Yes…It’s still me. Caryn…You may not have known that I’m Latina.  I’m one of those girls who grew up assimilated from a very early age.  I regret not soaking in as much as I could during my 3 years of high school Spanish and wish I would have grown up bilingual.   But beyond language, I long to re connect with my cultural heritage because through and through, I’m still Puerto Rican.  I know very little about Puerto Rican cooking, customs, tradition, or culture.  What little I do know was learned through questioning my parents, books, and a trip to the island a few years back.

I’m going to be quite vulnerable here and say that for much of my childhood, I tried to be like “everybody else.”  It wasn’t until I became an adult that I truly begin to explore that part of me I stuffed for so long.  But it hasn’t been easy.  People look at me and question my ethnicity on a regular basis because they can’t quite figure out what I look like.  I open my mouth to speak without a hint of a Spanish accent, and people don’t readily identify me as a Latina.  Even in the world of blogging, my identity is undefined.   I’m a Latina who blogs…in English…mostly about topics that transcend culture and ethnicity. But does that make me a Latina blogger?  I’m still working through the answer to that question.

Two weeks ago, I was invited to a lunch hosted by Monique from Blogs By Latinas.  This isn’t the first Latina blogger event I’ve been invited to, however, they are few and far between.  Monique envisioned “Discovering Màs” as a way for Latina bloggers to come together to “network and learn.”  Forty local Latina bloggers, united by their passion for blogging, gathered for an open dialogue about brand relationships and building your personal brand (guest speaker Jennifer Vides), and developing compelling content (guest speaker Wally Sabria).

Here are some of the key points I took away from the lunch:

How to Market and Brand Yourself as a Blogger…Jennifer Vides

• You are your brand. Think about what you do and say…who you dialogue with…
• Be consistent when communicating about your brand.
• Be different…
• Be relevant to your community and audience.
• Build esteem by being involved in your community.
• Expand your reach by sharing your content with the right people in multiple places.