PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – A Portland yoga studio is hosting a Latinx heritage celebration — honoring the culture and representation across industries with an evening filled with yoga, music, and wine.
Portland’s Flow in the City urban yoga sanctuary is celebrating on Friday, Oct. 13 with a 45-minute all-levels yoga class and a live DJ, followed by a social hour with Latin food and wine.
“I was really intentional about wanting to make sure that we had active representation from a lot of different countries,” Flow in the City Owner Vanessa Gomez said.
Gomez, who is Colombian, will be teaching the class, with music from Mexican DJ Eddie Perez — highlighting sounds from across Latinx culture– Cuban bites from Beaverton’s La Floridita, wine from the Latina-owned Gonzalez Wine Company, and an art installation from Puerto Rican artist, Nico Rodríguez Bagué.
Gomez explained that the event is limited to 25 guests, noting “it’s not limited to just Latinx people to attend, it’s open to everybody. But it is just meant to highlight Latinx culture in Portland.”
“I know that there is a lot of stigma in the Portland area about whether or not there are Latinos here or there’s the assumption that all Latinos are Mexican. And I think it was just really, really powerful to create an event that will highlight Latinx talents and excellence across industries but also really bringing forward the cultural diversity within the Latinx community,” Gomez explained.
The studio is focused on building community, connection, and culture, and was inspired by a community class Gomez started in 2022. The community class began inside an art gallery run by a non-profit, which offered up the space to Gomez for her classes, Gomez said.
After getting positive feedback from the community, Gomez decided to open her own studio, which is in the same building as the art gallery where it all began.
“Everything that we do is very culture-forward, and yoga is just our medium. We’re very community based, we have pop-ups in the studio all the time, we try to host one event every month, but it’s all around bringing people together and making sure that no one in the studio feels like a stranger,” Gomez said.
Ahead of the “pa la cultura” Latinx heritage celebration, Gomez is looking forward to the Latinx music and having people in the space getting to know each other.
