Spooky met cultura this past Saturday during Virago Rising’s 2nd annual Bruja Bash! In the spirit of Hispanic Heritage month and Halloween, we hosted the event at Brewjeria in Pico Rivera, CA, a Latino-owned brewery. Brewjeria, in collaboration with Virago Rising, also celebrated the launch of their new seltzer, “La Mera Mera.”

As part of the festivities, we honored the 2022 Bruja of the Year. This year, we celebrated the magical Jenny Lorenzo for her incredible contributions to increasing positive representation of Latine people in media. Jenny is currently on Disney+ and Cartoon Network, but she is most known for her content surrounding her Abuela character on Youtube and Buzzfeed. She also has her own podcast called Hyphenated, and is a leading example of Latine representation in media and comedy in the community. The event was hosted by actor, writer, and comedian Erik Rivera, who was featured in HBO Latino’s “Entre Nos” comedy showcase and featured a night market of Latina-owned small businesses.

“I’m very appreciative,” She said during her speech. “I want to see more representation of people like me; the people that are goth, and weird, and don’t just fit into one category.” Jenny is just that- daunting and fearless in her journey to be different, despite the labels that may be placed on her. She wants individuals in the Latine community to know that they don’t have to ascribe to a one single label; that they can be anything or anyone they want. In her case, that means the queen of Halloween and all things witchy. 

Jenny was nominated for a Tecla Award in 2017 for “Best Content Creator for a Digital Network” and won “Best Character” for Abuela at the Tecla Awards 2018 and “Creator of the Year” at the Tecla Awards 2019.

A special thank you to the amazing team at Virago: Sara Maldonado, Vannessa Sanchez, Samantha Corona, Annette Bohn, Rebecca Flores, and Ana Chavez. Without their hard work and dedication to planning this event, it would not be the success it was. Bruja Bash was just the beginning for Virago’s accomplishments, so make sure to follow us on social media and keep up to find out about our next events.

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