‘Put the matriarchy out front’: Their mission begins with a dance party, but that’s just the gateway

A series of events starting this week that provide a safe space for women isn’t about opposing men, Alex Villalobos-McAnderson said. The goal is to prioritize women in an authentic way that centers the most vulnerable; honors elders and single mothers; and “shows up for all children as our children.”

“We’re creating the world we want to see,” said Villalobos-McAnderson, founder of Villalobos Vitality, detailing plans by her organization, Café Corazón, and Cougar Club to bring “big gata energy” to Hispanic Heritage Month in Kansas City.

The groups’ founders — Dulcinea Herrera and Jess Rogers (along with Jenna Bodensteiner of Rhythm and Rootz) — are organizing three curated events to celebrate Latina culture, community, movement, entrepreneurship, and the women who make Kansas City more vibrant.

“We’re focusing on women, the matriarch, and all women coming together,” said Villalobos-McAnderson, a holistic energy medicine practitioner, Reiki master teacher, mindful leadership coach, and community advocate. “It’s all women recognizing that we need to be a united front and support one another. Through these events, our sisterhood is just growing and evolving.”

“It’s uniting all of Kansas City,” she added. “Yes, we’re Latinas, but we are Kansas Citians first. We’re just sharing our culture and how beautiful it is with all of our sisters and community around us.”

The series of events is expected to begin this week with the “Cougars and Jaguars: Big Gata Energy” takeover of Cougar Club — a safe space for women of all ages to express joy, create connection, and build community — from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Wednesday at The Ship in Kansas City’s West Bottoms.

“I’ve always said that the dance party is just a gateway,” noted Rogers, founder of Cougar Club. “My real underlying goal is to really just create community and get women together — especially as we age — because you lose that unless you work with a ton of women in your career.”

“Female friendships have saved my life 10 times over and women are the most important in my world,” she continued. “The more we come together and amplify each other, all the other BS falls aside. There’s no competition. There’s no ego. It’s truly a village. Women just need each other. We’re taking over and we’ve got to keep the momentum.”

Wednesday’s dance party — with guests DJ La Del Tumbao and DJ Monse — is set to drop the beat with a ceremony led by Villalobos-McAnderson and Bodensteiner, opening the space with intention and spirit, Villalobos-McAnderson said.

“We want it to be not just in physical form but in spirit form, as well,” she explained. “For me, anything that I do, I’m bringing my ancestors with me.”

“It’s really important for women to honor all parts of themselves,” Villalobos-McAnderson continued. “You can be sacred and open, and all of the things, and also move your body in a way that feels good to you. So it’s just a place where you can show up authentically and be as expansive as you want to be.”

A selection of drinks from Café Corazón that are expected to be featured at Hispanic Heritage Month events; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

This weekend, “Cougars and Kittens” — a multi-generational networking experience designed to bring women at every stage of business, career, and life into the same room — is expected to arrive at Café Corazón, which will host the event from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday.

“The dance party is amazing, but you can’t really talk and connect,” Rogers said, noting the appeal of a more subdued conversation-focused event. “We like to get different generations of women together, new up and coming business women with more seasoned business women, and pull back the curtain and be open and honest about what it is to be an entrepreneur and just create a network of support.”

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The final event — Caféciton Latin Legends block party — is planned for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 17 at Café Corazón, featuring DJ activations, a Latina low rider show, a salsa class, local vendors, and a special menu from Café Corazón with coffee from women-owned farms.

“It’s similar to our banderazo during the World Cup where there were 2,000 people here,” explained Herrera, co-founder of Café Corazón. “It’s gonna be that vibe, but just amplified with more women, Día de los Muertos, with a little mix of the Latin icons theme.”

“Café Corazón has always and will always be the soul of its Indigenous and Latin roots by honoring the ancestors and honoring the people that were here before anybody else,” she added. “So we’re here to party on our land. We’re just really excited because I know the energy is going to be really beautiful.”

 

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Stepping up when something’s missing

The trio’s collaboration for the Hispanic Heritage Month events started with their connection as friends, they shared. Herrera introduced Rogers to Villalobos-McAnderson, one of her best friends, they said.

“When we were together, there was just this energy of creation,” Villalobos-McAnderson noted.

“I would say all of these women are chingonas, meaning like a badass woman,” Herrera added. “So us together is amazing. I feel I have such a strong, deep, lovely, beautiful connection with both of them, and for us to have an event together, it’s just gonna be awesome.”

While Herrera and Rogers had talked about some sort of collaboration for a while, a plan began to form after Villalobos-McAnderson attended a few Cougar Club events.

‘She’s a good enough friend to point out that something’s missing here,” Rogers said, referencing a lack of significant Latina representation at some Cougar Club activities. “And I pride myself in listening to the community, and I was like, ‘Let’s fix it. I can’t lead this. I need help. I need backup, and you guys are the experts on what your community would feel safe with and feel welcome to. Cougar Club’s for all women and it needs to be a safe space.’”

Now the trio is bringing together their communities for intentionally women-centered celebrations.

“We want people to feel the way they do at Cougar Club, the way they do at Caféciton, but together on a big level and really amplify it,” Herrera explained. “So I’m just really excited to bring the communities together, and some communities that don’t usually come together, they’re gonna come together on this.”

“Being the token white lady in the room with Cougar Club, I hope that I’m showing our general audience that they need to stay open-minded,” Rogers added. “Get to know your neighbors, get to know a different community, and just stretch yourself a little bit because there’s so much beauty out there.”

A group of Latina women, representing an array of cultures and industries in Kansas City, gather at Café Corazón for an event brainstorming session; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

A safe place to get loud

Centering women at these kinds of events is important, Rogers noted.

“We’ve got to put the matriarchy out front,” she continued. “It’s really wild because it’s actually a return to traditional life. If you look at Native culture, it was all built around women and that fell off with the patriarchy. Now it’s like we’re reclaiming that.”

With the current political climate around immigration and the midterm elections on the horizon, celebrations like this during Hispanic Heritage month are needed, Villalobos-McAnderson said.

“The past two years, the Latino community, we’ve just had to be almost on the defensive and prepare for what was coming,” she explained. “Now we’re through that and we’re recognizing our resilience, our joy, and just how much we are held by community.”

“We are everywhere,” Villalobos-McAnderson added. “We’re already part of the fabric of this nation. And if you choose to ignore that, then that’s on you. But we contribute and will continue to be a part of this great country.”

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The country is a crossroads, she noted, and its people have to choose how we want to move forward as a nation.

“You’ve got to take a stance,” Villalobos-McAnderson continued. “So this is us showing up almost in a vulnerable way of like, ‘We’ll take the first step. Let us share our culture. Let us share parts of us that are sacred.’ This is really inviting all of the community and all of America to come together.”

Providing a safe space — as with the goal of Cougar Club — is even more important in times when many in the community feel unsafe, Rogers acknowledged.

“Being an outsider of the Latina community, I’ve watched what’s happened with ICE over these past few years,” she explained. “To think that some of my community members are scared to leave their home and scared to go to the doctor or scared to drop off their kids at school, it makes me emotional just thinking about it.”

“Providing safe space that can really transform someone’s mental health,” she added. “So coming together and being like, ‘You can be as loud and extravagant and sexy and bold and spicy as you want in this space’ — even if it’s four hours on one random night — that’s important.”