It was such a treat to attend P&G’s Orgullosa Launch of their Nueva Latina Campaign – celebrating the bi-cultural Latina. The star-studded girl power event took place at the Helen Mills Theater on 26th Street, this past Thursday evening. 100 influential women were in attendance, including the likes of Roselyn Sanchez, La La Anthony and Dascha Polanco (Orange is the New Black) to watch the debut production of the Nueva Latina Monologues written and produced by director Linda Nieves-Powell.
I honestly had no idea what I was getting myself into that evening. I just thought I’d have a glass of wine and some hors d’oeuvres, enjoy the stylists on hand to touch up my ‘do at the beauty bar, and learn more about Orgullosa. Little did I know that they play I would watch that night would totally rock my world, get my Latin blood pumping and make me feel truly united with my fellow Latinas that understand the sometimes confusing experience of being a bi-cultural Latina in America.
Linda’s Nueva Latina Monologues told the intimate stories of Latin women in every stage of her life – from high school to college to career choices to raising a family. The production explored what it’s like to be proud of your Latin roots, but also the experience of being misunderstood. As well as the conflict that Latinas do face when they are truly proud of their culture but also, identify with being American. It was so refreshing to watch this play on stage – because it was everything I had experienced during my own personal stages in high school, college and now in my career. And after some exchanges with Linda on
Twitter, you can feel she is truly invested in the celebration and visibility of what the modern Latin woman is today and that feels exciting to me. She actually even has a new film premiering online tonight titled “Stereotypically Me” at
urbanjibaro.com that you can all tune into tonight.
I really appreciate what P&G and Orgullosa is doing with their Nueva Latina campaign because if it speaks to me I’m sure it speaks to tons of women out there that will feel connected to it, too. For this campaign, Orgullosa had a study conducted on their behalf by ORC International that found that while “98% Latinas are proud of their culture, a 89% of those surveyed feel equally as American as they do Latina.” However, “54% feel that media portrayals of modern bicultural Latinas are not accurate representations.” To say I can relate and agree would be an overstatement.
So Orgullosa is pushing it even further with this campaign and taking their Facebook page that bolsters over 657,000 likes to be the hub of the Nueva Latina community with women from all over the nation sharing their personal experiences and words of empowerment. Orgullosa will also be taking the Nueva Latina Monologues production on the road to Hispanicize 2014 this April. The most powerful thing that I saw during Thursday’s event was written on the walls of the Helen Mills Theater and it’s the tag line for the Nueva Latina: “
For women who don’t settle for walking the same path, but make a new one every day.” Damn, it feels good to be a Latin woman in the world.
For more information on P&G’s Orgullosa program and their Nueva Latina campaign, please join the community on Facebook, here or register at Orgullosa.com.
