Midwest festival focuses on empowering Latinas and combatting machismo

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Thousands of people walked around Falconwood park in Bellevue to peppy mariachi music on a sunny Saturday. They’re attending the third annual Midwest Chingona Fest.

“Chingona means somebody who's badass, somebody who's always willing to go above and beyond and like somebody who's actually like a fighter,” said Stephany Lopez. It was her first time at the festival. She was among 70 vendors.

The term “Chingona” is a feminization of the Spanish word chingón. It’s a word only used for a powerful man. Festival co-founders Fabiola Lomeli and Julia Carrillo want to change that.

“The male version, chingón, is 100% accepted. It's something that is used in regular vocabulary, but as soon as you add that ‘a’ and feminize it, it's inappropriate, or it's vulgar.” Lomeli explained. “And we want to continue this chingona movement, to reclaim that word and show that it's not offensive.”

Lomeli and Carrillo decided Latinas in the Midwest needed an outlet for empowerment.

“I felt like there was a need to celebrate women, especially in the Latina community where machismo is still strong,” Carrillo added.

They want to celebrate their culture while combating what is still very prevalent in Hispanic communities: Machismo.

Drexel University assistant professor Luis Arturo Valdez researches machismo and its impacts on the health of people from all backgrounds.

“We've used the term machismo to describe a certain type of masculinity,” they said. “We create like, this self-fulfilling kind of prophecy of like, well, this is the standard, this is the way in which masculinity exists, and this is the box that we all have to fit into.”

And they add that box can be toxic for many in the Latino community.

As a young woman, Lomeli’s father always warned her not to be too prideful, or orgullosa.

“It wasn't as, I guess, acceptable to just be so outspoken and like, be a proud woman. You know? No seas orgullosa, siempre me decia. But it's like, what's wrong with being proud? There's nothing wrong with being strong and saying it,” she said.

She added her personal story is one of many in which Latinas have been forced to hide behind a man or tone down their achievements. For a long time, she didn’t identify as a chingona. But now, she recognizes all that she’s been through and how strong she is.

“And only recently, I’m like, you know what? I am one because I’ve been through so much, but I’m still here,” Lomeli said.

It took almost 10 years to take the Midwest Chingona Fest from an idea to reality. Lomeli got involved after Carrillo pitched her the potential event. Carrillo based the event idea on her own merchandise brand Soy Chingona, or ‘I am a chingona.’ After many sleepless nights, the two mothers organized the first festival on Oct. 1, 2022 with the help of their committee.

“When we put the idea out there, I was just floored by the amount of support that we received from people. People were ready, the women were ready to celebrate who they are,” Carrillo remembered.

The co-founders said women have approached them with tears in their eyes after realizing they are valued in the community as strong Latina women.

But it wasn’t always an easy road.

“We faced a little bit of not backlash, but it's been a little bit hard getting the name out there, because not everybody is on board with it. It has faced some stigma,” Lomeli added. “We didn't want to conform to what they thought a Latino event should look like, because we know our community, we know our culture, and we're not going to slap some paint on it and make it pretty just to appease somebody else.”

That’s why Valdez said festivals like these and the women who organize them are important. They are the forefront of social movements.

They said the women who are both behind this festival and the ones who support it play a part in how machismo in Latino culture can change.

“Women play a really pivotal role in challenging and shifting us away from a society in which, like, gender roles are so rigid, and, you know, shifting us away from machismo by actively redefining narratives around gender, around advocating for equality and modeling alternative ways of being,” they said.

As part of the Chingona movement, young Latinas are awarded scholarships at the festival. Hispanic populations have one of the lowest percentages of degree completion. Although the numbers are increasing thanks to a growing number of Latinas going to school.

This year they gave two young women scholarships. Next year, they hope to award three or more, or offer full-ride scholarships.

“We're breaking cycles. We are trying to provide better for our children, and we're inspiring, I think, others to do the same,” Lomeli said.

Carrillo said she wants people to know it’s okay to be a chingona. And attendee and vendor Lopez agrees. She had a booth at the festival with her fiancé Albert Nicholas for their small business More Love by S.

Nicholas said since he’s not Latino, he appreciates being able “to see and to learn and to be a part of her culture.”

Lopez said her attendance at the festival makes her feel proud to be Latina.

Nebraska Public Media's Meghan O'Brien contributed to this report.