On Oct. 5, 2021, Camila Ramón premiered on the global fitness company Peloton platforms to the rhythms of Tego Calderon’s “Punto y Aparte,” giving the world the first-ever Peloton cycling class in Spanish.
Ramón set the tone with a bilingual introduction, putting her Latinidad at the forefront. “Es un momento monumental para nuestra comunidad,” she said in the first three minutes of her debut, encouraging riders to focus on “a positive relationship with movement instead of focusing only on the aesthetics like we did our entire lives.”
The Argentinian instructor grew up in Miami and built her fitness journey in Los Angeles before moving to New York and becoming Peloton’s first bilingual cycling and tread instructor.
Despite being an active athlete, Ramón struggled with her body image for many years, always trying to shrink to fit in. Her motivation to work out came through negative self-talk, telling herself that she needed to change her body to fit beauty standards.
In 2015, after experiencing a mental breakdown during a run on Miami’s Key Biscayne Bridge, Ramón decided to turn things around.
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“It doesn’t matter how much you change your body,” said Ramón. “You will never be satisfied if you do not heal your relationship with yourself.”
Fun became the basis of Ramón’s new journey with movement, and her only goal was to heal and celebrate her body. That journey connected Ramon with other Latinas who were facing similar struggles, a demographic she felt was underserved.
For many Latinas, the conversation about fitness is changing from aesthetics to physical and mental health.
“The Latina generation before us really did not train for the same reasons that we are training for now,” said Ramón, who wasn’t able to look to her immigrant parents for fitness inspiration. “For immigrants, fitness is a luxury. They don’t have time.” In many cases, their job would be so physical that they would consider it their workout.
Ramón is helping create a more positive narrative around fitness for Latinas.
Her arrival at Peloton not only brought an opportunity for the Latino community to work out in Spanish but also to create a community of support for Latinas who are into fitness.
“We’ve been supporting Camila since day one,” said Celestine Roja, a Chilean living in Texas. She co-founded MilaMafia, Ramón’s fan club and community group. After crossing paths on the leaderboard, Diana Baquero-Stagg, a Colombian from New Jersey, and Yainet Diaz, a Cuban from Miami, joined forces with Roja to create a community that set out to support Ramon and each other.
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“Never would I have thought we’d be here two years ago,” said Roja. She started her journey in 2020, but when she took a class with Ramon, her motivation for exercising began to change.
“Growing up, it was an obligation,” she said. “Now [it] is a conscious investment in my physical and mental well-being.”
Oftentimes, Latinas find themselves pressured by the beauty norms and standards within and outside of their culture. “All the conversations that happen when you go home for the holidays and people talk about how much you are eating, your love life, what you look like,” Ramón says. “It really breaks you down. Especially when it comes to things that you can’t control, like your physicality [and] your bone structure.”
“[My fitness journey] has become a celebration of self-love and strength, liberating me from the shackles of societal beauty norms,” said Roja. “It’s about feeling empowered, knowing that my body is feeling stronger.”
Community groups, such as MilaMafia, provide the support and confidence that allow Latinas to be more active.
The MilaMafia is now a community of over 27,000 people whose common denominator is their support for Ramon, their love for Peloton, and their desire to create a healthy relationship with fitness. From social media platforms to WhatsApp groups, members engage and support each other. That support has gone beyond borders, reaching a community of Latinas outside the U.S.
“My mom told me on my wedding day, ‘Don’t get fat or your husband will leave you,’” said Lizette Taylor, a Salvadoran living in Canada who, growing up, often faced negative comments from her family criticizing her body image.
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Before finding Ramón’s classes, Taylor would try to keep a low profile in the back of the classroom during her boxing class. Three years later, she is making trips across the border to Peloton New York Studio to take live classes and be in front of what can be up to 40,000 people. “Even though I’m not your typical size zero or size two anymore, I’m fit, and I’m fabulous, and I love my body,” said Taylor.
For Taylor, fitness is a journey that she hopes to continue for the rest of her life, changing cultural narratives and influencing those who come after her. “I am a grandma now, and I want to be able to live for my little Wyatt to grow up and say, ‘Hey, my grandma runs marathons,’” said Taylor, who is already training for a half-marathon in Napa with other MilaMafia community members.
The impact on future generations is also the inspiration for Baquero-Stagg. “As a mom to a 5-year-old son, my current fitness goals are to stay active and become stronger so that I can live a long, healthy, independent life with my son,” she said. “It’s my perreo sanctuary where I recharge and am constantly reminded what a privilege it is to move my body every day.”
To the rhythms of diverse Latin genres, Ramón uses cultural references in her classes to encourage riders not to be their own “Tia Toxica” and to speak to themselves with love, celebrating their bodies.
Between nightclub-like lighting, loud beats of reggaeton and twerks on the bike during her classes, Ramon constantly looks to redefine the meaning of an athlete as she shifts the fitness narrative from the aesthetic to an internal narrative of love and physicality.
“The perfect body is the body that you have,” said Ramón. “Free yourself from everything you think you have to be, welcoming everything you already are.”
Daniela Cintron is a Mexican-born bilingual journalist whose work focuses on telling the stories of underrepresented communities. She is based in Atlanta and pursuing a master’s degree at Harvard. @danicintron
