Today we’d like to introduce you to Gisela Garcia and Jessica Sanchez.
Gisela and Jessica, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Chicle was born on June of 2018 at Gisela’s apartment while we were discussing a zine project that Jessica had done for intersectional feminism for a design project. We reflected on the many conversations we have had about things that were troubling us as women and Latinas in our community.
We came up with the idea of putting these discussions & conversations into zines as a way to voice out these concerns & topics to help spread our message to as many as possible. As well as being able to express ourselves visually and fulfill that creative tick we always wanted to express.
We came upon the name Chicle because in Spanish it means gum. And in the Mexican culture being called a “chicloso” would be meant to offend someone by saying that they were always be sticking around in business they don’t need to be involved in. But we wanted to embrace this and use it to what we saw were topics that we wanted to discuss and a way we wanted to represent that we were her to stick up for others.
The idea of embracing the color pink was our way to honor the idea of what women are seen to be as these fragile and innocent creatures. And our way to fight that norm for speaking up about topics that may not be seen as ladylike nor depicted in “lady-like” visuals. With this, we gave ourselves our own platform & our own positions to become our own creative directors & make our voice be heard.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Chicle has definitely been a learning experience for us this past year, from learning how to reach out in our community effectively, to learning how to keep up with social media, learning how to give ourselves deadlines & meet them, & being able to coordinate our time with conflicting school & work schedules as well as our personal lives.
All with ending with the ability on how to meet the standards that we have set for ourselves to be able to continue to grow and express ourselves as much as possible. It’s been a fun adventure so far & it has only taught us that anything is possible when you’re passionate about it. We’re continuously working on improving our procedure and ourselves and cannot wait to see this grow.
We have met so many great people along the way and have made awesome connections with artists who are just like us trying to make a difference in building a future we would want to be a part of. A very valuable lesson that we have learned along the way is that YOU have the power to speak things into existence. Believe it, say it, and make it happen. Trust us this has worked for us so far.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Chicle – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Chicle is a zine-turned-brand that started off with the creation of zines. We make zines that talk about different subjects such as mental stability, self-care, going against the “perfect” body type quota, life experiences as Latinas, and overall the living life of what being a woman entails all while trying to spread the message of self-love — and trying to live by our own words.
These topics we speak on we hope may relate to other people out there that may not exactly express nor feel the ability to do so. We are now expanding into creating other items for people to enjoy, such as pins, shirts, stickers, & totes (with more to follow) but all go off the topics of our zines. Without our zine baby’s we wouldn’t be able to continue to bring more content and products to ya’ll.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
The plans we have in store for the future is to continue to spread our self-9love and help others to find they’re voice to continue or start to express themselves. The tones in our zines have always been targeted for more of an adult audience, but the next ones in the works are for those in the pre-teen years we know those years can be tough.
We hope to create these zines for the younger generation of color who may feel not enough representation from their generation or may feel that what they’re going through is not normal. We’re also, planning on doing a lot more pop-up’s and have an awesome Valentine’s Day event that we’re collaborating with CocoAndre on February 9th.
From 1 pm-5 pm in the CocoAndre shop located in Oak Cliff. (Address: 508 W. 7th St. Dallas, TX) Feel free to stop by for any Valentine’s gift of appreciation for any loved ones in your life.
Contact Info:
- Email: chiclezine@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chicle.zine/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chicle.zine/
Image Credit:
Maria Yolisma Garcia, EternosTX
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