Open Book Interview: Kim Guerra

Kim Guerra, MFT (she/her/ella) is a writer, advocate and entrepreneur and creator of Brown Badass Bonita, a brand movement that she considers to be a work of self love and love for her community. She received the ‘Agent of Change’ award from Univision’s Premios Juventud and has been recognized by Oprah, People, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Univision, Televisa, Remezela, R29Somos, and more. She continues to use her voice and platform to advocate for the immigrant LGBTQ+, BIPOC, survivors, mujeres, and oppressed communities. She has a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from Antioch University, Seattle.

From the creator of Brown Badass Bonita comes a “powerful and necessary guide toward self-discovery and metamorphosis” (Dr. Mariel Buqué) that can help transform not only your life but the lives of everyone in your community.

Lyrical and accessible, written in Kim’s signature poetic, Spanglish style, Badass Bonita is perfect for readers of My Grandmother’s Hands and Este dolor no es mío, — for mothers, daughters, therapists, and mujeres poderosas everywhere ready find their wings.

I’ve moved and traveled a lot whilst writing this book. Some of my favorite writing places have been my balcony in Bacalar overlooking the laguna and my partner’s parent’s terraza in Sicily.

Badass Bonita is the book I’ve always wanted to write, but was afraid to because it felt too vulnerable. When I was in graduate school I kept searching for books written for and by latinas especially books on healing and collective liberation. It was difficult to find them. I remember thinking, “I’m going to have to write one myself!” A few years later, I did.

usa tu voz, mija!

So much of what life has taught me and I have experienced is woven into my words. I believe our life experiences are what connect us to ourselves and one another.

I’d love to write a memoir about my travels and experiences as a queer mujer. I feel it is important for more queer Latina voices to be heard, read, and felt.

Badass Bonita

by Kim Guerra

Almost every Latina has heard the phrase calladita te ves más bonita—you look most beautiful when you are silent. It's a message rooted in machismo passed from generation to generation, and one that poet and Latine therapist, Kim Guerra, grew up on.

In Badass Bonita, Guerra tells a story of coming into her own power, and guides readers through the process of finding their own. Rejecting what she was taught as a girl, she learned to use her voice and the more she listened to that inner niña, the more she unearthed her inner guerrera. Vowing never to be calladita again, she now teaches Latine women to find their voices, healing the stories and emotional wounds that have kept them silent.

Tackling tough conversations around machismo, mental health, trauma, and intersectional identities, Badass Bonita is a guide that will help readers:

Understand underlying sources of wounds and trauma,
Shift from self‑silencing and into revolutionary self‑love,
Build confidence and bring positive change to relationships, family and community.

Lyrical and accessible, written in Kim’s signature poetic, Spanglish style, Badass Bonita is perfect for readers of My Grandmother's Hands and Este dolor no es mío, — for mothers, daughters, therapists, and mujeres poderosas everywhere ready find their wings.