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Hi {{first_name | friend}},

I just got back from a week off. I was in Mexico City, half-off, because I was shooting a story. I was on some invisible self-imposed challenge of eating two pastries a day. That was fun. After that, I went to Durango, Mexico, where I was fully off, celebrating my parents’ birthday! Being disconnected for a bit (I was in a remote part of the state) reminded me: It’s not that serious. It being whatever you want it to be.

Having said that, it’s nice to be back in this newsletter, which has become a favorite place of mine. Let’s get into it.

Like my mini-docs, my newsletter explores the hyphen between various topics through the lens of Latino culture. In this newsletter, I’m exploring the hyphen between:

- Fernando

That’s “nones,” not “nuns.” Nones as in people who claim they have “no religious affiliation” when asked on national surveys.

A new Axios analysis of data found that young Latinos, ages 18 to 29, are abandoning organized religion at a faster rate than any other demographic in the Untied States. The data comes from nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute’s latest release.

And it adds to a prevalent narrative that Latinos are leaving the Catholic Church specifically. In 2022, 43% of Hispanic adults identified as Catholic, down from 67% in 2010, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

And you may be thinking: Well, maybe they’re leaving Catholicism for another religion.

The same survey found 30% identified as “religiously unaffiliated,” up from 10% in 2010. That number of “nones” may be telling us something different, according to Gaston Espinosa, a professor of religious studies, at Claremont McKenna College in California.

He’s done multiples surveys about religion on thousands of Latinos, and he’s noticed a patternwith some people who say they are “religiously unaffiliated.”

“A lot of individuals who may say ‘I'm not Catholic anymore’ in terms of actually going to Catholic Church still might hold on to Catholic beliefs and practices,” Espinosa explains.

“Those who said they had no religion were asked a follow up question. ‘When you say you're not religious, what do you actually mean?’”

In conversations with survey respondents, he found people had different definitions for what “religiously unaffiliated” meant. For some, for example, that phrase meant they don’t go to church, but they still prayed regularly at home.

“You may not go to church at all. But it doesn't mean you're not religious,” Espinosa said. “It just means you're not actively going to church. These individuals get read by sociologists and other scholars as not being religious, because in a lot of communities, if you don't go to church or a mosque or a synagogue, you're not religious.”

I made a video about the phenemenon of Latinos leaving organized religion for a partnership I’m doing with indie film production company ITVS and PBS through the Independent Lens Creator Lab. You can watch it here.

A new beauty brand just dropped on Sephora.com, and it’s making history as the first completely plastic-free beauty brand.

AORA is a Mexican beauty company challenging long-held conventions by rethinking packaging.

The brand, founded by former beauty executive Nour Tayara and Mexican entrepreneur Rodrigo Peñafiel, wants to prove that sustainability is the future of prestige beauty.

Through its “Buy 1, Remove 9x” initiative with rePurpose Global, every plastic-free AORA product sold funds the removal of 9 times the equivalent plastic waste from nature. The initiative is rooted in a sobering reality: for every plastic product recycled globally, nine are not.

You may have already seen AORA out in the wild. It was the official makeup partner of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show.

And if you’re a Bad Bunny fan, you’ll appreciate this: Unlike most makeup brands we see in the United States, AORA features Spanish product names, bilingual packaging and Spanglish storytelling on Sephora.com.

Check it out at Sephora here.

Olivia Rodrigo is helping domestic workers. The singer is planning a new women-led music festival later this month. All of the festival’s net proceeds will support organizations advancing women and girls, and one of those is the National Domestic Workers Alliance. The organization helps nannies, home care workers and house cleaners. Hispanic workers make up 62.7% of the entire house cleaner workforce, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis. [Daisy Chain Fields]

The end of birthright citizenship in Puerto Rico? That’s the moonshot wish in the bill put forth by Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., which seeks to end birthright citizenship for some kids born in U.S. territories. The bill proposes reserving citizenship on U.S. territories to babies born to U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. [Newsweek]

The Latino dementia problem. Hispanic patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) may be seeing delayed diagnoses. That’s one of the findings in a new study on the disease, which challenges the “longstanding assumption” that Hispanic people don’t get FTD. [Texas Public Radio]

People are suing the “Miracle Lawyer.” Alexandra Lozano, who marketed herself as the “miracle” immigration lawyer and used La Virgen de Guadalupe in her marketing, is being accused of charging clients thousands of dollars for immigration services. As the investigation unfolds, Lozano has voluntarily surrendered her law license. [ABC30]

Little Caesar’s changes its name in Mexico. Temporarily, it appears. The American pizza chain is going by “Liru Sisa” and is printing boxes with that name. Why? Because that’s how many Mexicans pronounce it. Side note: Caesar is a difficult spelling to remember. [Watch my video]

Did you family participate in “tandas,” or lending circles, growing up? They’re basically a method some people use to save money.

You get with a group of 10 friends and agree to each give, say, $100 a month to a fund for a year. At the end of every month, one person gets to keep the $1,000 gathered.

Some people criticize them as a roundabout way of saving that doesn’t grow your money the way a high-yield savings account does. But there are nonprofits using them as a way to help low-income individuals build credit and way for people to avoid using payday lenders with exorbitant interest rates.

Watch more here.

Literally. I’ve been sending out this newsletter twice a month.

And now… I’m launching a weekly version!

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This section is a random musing from the week that is not related to my work as a journalist, usually. 

This week’s musing:

We got a kitten! Meet Wally. He’s, of course, adorable and thinks you need to jump every step you take. Wiggy, his older brother, will be over the moon soon. He’s a little tepid right.