Ella deCastro Baron

Ella deCastro Baron

Ella deCastro Baron is a second generation Filipina American born and raised on Patwin and Muwekma lands (Vallejo, California). She holds an MFA in Creative Writing, is a VONA alum, and teaches English and Creative Writing at San Diego City College and U Mass. Ella’s first book of creative nonfiction is, Itchy, Brown Girl Seeks Employment, and she will be/is published in Nonwhite and Woman, (Her)oics: Women’s Lived Experiences During the Coronavirus Epidemic, Anomaly, and The Rumpus. An embodied storyteller, Ella honors sensations, images, story, dance, and candid cultural insight to reflect the dynamic identities in all of us.

Ella explores what it means to have integrity—to be integrated—as a woman of color who lives with chronic illness. She co-teaches and produces workshops and kapwa (deep interconnection) gatherings that aim to reconcile folks—especially BIPOC—through decolonial, nourishing acts such as writing, art, movement, food (yes!) and community rituals. She lives and loves on Kumeyaay territory (San Diego, CA) with her husband and interracial family. Her favorite pronoun is We.