Is Marriage Becoming Obsolete for Latina Women in the U.S.?

If Latinos in the U.S. were an independent country, their GDP would be 5th in the world, beating the United Kingdom, France, and India. That’s what this study found in 2023, and it speaks to how productive Latinos are in the U.S. That said, the wage gap for Latinos is still a major issue, with them earning 32% less than their white counterparts. Knowing that, it comes as no surprise that the wealth gap between Latino families and white families has surpassed $1 million, according to a recent report from the LA Times.

The Wage Gap

Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash

For Latinas, the wage gap is quite concerning. On average, they only make 57 cents for every dollar a man makes. That’s fueled by a combination of factors, including systemic oppression, xenophobia, and the need for greater financial literacy. For many Latinas, this combination of factors has reawakened the effects of the generational trauma that comes from financial hardship.

But in the face of these reports and statistics, there’s a growing group of Latinas making space for themselves and other women of color in the personal finance world. While the financial services industry has historically looked white and male, Latinas are showing up on social media platforms to teach other women how to build wealth not only for themselves but for generations to come.

From investing to eliminating debt, these Latinas are tackling a subject that remains taboo in many Latino families out of fear of being considered greedy or too ambitious. Here are five Latinas who are creating financial literacy courses, using social media platforms to connect with their audience, and sharing their own personal finance stories along the way.

​Jully-Alma Taveras​ 

Photo by investinglatina on Instagram

Photo by investinglatina on Instagram

Jully-Alma Taveras is the self-described JLo of personal finance. A Dominican raised in New York, Taveras created Investing Latina in 2019 to teach Latinas how to start investing in the stock market. She began investing at age 19, becoming the first person in her family to open a retirement account. Her Youtube channel has nearly 60 videos of free content, including responses to questions that come directly from her followers, and she regularly breaks down complex financial topics into Instagram posts that are easy to understand. As a personal finance expert, she inspires women to spend intentionally and have a minimalist lifestyle so they can invest more. Her focus is on introducing women to investing so they can take their first steps toward financial freedom.

Anna N’Jie-Konte 

Photo by anjiekonte on Instagram

Photo by anjiekonte on Instagram

Anna N’Jie-Konte is a first-generation American of Puerto Rican and Gambian descent. She’s a certified financial planner and fiduciary dedicated to facilitating the economic liberation of people of color. N’Jie-Konte is a native New Yorker who worked in the financial services industry before launching her own firm, Re-Envision Wealth, where she offers wealth management services. She also uses her platform on Instagram to offer insights about finances for small business owners. More recently, she announced “The Financial Powerhouse: The Club,” a no-fluff community for people who want to learn about wealth-building tools and have more in-depth conversations about financial fluency, and more.

Jannese Torres

Photo by Jannese Torres

Photo by Jannese Torres

Jannese Torres is the host of “Yo Quiero Dinero”, a personal finance podcast created for Latinas and people of color. An engineer by day and self-described side hustle guru, she advises Latinas to build multiple streams of income and teaches money-making strategies to help women succeed. Torres, a first-generation Puerto Rican woman, is also a fierce advocate of investing with the goal of early retirement. Her content on Instagram, TikTok, and the podcast addresses topics from tackling debt to estate planning to financial independence and more. Recently, Torres became an author with “Financially Lit!” the ultimate guide for modern Latinas to become financially powerful.

Delyanne Barros 

Photo by Delyanne Barros

Photo by Delyanne Barros

Delyanne Barros went from attorney to money coach, and she’s dedicated to helping investors take the stock market by storm. Barros, who spent her early years in Brazil before growing up as an undocumented immigrant in Miami, first invested about $50K a few months before the pandemic led to a market crash. She overcame that by growing that amount to over $425K – all while paying off over $100K in student debt. Today, Barros advocates for investing for retirement with low-cost index funds. Her following has increased consistently on TikTok and Instagram, where she regularly shares brief videos and posts explaining the stock market, breaking down investing myths and updating her audience on news that may affect their finances. Barros doesn’t gatekeep her knowledge, offering a free class, Invest for Independence®, to introduce people to the stock market in a way that finally makes sense.

Linda Garcia 

Photo by Linda Garcia

Photo by Linda Garcia

Linda Garcia, a Californian with roots in Mexico, began investing several years into her career as a marketing executive in television and film. She’s dedicated to helping the Latino community restructure their generational beliefs on finance and she introduces people to the stock market so they can achieve their dreams. Her “Wealth Warrior” course not only breaks the stock market down but also helps children of immigrants address their toxic relationship with money. Garcia is the founder of In Luz We Trust, an online community where she shares a wealth of resources. She’s also the co-host of the "Investies" podcast, which offers insights into the current stock market and the state of the economy.

These five Latinas are only a few among a growing community focused on creating generational wealth. But this wave of personal finance Latinidad comes at a time when Latinas and Black women across the United States continue making cents on the dollar that white men earn.

Next time you feel anxious about your finances, look them up to learn how to take control of money and heal your relationship with it. And remember – the wage gap that Latinas and other women of color experience can only be narrowed if we talk about money. So let’s build our emergency savings funds, address our debt, and invest in the stock market so we can build the generational wealth that will help our families for years to come.

Recent data from the Consumer Price Index (CPI) revealed that prices increased by 3.2 percent between February 2023 and February 2024. In terms of inflation, that’s a notable decrease from the 9.1 percent increase recorded in June 2022. However, inflation being down doesn’t necessarily mean the cost of living is getting lower. Quite the contrary–factors like income stagnation, transportation expenses, housing costs, and debt burden, among others, make living in the U.S. very expensive. In fact, The U.S. is currently the 20th most expensive country to live in according to a report from CEOWORLD Magazine.

With this in mind, it’s not surprising that Americans seem to be flocking to Latin America to retire, work, enjoy a lower cost of living, and even invest. Looking at Mexico City alone, the number of Americans who applied for residency visas or renewed them rose by 70% between 2019 and 2022, as reported by CNBC. It’s worth noting that the influx of Americans, including digital nomads, has sparked gentrification concerns among locals.

The disparity in income between Americans and locals increases tensions, leading to rising rents and displacement of native residents. While Airbnb and the Mexican government promote the city as a remote work hub, locals demand regulation to preserve their communities.

Another thing worth noting is that while Americans who relocate to Latin America in search of a more comfortable life are called “expats” (short for expatriate), Latinos who do the same by relocating to the United States are called “immigrants.” But what makes one an expat and the other an immigrant? The basic definition of expat is a person who lives outside of their native country temporarily, usually referring to workers. With this definition, it follows that any person who leaves their country to work in another for a time would be an expat.

In reality, that’s not the case and expat is usually a term that’s reserved for western white people. For Latinos, Asians, Arabs, and Africans, the term tends to be immigrant, no matter the context.

Technically speaking, there is a difference between the terms expat and immigrant. The immigrant lives permanently in another country and may seek citizenship, while the expat lives and/or works in another country. They may or may not stay indefinitely. However, the distinction isn’t made based on whether the terms are used correctly or not, the distinction is made based on social class, economic status, country of origin, and education level. The terms have become hierarchical and implicit bias is the reason why Westerners are always expats, and everyone else is an immigrant.

You could be a highly educated Latino living in the U.S. because you were sent to work there in a multinational organization, and you wouldn’t be perceived as an expat - you would be perceived as an immigrant. At best, you would be perceived as a qualified immigrant. Were you a white person, whether you’re educated or not, whether you have a high-paying job or not, there’s no doubt you would be perceived as an expat across the board. That’s how race, education level, and income are used as indicators to distinguish between people.

At the end of the day, the fact is that expats are immigrants. The real difference is that they’re leaving their country because they can. Because they want to work abroad, want to take advantage of Latin America’s lower cost of living to take the most advantage of their dollars, or simply because they want a change of scenery. Most Latin Americans and other people of color who leave their countries do so out of necessity because the alternative of staying is unsustainable for them. Whether that’s because of poverty, food insecurity, violence, political persecution, or even war, the fact is that they leave to truly seek a better life.

As of 2024, there are 20.4 million Latino immigrants living in the U.S. As for international immigrants, the count was nearly 46.2 million in 2022. While the word immigrant may carry some negative connotations due to implicit bias and systemic racism may be reserved for people of color, being an immigrant is nothing to be ashamed of. People from all over the world and from all walks of life partake in immigration. Especially now that many are embracing a more nomadic lifestyle with the rise of remote work. As such, it’s important to recognize subtly racist distinctions and call them out to prevent the prevalence of the “them versus us” narrative.

Mother’s Day is a day meant to honor and celebrate the special bond we share with our mothers or mother figures. The holiday is celebrated on the second Sunday of May in the U.S. and in some Latin American countries, like Cuba, Chile, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Honduras, and Venezuela. However, some Latina mothers celebrate the holiday twice, depending on where they’re from. For example, mothers of Mexican, Guatemalan, or Salvadoran descent will also observe Mother’s Day on May 10, so it’s a double celebration for them. Argentina, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, and Panama have their own dates as well.

Usually, Mother’s Day is all about connecting with our mothers and pampering them throughout the day. For many Latina daughters, though, it’s not a happy occasion. Mother’s Day can be very complicated when your relationship with your mother is not a healthy one and you’ve made the decision to break or diminish ties with her. That’s the reality for many Latinas who have prioritized their own mental health and well-being by creating solid boundaries.

Marianismo often plays a role in difficult mother-daughter relationships. Rooted in Christianity, or rather the Roman Catholic beliefs the Spanish indoctrinated their newly conquered native subjects with during colonialism, marianismo is the other side of machismo. It defines gender-based expectations for Latin American women and it’s deeply ingrained in Latino culture. It’s because of marianismo that Latina women are taught from a young age that they have to be submissive, self-sacrificing, and pure. In other words, they have to be quiet instead of loud, weak instead of strong and are consistently discouraged from being independent, sexual, opinionated, and a host of other empowered traits.

The idea behind marianismo is to be more like the Virgin Mary, a figure that’s considered to be the epitome of purity and goodness. Whether the messaging is subtle or explicit, marianismo in the Latino household imposes a narrow concept of what it means to be a woman and it reinforces powerlessness. It’s important to note that marianismo is not a burden every Latina carries, but many of them do.

In Latin American countries, society helps reinforce marianismo. In the U.S., things are slightly different, which is why first-generation immigrants break away from it more effectively. But this sometimes also means breaking away from their mothers, who often refuse to confront their harmful marianismo beliefs.

There’s no denying that the mother-daughter bond is one of the most important in a woman’s life. For Latinas in particular, mothers are highly influential figures in our lives. But what if your relationship with your mother is toxic and complicated? In Latino culture, it’s taboo to say anything negative about our mothers. Being critical of them means you’re “ungrateful,” but the truth is that some mothers fail their daughters. Especially in helping them foster an independent sense of self. Some mothers want their daughters to be a certain way instead of allowing them to be their own person, which is why they’re often critical and overly demanding.

Many Latinas have grown up with mothers who are too comfortable pointing out their flaws or dictating how they should be or act. This leads to constant opposition and a constant struggle to just be yourself. It makes many Latina daughters feel that who they are at their core is not good enough and fosters self-doubt at a level that affects everything else in their lives. Even as adults, we want our mothers to approve of us and love us for who we are, but there comes a time when enough is enough. There’s only so much toxic criticism one can take.

This is what leads many Latina daughters to cut ties with their mothers, however painful that may be. Needless to say, estrangement is frowned upon in the Latino community because we place a lot of value on family. “It doesn’t matter what we do to each other, at the end of the day, we’re family.” That’s the kind of mindset most Latinos have, but it’s neither healthy nor realistic. The way we treat each other matters and being related doesn’t mean we can get away with harmful behavior.

In general, estrangement is seen as extreme and as a problem in itself. However, for many, estrangement is the solution and the relief they’ve been searching for. Make no mistake, the dilemma Latina daughters are often faced with is unsolvable. Choosing between having a relationship with your mother and doing what’s best for your own life isn’t as easy as it seems. However, it’s often the only thing left to do after you’ve tried everything else to have a better relationship with your mother.

There comes a point where you’re better off without them in your life. That’s a harsh truth to face because, even if estrangement is what’s best for you, you both lose something. But for many Latinas, that loss is a new beginning. It’s a weight lifted off their shoulders and a deep sigh of relief. It’s sad and tragic that it has to end that way, but it’s better than the alternative of maintaining that toxic mother-daughter relationship.

On a larger scale, estrangement can help the Latino culture heal in the long term. Setting boundaries with our families, which isn’t something we’re encouraged to do in the Latino community, means we’re no longer letting abuse slide. The romanticization of family bonds and self-sacrifice doesn’t have the same hold. Rejecting that romanticization and rejecting marianismo is a way to help break the cycle.

Intergenerational emotional and psychological abuse has to be confronted and, sometimes, extreme measures are the only way to help the older generation face their harmful beliefs and values, and reframe what needs to be reframed. Setting boundaries is a shock to the system; a shock that lets our mothers and everyone else in our families know what kind of behavior isn’t acceptable anymore and never should’ve been in the first place. After that, the ball is in their court. They can either adapt or lose the privilege of being a part of your life.

While, for some, Mother’s Day is a celebration of the bonds they share with their mothers, for others, it’s a reminder of the breaking of those bonds. Whatever side you’re on, remember that love and respect is a two-way street.

We've all been there. The workplace can be a minefield of social cues, under-the-radar biases, and those sneaky "small" remarks that aren't so small after all - they're microaggressions. These little zingers can sting, especially when they're aimed at our identity, including our race or ethnicity. This time, we're pulling back the curtain on microaggressions faced by Latino people at work. We'll break it down with real-life examples, explore why these seemingly insignificant slights matter, and give you some tools to tackle this head-on.

Microaggressions might seem like small stuff, but they're a big deal. By learning to recognize and address them, we can create a more respectful and inclusive work environment for everyone. Remember, it's not just about avoiding the paper cuts - it's about fostering a workplace where everyone feels valued and respected. And that, my friends, is a win-win for all.