Celeste Corona

Lets have a conversation about insecurities. Many of us might be living with them. One I have lived with is the color of my skin. My mom always told me I had piel canela, (cinnamon colored skin) but then when she was trying to get my attention it was NEGGGGRRRRAAAAA. LOL and it was not coming from a bad place whatsoever, that’s de cariño.

Meet my BFF of 20 years Eli, she pushed me over the weekend to attend a Hot Pilates class in Aptos, Ca. This hot Pilates was full at its CAPACITY, with mostly white men and women. If you are unfamiliar with my background, I’m originally from Watsonville CA, and Aptos is a neighboring beach town. My family, close friends, and I all grew up going to schools in Aptos, which are predominately white.

Because I’ve attended schools in Aptos since I was in Kindergarten, I can tell you I feel very confident and comfortable engaging with white people, they became my family for many years while playing travel soccer. I can easily pick up conversations and end up being friends with strangers, because of how easily it comes to me to connect with them.

But…….that does not mean that the color of my skin has never been an insecurity, it does not mean that I have never felt out of place. I have, and I still do sometimes, especially living in Kings County now.

Does that mean I am not confident? or that I am ashamed of my ethnicity and color of my skin?

Hell to the F no. I loooove my skin girl, especially when I get a nice golden brown tan in the Hawaiian sun. You better believe I still sunbathe this brown skin goddess.

But I would by lying if I told you that I never feel out of place or insecure when I am one of the very few, brown skinned Latina women in a room.

Why do I put myself in situations where I will feel insecure or out place?

Because I fucking deserve to be in those places too.

We are welcome in those places, but our own insecurities, whether it be the color of our skin or any other insecurity, hold us back way to many times. They hold us back from enjoying spaces and activities that are life changing and enjoyable.

My brown skin insecurity has held me back from enjoying spaces and activities that are predominately white attended. It’s time to stop.

@ellalatinaco

I am soooo soooo freaking proud of my self, Eli, and other women of color in the room at this Hot Pilates. With all the insecurities we might have had, we enjoyed a fitness class that made our chonis get drenched in sweat, because WE TOO DESERVE to be there, our chonis too deserved to be drenched in sweat.

We too deserve to feel comfortable in a space where we take off our shirt and workout in a freaking sports bra!!!! And guess what, no one made a fuchi face at as, nobody cared what our bodies looked like, you know why???? Because they are there to focus on themselves, they don’t care about who else is there and what they look like.

So please if you ever feel insecure about attending a space where you feel like you don’t fit in because of the color of your skin, remember, YOU DESERVE TO BE THERE JUST AS MUCH AS OUR WHITE GIRL FRIENDS!

Thank you to the team at Hot Yoga Aptos, for this beautiful space, Carina our trainer, you are a beast thank you for the challenge. And thank you my beautiful friend Eli, for taking me, and also for encouraging me and other women to challenge ourselves to get a little uncomfortable, and just fucking do it!