Hispanic Heritage Month - Yolanda Molina
Yolanda Molina was born in New York to Mexican born parents, and married her husband from Honduras. She is “Chicana at heart”, maintaining her ethic identity by just being herself. As a youngster in an American school, “…my parents thought me to be hard working.” TMG reaps the benefits of Yolanda’s hard work commitment as she has been working the same business client account for nearly 15 years… “proving my dedication to my job and my commitment to family.”
When asked what this celebration means to her personally, Yolanda stated that “…Hispanic Heritage Month gives me the chance to be a free and proud Chicana, representative of all those people that may have come from another country…it gives us all the opportunity to display our flag and our clothing styles with pride. In fact, I hold a fond memory of when my son was just a year old, I would dress him up in the Mexico soccer uniform and we would proudly waive the Mexican flag.”
This year, Yolanda and her family will participate in Radio LA RAZA 106.1 FM’s GRITO, celebrating Mexico’s Independence, but also representative of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Chile.
“Being Hispanic is my ethnicity, but it also represents my character by the way I look. I have brown hair, brown eyes, a skin toned in between white and brown which looks like I have a tan. I do have an accent…I am proud and strong…my heritage it is my birthright.”
Honoring family traditions means her family gathers nearly every weekend for dinner. “We celebrate everything…and every celebration has to be a big one… we cook Pozole, Tamales, Tacos, Champurrado, and Ponche for every holiday…” and PS she confessed she loves street Tacos!
Yolanda is a woman of many passions, appreciating all types of music and dance “…as rhythm seems to come naturally to those of Hispanic/Latino descent… we call it Flavor! But when I want to just take it easy, I listen to Baladas a.k.a. soft music, but it depends on my mood.” On a more serious side, she is an active participant and supporter of the Hispanic community, proudly stating she “…recently had a relative (Brian Luna) run for office in the State of New York.”
Because the United States is truly a country made up of immigrants from all over the world, Yolanda wishes for humanity to a bit more open and accepting of one another. I questioned Yolanda about what she thought this saying meant i.e. that Mexicans did not cross the border, but the border crossed them. “To me, both Mexico and the United States, they are both my land, and I have a right to be here, or there.”