Our 25 finalists for the first-ever Mamás Latinas Awards will inspire you! – La Placita Wellness and Education Center, Inc.

Publicado Ago 22, 2012

Por

Alicia Civita

Devotion for our children, love for our family, commitment to our community: These are some of the values that define a mamá Latina. But some of thes moms have taken this passion for our people to a deeper level–and have inspired us to be better and aim higher.

We asked for your help finding these women and you delivered. We’re down to just 25 of those amazing mamás. Here’s the incredible group of women that represent the best among us. Seven of them will receive the Mamás Latinas Award.

1/25

Alexa Bonilla

Alexa gave up a profitable career as an engineer to devote her life to teaching children. As Director of Education for the program Literacy Partners, she gives back to her community. She has two children, one of which has a severe disability that has taught Alexa than love can be communicated with much more than words.

2/25

Barbara Cambara

Barbara is a survivor of domestic violence and sexual abuse in her family. After struggling with severe depression, she overcame her problems and has dedicated her life to helping other women victims of every kind of abuse.

3/25

Bethzaida Camacho

A work-related back injury left Bethzaida unable to lead a normal life, but as she has managed to provide for her two small children, she has created an organization to help single mothers with health issues.

4/25

Carmina Cortes-González

Carmina’s art is a celebration of her Mexican heritage and with it she aspires to connect with Latino children and teach them the richness of our culture. The joy of her paintings show a woman who defies adversity while supporting her family.

5/25

Claudia Ríos

Claudia refused to accept the diagnosis that her son would never walk. Years of research landed her in a Hospital in Israel, where her son had a miracle surgery. The doctors recommended that she abort her second child due to Down Syndrome, but she refused–and the baby was born perfectly healthy. Her story of hope and resilience is an example to all.

6/25

Claudia Ortiz

Cynthia Ortiz

A succesful yoga class for children inspired Cynthia to develop an amazing childhood anti-obesity campaign called Fitadelphia that has helped more than 4,000 kids, most of them Latinos.

7/25

Dawn Diaz

Dawn Díaz

Dawn is a Paramedic Captain in the New York City Fire Department and the founder and director of the nonprofit organization Milagros Day Worldwide. Milagros Day was created to honor her mom and provides leadership coaching to survivors of domestic violence and those who have grown up in an abusive relationship. The organization is dedicated to promoting harmony and is committed to the financial and spiritual empowerment of its participants.

8/25

Eliana Tardío

Eliana Tardío Hurtado

As mother of two children with Down Syndrome Eliana has became the voice of many Latino parents with disabled kids. She dreams of creating an organization that can help Hispanic families with children with disabilities.

9/25

Glenda López

Glenda created the nonprofit organization FSFA (Fundación Sólo Falta Amor, Inc.), which promotes healing through motivational seminars in various areas including domestic violence and child abuse. Although she is also a patient of LUPUS, she is testament that you can move forward regardless of the challenges along the way. Glenda offers free of charge workshops, a way for her to get close to girls and women that would not typically seek that kind of help.

10/25

Gloria Rodríguez

Gloria is an admissions officer for a prestigious college, but her pride and joy is DeAlmas Women’s Collective, a community based organization that she created in New York City. Literally meaning “of the soul,” Dealmas is dedicated to providing
women the opportunity to reclaim, honor, and express their divine feminine gifts and human potential through spiritual and personal transformation. Amazing!

11/25

Imagen Isis Clemente

Isis Clemente

Isis gave up her professional dreams to take care of her ailing parents, a decision which cost her even her marriage. Now she wants to write a book about Alzheimer’s disease in the Latino community to help our abuelos and their families to deal with this devastating illness.

12/25

Jennifer Sánchez

Jennifer fell in love with the Brazilian art of Capoeira, but never imagined that it would give her a husband, her child, and a mission for the rest of her life. She and her husband created the organization called ABADA-Capoeira Bronx (ACBX) through which they create capoeira arts programs in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, NY. Students take classes free or at low cost, and learn to build and play hand-made instruments, history, language, acrobatics, dance, self-defense etc. She dreams with achieving full nonprofit status to be able to expand her program to schools.

13/25

Lizette Ritz

Lizette and her family sponsor a school/orphanage that helps 600 children in the Dominican Republic. They also orchestrate an annual gift drive of over 4,000 gifts and have created a national networking group to support social causes. For the past four years, she has managed a local community garden in the Bronx where 100 percent of all food grown is donated locally.

14/25

Luz Elena del Valle

Luz Elena donates her time and passion, and became the representative of the María Luisa de Moreno International Fundation in her community. The organization focuses on collaborating with governmental services and other non-profit agencies that cater to the immigrant community regardless of their country of origin. They offer support through social programs that will give immigrants access to higher education.

15/25

Margaret Grover-Roos

Looking for help to make her children truly bilingual, Margaret founded Viva el Español with the belief that that learning a foreign language in the pre-school and elementary school years is an essential part of a child’s education and development. She started with three par time teachers and set off on a mission to offer culturally rich, fun and engaging Spanish classes to children in her local community. Seventeen years later she has 50 employees and 30 locations all over the San Francisco Bay Area. Now she wants to start the first licensed Spanish Immersion Pre-School in her city.

16/25

María Elena Díaz

María Elena Díaz Sánchez

Every year Maria Elena finances a Christmas dinner for 200 homeless children in the Dominican Republic and sends them clothes and shoes. She dreams with being able to properly create a fundation that can help them regularly.

17/25

Marisol González

Marisol is an award-winning producer who has dedicated her free time and savings to the documentary Children Behind the Wall, which tells the story of homeless kids in the Mexican city of Tijuana, who have been forced into drugs and prostitution. She dreams of finishing her project to educate the world about the plight of these children.

18/25

Tania Luviano

Economic hardships led his award-winner journalist to create the video blog or Vlog Latina Mom TV. Now Tania wants to do more: a full show on the Internet where Latinas can express themselves and help each other. Using real stories from the Latino community, experts will advice those families depending on their situation. She also hopes to start a nonprofit organization to help Latina Moms achieve their goals, with mentors, guidance, scholarships, and many other tools.

19/25

Patricia Gracia

After creating a very successful advertising agency, Tania wanted to help others achieve their dreams in these hard economic times, so she created a not-for-profit organization named Power Woman Business Center, which has one mission: to help women create business and create more and more jobs. She wants to expand her organization into developing programs that target Latino families and will focus on education, the power of a united family, and anti-violence.

20/25

Sherise Martínez

Sharise works as a therapist focused on substance abuse. Her main focus is to promote abstinence from drugs and alcohol, and to promote positive social activities and rebuilding the family dynamic. But she dreams with starting a weekend drop-in center for at risk teen girls in the community who need a safe space, referrals to resource assistance, and classes on parenting, safe sex, independent living skills and eductional/vocational preparation.

21/25

Christina Vera

As a director for an after-school program for at-risk youth, Christina knows how important it is to empower our girls. With this in mind, she created 4Latinas, a company that produces Internet talk shows addresses issues that affect Latinas of all ages.

22/25

Violeta Galagarza

Violeta is a professional dancer, but her career path has not taken her–as it could have–to the best states of the world. Instead she choose to fuse her love for dance with her concern for Latino youth and founded KR3Ts. For more than 20 years, her organization has provided free dance classes and support programs to young people in the community and beyond, as a positive alternative to negative social pressures and gang violence. Students not only learn how to dance, but acquire the discipline, time management, and leadership skills necessary to succeed in any career.

23/25

Mónica Olivera

Monica Olivera

When she realized that her school district could not provide her kids with the education they deserve, Monica began homeschooling them and created MommyMaestra.com, where she provide tips, resources, activities, and other opportunities for parents who homeschool their children, and parents looking to expand –or reinforce–the concepts their children are learning in a traditional school setting. Through this site, she has created a community where Latino parents can ask each other questions to find solutions to education-related issues.

24/25

Image viahttp://bronxfreepress.com

Vashti Acosta

As the Head of School at Amber Charter School in East Harlem, N.Y.C., Vashti impacts the lives of more than 400 students daily. Under her watchful eye, her students achieve their education at the highest levels. This year, she convened the Latino Charter Leaders Roundtable, a group of Latino educators that lead charter schools. Her goal is to expand this roundtable to a national level. She also wants to write a book to help Hispanic parents to get more involved in their children education.

25/25

María Nimia González

Her children are adult now, but she keeps inspiring children and young people with her church called Nido de águilas (The Eagles Nest), where she inspires kids to stay in school and become solid adults who will hopefully become the leaders of the Latino community in the future.