Walking into a wellness room where you are the only Latina can make self-care feel like a test; after I was mocked in a beginner Pilates class for not knowing how to use a reformer machine, a friend told me to try the Latina Sweat Project in Pilsen. In my first class, the room held women of every color, shape, and size, and the instructors corrected with care. I walked out sore, relieved, and blissful—feeling for the first time that a workout class was led by, and filled with, actual friends.
That welcome is by design. “Hecha por Latinas in 2022,” LSP began as a pop-up yoga studio in Little Village, also hosting mutual aid drives for food and clothing in migrant shelters. It grew into daily programming across southwest Chicago, built around teacher training scholarships and free classes, supported by optional memberships and donations. The yoga studio is led by founder and executive director Margarita Quiñones Peña, a first-generation Mexican American and DACA recipient born in Durango, Mexico, and raised in Chicago.
When the city feels heavy, LSP blends cultura, sweat, and solidarity. In the past year, they launched an “Immigrant Made” merch line to support wellness programming in Chicago’s underrepresented neighborhoods. They also offered all free classes on January 30, during the “National Shutdown” general strike, after staff voted to open the studio as a sanctuary.
They have hosted everything from a Bad Bunny–inspired class ahead of his Super Bowl halftime performance to a sold-out Pilates for Palestine fundraiser late last year, with 100 percent of proceeds going to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.
When Bad Bunny is playing on the speaker, telling you in Spanish: “Mientras uno está vivo, uno debe amar lo más que pueda,” the class meets you with the same energy. Sweat, yes—but also care, names remembered, people looking out. You come back because the room feels like familia.
Latina Sweat Project
949 W. 16th Street, latinasweatproject.com
Best of Chicago 2025 Credit: Cover and section photography by Kirk Williamson. Creative direction and prop styling by Shira Friedman-Parks, Amber Huff, and Kirk Williamson. Design by Corianton Hale.
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Editor’s note: March 2026 Best of Chicago issue
