For most us sharing our yoga practice with loved ones is a wonderful & beautiful bonding experience that is almost second to none. For some of us it’s a bit more complicated, although I share my experience with anyone who seems the slightest interested in it, it’s been hard to bring my Spanish speaking community around to a private practice, let alone to a studio class.
As a Yoga Instructor in South Los Angeles which has one of the most, if not highest, percentage of Spanish speakers, it has been surprising how difficult it is to find an all-Spanish yoga class. For the past 5 years I have been offering restorative and beginners’ classes in English and Spanish. While 90% of my classes were filled with English speakers, I found out that the majority of the students that only spoke Spanish were also there experiencing their 1st yoga class.
These Spanish speaking yogis were usually over the age of 30 and were being brought in by their children who were mostly college students. Often times when talking to them after class and asking if the practice was what they were expecting, I found myself having the same conversation, how this one 75 min practice was not at all what they were expecting. Besides the obvious comfort of taking a class in Spanish, these yogis always tell me how they experienced the ‘delicious’ slowing down of their thoughts and ‘real’ rest of their bodies.
As a Mexican immigrant living in South L.A. I’ve lived this experience. I’m grateful and fortunate for being able to practice all over Los Angeles and the world. This practice is still a novelty with Spanish speakers in L.A. and is seen as something that is only done by the type of people you typically see on magazines, however those that do make this a consistent practice realize that all you have to do is show up to feel and see the benefits of Yoga.
In Los Angeles the economic gap that you see between the South and the West side is something that I don’t know will ever be closed, but nothing compares to the grounding and humbling feeling of walking into a yoga studio where lululemon is not the status quo. What I do know is that all these Spanish speaking yogis feel empowered and included by this practice because they see all the different skin colors, body types & their neighbors engaging in a communal winding down of mind and body.
Holding space for each other in a such a diverse Spanish speaking city, can be a challenge. Mexicans, central and south American people are themselves culturally diverse, and have their own indigenous practices that mirror Yoga. Most times these are lost in the unintended assimilations to life in the United States. I have had lengthy conversations over the similarities in these practices, and how Yoga has helped us decolonize our bodies and strengthened our connection to these indigenous practices that were lost and mostly destroyed by colonizers. For me, sharing space to heal through this practice and tuning in to the calls of our ancestors makes holding all Spanish classes unmeasurably valuable and necessary.
The Synergy and embodiment of yoga is fully expressed, felt, and needed in these all-Spanish Yoga classes.
By Rita Ortiz
Rita Ortiz is a Mexican – American, Mother, Wife, Army service woman, and 200 hour certified Hatha Yoga Teacher. She has been teaching at The Tree, an all donation based Yoga Studio, in her sometimes rough and misunderstood hometown of South LA for the past 5 years. A full time Fashion Technical Designer her focus has changed from creating garments to creating a space for this practice where she can offer her community rest and peace by becoming an owner in a Yoga Cooperative that will offer yoga and wellness-equity to her community.
NOTE: This post is part of a collaborative media series organized and curated by Omstars in collaboration with the Yoga & Body Image Coalition and WOC + Wellness intended as an honest, thoughtful and holistic exploration of intersectionality, wellness and sustainable action with the intention of creating sustainable social change.
