The 81st Golden Globes brought moments of inspiration from Latinas like America Ferrera, Jennifer Lopez and Selena Gomez. Here’s what their successes mean to me as a Latina actress.
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Latinas are breaking barriers across the board. Here are nine you should start following right now!
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Get ready to kick-start 2024 with Zulay Henao’s delicious green juice recipe.
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We have your last-minute Christmas gifts covered with these amazing 10 picks from our editors and founder.
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Modern Muze founder Zulay Henao is known for being the hostess with the mostest. However, it wasn’t always this way.
The actress and entrepreneur has thrown her fair share of soirees. From launch parties, birthdays, baby showers and retreats — she’s got it all down to a science. And when it comes to the holidays, she’s mastered the art of hacking the system to enjoy herself.
This holiday season, we’re sharing her nine hacks for running things smoothly, coquito in hand! You can thank us later.
From decorating to making enough empanadas, Henao reminds us we will fall short somewhere — and it’s okay.
“I think embracing that the holidays bring with it a lot of hectic energy, from late flights to last-minute guests…Christmas lights that decided to stop working on Noche Buena,” she says. “Releasing the idea that all has to be perfect and allowing some of that hectic Christmas energy to transmute to joy! I personally have had to reframe a lot in past years!”
If you’ve been reducing yourself to crackers and water for the holidays, take a moment to set them aside for a few days. After all, you can’t let all the tamales, empanadas, lechón and moros go to waste. Can you?
“This is the best time of the year, I am not saying to completely get off track, but to enjoy all the amazing food our culture has to offer without shame or guilt,” Henao asserts.
Planning will save you a lot of heartbreak, stress and panic during the holidays. If you are throwing a party, book vendors early, prepare your home for guests in advance, and save yourself last-minute stress with cleaning and sprucing.
“Create a music playlist etc.,” Henao says. “Delegate, you don’t have to do everything alone!”
While it seems like you have plenty of time for shopping during the holidays, don’t leave things for the last minute. Check out our store for some great holiday gifts!
Overspending is one of the greatest issues faced during the holidays, but it doesn’t have to be. Keep yourself accountable and remember that giving comes in various forms. Stick to thoughtful but useful gifts to ensure money well spent.
Magical thinking continues to be alive and well. Of course, for our partners and ourselves, this can be daunting.
“When figuring out the right gift if you’re in a new relationship or any relationship and feel like your partner needs a little push or help, give it,” Henao says. “I often hear from friends that they were expecting a certain gift and didn’t receive it. Speak up, even though it’s the season of giving, and most people want to give, we don’t always know what you want! I know what Kevin wants this year and that means, for me, zero stress.”
Expectations often leave us disappointed. Especially when we want everything to go perfectly. This holiday season, let go of what you expect and open yourself up to receiving in all its forms. Be it love, gifts, or surprises, expect the unexpected.
Muzas are big on manifesting! Henao suggests scripting your dreams out daily, “It’s such a magical time and such a great reset for the year ahead.”
Finally, in case you need a little push to rest, this is your sign. Take this time to take it down a notch, nap, cuddle up next to your favorite people and of course— sip on the coquito.
This whiskey, lemon and sherry have us falling in love and looking for mistletoe to kiss under.
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Raising a multicultural family is one pinnacle of Modern Muze founder Zulay Henao’s life.
Her first daughter, with actor and producer Kevin Connolly, is living the best of many worlds as she shares Irish and Colombian heritage. In 2022, the couple gave Christmas a spin by traveling to Henao’s native Medellín.
The actress and entrepreneur shared her experience of looking at Colombia through her family for the first time and falling in love with it all over again.
This was my first time back to Colombia as an adult. I’d been as a teenager a few times and had been daydreaming about going back. This trip came together over a family lunch one day in June of 2022, my dad was visiting from Colombia, and we talked about a potential Christmas family trip when he said, “Come to Colombia.” We all instantly said “yes, the entire family!”
It was such a wonderful thing to look forward to. We made up an itinerary, researched places we all wanted to see. Kevin, my partner, was elated to visit and that made it all the more special, to bring my young family along was monumental. I have a lot of family in Medellín, and seeing them and introducing them to my daughter and Kevin was so very special. It is a trip I will never forget and will cherish forever.
I think I’ve already passed down my love for Arepas, both Kevin and Kennedy love them! I really want to pass down to her our deeply-rooted love and sense of family. Colombian culture is deeply rooted in familial connectedness, support, and love.
I am so proud of being Colombian, however, taste is my most heightened sense. I love Colombian food and feel so much nostalgia when I bite into a beautiful empanada made with love. I love our music, salsa specifically, and that too is another thing I try to incorporate into my home for Kennedy and Kevin to learn to appreciate as much as I do.
While the travel was indeed hard, we now look back on it with a sense of wonder and joy. Like, “Wow, we did that, and it was great.” Kevin and I lovingly share those memories with our friends and always feel so much joy. Other than that, the only real challenge was watching Kevin, who is really social and jovial, struggle to communicate with my family.
I’ll remember landing in Medellín, the excitement in my body was out of this world. I cried. I will never forget one of our first nights on the chiva “the party bus.” It was a traveling party with my favorite music, my family, and all of our kids. The frequent stops in different little towns to eat, laugh, and dance. I’ll never forget the Medellín River and how it was lit for Christmas, the way my daughter’s face lit up, and how delicious the micheladas were. I’ll never forget how romantic it felt for Kevin and I. Amid all of the chaos, we often stopped and marveled at how beautiful life was and how much of a vibe Medellín was.
My recommendation is to travel to Colombia. It has infinite beauty to offer. Talk and listen to the locals and travel to towns and locations recommended for tourists. Don’t go rogue, just like anywhere else in the world.
I recently had the history making opportunity to be a part of the HBO’s letter book inspired by Isabel Allende Dear Future Latina Trailblazer where I was able to contribute via a letter, my humble advice, and share a bit of my story to help harness Latinas’ stories and create change.
My hope is to a share a piece of me with you, and that if you take anything away it is that you are a master piece, a work of art worthy of our reverence and admiration.
To you, whom I adore:
It is 6:37 AM on a Tuesday, as I sit in my candle lit living room, just having watched the sunrise. My mug is filled with unceremonious decaf, but I am immediately grateful, because I am creating a life. I can feel my little girl in my belly, full of activity and promise, and I am reminded of her innocence, and yours, and the importance of our legacy. And I think “How lovely would it be to have all the answers for you!” Life would be so easy if the answers were written nice and tidy, in a specific blueprint for us to follow straight to our wildest dreams. And then, I smile, but mostly I cringe, at the absurdity. You see, a blueprint exists, and it is unique and yours, mysterious and innate. The blueprint lives deep in the recess of your soul. It is wise, strong and perfect. It is coiled up, and entangled beautifully with all of our wild, our mistakes, our shame, our beauty, our bravery, our misery, our boredom, our experiences, our birth place, our soul, our anger, our joy and our innocence. It is never outside of us, the fabric of our wildest dreams is made up of the totality of our human existence, what we do with the inevitable bitter and sweet tastes’ of life. You see too many times, I have stayed down too long, and wanted to spit out the bitter, run from it, hide from it and let it silently destroy me. Too many times I have allowed others to define me, stifle my vision of me, and belittle the vastness of me. No, no no, no, GRACIAS con EXCUSE ME!
Today, I use my wild, my voice, my sensibilities, my culture, my curves, my creativity and my humanity to guide me. I use my superpower, OUR superpower, our vulnerability, to transform the seemingly ugly into the sweetness of life unfolding before me. I would love to impart to you my sweet friend a snapshot of my blueprint: I never give up on me, and I never will. Through all of the shame, fear, ups & downs, know that those very things are meant to empower us, to evolve us and ultimately guide us to the next sturdy rock on the sometimes ravenous river of life. There on that rock, we reassess, we forgive, we plant seeds, we learn, we unlearn, we ugly cry, we laugh, we find our true selves, we find our strengths, our weaknesses and we shine a little, die a little, and then we emerge, battle tested but never defeated, whole and ready. Why, because that is what we do! We are women, Latina Women, wild, free, and ravenous in our pursuit of our dreams and desires. But do not be afraid to lay down on that very rock, and listen, listen to the calm of the stream and indulge all of your senses in the elegance, mastery and fullness of life and the natural world. As it is wise, wiser than you and I and if we listen really listen there too our blueprint lives and thrives.
I pray our journeys meet and that we recognize in each other the beauty of our uniqueness with the utmost reverence, respect and admiration.
Con todo el amor del mundo, tu hermana, Zulay
In 2023, “Hot Girl Summer” went out and “Soft Girl” vibes came in. Here’s how we’re loving our curves all year long.
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Dear Muzas,
There was a time when we were taught we couldn’t be our own inspiration. We had to look outside of ourselves to find what we were looking for. To garner confidence, intelligence, beauty, because perhaps we weren’t born with it.
I remember for much of my life — I thought this too. Until one day, between despair and brightness, Modern Muze was born. It was one of those dark moments where life inevitably takes you, full of questions and introspection. I remember thinking:
What if I became my own muse?
What if I decided I was talented enough?
Beautiful enough.
American enough.
Enough period.
It was like the sun breaking through the horizon, illuminating a side of myself that was realizing perhaps, instead of looking outside myself, where society always steered my gaze, I could change the narrative. That’s when I harnessed the power of my Latinidad and started building this incredible platform I present to you today.
Modern Muze is a media company aimed at creating provocative, inspiring, revolutionary content for Latina and multi-cultural women centered on the pillars of soul, beauty, health and community. Our collective mission is to become our own Muze and live our best life.
Everything we do is crafted with the passion and belief that women are capable of achieving anything they set their mind to, being bold, sexy, creative and whatever makes them feel like the best version of themselves.
We look forward to welcoming you to our Muze community.
Con mucho amor,
Zulay Henao
Founder & CEO
