BROWNSVILLE, Texas — A South Texas apparel brand is making strides in the Latino and LGBTQ community with their newest Pride Collection.
‘JZD’ is a queer, Latina owned business out of Brownsville and said their apparel is much more than just words on a T-shirt.
Their most recent Pride collection with ‘bien supportive and bien gay’ translating to ‘very supportive and very gay’, already a huge success.
“They are our best sellers, especially during Pride and that was an idea that Vero had,” Jennifer Serrano, CEO and founder of JZD said.
Veronica Vasquez and Jennifer Serrano, have been married for eight years and started their business with $200 and a unfurnished apartment.
“There was items out there for the LGBTQ+ community to buy, but I didn't feel like they were really for the Hispanic Latinx community,” Veronica Vasquez, COO and founder of JZD said.
The couple wanted to create apparel that showed their Mexican-American heritage.
“It can't just be something in just English or Spanish, because we are not just speaking English or Spanish we are speaking Spanglish - we are Spanglish kids,” Vasquez said.
The idea of ‘bien supportive’ for their collection coming from Vasquez. Something she says she wishes she would have seen growing up.
“I did not have supportive parents; they didn't want anything to do with it. I had a lot of trauma you grow up in the Valley, Mexican household you are told as a kid, if you are gay - if you are even thinking about it you are not really going to do anything with your life,” said Vasquez.
Vasquez says these shirts show queer people there are people around that care about you and support you.
“When I was younger and coming out, I wanted to feel supported – I wanted to feel like it was a safe space to be able to be like 'Hey, I think I might be gay I'm not entirely sure',” Vasquez said.
On the contrary, Jen’s parents are very supportive of the couple's relationship and are working for the brand.
“Proud, very proud, they see me and say ‘Hey Jen’s mom’ and look I get goosebumps,” Maria Serrano, Jens mom said.
Gustavo Serrano described Jen as their miracle child, after his wife had several unsuccessful pregnancies. He advises parents to respect their children regardless of their sexual orientation.
“I will tell them support your kids, don't turn on them just because they are gay, they are human being like everybody else,” Serrano said.
JZD was one of the several vendors who had their Pride items removed from Target stores across the country due to safety concerns earlier this month.
"We were so excited to return to our retail partner for pride month this year and spent over one year designing custom pieces for this national campaign. Sadly, our retail partner informed us today that they pulled two of our items to be available online only and have completely removed one style from their stores and website. Additionally, they have moved our items to the back of the stores in southern states," JZD said in an online statement.
Jennifer and Veronica hope their Pride collection can be the safe space they wish they had growing up.
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