by Master Retro Bella (she/her)
When I created the Latine Leather Pride Flag, I wanted something that reflected our neighborhoods first, then our nations. I wasn’t just thinking about borders. I was thinking about gardens. I was thinking about the colors that have grown around us all our lives. The ones on the walls of the bodega, the plastic tablecloths we wiped down after every family meal, the bright paint on our porches, the candy wrappers in our abuelita’s purse. These weren’t abstract colors. They were part of the everyday landscape we tended to in order to feel rooted. They reminded us where we came from, whether home was across a border or just a few blocks away. These colors are our mother colors. They were wrapped around us long before we saw them on a national flag. They are part of the vines we carry, the ones we braid into who we are, the ones that keep growing even when no one is watching.
The colors
Sky blue: This color represents the open sky and dual sea found in the flags of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Argentina.
Hunter green: This color represents land and hope found in the flags of Mexico and Bolivia.
Yellow: This color represents the sun and abundance found in the flags of Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela.
Navy blue: This color represents opportunity and liberty found in the flags of Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Panama, and Puerto Rico.
White: This color represents freedom and justice found in the flags of Chile and El Salvador.
The Center Fist
The raised brown fist is a nod to our radical Latine and Afro-Latine activists and a symbol of our Indigenous roots. It honors the long history of resistance and reminds us that we grow not only from survival but also from deep cultural pride.
My Queer Latina Leatherwoman life
To be a Queer Latina Leatherwoman is to carry a garden of tangled vines, thick with memory, culture, queerness, power, and tenderness. Some of those vines were planted long before I was born, passed down by women who survived by hiding parts of themselves. Others I grew myself, reaching for the light in places where no one thought we could bloom. These vines don’t grow in straight lines. They twist with contradictions and old stories. They hold the scent of street dust after summer rain, the sound of Spanglish in the streets, the ache of invisibility, and the sharp joy of being seen. They wrap around everything I am. I am a Master and Femme, queer and cultural, both rooted and reaching.
Leather didn’t untangle me. It gave me a trellis. It gave structure to what I had always carried. It didn’t ask me to prune parts of myself. It said grow. It said take up space. It reminded me that I wasn’t alone in this overgrowth, even if I had to be the first one to name it. The flag grew from that same place. I wanted something that held our complexity, our history, and the pride that blooms when we let our whole selves be visible.
If you are not Latine but care about inclusion, the most supportive thing you can do is tend to the soil. Don’t ask us to trim ourselves down to fit your understanding. Instead, listen. Make room. Let our vines grow wild and strong beside yours. We are not new here.
About the Creator/Author
Master Retro Bella (she/her) is a Queer Latina Leatherwoman who is the 2024 International Master and the 2023 Southwest Master. She created the Latine Leather Pride Flag and founded Latinos in Leather. She grew up in a small migrant town in California, where working-class life, cultural pride, and Femme identity shaped her understanding of power and care. She co-heads House of Dark Shadows with her slave, boy Drake, and serves as President of the San Joaquin Girls of Leather.