We recently connected with Mirtle Peña-Calderon and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Mirtle, thanks for joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

I have to be transparent — I’ve never been the best at naming things. When I worked in marketing, I was the worst at coming up with catchy taglines and hashtags. It just hasn’t been my thing. But, when I was thinking about what I wanted to name my platform, the one thing I knew was that I wanted it to sound inclusive. I knew that whatever the name was, it had to make it known that I was honoring the collective power and beauty of Latinos and Latines everywhere. That they could visit it and know there was an effort being made to tell their stories.

Another fun tidbit was that I needed help to come up with it. I was in a coaching session with Latina business coach and CEO
of Seizing Happy, GiGi Diaz, and I was telling her how the word collective kept popping up for me. I can’t remember exactly what else I said, but I also mentioned “Latinidad.” She stopped me mid-sentence and said, “That’s it.” So, it’s not lost on me that the name for Latinidad Collective was workshopped by more than just myself. I’m super proud of the name, and I’m extra proud of what it stands for.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Like many things in my career, I landed where I am thanks to divinely timed pivots. Did I want to make some of those pivots? Not really. Did I trust that everything would turn out okay? Not necessarily. But here I am, proud of where those pivots have taken me. I’ve always loved words and stories. Whether in a movie, a book, or a random commercial, I love to take in narratives like some people love numbers and quantum physics.

I’ve studied public relations, worked in social media marketing, and am now a journalist. Through it all, I’ve amassed many ways of sharing a story through words — blogs, newsletters, editorial articles, and social media captions. That’s why I love being a copywriter. Digging into a client’s story and helping them piece together how to best show up online is so much fun for me. It’s a puzzle but with words.

But there’s also the added element of helping someone realize just how much of a badass they are. We often only see how fantastic we are and how much we have to offer once we see it through someone else’s lens. Seeing a client have that “aha” moment when it sinks in that they are just as cool as every other kid on the block is nice.

I take a similar approach every time I write a piece for Latinidad Collective or any other editorial publication. I look for the heart of the story and then run with it. I want to highlight and show not just the person I am interviewing but everyone who happens to read the article that there are really cool people out there doing really fantastic things. I firmly believe that you don’t know what you’re capable of until you see someone who looks like you doing something similar. Everyone has a story we can learn from.

When I think of what I do — copywriting and journalism — you don’t see a lot of Latinas, Latinos, or Latine people at the top. You don’t see a lot of us there trying to open up the doors so that the rest can go through. Regardless of where this path leads me, I want to be able to represent my community in any way that I can.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Storytelling drives my creative journey, fuels me, and serves as my guiding star. Telling stories feels as innate as breathing. It is the basis for everything I do and how I approach things. Being able to puzzle together how something flows from one thing to the next feels effortless.

That’s not to say that I haven’t struggled to find what felt right for me to do in life and my career. There has been a lot of trial and error on my part. While I have a PR degree, I knew it wasn’t for me after seeing it in action post-college. Social media content creation also wasn’t my jam. Despite that, I took the valuable lessons that came with those moments in my career, and they’ve served me well (I’m a huge fan of transferable skills).

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is the act of creating itself. Something that people in non-creative professions need to consider is that creating is a very personal and emotional act. When you create, you are pouring a piece of yourself into that project or task.

Anyone in a creative field will tell you as much, which is why hearing, “This sucks,” without there being a genuine reason why or actionable ways to make it better, feels so debilitating. There’s no such thing as “detached creation.” When a creative or an artist works their magic, a piece of them will travel with whatever they are handing off forever. I am fairly certain that if you were to tell a lawyer to redo the legal document they poured hours into, they would be unwell. The act of creating anything comes from your soul.

That’s why creative blocks are so gut-wrenching — it’s literally cutting people off from the source of their magic. And, when you can’t tap into that magic, it derails you. It’s not like a spreadsheet or something else that’s more straightforward that you can walk away and come back to in ten minutes. I’ve had creative blocks that have lasted several days.

That being said, once you’ve gotten to a place where you’ve been able to move past that block and start creating again, nothing beats that feeling — absolutely nothing.

Has being creative always been easy? No, frankly, it’s made me more emotional than I care for sometimes. I once cried during the trailer of that movie where the dog follows the owner to the train station every day and keeps doing it after the owner dies. I have never seen the movie to this day, but I cried during the trailer. Also, I’m allergic to dogs.

Would I give up being creative for something else? Nope. There is nothing like that high you get when you’ve created something you are truly proud of. You feel on top of the world, fulfilled, and inspired. I hope everyone gets to feel that at one point or another.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://latinidadcollective.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mirtlepcalderon/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirtlenpenac/
• Other: mirtlepcalderon.com
  https://www.threads.net/@mirtlepcalderon

Image Credits

Image Credit: Karen Khounthavong