Cristel Paiz locks the door of her Berwyn yoga studio before dimming the lights and sitting on her pink yoga mat.
“Bring your mind to this moment,” Paiz says in Spanish as she guides four women of various ages through a breathing exercise at the start of a yoga class.
Closed white window blinds provide privacy for the women as they move through downward dog and warrior poses. Along the studio’s walls are two steel storage units, one holding yoga blocks, the other holding packets of whistles that have become a ubiquitous symbol in immigrant communities around Chicago…