Somebody asked on the public AKMB a couple days ago what makes a woman a superwoman...and somebody said "when a woman don’t be afraid to be woman is a superwoman, when a woman speak her mind no matter what she is a superwoman, when a woman trying hard to raise her children she is a superwoman, when a woman trying to improve herself instead of sitting behind someone else shoulders, she is a superwoman"...and I cannot agree more! To me my mother is a superwoman...she has overcome so many struggles and endured things that one cannot explain. I am happy to say that because of her, I am who I am today.

My mother immigrated to the US at the age of 16 for better opportunity. She worked hard and would constantly send money to her parents back in Mexico. She married my father at the age of 25 and had my sister at the age of 26 in Chicago. Three years later my parents moved back to Mexico and had my brother. Since things weren't going to well for my dad in Mexico job wise...they decided to go to Texas and there my father was able to become a construction worker. My mother worked at a sewing factory and one day had an accident at work. The sewing machine had caught on to my mother’s wrist and cut through almost her whole forearm. She said that she was screaming for help and nobody could stop the machine until she yelled "Virgen mia de Guadalupe" which means 'Virgin, mine of Guadalupe'. As soon as those words came out of her mouth the machine broke down, it’s a true miracle she still has her arm fully functioning. Then she had me, 5 years after my brother's birth.

Things once again were not going good for my father so he decided we had to move, this time to California. During our first couple of months we were living with one of my aunt's and shortly after moving my brother was ran over by a car and killed instantly. My mother was devastated especially since a couple years prior to the accident her own parent's had passed. She says that the loss of a child is the worse pain she has known. Because of our recent move from Texas my parents had no money, both of them still without a job. We had no money for my brother's funeral expenses, but another miracle would soon happen. The accident went on the news and by a teacher at a local high school in San Diego, CA a fund was started. This teacher along with some students fundraised money to cover my brother's funeral expenses.

My mother started working at a clothing store warehouse and my father was on and off working as a construction worker. Because both of my parents were having such a hard time trying to make ends meet we moved across the border so we would be able to afford living, while still working in the US. Every day we all traveled to cross the border, my parents to go to work, my sister and I to go to school. However, the move was not good on my sister. She started hanging around with the wrong crowd and started rebelling. My father would beat her with the belt as if she was an animal and my mother would constantly jump in and embrace my sister imploring my dad to stop. By the time I turned 6 my dad's mother was ill so he went to visit her; he never came back. My parents had separated. When my mother told me and my sister that we would be moving back to San Diego, my sister didn’t want to so she went off to live with her boyfriend. My mother not being able to afford an apartment while working minimum wage (at the time it was $5.75) and California being so expensive in living…she had to settle with renting a room at a children’s daycare center. During the week I was to stay with my aunt to go to the school by her house and not be seen in the daycare center by any of the moms and during the weekend I would be with my mother. Soon my mother had heard that my sister was being beaten by her boyfriend and went to talk to her and bring her home with us.

My mother was struggling so hard to make ends meet and support me and my sister with no help from my father that sometimes she didn’t even have money for food. Constantly she would skip meals just so that my sister and I could eat. I recall that one time I went with my mom grocery shopping and as we were going through the veggie/fruit section she would grab only the necessary…when she would order the meat we would go to the canned food aisles and she would steal the meat by putting it inside her bag and just paying for the other stuff (she couldn’t afford it). She couldn’t stand the fact that I was away from her during the week so she soon found another room to rent at an old woman’s 3-bedroom apartment across the street from an elementary school. I was enrolled in that school and the three of us were living in a small room until the other room was opened which then became my sister’s. My mother finally was approved for section 8 housing assistance and we were able to get our own 2-bedroom apartment. However, my sister was once again down the wrong path. My mother and sister would constantly get into physical and verbal fights. My sister would leave on a Wednesday and come back on a Monday just to shower, eat, and sleep for 48 hours straight before going back out again. One day it got out of control my sister was on top of my mother hitting her with the receiver part of the telephone and I was crying begging her to stop but she wouldn’t. I ran to the neighbor’s house and called the cops. My sister ended up in the Juvenile center for about a month until she was released under my cousin’s custody; a month later she ran away again and was living with another boyfriend.

By the time I was 10 we had to move once more to another apartment…it was much nicer. My sister ended up pregnant (age 18) and had a baby boy. Her boyfriend started hitting her so my mom brought her back to live with us. Things finally started to get better and we made a final move by the time I was 14 back to Chicago; ironically this is where my father lived. Once again the struggle to find a job and a place to live! But finally managed…for my 15th birthday I wanted a party where both of my parents were there for once after all these years. My mother being the strong woman that she is had to swallow her pride, for my wishes to become a reality and she did!

Things have been far from easy for my mother. She has struggled all her life, bared the pain of the death of a child, stood by a rebellious daughter’s side no matter what, and made sure that both me and my sister had a roof over our head and food in our mouth. She has had to swallow her pride, steal, and do things that are not right under the law (but also not immoral) just to get a few extra bucks in her pocket to feed us. My mother is my backbone, through her I have learned so much, she pushes me for a better education, I have learned independence of a woman, I have learned that life is not perfect and neither are we, but every obstacle can and must be overcome…she always says “Dios aprieta pero no ahorca” meaning “God tightens but does not hang.” My mother is MY SUPERWOMAN!!