Shayron Tower
Biography
Shayron Tower is the founder of The Corn Islands Virtual Library. A social communicator by profession with a master’s degree in International Relations, he is also a cultural promoter, photographer, and advocate for education, environmental sustainability, and youth wellbeing.
Born and raised on the Corn Islands, Shayron has been deeply committed to preserving and promoting the identity of the Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities of Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast. For more than a decade, he has worked to safeguard the heritage of his hometown through media projects, academic and oral history research, archiving, and collaborations with a wide range of institutions and community partners.
From an early age, he has been actively involved in youth and environmental organisations across Corn Island and the South Caribbean region of Nicaragua. He has participated in and led community initiatives focused on arts and culture, education, sexual and reproductive health, environmental protection, and youth development. He was also a member of the youth band Island Stars, where he played the piano and helped keep local and Caribbean music alive.
In 2020, Shayron was one of the seven winners of the national ExpoPhoto Nicaragua photography competition. His project, The Creoles of the Nicaribbean, featured a series of portraits highlighting the identity and cultural richness of the Afro-descendant Creole communities of Great Corn Island and Pearl Lagoon.
In 2021, after years of research and collaboration with historians and community members, Shayron founded The Corn Islands Virtual Library as a digital hub for students, researchers, and anyone interested in the islands’ history. What began as an archival initiative gradually expanded to reach a broader audience eager to learn about the region.
In 2025, the project grew further with the creation of The Corn Islands Virtual Museum, extending the library into a digital space featuring permanent exhibitions on the precolonial, colonial, postcolonial, and artistic history of the islands.
Degrees
Publications
• Assessment of the everyday use and formal learning of the Creole language in the municipality of Corn Island in the Southern Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region of Nicaragua (2021)
• The Rise and Fall of the Mosquito Kingdom: Why was the Mosquito Coast a Failed Indigenous Anglo-Influence Nation? (2024)
