"I vividly recall watching Saved By the Bell as a little girl and being drawn to the character of Zack Morris. My grandfather Tati, however, would repeatedly mention AC Slater and the fact that a Latino cast member on an American TV show was amazing. After renting Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet on VHS and gushing over Leonardo DiCaprio, I would listen to my grandfather point out John Leguizamo in the cast."
"When I started practicing yoga, all but one of my talented and amazing instructors were white. Although this didn't affect my practice, I noticed. Not long after I began teaching yoga, a couple of students came up to me after class and told me that they chose my class on the schedule because of my last name. They expressed that seeing a Latino name made them less intimidated about trying something new. I, too, remember doing that 20 years prior."
Childhood memories include a grandfather who highlighted Latino representation on television and in film while also teaching salsa and balancing the narrator's pop culture preferences. Teaching yoga in predominantly white spaces revealed that seeing a Latino last name encouraged newcomers to try a class. The instructor wanted to add Spanish-language songs to playlists to honor cultural roots, make people who felt unseen feel seen, and use Bad Bunny's "200 MPH" ("Debajo De Sol" — "Under the Sun") for a Sun Salutation warm-up. Fear of backlash delayed the change, and a negative review about a Snoop Dogg song intensified the hesitation.
Read at Yoga Journal
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