On September 15, 2019, the first day of Latinx Heritage Month, Dr. Analucía Lopezrevoredo founded Jewtina y Co., an organization for Latinx Jews. Lopezrevoredo is a Peruvian-Chilean-Quechua-American Jewtina who is passionate about preserving Latin Jewish heritage and culture and claiming her identity as both Jewish and Latina. She founded Jewtina y Co. to provide a space for other Latinx Jews to do the same.

Lopezrevoredo was born in Peru to a Jewish mother and Catholic father. The family left Peru because of terrorism and lived first in Spain and then in the United States. For nearly ten years, Lopezrevoredo was undocumented, leading her to advocate for immigration reform.

Growing up, Lopezrevoredo faced a great deal of racism and discrimination, particularly from the Jewish community. Her family was viewed with suspicion because her Latina mother didn’t speak Yiddish and had an accent; Lopezrevoredo was accused of “dual loyalty” to Fidel Castro, and her Jewishness was constantly questioned. At age seven, she announced that she would go by the name Ana because so many of her classmates and teachers not only struggled to pronounce her full name but made fun of it. Not until she was in college did a professor encourage her to reclaim her name, and along with it her identity.

Lopezrevoredo has a background in critical race and cross-cultural studies and a doctorate on Latino immigrant and refugee resiliency. She worked as a migrant rights health advocate and organizer in California, Mexico, and Peru. Prior to founding Jewtina y Co., she worked at JIMENA, OneTable, Bend the Arc, and the Center to Advance Racial Equity in Portland, Oregon. Among other positions, she is currently on the council of JDC Entwine, a board member at Urban Adamah, and a member of the Schusterman Foundation’s ROI community.

Lopezrevoredo founded Jewtina y Co. as a platform for Latin Jews to engage in dialogue about multiculturalism and to raise awareness and elevate the voices of fellow Jewtinas. The “Co.” in the name stands for Jewtina y. Co’s five main values, each of which begins with the letters “co.” Co-munidad/Kehilla represents the value of inclusivity, Co-nservación/Kavod Habriot preserving Latin Jewish heritage and culture, Co-laboración/Arevut–Klal Yisrael the importance of examining inequities and working to free the Jewtina community of all forms of oppression, Co-nocer/Limmud providing opportunities for other communities to learn, and Co-ntinuar/L’dor v’dor the importance of passing on traditions to the next generation.

Jewtina y Co. is a multifaceted organization. Its PUENTES leadership and resiliency fellowship is a five-month program for Latin Jewish changemakers, providing them with the tools to make changes in their own communities. A monthly AYNI healing circle, named after the Queacha-indigenous term Ayni  (“today for you, tomorrow for me”), is a virtual opportunity for healing using Jewish and Latin wellness practices. The VOCES archive for community storytelling includes articles, podcasts, and videos by Latin Jewish community members sharing their own narratives of what it means to be Latinx and Jewish. The Jewtina y Co. website contains learning resources on topics such as Jewish holidays, Latin culture, and Latin Jewish recipes, books, and music.

Sources:

Lopezrevoredo, Analucía. “Celebrating Our Diverse Latin-Jewish Community.” Global Jews, April 20, 2021. https://globaljews.org/jewishand/celebrating-our-diverse-latin-jewish-community-2/.

Bolton-Fasman, Judy. “Jewtina y Co. Website Celebrates Latinx Jews.” Jewish Boston, October 5, 2020. https://www.jewishboston.com/read/jewtina-y-co-website-celebrates-latinx-jews/.

Kustanowitz, Esther. “Jewtina y Co aims to create a communal space Latin-Jewish identity in the US.” Jewish Insider, March 24, 2022. https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/jewtina-y-co-aims-to-create-a-communal-space-jewish-latin-identity-in-the-us/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jewtina-y-co-aims-to-create-a-communal-space-jewish-latin-identity-in-the-us.

Jewtina y Co. Accessed June 13, 2022. https://jewtina.org/.

@jewtinayco. Instagram, accessed June 13, 2022. https://www.instagram.com/jewtinayco/?hl=en.