Q. What is your favorite part about being Latina?
A. There are so many things, honestly. I have an immense sense of pride in my culture. I love our family traditions, our holidays, I love our food. I have grown an appreciation for all of that. I think it makes us very special. I also believe we can make the best of the situations that we are in. No matter what’s going on or how hard things get, we are still ourselves.
Q. Tell us about a time you were underestimated.
There’s been so many times, starting with when I was little. I grew up in Long Island in what was predominantly white suburbia. I remember being in the first grade, and we were having a reading contest.You had to read as many books as you could by Thanksgiving, and every time you read a book, you would make a feather out of construction paper and write the name on it. Towards the end, depending on how many books you read, you could make a native headdress out of it. I love reading, and I’m competitive by nature. I wanted to have a lot of feathers and beat everybody. I started stacking up a lot of these paper feathers, and my teacher grilled me on every single book in a way that the other kids were not scrutinized. Then there was the time everyone was allowed to pick a band instrument, and my teacher made me jump through so many hoops to be able to play the drums. The list goes on.
Q. Tell us about your background.
A. I’m a first-generation immigrant in this country. My parents are both from Puerto Rico, and I grew up here. When I was little we lived in Queens, and when I got a bit older, my parents bought a house in Long Island. My dad has always been hard-working and his dream was to own a home and have the whole white picket fence thing. I spent most of my childhood in Long Island, and when I graduated high school, I quickly removed myself because it was definitely not a positive place for people of color. Back in the 80s, it was mostly made up of people who left New York City because there were too many people of color in their neighborhoods, and they were intentionally moving away from that. As a result, I grew up around tons of racism, prejudice, and weird stuff. I remember going through a phase when I refused to wear my hoop earrings, and another time, my mother caught me rubbing lemons on my knees and elbows after a girl made fun of me in school because I was dark, and my knees were darker than the rest of me. It was an interesting place to grow up. I had lots of joy in my family life. Outside my home life, I remember trying to assimilate for a while. Then high school came, and I was done with assimilating. After high school I left and moved back to the city as soon as I could and have been here ever since.
Q. How did you end up working with bees?
A. It all goes back to family and roots. Where my father is from, in Puerto Rico, people farm and grow stuff — they call us jibaritos — like hillbillies. When we moved to Long Island, the first thing my father did was grow food. We had a big garden and we would spend time gardening together. He was very progressive for the 80s and refused to use pesticides. Instead he would order bugs in the mail — lady bugs, praying mantis, and all these things that would provide a balance between what we were growing and the pests there. I grew up appreciating that balance and not being afraid of bugs. Once I was here in the city, I heard of people who were doing beekeeping and was like really? People do that in the City? The initial place where I was going to take classes ended up closing, and a friend told me about Brooklyn Grange, the largest rooftop farm in the country. I signed up for their beekeeping program. The first day of class, I met Carolina, who is now my partner in the Island Bee Project. I remember we were given a hive to work on and told to pick a partner and she came over and asked, “Do you want to be my partner?” And we immediately related to each other as Latinas around the same age.
Q. How did Island Bee Project come to be?
A. It was our last day of class, and I remember Carolina was looking a little down, and I’m like, what’s the matter? And she said, “I’m just sad that it’s over.” So, I said, “Hey, let’s get some bees and let’s do this. Do you want to do this?” And she was like, “Yeah!” I was so excited. We ordered some bees months in advance, and I remember the time was coming up when they were arriving, and we had nowhere to put them. We asked our landlords, we asked our friends to ask their landlords, everyone said no. We were at a total loss. Then, a friend of ours told us about a woman who had a farm on Governors Island and had tried many times to keep bees, but because she was so busy, she’d never gotten them to survive. Our friend said we should go out there and do a compost build with her on the farm, and you can chat about the bees. It was February and the bees were coming in March, so we said okay. We did this compost build in 2-degree weather. It was so painful, but I knew it was going to be worth it. And it was. At the end of the day she said let me show you the area where we should put the bees.
Q. Tell us about the expansion of Island Bee Project.
A. We were in Governors Island for five years, and we started to become known for being the beekeepers on the island but also for the experiences people had when they came by to visit. People would come with their kids, and we’d sit with them and talk to them, and things grew from there. We now have another partner- Brenda- who also did the Brooklyn Grange program. We met her and we immediately clicked. We’ve now expanded to three locations. We left our Governors Island location after the pandemic, and are now in Williamsburg, Brooklyn right on the water, in Woodside Queens at the Moore Jackson Community Garden and Historic Cemetery, and in Brownsville at the Newborn Community Garden. All of these are beautiful sanctuary spaces that give people a retreat from the city.
Q. Tell us about the products you guys make.
Working with our bees is a gift and we try to harvest things from them minimally. Because of the access we have, we do get certain things in very big amounts. So, we make very beautiful 100% beeswax candles. We also make a healthy version of products we grew up with and love- like Bee Vapor Rub, made with beeswax, coconut oil, and essential oils. Carolina’s grandma personally approved this one. We also have lip balms and body butters that can be purchased through our website or one of the many pop-up markets we attend.
Q. What’s next for the Island Bee Project?
We’ve come so far in building a solid platform to educate people in New York City about what we do and why it’s important to provide access to the outdoors and to education. We think children should know where their food comes from, the role pollinators play, and how it all ties in with our lives. Our next step would be to reach more people and bring this knowledge to as many people in New York City as possible.
Q. Who’s another Latina we should feature on Informada?
Nicole Rivera is another amazing Afro-Latina beekeeper in the New Jersey/Philadelphia area. She’s doing great things and has built an amazing business, in addition to being a great person.