Raquel Reichard

Raquel Reichard

Raquel is an award-winning journalist and editor. Currently, she is the Deputy Director of Somos, Refinery29's channel by and for Latines.

Refinery29 •

Why Did So Many Latines Vote for Donald Trump?

"Latine voters overall sided with Trump on the economy, inflation, and securing the border, but tended to support Harris on all other issues, including abortion access and crime reduction as well as believing she has the temperament and ability to move the country in the right direction." "Latine voters overall sided with Trump on the economy, inflation, and securing the border, but tended to support Harris on all other issues, including abortion access and crime reduction as well as believing...
Refinery29 •

Is Puerto Rico Ready for a Pro-Independence Governor? It Looks Like It

"If what we create and bring to the world is this rich in these conditions, I can’t begin to imagine how incredibly beautiful and magical it is for ourselves and the rest of our global community for us to thrive, and for people like us across the world to thrive. " "If what we create and bring to the world is this rich in these conditions, I can’t begin to imagine how incredibly beautiful and magical it is for ourselves and the rest of our global community for us to thrive, and for people like...
Refinery29 •

Video Vixens Were Shamed in the 2000s, but They Helped Me Feel Desirable

"These women looked authentic to me. They looked like me, and they looked like my friends. They were beautiful but also ordinary, which was particularly appealing at the time. They were one of us, so to speak, and we were one of them." "These women looked authentic to me. They looked like me, and they looked like my friends. They were beautiful but also ordinary, which was particularly appealing at the time. They were one of us, so to speak, and we were one of them."
USA Today •

Why Some Latines are Returning to Their Motherland

'The US is very individualistic, and I wanted community': What is rematriating? In 2013, when Joselyn Gerarda Whitaker Rae was 22 years old, she took a trip from New York to Huánuco, Peru, the city where she was born but hadn’t been to since she was adopted by a white American family as a 1-year-old. Whitaker Rae, whose adoptive parents had recently died, was in search of family and home, but she only had the village where she was born and the name of her birth mother. After four hours of sear
Refinery29 •

How Slow Living Helps Me Ditch a Culture of Self-Sacrifice

Leaving New York — where the culture is hustle, hustle, work, work — and moving to LA, which obviously still comes with a lot of expenses, in 2015 gave me opportunities to look at things differently. The days were just slower. I enjoyed that. It allowed me to notice things about myself that I had previously missed because I was always on the go. This made me want to intentionally live slower. Now, I walk for leisure. My grandmother told me she used to do this in Panama, but I don’t see my family
Refinery29 •

Loving and Losing My Soulmate Taught Me the Power of Sisterhood

F: There have been so many times, but the most recent time was when I got married last year. Janel was my maid of honor. I knew I wanted her to be my maid of honor, but I didn’t know if she'd say yes or no. She isn’t much of a planner; that’s usually my role. One day, we were running the New York Marathon — it was the same group from college; we’re all still close — and we had lost each other. With my legs burning, I found Janel through a tracker and ran as fast as I could to get to her. She was
Refinery29 •

What Will The Roe v. Wade Decision Mean For Puerto Rico?

“They copy-paste the projects and laws from the States,” Mayra I Díaz Torres, a member of the abortion rights collective Aborto Libre and former program director of Clínica IELLA, a Profamilias clinic that provides abortion care, tells Somos. “But we as a colony need to be clear that the laws that have worked in the U.S., or the laws that take place there, never have been for us. The States never have taken our wellbeing as a priority, so we need to see this as a colonial impact to our wellbeing
Refinery29 •

The “Great Replacement” Theory Is the American Way

In Gendron’s alleged manifesto, the man, whose attack is being investigated as a hate crime, shares details about the planned massacre, like choosing Buffalo as the scene for his attack because it was the city closest to him with the highest number of Black people. Racist mass shootings targeting Black, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous populations in this country aren’t new — and neither is the premise, or motive, of the “great replacement” theory. In fact, it’s the American way. After the invasio
Refinery29 •

No, The Curvy Latina Ideal Isn't Healthier than Other Beauty Standards

I look over at my full-length mirror, the one plastered with Barbie and Spice Girls stickers, and examine my body to see if I meet the requirements. My round belly pops out of my tank top more than my chest, but my backside doesn’t look too different from the Black and brown women in the video. Sure, it’s not as rotund, but, I mean, I’m still a kid. Even then, I knew I was never going to be like Victoria Beckham, my favorite Spice Girl — and I didn’t want to be — but I could be like the curvy wo
Refinery29 •

Eating Disorders Don't Discriminate — But Treatment Does

After being rushed to the hospital, her heart rate was so low that Herrera, grappling with anorexia nervosa , was immediately admitted to an ED treatment center. She describes her six-plus months in inpatient and outpatient care as carceral. “We were punished for eating, and we were punished for not eating. We were threatened to be taken to psychiatric hospitals,” she says. While her time in the residential center helped her recover from anorexia, she says it didn’t heal her relationship with fo
Refinery29 •

Why Gabby Rivera Centers Queer Latinx Joy in Her Storytelling

Once a year, the U.S. acknowledges the egregious pay gap in which Latinas earn just 55 cents for every dollar a non-Latinx white man makes. It’s time we interrogate this fact year-round. The L-Suite examines the diverse ways in which Latinx professionals have built their careers, how they’ve navigated notoriously disruptive roadblocks, and how they’re attempting to dismantle these obstacles for the rest of their communities. This month, we're talking with author Gabby Rivera about overcoming sel
Entrepreneur •

Eva Longoria on Building a Power Pipeline For Latinas: "I Hate When People Say the Talent Is Not Out There"

Once Eva Longoria became famous for starring in the TV show Desperate Housewives, she also became overwhelmed with pleas for her charitable support. "I was getting, like, 1,000 requests a week for, you know, dolphins in Japan and AIDS in Africa and sex trafficking in Thailand," she says. "All of that is important to fix, right? But I learned quickly, I couldn't do everything. And I wanted to stand for something." A mentor pushed her to define where she wanted to make the most impact, and she rea
POPSUGAR Latina •

My Sexy Wardrobe Is a Personal and Political Reclamation of My Body

Over the summer, I posted a photo of myself in a low-cut black crop top — my double-D breasts jumping out of my bra and into your Instagram feed — with the caption: "Is this, like, too much teta for an official headshot?" I was half-serious, half-joking. Of course, I'll use the sultry glamour shot for work-related matters. If you follow my journalism on body politics, you know that my aesthetic is intentional and political. The lighthearted caption was simply my way of celebrating the strides I'
HISTORY •

Why Isn't Puerto Rico a State?

As a U.S. territory, Puerto Rico is neither a state nor an independent country—and politics over its status remain complicated. Located about a thousand miles southeast of Florida, Puerto Rico is a Caribbean archipelago with a complex colonial history and political status. As a territory of the United States, Puerto Rico’s 3.2 million residents are U.S. citizens. However, while subject to U.S. federal laws, island-based Puerto Ricans can’t vote in presidential elections and lack voting represen
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