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Jennifer Serrano and Veronica Vasques are former enemies, turned lovers and business owners of a design company called JZD. But being Latina and queer can come with both opportunities and obstacles – including from one of the biggest corporations of all: Target.

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Host and producer: May Ortega Mixed by: Emily Williams Editors: Erin Jones, Andrew Villegas Project Manager: Rebekah Romberg Additional editorial support: Jo Erickson, Kibwe Cooper, Luis Antonio Perez Theme music by Pedro Lumbrano; additional music courtesy Universal Production Music Cover art: Mia Rincón Executive producers: Brad Turner, Kevin Dale

Thanks also to Hart van Denburg, Jodi Gersh, Clara Shelton, Matt Herz, Kim Nguyen, Brittany Werges and CPR's members and staff.

<a href="http://quienarewe.org/">QuienAreWe.org</a>

Veronica Vasques (Vero): We met at our university’s book store because we were both working there.&nbsp;

Jennifer Serrano (Jen): I think it was like my first week and it was my 18th birthday. We used to work at Book Bee, that's what the bookstore was called. And she comes up to me super excited and she's like, oh my gosh, you're turning 18. You can smoke cigarettes now.

Vero: You can buy cigarettes now.

Jen: I was, I literally looked at her and I was like, Ew, I don't smoke.

Jen: And I did not like her. I was like, this girl is a bad influence.

Vero: Yeah she was like, “this girl is bad news.”

May Ortega: What would you say if I told you that these two are running their own business together – a business that’s seen love from major celebrities, and has made national headlines. Oh, and they’re married. From Colorado Public Radio, This is “Quién Are We?” exploring what it means to be Latina, Mestizo, Boriqua, or however you identify, and diving into the beautiful things that make us who we are. I'm May Ortega.

The stories of Jennifer Serrano and Veronica Vasques are inextricably intertwined. They’ve shared the emotional journey of coming out, starting a company, and navigating a national controversy side-by-side.

These two obviously got off to a rocky start when they were working together at a local bookstore in south Texas. But through forced teamwork, things smoothed out a bit. They would often spend long hours together, taking inventory in the stock room, with nobody else around. Here’s Vero.

Vero: We got to spend a lot of time in there. And that's when I slowly but surely started asking her questions about herself.&nbsp;

Vero: Yes. I was like, so do you have a boyfriend? Mind you, at this time when we met each other, we weren't out.&nbsp;

Jen: I came out when I was 18, so shortly after, actually,

Vero: I, I like to think that it was because of me.

Jen: I came out when I was 18. I did so very unapologetically. I was just kind of like, this is who I am. And I have a girlfriend now.

May: How were you feeling when you decided, “I gotta come out, I gotta do this now?”

Jen: I think I have to preface by saying I'm an only child [laughter]. And I have always been very independent, very loud and bold. I was like, this is who I am. Take it or leave it.

May: And you came here from Mexico with your parents, right?&nbsp;

Jen: Yes, I was born in Mexico, so are my parents. Um, we moved here when I was young. My parents at first did not take it so well because of fear, which is understandable. Yes. I, I'm always hesitant to tell the story because my parents are so supportive now.&nbsp;

Jen: They were afraid of my life being harder because of what I was telling them. And needless to say, they came around. Obviously. They’re super supportive now. When I came out, Vero was still not out. Like, she was not out for what, like three years?

Vero: Not that I had an issue with her coming out, now I know that I've had time to think about things. I was jealous because she came out and she was in another relationship.&nbsp;

Jen: So I think we knew, we kind of had this like, weird feeling between us all the time.

Vero: I like to describe it as we were always really awkward with each other. Yeah. Like, we weren't like those, we weren't like those normal best friends that like, hug. And we were never, like, it was, I was always very conscious of the fact of like, she's getting really close to me. I can't, I don't wanna touch her. You know? And I always felt like we were, I, that's how I felt. I was super awkward. I was super awkward.

Jen: Have you, you've seen “Twilight” the movie? The first one? Okay. You know how when Bella touches Edward for the first time and he's really cold, and it's like, that's what it was like, like we just could not touch because it was like, it was …

Vero: … Like, oh no, I like, I'm gonna get caught. Like, I don't know.

Jen: It was like that for a long time.&nbsp;

Vero: A really long time. My story is … it's not like Jen's. There was a lot of like, self-discovery that I hadn't done. I was just, going through the motions of life of what I was supposed to do as the eldest of a, you know, as …

Vero: Yeah, exactly what was expected of me. You know, first one, going to college, first one I graduated high school. So I was just checking off boxes, you know, like I got myself a job. I had a boyfriend that was, you know, I wasn't, I guess I was making my Mexican parents happy. I was having a lot of mental health issues around the time that I was really coming to terms with being gay and, uh, and realizing that I loved her. That it wasn't just, she wasn't just my friend. So I, I just didn't feel worthy of being with her, of her having to deal with me. I had not came out to my family. It was all in the hush hush. Like, I was not out.

From a very young age, I was told, if you're gay, you're not gonna have anything in your life. You know, like, these are the first memories that I have as a child, you know, like being a kid and seeing, even if seeing a woman wear a cap, it was, that's a marimacha. Don't even think about it. Because if you're gonna be that, forget about having your family. Forget about having a good job. Forget about everything. And I knew my family was not gonna be supportive. I knew that I was gonna be homeless. I came out to my little brother, my little brother's my my best friend.

May: And what’s the age difference there?

Vero: We're eight years apart. Hh was 14. We used to go and buy groceries together on Sundays. And I was like, well, this is it. Like I have to, it was just him and I, it was always just him and I. And I was like, this is when I have to tell him. I’m building up the courage and I’m like, “so I think I like girls.” He had already met Jen. He's like, “do you like the pretty girl that comes over to her house all the time?” And I'm like, “actually, funny that you bring that up. She's my girlfriend.” And he is like, “okay, cool. Can you buy me some nachos?” That was that.

May: Very teenage boy reaction [laughter].

Vero: Yes! And he got his nachos and he was like, she's really pretty, like, good job. Once I told him, I felt brave enough to tell my mom, uh, and my mom, you know, she took it the worst. I actually took it to her restaurant where I was like, we need to do it in public where it's safe. She didn't care. She did not care. She threw a fit and said restaurant. Uh, she told me the worst things imaginable, things that parents should never tell their children. I literally told my mom, like, I do not want to be alive anymore, if my life is still gonna, is gonna forever be a lie. She didn't care. She would rather me die than to be gay. She told me that if I told my dad he was gonna kill me.

Vero: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So I was like, I can't tell my dad. I, I, I never, I never technically came out to my dad because it was, if I feel brave enough to tell him what's gonna happen? And then we got home and she kicked me out.

So things were bad at home, but Vero knew that she had someone to turn to, to make her feel better and give her the acceptance she wasn’t getting from her parents. Vero and Jen had been in love for years … whether they knew it or not.

Jen: I knew things were not gonna be okay. And so while she was meeting with her mom in public to avoid a spectacle, I was picking up the keys to our new apartment. To our new apartment. So when she called and she was like, “it didn't go well, can you come pick me up? Because I got kicked out.” We had a place to drive to. We didn't have a bed. We didn't have … we were piss- broke. We didn't have anything. We had bread. Ham.

Vero: My little hunting knife.&nbsp;

Jen: A little hunting knife that we would use to cut everything because that's what she put in her backpack. That was important for her backpack.

Vero: I mean, how did they not know I was gay? That's on them. [Laughter] That's on them. Asked her out on the 31st of July, month later we move in, month later, we're married.&nbsp;

May: That was in 2014. Gay marriage wasn’t yet legal across the country, so they had a small ceremony in New Mexico. That same year, Jen graduated college. It was time to get a big girl job.

Jen: I went and I worked for the state of Texas for a year. And then I realized I did not wanna work there forever. I did not like the routine. I did not like having a boss. And then I went and I worked for a foster care agency. I did that for no lie, probably three weeks. And then I quit. And then I went home and I was like, I wanna have my own business. I started a, I was like a blogger for a hot minute. And then started a cupcake business for a while. I started the Etsy shop and I actually started because I was hand drawing on coffee mugs. Then I would just go and buy two coffee mugs, draw something on them, list them. When they would sell. I would go and buy two more coffee mugs to draw on them.

May: These mugs were adorned with her own designs and phrases. But, Jen quickly realized that if she really wanted to start her own business, she’d have to make things faster.

Jen: And then eventually everything that I read online said, if you're trying to build a scalable business, it has to be something that you can produce in larger numbers. There was only so many coffee mugs I could draw in a day.

May: So, she quickly moved on to putting graphic designs on tee shirts. She still remembers her very first one.&nbsp;

Jen: Our shirt was actually one that said, my heart goes bitty bitty bum bum.&nbsp;

May: Oh yes I remember, I’ve seen that one.

Jen: That was my first one. And then Etsy used to offer wholesale so other boutiques could buy from you to sell in their shops. And then we got our first wholesale order and I was like, oh my gosh, other people wanna sell this item. And we only had that one item. And I was like, okay, like something's happening. Like maybe I'm onto something. And then we created the Latina power shirt.

May: To this day, this is their most popular design: a single-colored top, often in pink, that has those two words screen printed on the front in red: Latina Power. When this shirt was born, the company blew up. That’s after the break.

Jen Serrano’s clothing company was getting orders, on orders, on orders. And her wife Vero Vasques was along for the ride, cheering her on every step of the way. But Jen was a one-woman show, and something had to give.

Jen: I was drowning in work. By this point we had kind of already grown enough to where we had email marketing, we had social media, we had photo shoots, we had the website. We had Etsy, we had wholesale.&nbsp;

May: Wow, there was just a lot going on.&nbsp;

Jen: There was a lot going on. So we had kind of gotten stuck where I was just running it, but it wasn't growing any further. And I told her, I was like, it's now or never. And if we have to go back to Sandwich and maruchan, then we will.

Vero: Yeah. We were literally just keeping enough money to pay rent. Yeah. That's all we were doing because we were running everything from our apartment. Yeah. And um, when she came to me and told me like, this is what I need support-wise from you, I think that that was really the moment for me where I was like, okay, either you truly believe in her and in her vision and you're gonna be a good spouse and support her, or you don't really believe her and you gotta stay working. And that for me was like, okay, no, I believe in her. She's never steered me wrong. And if she believes in this, then I believe in her. And I was like, all right, I'm out. No more full-time job. I work at JZD. now, and she actually got me a little key chain that said fun-employed, uh, because we both didn't have jobs now.

May: JZD. That’s the company’s name. It stands for Jen Zeano Designs. Zeano is a combination of Vasquez and Serrano.&nbsp;

Jen: Our biggest goal is to empower our community to be authentically ourselves. I went through the faces of being very proud of my cultura and faces where I, I did not want it at all. I didn't claim it. And I was trying to fit in and I was trying to, just not get bullied and not have opportunities taken from me. And I don't want that for other people. I think that there is so much beauty in our culture and there's so much power in our community. And I think that it's really easy for us to forget that when we're living in the United States and we kind of have to blend in to achieve our goals.&nbsp;

May: Things were going really well for the pair. They hired some workers. Even Jen’s parents were helping them fill orders. Then one day, in 2021, they got an email that seemed too good to be true.

Jen: I took a screenshot of it and they sent it to our team. Um, her, their names were Monica and Alice. And so I sent the screenshot to Monica and Alice and I was like, is this a scam? And Monica was like, don't get excited. I don't know if this is real. Like, let me do some research. And it was like a legitimate email address. But Monica was like, I'm gonna schedule a call. Don't, you know, don't get too excited. Don't get too excited. We know what might come from this. Let's just explore. And so we jumped on a call and we chatted with them. We had to pitch our brand. And then a year later we launched at Target.

You know, red bullseye, Target? The company was collaborating with a handful of small, Latino-owned businesses to include in their Hispanic Heritage Month collection. And JZD made the cut. This was a huge deal. It would propel their brand to people all over the country. This could help them take things to a whole new level. And for it to happen to Jen, an immigrant, and Vero, the daughter of two more immigrants?&nbsp;

Vero: We had a lot of dreams when we started the business. We dreamt up of everything we dreamt up of, you know, we're gonna have a warehouse and we're gonna have this, you know, newlyweds in their apartment with nothing around them. Just hopes and dreams and love. That's all you have. It felt like a huge accomplishment. And it felt like, uh, a confirmation that we were doing the right things. And I think for me personally, it was a, it was a really big hug to little, me – letting her know, look at what you were …

Vero: It's gonna be okay. And look at what you were able to accomplish aside from everything that was going on in your life. And it meant the world to us. It was, it was, we were on a really big high.

Jen: Yeah. And then the Corazón Latino became the, like the, the most worn item. So it was the popular one. Yeah. It was really amazing to see. With the Hispanic Heritage Collection that we did, like we were able to reach this massive audience and we were able to have little shy 10 year olds wear Corazón Latino and be proud of their culture and their traditions and say, it's okay for me to do this and that, or to have an accent or to not speak Spanish.

May: I actually own that Corazón Latino tee. It’s red with that simple, powerful phrase in big, bold lettering, front and center. Big fan. Wear it all the time. Not only was their company a celebration of being Latina, though, but more and more, it also allowed them to celebrate another, key piece of their identity.

Jen: We were simultaneously working on Hispanic Heritage Month and Pride. This collection was very important for us because it was marrying two of our identities. And it was really supposed to show the community that it's beautiful for us to be multidimensional and for us to have more than one identity to focus on. And, and it was, it was supposed to empower our community, this pride month saying it's okay to be Latina and gay or Latino and gay, or to identify with different things, identities. I mean, we can't lie. There's a lot of toxicity in our culture towards the L G B T community. Like that's just a fact. And I think we were hoping to create some light within that.

May: There were several small brands whose clothes were featured in Target’s 2023 Pride collection. They included bathing suits that were tuck-friendly, and some pride shirts for kids. But then, there was some backlash in various conservative states. You might remember that in the news. People going into stores, filming themselves taking down displays and harassing Target workers. And Target’s response …

Jen: One of our pieces was pulled from everywhere, and two of our pieces were removed from stores and put online only. Either our pieces were removed or they were shoved to the back of the stores, which was like, like, if they were putting everybody back in the closet essentially, because they were putting you back where you couldn't be seen. So the one that was pulled entirely was our pronoun people. That's what we called it. And it had, um, he, she, they pronouns written out on the t-shirt. It was the blue T-shirt and it had different able-bodied people on it.&nbsp;

May: I think I saw that one. It was really cute.&nbsp;

Jen: It was really cute. So that piece got pulled entirely. And then all of our children's items, so the onesie, kids, toddlers, those were put to online only.&nbsp;

Vero: We were trying to create a safe space for our people. The messaging behind it, what Jen and I were trying to put out there and to convey to our community was, you are beautiful. You are you, and we accept you. And look at what these two queer immigrants were able to create with their love.

Jen: Emotionally, we weren't able to tell our community, we did it so you can too. And we weren't able to tell that shy 10-year-old that is trying to come to terms with coming out that you can be bold and proud in southern states, in the front of the store. What we said was, you can hide in the back. And that is terrible. It was a lot more than emotional feedback. It was, how is the business impacted from these decisions? Because we are now, unfortunately, by corporations seen as that queer brand from Target. And you cannot be seen any other way.

May: This is a sensitive issue for Jen and Vero to talk about. It was an incredibly stressful time for them and they’re still dealing with the fallout, both personally and professionally. But while they were still reeling from all of this, they received yet another unexpected email. And this one was even harder to believe than the first. Have you heard of a woman named Kamala Harris? Well, she was having a little pride party at her place.

Jen: We went to Madam Vice President's House and we partied with her.

Vero: Yes, we did. Yes we did. That’s the short story of that. That was a ton of fun.

Jen: And Vero spoke to her and I was behind her and …

Vero: … Spoke to her and the second gentleman.

Jen: Yes. It was surreal to be in that space. Um, imposter syndrome hit for a little bit.

Jen: And then we got on this like high. Everybody was like, no, like, you're supposed to be here. Like, what are you, what are you talking about? Like, you're here for a reason. And we were like, yeah, we're here for a reason.

May: Then VP Harris gave a speech, and it was just what these ladies needed to hear.

Jen: They were saying, we have your back. Mm-hmm. Um, which was beautiful. It was incredible to see, um, and to be told like, hey, not everybody might have your back, but we do. We have your back here and you're safe and we send with you and we agree with you.&nbsp;

Vero: It made me feel a lot better about things. Like, it was very realistic, you know, it was like, yes, times are pretty crappy [laughter] at the moment, but we gotta stand strong. And, and yeah. No, it was, it was a beautiful time. It was great. It was just what we needed. After the month we had.

May: It was a turbulent month for JZD. But they did end it on a high note. And it gave them the chance to reflect on the path they’ve walked thus far, knowing it hasn’t been an easy one.&nbsp;

Jen: It really showed us just how much we still have left to do. There is so much to say. There is so many people to reach. There is so much growth still pending. And I think we can do both. We can appreciate how far we've come and we can celebrate all of the achievements we've had. And we can also sit here and say there is still so much space for more. And we're very proud of how far we've come and we are very proud of how many of our goals and dreams have come true.

May: Today, if you google “Latina Power shirt,” all of the top results will lead you to JZD. Celebrities like Jessica Alba and Stephanie Beatriz have shared pics wearing their JZD Latina Power shirts. Eva Longoria bragged about their clothes and called their company a “badass brand” when she talked to CNN about her favorite Latinx-owned shops. JZD has expanded their collection far beyond the Latina Power shirt. They sell jumpsuits, matching sets, hats, notebooks, you name it. And they don all sorts of spanglish and spanish phrases, like “poderosa” and “in my señora era.” How’s that for an enemies to lovers story?

Jennifer Serrano and Veronica Vasques are married co-founders and co-owners of JZD, a queer, Latina-powered clothing company based in south Texas. They say they have a very exciting collaboration slated for 2025, but they’re keeping it under wraps for now. Thank you to Jen and Vero, for taking us through your wins, your losses, your gains and your truths.

I’m May Ortega. This episode was produced by me. With mixing by Emily Williams. Pedro Lumbrano wrote our theme music. This episode was edited by Erin Jones and Andrew Villegas.&nbsp;

You can find a list of everybody who helped make this episode in the show notes. “Quién Are We” is a production of Colorado Public Radio.

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¿Quién Are We? is a podcast from Colorado Public Radio exploring what it means to be Latino, Hispanic or Chicana ... or however you identify. Host and journalist May Ortega shares stories about our wide-ranging identities and the beautiful things that make us who we are.

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