LatinaLista — Life is tough being a single mom but being a single Latina mom is even tougher. Forget about all the stereotypical talk of the great family support network that exists in Latino families. The fact remains that single motherhood, especially for the teen moms, takes on additional hardship when it’s bundled with low-income status and our beloved Latino culture.
Called SOLatina, the site launched in 2010 and is an online support community especially for single Latina moms.
A visit to the site immediately clues you in that this is a different kind of “mami” site. One of the headlines reads: “Will My Boyfriend Get Deported?” As the reader explains:
My boyfriend of 5 years is not a US citizen. He was born in Mexico but has been in the US since he was a teen. He went to high school here and works here. He is now 27-years-old. During his time here he has never been in trouble with the law until in 2009 when he got arrested for DUI and driving without a license. The court decided to sentence him to weekends in jail.
He didn’t do the weekends, though, because he was afraid of being deported. Now he has a warrant for his arrest and owes a fine.
We have two children together and our whole life is set here in the US. We plan on getting married but I’m afraid to lose him forever because of him not being a US citizen.
Clearly, this is not a common situation — outside the Latino community. Yet, within and among a majority of young Latinos, the scenario isn’t all that strange — it just never had a platform to be discussed before, along with, other frank conversations like how to raise biracial children, whether marriage is really necessary to prove one’s love or how to be a parent.
Future plans for the site include matching older moms with younger moms in a mentor/mentee relationship and providing additional features launching at the end of 2011.
