Feliz Día de la Mama
Feliz Día de la Mama
Happy Mother’s Day, amigxs!
This special issue of Pero Make It Newsy is dedicated to all of the moms out there, and all of the people who are guiding figures in children’s lives. We each wrote tributes to our mothers and we highlighted news stories about mothers and their daughters. We also have a new cause for you to check out that is dedicated to maternal health and a special message from our puppy columnist, Princess Party Time.
Let’s dive in!
Grief, Longing and Hope on Mother’s Day ❤️
By Nikki Rojas
My momma was a breath of fresh air, a ray of light on a cloudy day. She was, simply put, the sweetest woman on Earth. My momma was caring and nurturing (even if she did think I was too clingy). She also had a wicked sense of humor and knew exactly what to say to make me feel better. Most of all, my momma was my best friend and I miss her terribly.
Read Nikki’s personal essay here.
Even While Battling Multiple Sclerosis, My Mom Never Lost Her Cool Factor 🧡
By Maria Elena Perez
I think as her health declined and the MS took away a lot of her independence, she lost a lot of her confidence. She retired from her career as a cardiac technician and became a stay-at-home mom, something she said she was excited to do but we knew it made her sad. We had to stop taking joy rides together, and she eventually had to give up driving completely.
MS definitely affected her self-esteem, but it never stopped my family, my friends or anyone else from thinking that she was the coolest mom.
Read Maria Elena’s personal essay here.
Women In The News 📰
Companies Are Finally Letting Customers Opt-Out of Mother’s Day Emails: A growing number of businesses are hoping to make Mother’s Day a little bit easier for some of their customers. The Boston Globe reports that companies are allowing customers to opt-out of email promotions for Mother’s Day which can bring up grief and stress for those who have lost their mothers, have strained relationships or are attempting to conceive. Etsy, Away luggage, Milk Bar desserts and even President Biden have allowed people to opt-out of the messages.
Learn more about the thoughtful move companies are making this year at The Boston Globe.
Let’s Hear It For The Mother-Daughter Duos Pushing to Keep Chinatown Alive: Vogue spoke to four sets of mothers, daughters and granddaughters on their fight to keep Chinatown’s mom-and-pop stores open. New York’s Chinatown has been devastated by the pandemic, with 17 restaurants and 139 ground-floor stores shutting down. However, these amazing women are working hard to preserve their families’ legacies.
Read about the inspiring women of Chinatown at Vogue.
How the Pandemic Altered the Relationships of Mothers and Daughters: Nine mothers and daughters told The Lily how their relationships were impacted in the past year due to the pandemic. While the pandemic brought some mothers and daughters together, some of the mother-daughter relationships became more complicated.
Read the feature at The Lily.
A Mother’s Fear of Raising a Daughter: In this personal essay, writer Jessica Valenti talks about her worries and fears relating to raising her daughter in today’s society. Valenti opens up about how she doesn’t want her daughter to be fearful of the world around her but wants her to be able to trust herself and protect herself in scary situations.
Read the full essay on All in Her Head.
Causes That Matter 🤝
There is an ongoing maternity care crisis affecting women in the U.S. and around the world. Every Mother Counts hopes to address the deadly crisis by making sure that all childbirth and maternity care is safe for all mothers everywhere. In the U.S., this amazing organization partners with Black and Indigenous community-based organizations that are fighting against racism to achieve birth justice. (It should be noted that Black women are 3x more likely to die from pregnancy and childbirth-related causes than their white counterparts.)
You can help advance birth justice in the U.S. and around the world by donating to Every Mother Counts.
You Should Listen To This 🎧
For our special Mother’s Day issue, I thought I’d recommend something a little different in our book section. Poet Sarah Kay delivered an amazing spoken word poem about the bonds between mothers and their daughters.
You can read the entirety of “B” (If I Should Have a Daughter) at Words for the Year.
Princess Party Time’s Paw-nderings 🐶
Henlo hoomans and all the mamas out there! It is I, Princess Party Time, and I am here to wish all of the mamas out there a Happy Mother’s Day. I am the luckiest girl to have so many mother figures in my life, like my mama, my abuelita and all of my tias. I hope all the mothers, abuelitas and tias today have a wonderful day filled with love and lots of snuggles from their fur babies.
Thank you so much for reading! If you’d like to send us questions, suggestions or just say hello, you can email us at peromakeitnewsy@gmail.com.
- Maria Elena and Nikki
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