If you can think of beautiful things, you can make beautiful things. It’s like therapy. It helps you process. It helps you express. I love that I get to make something that is imperfect. Perfectly, imperfect. Each one unique.

I’m Chicana and I’m proud of that.

My dad was from Guanajuato and when he came to the US, his mother was a single mother of 8. He doesn’t like to talk about it much. Where I am in life now and learning about DACA and what the whole process entails, I know he faced a lot of hardships and racism. He tells us more now, but I think he spent a lot of time hiding who he was. I think in many ways he just wanted to fit in. He didn’t want us to know that same pain, so he moved us out to the suburbs, where we were surrounded by white folks.

I was raised Catholic. I didn’t speak Spanish.

There were a lot of things I didn’t get to experience, culturally. I was around 13 when my parents divorced. My mom moved us back and that’s when everything changed.

I needed someone to be me, representing and looking like me. I didn’t see a lot of myself reflected in the world. I didn’t have that growing up. I was told not to talk about it, so now I’m going to talk about it all the time. I’m going to talk about what it means to be Mexican-American, to be Chicana. I still have so much to learn. My passion is about supporting my community.

I went through all the stages of trying to fit in and never feeling like I did. I had my son at 16 and I wanted to be an artist. I loved art. After I had my son, I even studied graphic design for a bit, but it was hard. I entered the workforce and I just didn’t know there were opportunities out there.

My kids started showing an early interest in art and I didn’t want what happened to me to happen to them. I had four kids and couldn’t afford to send them to camp and ultimately I just decided to start something myself. I mention that because working on the Midwest Chicana branding, I’m reminded that I wanted to showcase authenticity and I wanted to show a part of myself. That is what these earrings mean to me.

Now I would give her a hug. I would remind her that she is strong, capable and deserving of dreams. I would tell her to never forget her worth. Empathy is a super power and she should let herself, or anyone else, keep her down.

I’m still learning who I am. — With every project that I work on I hope to bring grace, positivity and connection to the world. — Lead with love.

You can purchase your Midwest Chicana Hoops at https://midwestchicana.com/collections