Family Circle Tennis Center

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  ( No Credit ) Karla Martinez

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  ( No Credit ) Chino y Nacho

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  ( Provided ) Gilberto Santa Rosa

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It’s a tale of the underdog overcoming the odds with New York-based lifestyle magazine Siempre Mujer (Always a Woman).

What began seven years ago as somewhat of an experiment for its publisher, Meredith Corp., which also publishes Better Homes and Gardens, Fitness, Ladies’ Home Journal and Family Circle among others, to see how a Spanish-language magazine for Hispanic women in the U.S. would do against general-market media, the magazine has become one of the fastest-growing in the country.

Siempre Mujer won first place on Adweek’s Hot List last year for its 11 percent spike in circulation (a rate base of more than half a million with an audience of 3.5 million) during the first half of 2011, beating out all other general-market magazines in its “Women” category.

“This is our time,” magazine editor in chief Maria Cristina Marrero said of the recent recognition. “It’s very exciting for us, and we’re 15 million Latinas; it was about time. We’re here to stay. We’re not going anywhere.”

To commemorate the success, Siempre Mujer and Meredith Corp. will hold a festival celebrating Hispanic culture Saturday at the Family Circle Tennis Center.

Presented by Ford and co-hosted by Marrero and television show host Karla Martinez, the inaugural Siempre Mujer Music Festival will feature several workshops and seminars throughout the day. Some of the activities include Zumba lessons, cooking exhibitions, soccer and tennis clinics with members of the Charleston Battery and the U.S. Tennis Association, fashion shows featuring local models, Garnier-sponsored beauty seminars, a meet-and-greet with the magazine’s staff and several guest celebrities, Ford test drives and more.

The festival’s daytime activities, which run 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., are free.

The festival gates will reopen at 6 p.m. for an evening of musical performances from Grammy-winning artists Los Tigres del Norte, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Chino y Nacho, DJ Luigi Bravo and others.

Tickets for the evening concert are $25-$69 and are available at all Ticketmaster locations, Ticketmaster.com or the Family Circle Tennis Center box office.

When asked what she hopes for the Charleston community to take away from the festival, Marrero is quick to point out her enthusiasm for a dance party.

“Well, first of all, I really want them to leave with their feet very sore from dancing,” she laughs. “ ... The tagline of this festival is ‘Share, Celebrate and Get Inspired.’ And it’s in that order for a reason because we want them to leave inspired.

“My community has always been known for being fighters. ... We know what we want, and we don’t stop. We have a lot of drive and passion for everything we do, and we’re very hard workers. We cannot know how to do it, and what we want we sometimes do not have enough tools or knowledge as to how to do it, or how to make it happen. So we’re providing all those tools with this event, especially with the daytime activities, so they can actually leave with a plan, and they can go home and say, ‘OK, I can do this. I’m inspired. I know I have it; it’s in me.’ So, that’s my goal.”

The festival received some big sponsors, Ford and Garnier Fructis among them, which Marrero contributes to the rise of Siempre Mujer’s popularity and a more vocal and powerful Hispanic population within the United States.

“I’m very grateful that they’re supporting us, but I also know why they’re doing it. We’ve shown that there is a market. We have shown them that we break stereotypes. We don’t necessarily want them to think that every Latino wears a sombrero and eats ... burritos, because it’s not necessarily true. So I feel very lucky to deliver that message in a proper way, and they’re listening, so it’s paying off.”