Welcome to the Bridgetown Church Podcast.

From September 15th, October 15th, we are honoring Hispanic Heritage Month.

Each week, members of our Church Family will be sharing stories that acknowledge and celebrate

Latino and Latina history from their lived experiences to the world at large.

Hello, my name is Tiffany Flores.

I co-chair the Racial Justice Committee here at Bridgetown.

We are in week three of our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month or Latino Heritage Month.

Our aim in these podcasts is to share the stories of those within the Bridgetown family

who are Hispanic or Latino, so that we who call Bridgetown home can be reminded of

the diversity of experiences, cultures, and backgrounds that exist within our body.

Our hope is that by being good listeners to one another, we can enter into a place of empathy.

On that note, I have the honor of sitting down with Annie and Rommel Ruiz.

Therese's family is from the Dominican Republic.

They have two daughters.

They moved here in 2005 and 2008.

We're married here in Pasadena and in 2020 moved to Oregon.

Rommel, can you start us off and tell us a little bit about who you are?

I'm Rommel, born in the Dominican Republic.

And then we met in actually the church back then.

Both artists went to design school.

Also we met actually while we were practicing theater.

And that's what actually brought us here to the States to study a physical theater.

...