During Pride and throughout the year, it is important to shine a spotlight on queer Latinas who are paving the way and uplifting their communities through their work. During this time when LGBTQIA+ rights are constantly under threat, it is essential to amplify queer Latinas voices. Two queer Latinas who have been continually building community and uplifting queer Latinas are Mexican-American husband-wife duo Jennifer and Veronica Zeano. They launched Jen Zeano Designs (JZD) as a source of much-needed Latina empowerment and queer Latina representation through their apparel and accessories brand. Since launching JZD, inspired by the 2016 election, the duo has received tremendous support from their Brownsville, Texas-based community and beyond. Their “Latina Power” t-shirts have been worn by celebrities like Eva Longoria and Jessica Alba, a testament to the widespread reach of Jen and Bello’s work over the past eight years. Their authenticity has made them one of the most beloved and well-known Latina empowerment brands.
“Our community has played a vital role in our brand. They have always been incredibly supportive and at the end of the day, without them JZD wouldn’t exist,” Jen says. Hip LatinaThe community they’ve built over the years has become more than just their customers; it’s been an integral part of their decisions and their brand’s biggest supporters. As business owners, they’ve navigated the unique challenges that come with being queer, Latinx entrepreneurs. Their community, or “death journey” as they call it, has been with them through the good and the bad.
One of the challenges they face stems from the foundation of any business: funding. Jen explains: “Latinos have the least access to capital from other sources. We’re starting businesses at record rates, but we’re not receiving the funding we should be receiving.” This is true for many Latino entrepreneurs, who only received about 1.5% of venture capital funding in 2022, despite experiencing a 25% growth rate between 2019 and 2022.
The backlash and hatred they have received from individuals online because of their intersectionality as Latinas and lesbians is another challenge they have had to deal with over the years.
“When we first started the business, we were so excited when our Latina Power T-shirts were the first big hit, and I’m not going to lie, an hour later on Yahoo forums or whatever, people were telling us to go back in the kitchen and make burritos. And then add the fact that we’re lesbians,” Bello says. Hip Latina“For those who want to attack us, this is the most negative double whammy imaginable. If we only focused on negativity, we wouldn’t even be able to get out of bed. The negative comments have just gotten a little louder at times, but that doesn’t mean there’s been an increase in their numbers.”
It’s been a year since JZD faced such hardship again, both personally and through her business, after items from her Pride collection in partnership with major retailer Target were censored and taken down. Target’s Pride collection launched last May, and JZD’s community, friends, and supporters were excited to see JZD’s Pride products in every Target store. However, that quickly changed when the launch of the Pride collection was met with an outpouring of far-right homophobic backlash. What was initially exciting about collaborating with a retailer that would bring great exposure for the brand in addition to revenue quickly turned to disappointment.
In this unexpected turn of events, the emotional toll and pressure the situation took is still felt. In the space of about two weeks, they went from the highest of joy to the lowest of sadness. As things progressed, the team was in disarray. Despite receiving feedback from everyone online, they still hadn’t heard from the retailer. Vero described it as watching “a car crash in slow motion.” While they were angry and saddened, Target hadn’t reached out to them, and they were in disbelief as they recalled how excited they were when they first got the call about the collaboration. They wanted answers and a statement in support of LGBTQIA+ brands affected by Target, but they also addressed the impact this situation had on their small business.
The partnership began a year before the collection’s release, as they prepared for a big launch with a well-known retailer like Target by investing in inventory in preparation for the exposure they expected to gain from the drop. The planned collection included pride items such as a “Bien Proud” graphic t-shirt, shirts with the pronouns “he/she/they” and shirts featuring bodies of all shapes, sizes and abilities.
While they celebrated the event as a representation of their brand and their community, it also created a negative image for their brand as they were subjected to homophobic and bigoted comments. Implicit in this situation is the contrast between a year’s worth of work and time that went into this collection and then having it disappear in an instant.
“It was a decision made in five minutes. I’m sure they didn’t have the respect to even take five minutes to make a decision that would hurt our small company,” Bello said.
They decided to speak out after hearing the same thing that happened to them happening to queer artists this year. Target’s 2024 Pride collection mirrors last year’s. Their experience facing this level of hatred and homophobia mirrors the rise of hate speech in the U.S. Jen and Bello talk about the impact of this kind of backlash and Target’s failure to act to defend queer brands.
“We knew it would impact people who hadn’t come out yet. People who were trying to decide if it was safe to come out. People who were discovering their identity. People who had recently come out. It had a huge impact on the LGBTQIA+ community. That simple decision rippled throughout the community. That’s what we argued for when we sat on the call with Target’s PR team. We told them they needed to make a statement in support of the community, because then people watching wouldn’t feel like it was an important message,” Jen said.
Bello explains that the experience reminded her that despite the progress and the close-knit community she has built, homophobia is still rampant.
“I think we were very innocent, at least for me. I knew people were homophobic. I knew they wouldn’t accept me for who I was. But we were so successful in surrounding ourselves with just love and acceptance that I think we forgot about that. I feel really blessed to be able to be like, ‘Everybody loves me. Everybody accepts me and my wife and sees us as normal people.’ It really exposed me and humbled me. It brought me back to reality and made me like, ‘Hey, this is the world you live in.'”
As their business has grown, and their experience partnering with Target has given them a new perspective on potential future collaborations. Through challenges, they have learned that partnerships are more than just collaborations. Given their strong ties to the community, “We give them access to the community because they have an important voice that can positively impact our community, so we try to be careful to make the right choice,” Jen adds.
They’re already applying these lessons to future collaborations. “We have a really exciting collaboration coming out at Pride next year. We had deep, honest, open discussions and said, ‘What if we get the same backlash?’ They approached us. We admire them and they’re a great partner. I can’t say yet. It’s still a year away, but I think Vero and I have figured out what conversations we need to have,” she adds. “There’s no book for us to follow, but we’re doing our best. We know what questions to ask and we know what we need to get in our contracts to protect ourselves. There are so many things that could go wrong that we never would have thought of, so it was a big lesson for us.”
Despite the difficulties of the past year, Jen and Bello are grateful for the happy moments they have experienced and look forward to what is to come, including a continued partnership with Meyer Grocery and a brick-and-mortar store. They opened their storefront in January, with a manufacturing plant behind it. There is an open space between the storefront and the manufacturing area, so shoppers can see the effort and love that went into the products they are looking for and feel a part of JZD. They are also planning a two-year collaboration that will kick off a “health journey” with the retailer. Bello says this is a collaboration they’ve been making happen for years. “I’ve been making this happen for ages, and I knew it when they knocked on the door. It was just a few more words and it was going to happen,” she adds.
With eight years of experience as business owners, Jen and Bello are seasoned entrepreneurs who have successfully built not only an online community, but a brick-and-mortar store and a lasting brand despite the challenges.
Jen has this to say to other queer Latinx business owners: “Show your true self as much as you can safely do.” The great thing about being a small business is that when your supporters love and value your brand, they will love you back. If you show your true self, the people who value your product and brand will do so because they’ve always seen you for who you are. Meanwhile, Bello and Jen say that entrepreneurship is a constant learning process, so it’s important to embrace the idea that you won’t always know everything.
“Surround yourself with people who know more than you. There’s no shame in admitting, ‘I can’t do that or I don’t understand that.’ It’s okay. It’s better to have an attitude of, ‘I’m going to educate myself, I’m going to ask someone, or I’m going to surround myself with people who know more than me and let them help me get through this whole business journey,'” Bello says.
Jen and Bello hope to see more representation and more queer Latinx business owners grow and have their brands become the norm on retail shelves everywhere. They emphasize our role in uplifting Latinxs in spaces where they aren’t represented yet and sharing their names and brands as much as we can.
Bello says, “There’s enough room at the table for everyone. Everyone can eat. It’s not a small table. It’s a table big enough for everyone. We have to help each other until we all get there.”
