At My Comunidad, we strive to create a safe, authentic space where all identities and abilities are seen, validated, and uplifted. My Comunidad Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to expanding equitable access to yoga and wellness in underserved communities, while honoring and preserving the South Asian roots of the practice.
Our mission is to create inclusive, culturally grounded, and truly accessible spaces where yoga serves as a powerful tool for mental health, healing, and personal empowerment. To us, yoga is far more than physical movement. It is meditation, mindfulness, connection, and most importantly, community. We are dedicated to moving beyond the often-commercialized lens of Western yoga to reclaim its depth, cultural integrity, and healing potential. We believe wellness is a universal right, not a privilege. Our programs are designed to serve people of all races, genders, sexual orientations, religions, abilities, and backgrounds, because yoga should meet people where they are, in the bodies and stories they bring.
My Comunidad may have been seeded from a need for physical healing, but it was truly born from a deep longing to belong. Clarissa, the founder of My Comunidad Foundation, first came to yoga seeking relief from a back injury. What she found was something far more expansive: a tool for mental health, emotional processing, and ancestral restoration. As her practice deepened, so did her awareness. Yoga studios were often expensive, located in already privileged neighborhoods, and lacked representation across race, age, ability, and background. At the same time, a more personal truth began to surface: The experience of feeling unseen was rooted not just in the wellness industry, but in her own story of cultural dilution and assimilation. The daughter of an immigrant father from Sonora, Mexico and a mother with Indigenous roots shaped by colonization, Clarissa was raised between worlds. Like many second, third, and fourth-generation People of Color, she never felt fully “enough” in either identity.
The name My Comunidad is a reclamation, a healing blend of Spanglish roots, ancestral echoes, and the rich, complex identities that make up the BIPOC community. By shifting the narrative from what has been lost to what can be reclaimed, Clarissa created a space where community is not defined by borders or binaries, but by connection, visibility, and care. My Comunidad is a love letter to those raised in the hyphen. A space where everyone belongs...exactly as they are.