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Hi {{first_name | friend}},

I learned this week that the artist who’s performed the most times at a Super Bowl is:

Gloria Estefan.

She was not only the first Hispanic performer to be on the Super Bowl stage, but she appeared in the 1992, 1995 and the 1999 shows. Which reminds me: There was a whole other world that existed in the 90s that I am only now starting to be conscious of (I was born in 1994).

Ok, let’s dive in. Like In The Hyphen’s YouTube channel, every newsletter explores the hyphen between two things, two issues or two entities. In this newsletter, I’m exploring the hyphen between:

- Fernando

Clarissa Flores remembers when she first read about The Sports Bra, the country’s first women’s sports bar that opened in Portland, Oregon, in 2022.

“The moment that happened, I knew immediately that was my calling. That's what I wanted to do,” Flores said. “Doing it for women's sports was definitely my dream and my passion for obvious reasons.”

Those obvious reasons are two, to be exact. Reason one: Flores is a retired elite athlete. The Filpina Puerto Rican American played basketball for Northwestern University before she played for the Puerto Rican national team.

Reason two: Flores has also spent her career working for some of the most recognized hospitality groups. She currently serves as the director of operations for Tao Chicago, a high-end restaurant and nightclub spanning more than 34,000 square feet. 

She’s done sports, and she’s done hospitality. Now she’ll combine both when she opens Level Sporting Club, a women’s sports bar in perhaps Chicago’s most sports bar-saturated neighborhood, Wrigleyville, blocks away from the Chicago Cubs’ home.

“Doing [hospitality] for the general market and on a very successful level 1,000 percent has prepared me to do what I'm doing here for women's sports,” Flores said.

Whereas sports bars have long diplayed men’s sports on the TV screens by default, women’s sports will take centerstage at Level Sporting Club.

The number of women’s sports bars has skyrocketed in the last few months. There were just six in the U.S. at the beginning of 2025. That number was expected to quadruple by the end of 2025, according to NBC News. Level Sporting Club will join two other women’s sports bar in Chicago, Babe’s and Whiskey Girl Tavern.

The bars mirror the growing interest — and money — in women’s sports. Between 2022 and 2024, revenue from women’s sports grew 4.5 times faster than that of men’s sports, according to a report from McKinsey & Company. The report found the industry could generate at least $2.5 billion in value for rights holders by 2030, a 250% increase from what they generated in 2024.

This interest is one Flores knows has been brewing since she was a teen playing for Chicago’s Whitney M. Young Magnet High School in the early 2000s.

“The interest has been there, but the infrastructure has not,” Flores said. “My senior year, [the] city championship game, Whitney Young versus Marshall, I played in front of 7,000 people. So yeah, the interest has been there.”

To launch, Flores has lined up a team of investors that includes Ashleen Bracy, the head coach for UIC women’s basketball team and Jennifer King, the first Black woman to be a full-time assistant coach in the NFL.

“These are strategic partners that bring credibility, networks, and lived-in experience — lived-in women's sports experience — that really align perfectly with what Level’s about,” Flores said.

And the name, Level Sporting Club — what’s behind it? “I'm here to level the playing field, finally,” Flores said. “Hopefully this can inspire other cities and other business owners to keep opening more.”

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Vamigas. Skinergy Beauty. Treslúce by Becky G. Birdy Lashes.

Those are just some of the Latina-owned beauty companies that have closed recently. In fact, in the last five years, at least 46 Latino-owned beauty companies have closed their doors, according to Latinas in Beauty, a nonprofit that monitors Latino entrepreneurship in the beauty industry. Why are so many closing? And is it a Latino problem? I looked into that for my latest mini-doc.

I post a mini-doc every two weeks on my YouTube channel. Subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss the next one.

When life gives you Tajín and chamoy… make art? I spoke to Jassiel Serna, a Chicago artist, who’s been using the two spicy condiments to make sculptures. Through his work, he explores his Mexican American identity and the question: How do we make something Mexican? Watch my interview with him here.

The Mexican American writer behind “Kpop Demon Hunters.” Dayna Jimenez said a screenplay she co-wrote with her best friend about a Mexican American teen helped her get a job as a writer on the blockbuster animated film that is, as of now, Netflix’s most watched movie ever. [De Los]

TelevisaUnivision goes all-in on vertical dramas. They’re the one-minute vertical episode genre that originated in China and is now taking over the U.S. Well, ViX, TelevisaUnivision’s streaming platform, officially launched ViX MicrO, its platform for micro-series. It’s actually been around for a year, but the company “officially launched” it this year, whatever that means. [Señal News]

Ariana Bobby, what are you doing here? Bobby Pulido, the Tejano singer, won his Democratic primary for Texas’ 15th Congressional District this week. The Latin Grammy Award-winning artist hopes his socially conservative side will help Democrats win back Latino voters lost to President Donald Trump in 2024 at the midterms later this year. [The New York Times]

More Latinos in winter sports? Approximately 90% of people who participated in downhill winter sports last season were white, according to the National Ski Areas Association. A program in New Hampshire is hoping to get more Black and Latino people in that statistic. SoulSlide is a collaboration between Latino Outdoors and Outdoor Afro, and it makes learning winter sports welcoming — and affordable — by working with volunteers and sponsors. [NHPR]

You’re reading this email because you signed up for the In The Hyphen newsletter or because someone forwarded it to you. If it’s the latter, sign up here:

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

This week’s rant: I asked my students (college-aged) this week if Taco Bell is Mexican food. Most of them said no, and I can’t tell if it’s because they were trying to not offend me.

I told them that while Taco Bell’s own press releases describe the chain as “Mexican-inspired,” I actually do think Taco Bell is Mexican food. Now, is it good Mexican food? That’s a different question.