Student and designer Hyla Golden Del Castillo dives into her cultural identity for her own brand
By Candice Zhang
While most might associate October as the official start of the spooky season — a time when everyone gets to dress up to represent their favourite monsters and ghouls. October is also Hispanic Heritage Month.
The Parliament of Canada proclaimed Latin American Heritage Month in 2018, in order to recognize the community and their contributions to Canadian society. Other provinces later followed suit, including Quebec in 2020. The month was first decided due to a multitude of political reasons, as many Latin American countries were already celebrating their own independence days from Sept. 15 to Sept. 21. For example, on Sept. 15, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua celebrate their independence day.
In Canada, Hispanic Heritage Month is a great time for the Latin American community to showcase their culture. Multiple events including the Alucine Latin Film and Media Arts Festival and the Latin Parade and Fall Fiesta, take place throughout the month.
For other Latin Americans who work in the fashion and media sectors, they aim to advocate for the Hispanic community through their designs and collections and utilize their own cultural inspirations and heritage within Canada.
Hyla Golden Del Castillo, a Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) student and founder of the brand Hyla, aims to accurately portray Hispanic culture and identity throughout her fashion label.
Her experience growing up in Latin America and living in Panama are constant inspirations for her brand. She cites the colonization and revolution in Panama as a pushing force that led her to advocate for other Latin Americans throughout her label.
“I am impacted by what happened in 1999 in Panama,” said Castillo.
In 1999, Panama experienced tremendous change, including an election, which led to many reforms. During this time, the largest political parties in Panama made an agreement to ban anonymous campaign contributions, due to previous unknown ties to drug trafficking, which has affected Latin American culture and identity. After the elections, five of the 12 political parties that took part in these activities were dissolved. In addition to this, Panama took control of the canal from the United States on December 31. This event in particular impacted Castillo and her own cultural identity.
“The event in itself largely impacted Latin American culture,” said Castillo. “It showed that we could pull off a huge power that no one previously could do successfully.”
Castillo shared how important this event was in her upbringing and experience growing up in Panama.
“People of Panama have rights that need to be respected internationally,” said Castillo. “The event made us see the power we hold within ourselves and we do not need a third party, such as another government, to fix the problem in the first place.”
The event in itself has also inspired a lot of Panamanian festivals, arts and costumes. She hopes to showcase the impact of this event and her own passion for Latin American culture throughout her brand and designs.
“After the canal, there were a lot more parades, celebrations, and art. We were freed from the colonizer,” said Castillo. “Because of this event, I aim to inspire myself and others to see my own vision. I aim to spread more of Latin American culture and history.”
Latin America was first inhabited by multiple Indigenous groups with various religions and cultural practices. However, after Columbus arrived, the colonization of the region began. Religions including Catholicism soon became widely practiced, and the Indigenous tribes were largely displaced. Castillo portrays a harmonious blend of her culture and spiritual worldview through her designs.
“We cannot deny the Catholic and Christianity presence,” said Castillo. “But what is beautiful is that we have taken different elements from different cultures and adapted them to us.”
She shares an example of her designs symbolic of the devil and uses these interpretations to describe what the devil means to her and her identity.
“In Panama, many people wear costumes with the devil because it is a parody of the European idea of the devil. We put on the masks and the dances are supposed to be funny,” she said. “It’s a parody that the colonizer came in; if you don’t do this, you will go to hell.”
Other than religious influences, Castillo and other Latin American designers have also cited other social issues, including immigration, as additional sources of inspiration which they aim to address throughout their designs.
Castillo herself immigrated from Panama when she was only 17 and she later shared how her move to Toronto was a scary experience at first.
“I was here alone when I was so young,” Castillo said. “It was a culture shock to me.”
Similar to Castillo, close to 70,000 of the people who immigrated to Canada in 2023 were between the ages of 15 to 24 years.
Many of these young adults suffered adverse experiences. In an article by Munoz, a study showed that those immigrating from Latin America are overrepresented in administrative jobs, in the health, financial, and cleaning services sector. Hence, Latin Americans immigrating to Canada are often marginalized in the labour market.
This marginalization has often affected the portrayals of Latin American individuals in media and other arts and culture sectors, viewing Latin Americans through a racialized lens.
According to an article by David Chavez, American television often portrays Latin Americans as criminals, or people working in labour jobs. In addition to this, Canadian television tends to also only feature Eurocentric actors.
“There are multiple stereotypes of the Latin American community on the media and TV,” said Castillo. “To the media, we are often sexualized, or known as criminals, which is an unfair and inaccurate portrayal.”
As a result of this, Castillo noted the importance of Hollywood figures in the identity of her designs.
“If you look at Jenna Ortega and Selena Gomez, they have a specific Latina stereotypical look. However, not many people in the Latin American community look like that,” she said.
Considering the importance of these social issues on Latin Americans, Castillo continues to work towards dismantling Western-created stereotypes and barriers towards the Latin American community.
She does this by hiring diverse models with different looks and features, which spans beyond the stereotypical Hollywood “Latinx” look — continuously aiming to broaden perspectives on Latinx culture.
“I love my people. We don’t have to be what they told us,” said Castillo. “We can be ourselves, and we can do things that are very Latino but not stereotypical Latino. There is more to it.”
To Castillo, fashion is a way of advocating for the rights of her own culture and she hopes that other Latin American creators can stand up for the cause as well.
“My brand is by Latinos, for Latinos,” said Castillo. “Everyone else can also enjoy it as well.”
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