Flowers From Afar: Mayflowers (2021), “A las flores del Heidelberg” (1886), and Epiphytic Communities

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

Abstract

can be specifically described as epiphytic or dependent on botanic matters. In particular, the essay considers two seemingly unrelated works yoked together here on the grounds of their similar engagement with flowers: the virtual performance Mayflowers (2021), inspired by the Filipino traditions of Flores de Mayo and Santacruzan, which presented Filipino women migrant workers from various parts of the world the chance to come together during the COVID-19 pandemic through working with artificial flowers; and the poem “A las flores del Heidelberg” (1886) by the Filipino polymath José Rizal, whose description of the phenomenon of flowers permitting one to seemingly return to their homeland resonates with the Thai poetic subgenre of nirat (นิราศ). By bringing these two works together, flowers are no longer seen as mere ornaments to human practices or inert figures in anthropocentric discourses, but rather as crucial agents actively participating in such encounters, and by extension, enabling the emergence of the collectives they entail. Ultimately, this unlikely comparison makes palpable how flowers help bring about moments of coming together with others—through and against the often-violent reality of distance in- between.

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