The Power of Community

Hello Loves,

A couple days I had the pleasure of going to We All Grow Summit and let me tell you all about it. This is my fourth time going and every time I go I am reminded of my purpose and power of Latina women supporting each other. There is nothing more powerful and inspirational than being in a room of 500+ Latina women who are not only hustlers with their 9-5 jobs but are moms, bloggers, business owners, mental health advocates, students and much more! Literally, every time I go I am forever grateful to be part of this community.

After graduating from my undergraduate from UC Santa Cruz, I moved back to my parents to start my career in education and start working. This was all new to me because all I knew the 22 years of my life was school. I have been a student all of my life and now going into the workforce was an odd transition. I felt alone. Even though I had coworkers, I still had a hard time adjusting and felt the need to be a part of something.

I took action, that same year I started my blog (Rubyfabforless) something I always wanted to do. So I went for it even though I had no idea how to run a website. Additionally, I wanted to be a part of something so I joined a Latina Community Activist group in the Bay Area called the Engaged Latina Leadership Activist Program of which was dedicated to work with Latinas on a service project that would help our communities. The project I worked on was on the lack of representation of Latina/os in the Media. My curiosity for blogging continued as I sat down and interviewed many people in the media industry and asked the question of why was there a lack of positive representation of Latinos in the Media. As a Latina myself, I saw and experienced so many beautiful successes in our communities but it was never showcased.

I started searching hashtags on my Instagram and googling “Latina Bloggers” to find other Latinas like myself. I remember stumbling on “Latina Bloggers Connect”. This was something out of the universe for me to see. I found out that there was a Latina conference dedicated to empowerment, inspiration, and community. I knew that I wanted to be part of it and had to go the following year.

Among going to the conference in Long Beach back in 2016 I fell in love with the power of community it instantly felt like home. I went by myself without knowing anyone and walked out with so many endless life long friendships, connections and a sense of belonging. This was what it was all about: community, growth, and the power of Latinas. Every year I have been to this amazing summit that inspires me to grow and bring others along with me. One of their mottos is “When one grows, we all grow”. This resonated with me deeply and knew that I wanted that same feeling back home in the Bay Area.

For the past year and half, I have been working with other local bay area bloggers to bring community and that same feeling here in the Bay Area. I founded the LatinxCollective, a safe space for Latinxs to come together and be empowered through cultura. I alongside my cofounders: Alice Bazan (@city.en.vogue) and Brianna Ramirez (@designbybrianna) have held monthly cafecitos, collaborations, and partnerships with business owners like the Eastridge Center. All of which have been super amazing and inspirational. It’s truly beautiful to see a group of Latinxs come together and share our stories, curiosities, plans, struggles and wins.

The power of networking, making new friendships and having a safe space for each other where we support and grow from each other is what makes the power of community thrive. I am blessed of my journey of being able to be in spaces where I have felt like myself, made new friends and have learned to grow as a person. I am dedicated to continuing building community through the power of social media whether it is in my career as a counselor or blogger. But the Power of community for Latinx is growing and it is there. This is only the beginning!