Ariana Berenice Lopez
was born in Mexico City and immigrated to Watsonville when she was thirteen. Her life was tough being an undocumented immigrant, poor, and coming from a single-mother household. Despite all her obstacles, Ariana Berenice found joy in school. With the guidance of her mother, sister, and good-hearted academic counselors at Watsonville High School, she prepared herself for college. She attended Cabrillo College and transferred to San José State University. She majored in Psychology and minored in Women’s Studies.
Ariana fell in love with yoga after college when her sister, Janet, invited her to a high-class Yoga studio in Los Gatos. Right away, she understood the connection between mind, body, and spirit. Moreover, she experienced peace and relaxation, which was lovely yet foreign. She thought: “If only this were available to the Mexican community, affordably and in Spanish!”
She continued taking Yoga classes at different studios only to confirm that her sister and herself were always the only women of color in the room, and there was never a Spanish-speaking teacher. Both sisters concluded that the Universe had just signed them up for a new mission: dive into the Yoga world, become certified Yoga teachers, and bring Yoga in Spanish to the Mexican community.
So, in 2016, Janet completed her yoga teacher training in Oakland, California, while Ariana completed hers at Blue Anjou Yoga & Meditation Center in Lewisville, Texas (near Dallas). Fast-forward to 2018, Ariana is now pursuing 300 more hours of Yoga education at Breathe Together Yoga in Los Gatos, to become a 500-hour registered Yoga teacher.
Ariana dislikes violence, especially that against girls and women. For that reason, she will pursue her Masters in Women and Gender Studies at San Francisco State University in fall 2018. She will deepen her studies hoping to find ways to end gender violence.
Since graduating from SJSU, Ariana has been committed to helping underrepresented communities attend college. In fact, she travels every week to different cities around the Bay Area to teach parents how to prepare their students for college. She absolutely loves her job.