Today we’d like to introduce you to Ximena Aristizabal &.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
We’re Ximena and Laura, cousins who grew up more like sisters. Both born in Colombia, we moved to the U.S. as kids and grew up in Queens, NYC, surrounded by family, culture, food, traditions, and the diversity that shaped how we saw the world.
At home, Spanish was the language of connection: family conversations, humor, celebrations, discipline, and everyday life. Outside of home, New York shaped us too. From early on, we learned to move between cultures, languages, and identities.
As we got older, we built careers in spaces where we were often one of the few Latinas in the room. Ximena studied chemical engineering and grew into senior operations leadership and executive coaching. Laura pursued graphic design and creative leadership, becoming a Design Director and Art Director with deep experience in brand identity, visual storytelling, and creative direction.
Now as moms raising bilingual children with our American husbands, our bicultural experience has taken on a deeper meaning. Laura lives on Long Island with her husband Rob and their three boys, Sebas, Leo, and Gabriel. Ximena lives in New Jersey with her husband Joe and their two boys, Luca and Santi. Becoming parents made us much more intentional about preserving language, traditions, family closeness, and the everyday cultural moments we grew up with while also embracing the American side of our families and lives.
Halftinos started as a joke, a nickname for our kids being “half” Colombian and “half” American. But the more we talked about it, the more we realized none of us are half of anything. Our kids are whole in both worlds, and so are we.
What began as sharing relatable moments from our daily lives has grown into a brand and community centered on bilingual parenting, Spanglish identity, nostalgia, culture, humor, and the real experience of raising kids de aquí y de allá.
At its core, Halftinos is about helping bicultural families feel seen and helping our children grow up proud of every part of who they are.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As immigrants and children of immigrants, our childhoods shaped us in powerful ways. We wouldn’t describe those experiences as hardships, but growing up between cultures taught us resilience, adaptability, and responsibility early on. We were very aware of the sacrifices our families made to build a life here, and that shaped how seriously we approached opportunity.
Both of us also built careers in predominantly non-Latino spaces, where there is often an unspoken pressure to prove yourself. You carry a responsibility not only for your own work, but for your family, your background, and how you represent your culture in rooms where there still isn’t always enough representation.
Now, one of our biggest priorities is raising children who feel connected to their roots while growing up in the U.S. We’ve learned that preserving culture and language is not one big gesture. It is built through small, consistent moments: conversations at home, grandparents, books, music, food, trips to Colombia, Spanish-speaking caregivers, and creating environments and communities where culture feels natural and alive.
Building Halftinos has also come with a learning curve. We started this while balancing senior careers, motherhood, households, and five young boys between us. Everything we create exists alongside real life.
What has made it work is the trust and history we share. We are constantly exchanging ideas, funny family moments, parenting experiences, and cultural observations. We’ve always wanted Halftinos to feel honest, joyful, and grounded, not overly curated.
Being online also means opening yourself up to criticism or assumptions about identity, language, or whether you are “Latino enough.” But overwhelmingly, what we have experienced is connection.
Some of the messages that stay with us most are from parents who felt alone in raising bilingual or bicultural children, or who worried they were “too late” to introduce more Spanish or reconnect with culture at home. Hearing that our content helps people feel encouraged, understood, or less isolated is one of the most meaningful parts of this work.
Halftinos has shown us how many families are navigating the same questions: how to preserve language, pass down traditions, and raise confident bicultural kids in a way that feels natural, joyful, and sustainable. We learn from our community constantly, and that exchange has become one of the most valuable parts of building this platform.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Professionally, we come from different industries, and that balance shapes Halftinos in a powerful way.
Ximena is a Senior Director of Operations with a background in chemical engineering. Her career has evolved across industries and leadership roles centered on operations, complex problem-solving, organizational culture, and team development. She is also a certified CliftonStrengths and executive leadership coach, supporting executives, teams, and organizations in leadership development, communication, identity, and growth.
At Halftinos, Ximena brings strategy, storytelling, writing, and a reflective coaching lens to conversations around identity, belonging, bilingualism, and raising bicultural children with intention.
Laura has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree specializing in graphic design and has spent her career in the creative industry, growing into leadership roles as a Design Director and Art Director. Her expertise is rooted in branding, visual storytelling, creative direction, and building emotionally resonant visual experiences.
At Halftinos, Laura leads much of the brand’s visual identity, from creative direction and editing to how stories come to life through reels, graphics, and design. She has a strong ability to make content feel nostalgic, visually engaging, and emotionally recognizable while still staying true to real family life.
What we are most proud of is creating something personal that resonates beyond our own families. Halftinos reflects our lives, our cultures, our professional strengths, and the everyday realities of raising bilingual, bicultural children.
What sets us apart is that Halftinos is not built from one household or one perspective. It represents two families, two mothers, two senior professional backgrounds, and two approaches to many of the same experiences. That makes the brand more nuanced, collaborative, and reflective of the many ways bicultural families navigate identity, language, and parenting.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Some of our favorite childhood memories are rooted in the way we grew up together as family. Laura and I are technically third cousins, but we were raised more like sisters in a big Colombian matriarchy where everyone was deeply connected. Our grandmothers grew up as best friends, and that closeness carried through generations, so weekends, holidays, birthdays, and even ordinary afternoons were almost always shared.
We grew up surrounded by loud kitchens, cousins everywhere, family trips to fincas and little towns, and traditions where everyone participated. During holidays, there were always sketches, performances, arts and crafts, inside jokes, music, and something for every generation to contribute. The kids performed, the dads got involved, the adults turned everything into an event. Being together was never passive in our family. It was intentional.
Those memories shaped how we think about family, community, and culture today. They taught us that traditions are something you actively create and pass on. Now, as mothers ourselves, so much of what we’re building is inspired by that upbringing. We want our children to grow up close to their cousins, connected to their culture, bilingual, surrounded by joy, and with the kind of core memories that come from feeling deeply rooted in both family and identity.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/halftinos/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588182009232
- LinkedIn: halftinos
