PCC Cross Cultural Center Presents Voices From the Past: The Experiences of Women During the Armenian Genocide

The Pasadena City College Cross Cultural Center will be hosting a screening of My Mother’s Voice, a short documentary film on a young girl’s survival from the Armenian Genocide. Kay Mouradian, writer of the film and the book that precedes it, will speak about her mother’s story at the event, which will be held April 23 at 6 p.m. in the PCC Campus Center WiFi Lounge.

My Mother’s Voicechronicles the journey of 14-year-old Flora Munushian, who loses her family during the genocide and makes her way from Hadjin, Turkey to America; there, she marries a man she has known only through a photograph.

“This film takes a young girl’s struggle and puts a face and a name to a historic event, making it about more than just the numbers and facts,” said Nareen Manoukian, PCC adjunct professor of English. “Genocide is obviously psychologically traumatizing, and especially for a young, unmarried women it carries different implications. This film highlights the difficulties endured from a young girl’s unique perspective.”

The Armenian Genocide, which ran from 1915-1918, resulted in the massacre of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians living in Turkey at the hands of the Ottoman government. April 24 of this year will mark its 98^th anniversary.

“Armenians constitute approximately 8% of the student population at PCC, and within Pasadena there is a huge Armenian community, so this event is to commemorate all the lives lost and to raise awareness within PCC and Pasadena,” Manoukian said.

The screening will be followed by a presentation from Mouradian, who is also a professor emerita from the Los Angeles Community Colleges, and Donald Miller, professor at the University of Southern California and co-author of Survivors: An Oral History of the Armenian Genocide and Armenia: Portraits of Survival and Hope.

The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact the Cross Cultural Center at (626) 585-7117.