The Latinx Collective: 🙋🏽👨🏻👱🏾👩🏾👱🏻‍♀️ the "Biblioburro" edition

THIS WEEK'S SIX:

Cuban-American actress (and now producer!) is on the cover of Health Magazine. Gina Torres will debut a new show called Pearson on USA Network on July 17th (trailer here). The show is centered around Gina’s character Jessica Pearson and will be the sole spin-off of the show Suits (a legal drama tv series). In anticipation of such a monumental moment in her career, Health magazine sat down with Gina to discuss her path to success, dealing with mom guilt, and how the show came about. I love how Gina so fearlessly took on a new role and shared more about her early career, including her original dream of being the Afro-Cuban Bernadette Peters.

It’s your first time as a co-executive producer—what was that like? It felt natural and good. I would say the learning curve wasn’t so much having an opinion—we all have those, and because I’ve been doing this so long, I knew a lot more than I thought I did. But I had to think about finding my voice, using it, and expressing it in such a way that wasn’t personal, it was just what’s best for the show.

Pose is a TV drama spotlighting the legends, icons and ferocious house mothers of New York’s underground ball culture, a movement that first gained notice in the 1980s. Making television history, Pose features the largest cast of transgender actors in series regular roles.In particular, it celebrates Black and Latinx LGBTQ culture. Season 2 of FX's drama debuted today, June 11th.

Season 2 leaps the story ahead to 1990, and it debuts at a time in the present when attacks on LGBTQ people are on the rise and the hard-won laws meant to protect them are being threatened and dismantled, at the halfway point of a year in which nine trans women, all of them black, have been killed. The death toll in 2018, by the way, was 26, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

I love this story 😭. Literacy rates across Latin America are generally pretty high, particularly among younger generations. But it’s still common for children in remote communities to live in homes with little access to books. Luis Soriano Bohorquez is a man with a mission, a collection of books, and some donkeys. In the small town of La Gloria, he's dedicated himself to bearing books on the back of a burro so that people in remote communities, where years of armed conflict have often disrupted children’s access to education, can enjoy a donkey-powered mobile library service – the Biblioburro. Bohorquez obtained his degree in Spanish literature from a roving professor who visited his town twice a month. It was this understanding of the particular challenges faced by children in rural communities that led Bohorquez to leave his job teaching at an elementary school and hit the road, with one of his faithful donkeys, Alfa and Beto.

*Thanks so much to long-time supporter Stuart Rowe of BioMotiv for the submission!*

On June 28th, 1969, the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village became a major catalyst in the movement for LGBTQ rights. Transgender activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were among the boldest and most outspoken leaders who stood up against the ongoing police brutality and harassment that plagued the now landmark gay bar for months.

Read on to get educated on how the movement started and how it was led by the Black and Brown community.

P.S. it was recently announced that activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera will be honored with a public monument in Greenwich Village, NYC as part of an initiative to increase the diversity of the statues and monuments in public places around New York City. It will be paid for out of $10 million allocated for new public artworks.

Parents who differ in hue from their children rarely discuss moments like these publicly, leaving gaping holes in the understanding of family lineage, cultural history and development of self-esteem.

This mother is learning to love her skin color and help her 4 year old daughter recognize the beauty and humanity in brownness. I think it's a beautiful piece:

Her light-brown eyes locked in on me as she brushed her honey-colored locks aside with her hand. In a casual on-the-edge-of-sleep voice she cooed, “Your skin is dark. I don’t want you to touch me.” My brown Indigenous Latina body stiffened; I labored to breathe, outraged and confused. She rendered me speechless.

6) The episode above is on the longer side (20 min) but worth it. The male hosts of BuzzFeed's Pero Like recorded their first-ever therapy session. They shared personal stories and struggles and how generational trauma and learned behavior has meant it's difficult for them to open up and let people in. It's really touching.😭 The session was hosted by a therapist provided by LatinxTherapy, a podcast and a bilingual database that connects individuals with therapists and other providers nationwide. (P.S. I spotlighted LatinxTherapy in issue #3 here)

Appreciate you checking out this week’s issue. Forward this to friends or family so they can join you in celebrating the every day contributions the Latinx community is making. You can also:

• Don’t forget we built this directory of Latinx business owners. Email your info if you’d like to be added. If you’re looking to hire or purchase products or services of any kind, browse the directory and buy directly from the businesses.

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