OUR STORY
Imagine a hummingbird, a symbol of adaptability and beauty, flying between mountains and coasts, carrying messages of creativity and pride. That is Latina: a messenger that brings the essence of Latin America to new horizons, preserving authenticity while reimagining possibility.
Late 1800s – Early 1900s
The Arrival of the Dreamers
Across the Atlantic came waves of German and Italian artisans, seeking not just land, but purpose. They brought with them the legacy of Bauhaus clarity and Renaissance grace, shaped by generations devoted to form, proportion, and enduring craft. When they encountered Latin America’s rich and unfamiliar landscape, something entirely new was stirred. As their skill met the region’s natural abundance, local resources became their canvas; and through this unexpected fusion, creativity flourished. In this way, old-world mastery met new-world wonder.
1910s–1930s
Workshops Bloom Like Orchards
Modest workshops sprang to life, rooted in European tradition and enriched by Latin soil. German-trained carpenters and Italian cabinetmakers began to experiment, discovering in tropical fibers and dense Amazonian hardwoods both challenge and inspiration. These unfamiliar materials called for new techniques and sparked unexpected forms. Furniture was no longer imported in style or spirit, it was being reborn through place, tradition, material, and possibility.
1940s–1950s
The Fusion of Worlds
As modernism transformed Europe, its influence reached Latin America, carried by books, travelers and immigrants, where its ideals were not merely copied but reimagined. Furniture began to breathe with the local landscape, sculpted into forms both precise and lyrical. Italian curves embraced indigenous color, while German geometry softened in the tropical light. A dialogue between cultures had begun, fluent in form, material and meaning.
1980s–2020s
Craft in the Age of Precision
From the 1980s onward, Latin American furniture underwent a quiet transformation where tradition and technology began to speak the same language. Digital tools refined but never replaced the artisan’s hand; they expanded its reach. Ancestral knowledge merged with innovation, guided by care for sustainability and material honesty. Natural materials met precision, giving rise to pieces that feel both rooted and renewed.
1960s–1980s
A Language of Its Own
What emerged was not a style, but a design philosophy: Tropical Modernism. It embodied contrast: clarity and lushness, discipline and improvisation, memory and invention. Every piece carried a layered identity, part European blueprint, part native instinct, and entirely Latin American in soul. Craftsmanship evolved into storytelling and furniture of this era whispered histories of migration, adaptation, and belonging.
Today A Voice Rooted in Heritage Design
LATINA emerges as a bridge between past and present, uniting brands and makers who carry ancestral knowledge and a refined vision, transforming tradition into contemporary expression. It offers interior solutions that are both timeless and grounded in Latin American authenticity, for those who see furniture as memory, meaning and presence. Each piece tells a story shaped by tradition, guided by heritage and sustained by a quiet pursuit of excellence.
FOUNDER
Maria Paulina Gallo is the founder and CEO of Latina, a Colombian Product Design Engineer known for her distinctive collaborations with iconic Italian furniture houses. With a visionary mindset and deep roots in design culture, she now brings her expertise through LATINA, a project created to bring the richness of Latin American design to new horizons.
COLLABORATION
Leo Shehtman is a celebrated Brazilian architect with over 40 years of experience, distinguished by his contemporaneity and avant-garde approach. A leading voice in architecture and interior design, his work has been featured in major exhibitions worldwide, leaving a lasting mark with an expressive style that seamlessly merges art, design, and architecture.
