Latin America usually loses points when it comes to selling to international tourism. The news is full of rulers covering themselves with glory, natural disasters, violence or events that are part of the daily life of its inhabitants. But Latin America is not that, its people and the countries that comprise it are not hostile or ignorant , nor are they any less for failing to catch up with their American neighbor in terms of progress, which is in the end the one that is interested in seeing that nothing changes south of its borders.
It is a nest of stories, of heroes who have fought to stand firm against foreign intimidation and whose towns and cities tell a story on every corner. You have to love it, you have to study it... Latin America you have to pay more attention , because leaving it in oblivion in the face of trends and traveling fashions is simply a huge mistake. Fashions are fleeting history of these territories and the value of its people , No.
This is where projects like From Latin America With Love emerge, an eternal and sincere letter of love and admiration to Latin America.
"Yes, our north has always been the south . Let's toast to culture. Here's to elegant pride. Here's to the laughter of a life well lived Latin-style. Here's to the essence, to the customs. and for one diet based on Neruda and prosecco. Let's toast not to the nap, but to the party . Let's toast to more pink sunsets, to more brandy and to the flirtatiousness of a 'Perhaps, perhaps...' on the Costa del Sol".
Poems like these (which dance perfectly with albums like Magical Mulattoes, by Rubén González ) are some of the declarations of love that have developed three aspects within From Latin America With Love: a creative studio, an online store and a location search service for filming and photo shoots. "To be able to show the world the sophisticated aesthetics and the authentic beauty of the region ", says KD Castañeda, founder of FLAWL, about how its purpose is to capture the attractiveness of Latin America so that neighboring or distant audiences are interested and have a different "access" to the area (hence the name in English).
"Simon Bolivar came to write: ‘an immense volcano is at our feet...' a metaphor that speaks about the hidden potential of the region about to erupt. On another occasion he spoke of a 'volcanic woman' , referring to a mistress. I love these metaphors that on the one hand talk about being proud of the land we live in and, on the other hand, of such a passionate race," explains Castañeda.
The mission is to document all this feeling through ideas like Location Perfection , a project dedicated to location scouting either Finds from Latin America , a collection of treasures found in the region and that is part of the inventory for sale. "Also art pieces , compositions that she made with finds , which coexist with still life, mainly flowers. Y Gioconda from South America , a series of Pictures that she made to models from Latin America with a flower headdress (Frida Kahlo style!), "says Castañeda.
The trajectory that led KD to create "From Latin America With Love" began with his Visual Communication studies at the Center for Design, Film and Television in Mexico, his birthplace (he now resides in Colombia). "For seven years I was part of of the Editorial office of Vogue Mexico and Latin America . And now, for three years, She was part of the team of the Colombian designer Johanna Ortiz, in the area of communication and marketing. And, in parallel, I dedicate all my passion to this initiative , explains Castañeda, who also declares himself a fan of the Venezuelan Efrain Mogollón, No Pise la Grama (also from Venezuela), the Colombian Paula Mendoza or Escudo de Perú.
The "treasures" are also part of FLAWL , in what Castañeda calls Finds, a project with pieces found (for now) in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador or Peru. A sustainable project that seeks to give them a second (or third) life.
"I love hats made from natural materials such as palm or indigenous backpacks whose fabric tells ancestral stories. And, lately, I am adding pieces of jewelry and precious stones such as emeralds to the collection, which is very authentic from Colombia," she adds. .
In the field of literature, Finds has first book editions What Love in the time of cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. "It is an edition with the illustrations of José Celestino Mutis and his expedition during the discovery of America," Castañeda details to Condé Nast Traveler. Or an edition of Vogue Italia dating from 1967 with a cover story from Venezuela. "Personally, I am fascinated by Julio Cortázar, especially Hopscotch . I feel so identified with his idea of freedom reflected by La Maga: 'Feeling a flower, feeling a cat, feeling air'. I collect the book in different versions that I have found in various parts of the world. It's too special for me."
From Latin America with Love underscores the fact that Latin Americans are a "passion species" , as Castañeda likes to define them, "because of our blood so alive, so warm and happy. It is nature, it is the tropics, 'enjoying life', kisses of happiness, a tango dance and a toast to life. We have so much..."
