culture and History.[3][22]

Manzanares had two children, a daughter, Shalini, and a son, Robert.[10] She was admitted to Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital on 15 December 2021 with a suspected stroke[23] and died several days later on 21 December at the age of 75.[24]