I had the pleasure of speaking with a dear friend Renata McElvany about different topics around being a "Latina" and what that looks like. You can find Renata and some of her work on Instagram @rentamcelvany or on her website https://www.renatamcelvany.com/. 

In this episode: Hermanas United we hold nothing back in diving head first into some cultural taboo topics within in the "Latin" community, such as narcissism in the family dynamic as a learned survival mechanism from colonization. This issue although very rarely spoken of, is not unique as many people from all backgrounds within the BIPOC community have experienced this generational issue.  Divide and conquer is a learned behavior from the oppressors' that we repeat and act on as our own "beliefs." 

This discussion is an act of rebellion against the hush hush mental and emotional manipulative tactics to keep us quiet in these cyclical patterns. This is our retaliation against the notion that in order to rise we should push down others, as taught to us through societal and patriarchal competitions.  These types of experiences although not unique to our own individual experiences, they speak to the high volumes of expectations within the Spanish speaking communities to maintain a certain imagine. We are conditioned to carry out these belief systems as our own, as we continue the cycle of silencing our own voices for the needs of our families before our own! 

This is our take on this taboo subject and our own learned nuggets of wisdom from our shared experiences, while also healing ancestrally as we severe the ties to this type of learned colonizer mentality.  Our voices are stronger in numbers and as we peel the layers of fear and shame, in what silenced us before, we make it easier for the future generations to be TRUE TO THEMSELVES!!✨