Consuelo Casa de La Luna Co-Founder, Alejandra Crites
A little girl from Mexico moves to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and perseveres to break down cultural and societal barriers and ultimately found her startup for vaginal wellness, an unknown here in the U.S. Certainly hushed in the past and relegated to the shelves of baby diapers and condoms, vaginal wellness products have gone without saying… literally.
In this week’s episode, Alejandra Crites shares her life journey of embracing her culture and exploding onto the scene of New York City, bringing her warrior power to the forefront of business as Co-Founder of Casa de La Luna.
Transcript:
[Intro]
Hola Chicas!
Welcome to another episode of the life links podcast coming to you here every Wednesday, and we’re so grateful that you join us each week. This season, we’re introducing you to Latina women who are sharing their stories of struggles and successes and cafecitos, always cafecitos.
Today’s guest is a vibrant young woman who made a big move to further her love of her Latina culture and in return became a Co-Founder of a company that I just can’t believe has never been established before; that it took this long for this to happen. You’re going to be so excited to hear about it. So let’s get started. Welcome to the show, Alejandra Crites.
Alejandra:
Oh, thank you so much, Consuelo. It’s such an honor to be here. I’m so excited. I have to thank you for having me on. Our discussions thus far have been amazing. So, I know that this is gonna go super well and I’m really excited.
Consuelo:
I really love that we have this possibility of remote podcast because you’re in New York, but this isn’t where you started. So, why don’t you share your story with us?
Alejandra:
Yeah, of course. So I guess a little bit about me. I was born in Mexico and I came to the United States when I was four years old. And my family moved to the Pittsburgh area, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And as much as I love the area, it really wasn’t something that I think I saw myself doing for long term.
So, after the pandemic hit, as a lot of us did, I think I stopped and I, I wondered if I was really happy where I was. And there was really only place in the world that I wanted to be even though it was in the middle of probably the worst time ever of my life to move, that was New York!
And, I really on a whim, I guess you could say, quit my job. I packed my bags and I moved myself here to Washington Heights, where I am now. And it’s been quite a whirlwind as you could probably imagine. But, I can confidently say it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made for myself. I’m really, really glad that I did it.
Consuelo:
That was a major leap of faith, because did you have any family or friends that were there to help you or did you stay with anyone?
Alejandra:
Yeah, not really. There were some people that I had known, uh, that were in the area, but we, we weren’t really super close. I didn’t have certainly any family and my family thought it was nuts and, and the absolute worst time to do it. There was a lot of people that told me that I was probably making a mistake.
But, it was just something that I, I definitely had to believe in. I think that’s been sort of an underlying motif in my life of just listening to that sort of internal compass. And, I did it! No friends, no family. No job! It was, yeah, it was a lot, but we made it through.
Consuelo:
Wow. Congratulations. So many.
Congratulations. I love it. It’s really obvious how excited and happy you are. And New York really fits you!
Alejandra:
Yeah, it’s always funny whenever. I meet someone new and they ask me where I’m from, I have to play a game at this point and ask them where they think that I’m from. And it’s never the right place. It’s always, the last place that I would think like, uh, Morocco or, Florida or the, I don’t Idaho, just random, random places is never correct, but…
Consuelo:
Mm. Yeah. People make some pretty broad assumptions. Right? So you were telling me, Alejandra Crites. Crites is German. Is your father German? And, how did he meet your mother then?
Alejandra:
Yeah, an interesting little story. My father’s American,. My father is from Cleveland, Ohio, and he had a job opportunity basically to go to Mexico. He had always been very adventurous but he was single at the time, planning to sail around the world on his sailboat which he, I guess, parked or stationed or whatever you do with a boat in Corpus Christi and took the job to go to Mexico.
There, he met my mother who was working in the office of the owner of the steel plant that he was working with. And. He was very persistent. I will say, with my mother, and my mother being a Mexican woman, she was a little bit confused, I think, in the first couple of interactions that they had.
But, they fell in love and they got married. I was born a year later. And there was, of course, as I think a lot of families discussion around where are we going to live? When you merge two cultures, particularly it was a big kind of conversation. And ultimately my mother decided that she wanted me and my brother to receive our education in the United States. And so that’s why they decided to come.
Consuelo:
Oh, that is such a good story.
It’s actually really similar to mine. Mm-hmm. I have the father who took the job in Peru, just out of the blue. His family’s like where we had no idea where it was because he’s from Wyoming. A boy from Wyoming is just like the title of a book, ‘A boy from Wyoming goes to Peru’. And his family has no idea where it was.
Yeah. Very similar. He met my mother. She worked for the British Embassy. He was a geophysicist, who worked for a mining company that was Canadian. So, they were always at the British Embassy for the parties. And well, the rest is history.
So, you seem to have the adventurous characteristics of your dad.
Alejandra:
They go back and forth a lot, um, between if I am more like my mother or my father. But, I think that I get a lot from both of them. My father was definitely adventurous. He was the one that, moved to two different countries. I was almost born in the Netherlands, as well.
He has that sort of spirit. But my mother also, for someone who grew up in a very small, industrial town in Northern Mexico, in Coahuila, she also wanted to travel the world. She, also, wanted to see what was out there, and she did a lot of things on her own, as well.
So, I would say that she was very adventurous and very courageous in her own way. I really don’t know why they were so surprised when I said that I wanted to come to New York by myself.
Consuelo:
Tell me more about your cultural identity then, because you have a lot of self-awareness. You have your parents and you know their story, but we know it comes from deeper than that because we have so many ancestors and such a millennia of ancestors that are just pulsing in us, in our DNA.
Alejandra:
Yeah, thank you for that question. I’ve definitely gone through, a lot of rollercoaster, I would say with my, um, cultural identity. I think it’s a story that is shared with a lot of Latina women where a lot of the time, I didn’t feel Mexican enough. I grew up in a small, predominantly white town in Pennsylvania. There was a time when I felt I was losing my Latinadad, where I thought that I, I wasn’t eating enough tacos or like speaking enough Spanish or, seeing my family enough to really claim that identity.
Thankfully that was one of the most beautiful things that came from coming to New York. When I got here, I realized that the story that I have is very unique to myself and no one else could define that for me. I really had to step into it where I knew that I already had it , but it was just allowing myself to get comfortable with it.
So, slowly but surely, I’ve definitely become more proud I think, and, and more organic in that cultural identity.
And know that I live in two worlds, my mother jokes about it a lot. Where, you know, you can put on an English song and I’ll probably know that one, but if you put on a Spanish song, I’ll probably know that one, as well. So living in between those two worlds is really, I think, unique to the person that I am and something that I think a lot of us can relate to.
Consuelo:
This podcast is all about our life links, our ancestors that are resonating within us. Who do you most align with in your family history?
Alejandra:
One of the, I would say branches of this whole tree of my identity, has definitely been sort of this ancestral discovery because I, when I meditate whenever I really need some more guidance, I found that connecting to the Majika or Aztec tribes was really where I found power.
And during recent times, we’ve had a lot of blows, I think, , to women and, vagina owners in general and what I asked for was, for whoever it was going to be, that gave me strength if they could just come forward for me. And especially, I thought my Aztec warrior background came up and I thought to myself, like, okay, I know that there were women in really high positions in this culture.
And so, I felt that they were the ones that were really pushing me and they wanted me to be strong and they were there, you know, they’re in my blood, whether I claim it all the time or I’m not, you know, it’s always gonna be there. So, definitely I think that that’s been huge.
And then also aside from that feminine tie, my grandfather is the person that I was named after. He passed away in about 2001, and I have always felt that I carry him with me. I know that he was such a strong person and very larger than life, if you will. So, in moments also, whenever, you know, I felt lost or I felt like, oh, this was a stupid decision, or am I strong enough to keep going? , that’s another person that I, I really feel is, watching over me.
Consuelo:
Oh, perfect. Yes. Sometimes we feel like we’re all alone. But we’re not, we just come from such depth and such complexity that we can’t question, even though society is always questioning us left and right.
It’s really difficult. I really thought we’d be past this by now. And the fact that it’s still trying to trip people up, trying to trip women up, trying to make them feel less, it’s like, aren’t we past this? Can’t we all just grow up and move on now?
Alejandra:
Absolutely. Absolutely. To give an example to that. I think that one thing, um, that growing up I, I struggled with and I didn’t really understand was, why I looked physically a lot different than some of the women that I was growing up with. I wasn’t very thin. I wasn’t very white. I didn’t have blonde hair. I didn’t have blue eyes.
And for a long time, I wouldn’t say that I, I disliked myself, but I definitely didn’t see the beauty in myself. Um, and so over time, you know, you get these messages from, unfortunately your peers, you get the messages, from TV shows, from the media, even books and things like that. I wanted to love myself because I knew so much the image of self love that my mother had always shown me. And I thought to myself, “okay, I can do it, too. I can love myself. She never looks in the mirror and doubts herself. I’m gonna do that too”.
But there was always something in the back of my head that was like, you’re not the pretty one. You’re not the strong one. You’re not the this, you’re not the that.
And actually, another great thing of coming to New York, especially being in the Heights, there’s so many beautiful Puerto Rican and Dominican women around here. I looked at the diversity of bodies around me and I thought to myself, it was a full epiphany, “No, I am beautiful. We are beautiful. This is stunning. These curves are amazing”.
And, this whole time, you know, I was like hiding from mine and not liking them. And, and I got here and I looked around and I thought, I’m like, oh my gosh, why was I scared of this?
This is something to be so proud of.
Consuelo:
Absolutely. Oh, no, absolutely. But it takes feeling part of something. Part of a culture, part of a group where you can embrace who you are, because you don’t have to think about it. Society here tends to neutralize multicultural children, a first generation community. Yet, it also wants to try to be like them. I was so confused by my friends making fun of me, but then like trying to go get a tan.
Alejandra:
Absolutely. I can definitely think of the Bad Bunny song recently that he says, “Ahora todos quieren ser latino, pero les falta sazón”. And, that just always makes me laugh because, um, I do, I do very clearly remember growing up and the comments that even people would say to me. I remember one instance, particularly, that was like after the summertime, and I was definitely tanner than my winter complexion.
A girl, in science class, she looked at me and said, “Well, you know, you look like that because your ancestors were always outside and they were working in the fields. But I look like this because I was inside and I was being served”.
As a 15 year old, it just like, it hit me on so many different levels that I didn’t even have a response. And, I didn’t know what to say in that moment.
It’s moments like that when I think to myself, how I wish that I could go back and just like hug my younger self and say like, “listen, it’s okay. I know you’re doubting yourself right now. I know that that wasn’t easy to swallow and take on the chin, but, unfortunately you are going to have to recognize that there are people in this world that are like that”.
That was definitely a big marker for me when I thought to myself, “Okay. You know, I really couldn’t talk to my father about it because he is a white, American man. I really didn’t feel comfortable, I think, talking to my mother about it because of how much time had passed up until that point where she was hoping that she had made the right decision to bring her child to the United States, as a first generation immigrant.
To bring that to her attention and to know that, you know, there was bullying in that sense, just felt like more of a burden that I was putting on my mother and that didn’t seem fair.
I love my parents and I think that they absolutely try to do the best thing for me, but I think that what I, I wish more people knew is that when you are bringing a family, a multicultural family to any new location, just try to be conscious of the fact that they’re going to be brought up in a probably different world than what you were brought up into and to kind of allow for that, to have space and to recognize that, at the very least.
That your children are also going through something, probably something that you might not relate to.
Consuelo:
I understand that completely completely. Again, our stories are very similar. My mother wanted to raise me American. I mean, she loved her culture. She was so proud of her culture. But, she wanted to spare me that harm and tried to raise me American. But, that only made it worse for me.
Alejandra:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah
Consuelo:
So, as you were growing up, how did you envision yourself? What did you see as part of your future?
Alejandra:
My first love funny enough was definitely languages, foreign languages. I think it was because I was always praised that I was able to speak Spanish and English so well, at the same time.
Then, in high school, I thought that I was gonna do something different and start taking German and French classes as well. I fell in love with the patterns, the rules, the accents, the way that you could pick up a newspaper from anywhere and just start to read about what’s going on in a different country.
I remember one of my, um, I think it was my high school French teacher said, that when you speak one language, it’s like looking through one lens. But, when you speak two languages, you can look through binoculars with two lenses and you can see so much more.
I really do believe that languages and communication are at the core of everything we do. Everything in my career, that I have done up until this point, has to do with communication and meeting people. So, It’s it’s literally become my entire life.
Consuelo:
That’s so beautiful. Especially because you’re such a people person. So, tell us something about yourself that people wouldn’t expect of you.
Alejandra:
I would say my founder’s journey, definitely. I think it’s the thing that, um, has surprised people the most. I am a co-founder of a retail marketplace. My Co-founder,Savannah D’ Razio, and I are here in New York City and we are embarking on a journey to open the first of its kind: a feminine wellness shop. It’s Casa De La Luna.
It’s been something that we are embarking on together. There’s a lot of uncertainty and a lot of bridges that we’re tackling together. But yeah, I think , that that’s the one thing that people aren’t expecting to hear, whenever I say that this is my project.
This is my venture that I’m working on right now. This is my founder’s story.
Consuelo:
‘Casa deLa Luna’, ‘House of the Moon’. That is such a perfect branding for this monthly cycle of life, representing both the natural occurrence and the power of creation. Mm Hmm. Describe Casa de La Luna for us, then.
Alejandra:
We would have products that range through a woman’s life cycle, from menstruation monarchy, the first period, all the way through menopause and beyond. And so, it’s intimacy, menstruation, hygiene care. It is not a sex store.
This sort of build out is very new, of course. We call it the Sephora for vaginas. It’s a retail marketplace. You can get all your goods, your one stop shop. But, you have Sephora for your vagina.
And it’s a lovely response all the time. Whenever I talk about it, there’s a little, maybe, sometimes there’s been some discomfort talking about it. But, overall it it’s, it’s been an amazing rewarding journey.
And definitely has a, a little bit, I think, of a ring to it. So I like that. I’m a co-founder
Consuelo:
I am learning so much from the women on our podcast. This season it’s enlightening and it makes me so hopeful.
Honestly, I was losing hope in where the direction of this country was going, but these women are so powerful, so intelligent and vivacious with this creative energy that just brings hope into the current day. It still shocks me that something like Casa de Luna has never been done before.
Alejandra:
I think historically we couldn’t have done it before , you know. There was so many legal regulations. There was such a cultural taboo around a lot of these things, which unfortunately, as you’re saying, it’s the most natural thing that could happen to a woman’s body.
And yet, we haven’t created a store to support really women during this time. Your first period comes with so much uncertainty and so much mystery and, and unfortunately, sometimes shame, as well. So, to have a store where we can go and we can ask these questions, or a single father could bring, you know, their young child so that she could get help with this.
It’s well past due, but it was the first time that we’ve really been able to, to do something like this. There’s so many innovative products. There’s so many new things that are coming out into the market, that people are really taking a chance on, like CBD tampons and things like that.
And that’s what makes it really exciting for me.
Consuelo:
This is what gives me so much hope.
The rise of diversity into leadership and ownership is creating what has never been done before, and not just for women or specifically Latinas, but for humanity. You have brought our most essential human experience out of the shadows, out of the shame and celebrate it.
Alejandra:
Oh, thank you. Yeah, for me, it’s a lot about that empowerment. It’s a lot about the celebration. Whereas my mother really couldn’t talk about, certain things with her friends, the fact that I can talk about it and I can talk about it loud and proud and anybody that doesn’t like it it’s just gonna have to deal with it.
The beauty, I think, of what we’re doing is that it’s allowing everyone to benefit from it. Whether it’s directly affecting you or whether it’s not; whether you are ready to talk to someone or whether you would prefer to buy something online and have it shipped to you. It’s really something that everyone can benefit from and we’re not excluding anyone.
Consuelo:
I feel like we’ve been fighting for women’s rights and empowered individualism for as long as I’ve been alive.
And now with five generations of women present, you have the vivacity of youth coupled with the knowledge of the older generations to make that. And you have such strong convictions.
Alejandra:
I have to, um, credit my co-founder Savannah D’Orazio, who originally it was her idea and the name and everything. It started with her and we’ve been growing it, of course together, but I am constantly inspired and impressed by the way that she comes up with these ideas and always knows the right next step and keeps driving the boat forward.
I have to say, as much as I trust in myself and my divine guides, this woman is just amazing. And , thank God that, that this is a person that I have on my team. And, we’re looking for more people, you know, just like her and, and myself. So yeah, they’re out there.I know that they are.
So, anybody that is interested in learning more, please look us up on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. They’re also welcome to shoot me a message if there’s any way that someone would like to support us. We are also opening our crowdfunding series, as well.
So, there will be investment opportunities if you’re interested in that but there’s plenty of room to grow and a lot of really inspiring people that are helping us with this, as well.
Consuelo:
Thank you for speaking to the young women and girls who are seeking that community, especially in a society that is threatening the pure essence of being female. I know when they hear you on this podcast, they will feel empowered and excited to join you.
Alejandra:
So many women that I’ve met through this process and through my life that, I think a lot of us feel sort of alone sometimes, but they are making huge steps forward and they’re inspiring people whenever they don’t even know that they are. And, I think, that that would be my biggest word for younger women out there that might feel angry or betrayed or scared.
There are teams out there that are building and you just have to find them and you just have to give them your energy and your support in any way that is comfortable, and that you’re able to. Whether that’s just a follow or whether that’s actually reaching out to someone and being a part of the journey.
But we really are out here and we’re really trying and I have a lot of faith that, although it’s hard and although it takes time, the change is coming.
Consuelo:
You heard it from the source, ladies. Co-Founder of Casa de La Luna, a woman’s wellness store for all ages.
The power of female is here!
With such a vivacious sense of the future, what would you love to see if you walk through a portal into the unknown?
Alejandra:
I would go back to seeing my younger self, when my family was still living in Mexico. I would just sit with my family and appreciate it, you know, as an adult. And, see my younger self playing and laughing and speaking in Spanish. Like a perfect little Spanish child. And I, I would want to soak that in a lot more.
Not because of anything other than it was just such a, a beautiful time. And I have such an appreciation now for the Mexican culture; for haciendas, for the semi-desert of Northern Mexico, for the music for the food. And, I wish that I could almost enjoy it now with these eyes and ears that I have now.
And even see my younger self. I would want to see my younger self in that. And, I would want to see my mother at her happiest, I think, with her family. And, even to see my American father slightly out of place would be hilarious.
But yeah, that, that would definitely, without a doubt, be the place that I would go to.
Consuelo:
Can I ask you about your mother? Do you know how she feels about leaving her home in Mexico? And does she feel at home here in the U.S.?
Alejandra:
It’s something that I’ve spoken with her a lot. I think that it’s part of the reason that I owe so much of, of my success and of my happiness, I think to her because these mothers, particularly I’ll speak to the mothers, and the fathers as well, but I can speak on behalf of my mother, particularly.
She gave up her life. She gave up her language, her music, her family. She gave up the comfort of her home. Even the comfort of understanding the simple things, like how to open a bank account, how health insurance works, all of those things that we spend our entire lives understanding.
And then she changed it and she gave it up to come to the United States for me and eventually my brother. And now, she’s been here for so long, and especially in a predominantly white, , community, that I see her as a warrior. I really do because survival for her meant understanding another culture, another community, and how to navigate that, not only for herself, but also for her children.
And it’s taken a lot from her, I know. It wasn’t always easy, but she made it look great. She made it look amazing with her earrings, and with her dresses and with her big voluminous, black curly hair. She just did it so, so gracefully and so beautifully.
Still, despite being here for 25 years, I know that her heart is always going to be in Mexico and it’s difficult, I think, for me sometimes to understand that, I think, she could probably be her happiest there. But, she’s still going to be here for me and for my brother. And, I love that she carries it so well, that she can smile and she has a job and she has my father.
And she still, if you, if you walked into her home at any given, uh, Sunday morning, you can still smell the tortilla, and the salsa that she’s making, and she’s got like Vincente Fernandez on full blast.
Her, her mannerisms, the way that she moves, all of it, is Mexico. And I think that is why it was easy for me to step into this once I allowed myself to, because I had such a beautiful role model that did it. And, I’m so thankful for her. I’m so thankful for what she taught me. And even though there were certainly things that we have yet to talk about and that I have yet to, to express to her about what it was like for me, I wouldn’t change any of it for the world.
Consuelo:
Yes. Oooh. This is so beautiful.And, so stunningly powerful.
This is the core of love and the courageous strength of women who immigrate here and change the trajectory of their lineage. And, in that beautiful vision of Mexican joy, this would be a good time to introduce those gorgeous earrings.
Alejandra:
Oh, thank you. Yes,I got them while I was in Mexico. For a long time, I was sort of scared of color. I was scared of wearing earrings for a long time just for, I guess, this association of like, oh, the Latina culture. I sort of pushed away from it. But, this past time, I went and I saw these and I saw the beautiful yellow, and I thought to myself, “no, I need to buy these. These are mine. They’re coming home with me”.
Consuelo:
That’s so funny that you say color because I wasn’t allowed to wear black all my life, as long as my mom was alive. She would comment, “why are you wearing black, who died?”, you know, because it was only a color of death. So, all I did was wear color forever.
Alejandra:
Oh, that’s so interesting!
Consuelo:
So, immigration is both a powerful story and a frightening one.
We, who are here, can embrace and support it because we allow space for magical things to happen. And New York is certainly a treasure trove of these stories. Have you had time to hear any yet?
Alejandra:
When I moved to France to teach and I was gone for about a year, I didn’t have my family. It wasn’t a different language. Even though I had studied for four years of college, it wasn’t instinctive to me.
And, I knew what that isolation was like, and it’s given me such a perspective on it. I think that I’m thankful to that because now working for example, in New York, I’ll give an example.
There was a, a woman that came up to me and we were looking for lipsticks. A normal day for me, you know, we’re gonna look for the pinks and the reds and, and “do like this color?” and “what goes better with your skin?” and all of the things. And at some point, randomly, she stopped and she looks at me. And she says, “can I tell you what I did today?”
Which, if you live in New York city, you know that that’s already quite a starter. “I don’t know what you did, but okay. Tell me”. And, she said, “I took my American citizenship test today and I passed!”
And I was just flooded with emotion for her. And, I was so, so, so, so happy that she had shared that with me and so touched. Oh my God, so touched! And, I gave her a great big hug. Maybe not the best idea with COVID, but I did.
Consuelo:
A very safe hug. It was a very safe.
Alejandra:
And, I just told her how proud I was of her, even though I had never met this woman. I may never see her again. And I, and I just felt so much love in that moment because I know what it was like for my mother to go through that process.
I’m so glad that she found the right person to tell that to, of course, because it was just such a beautiful moment. And, I think that that’s what a lot of people don’t understand about the immigrant story, or like you said, any huge, like change in trajectory.
There’s so much fear and there’s so much, uncertainty and so much “well, what if this goes wrong? Or what if, what if this fails or am I even right making the right decision?” So, to find, I think, the people, that encourage you and that encourage your authenticity and are just genuinely happy for you, is the most important thing that you can do for that.
Consuelo:
That is powerful and for any person moving from their birthplace to a new place, I give them so much support. And, I think people’s fear, prevents them from respecting how much courage people have in making that transition.
Hmm. I feel so much joy and true faith that you just have to trust the universe. The people are here. The women are here. Trust what it has in mind for us and just keep bringing it your good energy. Keep helping other people get to where they need to be, because they are put here for a reason and they have to have access to that. They have to be able to do what the universe had in mind for them.
There’s an important part for them to play.
Like, think about it, Alejandra, what if you had just stayed in Pennsylvania or stayed in France and didn’t have what ended up being a very big epiphany.
Alejandra:
Yeah, it goes for all of us. Like we have such a, I think, responsibility to find what divinely is like waiting for us, because even I think about my mother and if she would’ve never come to the United States, and if we would’ve stayed in Mexico, what would’ve happened, then, you know, like it’s incredible.
But for whatever the reason, we’re compelled to make the decisions and to trust like the things that, um, are put in our paths. And, thank the Lord, honestly,
Consuelo:
Yes. So don’t stray from the culture that’s pulsing with you. Don’t stray from your identity, your multicultural identity, because it’s the only sustainable way to live. It is naturally telling you what to do next. You will have that glove on and you can’t feel your reality, unless you stay really tight and support the life that you’re living here.
Alejandra:
Yes, I believe that.
Consuelo:
So, the wrap up question. We like to give a shout out to our small businesses because we find a community amongst the Latinas is within the cafecitos.
We love our cafecito. So, have you found any of your favorite places yet that you would like to share?
Alejandra:
Ooh. Um, well, I would say, I don’t know if I have a favorite, actual spot here in New York, yet. I’m sort of testing the waters in a couple different places. But for me, my cafecito in the morning actually, has been revolutionized when I found out that Bustelo actually makes K cups.
Moment of appreciation. Yes. Bustelo has K cups that you can pop into a Keurig and it takes about 30 seconds or whatever, to pop out a beautiful little cafecito that you don’t have to hardly do anything for. And then, my little hack for anybody that has now like purchased it or has it is to add a little bit of the extra, um, instant coffee, that Bustelo makes, and just like, you know, stir it in there.
Oh, the cup coffee you’ve ever had in your entire life.
Consuelo:
Oh, okay. Maybe that’s another business for you to open.
Alejandra:
Maybe at some point.
Consuelo:
Or, maybe a little lounge, a little lounge in Casa de La Luna.
Alejandra:
We might have to partner with Bustelo or something. I don’t know because it’s the best.
Consuelo:
That’s hilarious. So you don’t even, you don’t even have to get up and leave.
Alejandra:
No, absolutely. Yeah. Right here, in the comfort of your own home, pop one of those bad boys in there and with a little bit of the extra instant coffee and then a creamer. Aaah! Santa Maria Jose! It’s amazing!
Consuelo:
But, for the love of the cafecito, it has…
Alejandra:
For the love of the cafecito…
Consuelo:
…you know, it has to be just a certain way.
Alejandra:
That’s hilarious. I actually, yeah, now that I, I stop and I think about all of the Latinas that I know. And, we do all have a particularity of our cafecito in the morning. You’re right.
Consuelo:
That first one. Don’t mess up that first one.
Alejandra:
No, at that point, you know, like you might as well get back into bed, like, “eh, the day’s over”.
Consuelo:
So… Oh Alejandra, thank you so, so much. This has been a blessing.
Alejandra:
Oh no, thank you, Consuelo. As always, it was such a pleasure to speak with you. I’m so, so glad that there are people like you and this planet and that we can all learn from, and that give voice to, to not only themselves, but to other people, as well. So, I appreciate you and I, I really, really respect what you’re doing. So, thank you.
Consuelo:
Oh, thank you so much. You’re so sweet. And we will definitely be checking back in and having people support Casa de La Luna funding to get involved and help you bring this into a larger fruition. Because, oh my Lord, if anything was needed more than any time, this is it. This is it!
So, we will make sure we get the information out there. We will have your information about Casa de La Luna and your contacts, just like you mentioned here, earlier. So, people will be able to find you both on their streaming podcast platforms, in the show notes. They’ll find you on our social media @LifeLnxx, that’s L-N-Double X, and also the transcripts, which will be on our website @lifelnxx.com.
We wish all the best for you and have so much gratitude for you sharing your story, your vulnerability, and your deep love and understanding of your Mexican culture.
So, look for Alejandra Crites, Co-Founder at Casa de LA Luna, and support them in whatever way you can. This is something that is needed globally, so who better to put your energy and support behind than Casa de La Luna?
Step into your truth, ladies! Ciao!
[Outro]
