8 Tips for Latinas with Generational Trauma to Heal Their Relationship with Money

thoughtful woman while using her credit card

For Latinos, money is a topic that’s often colored by generational trauma, emotional baggage, and cultural expectations. At a subconscious level, those things create patterns around money that hold us back. The good news is that those patterns aren’t difficult to break and healing your relationship with money is very much possible. Here are 8 tips that will help you get started on that:


Take the time to understand your money history

girl receiving money from an adult

Photo by Karolina Kaboompics on Pexels

Your family’s history with money can 100% shape your financial mindset, so it’s essential to understand it. Reflect on your upbringing and the messages your Latino parents provided about money. Understanding the narratives you’ve been taught about money is the first step in healing your relationship with money. Acknowledge the past, but understand that you don’t have to carry your parent’s struggles with money or beliefs about it. You can create a new narrative around money and a new mindset.

Educate yourself about money

Woman studying her personal finances

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Most people, including Latinos, learn things about money from their families and the people around them. There’s no class in school about personal finances or how to have a healthy relationship with money. You can take your education into your own hands, though. Financial literacy is the best way to get smarter about money and build a better mindset about it. There are plenty of free YouTube videos, books, and podcasts that will help you learn the basics of budgeting, saving, investing, and personal finances. The more you learn, the more confidence you’ll feel about managing your money.

Dream big, start small

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When it comes to financial goals, you need to keep things realistic. You can dream as big as you want, but you have to start small. Whether it’s saving for a vacation, paying off debt, getting a car, or investing in your education, breaking down big goals into smaller, manageable steps can make them less overwhelming and more attainable. Nothing you want is out of reach, it’s just a matter of living within your means and making financial plans you can stick to.

Embrace a growth mindset

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Believing that you can change your financial situation is essential. If you don’t believe you can, you won’t; that’s how a fixed mindset works. Instead of sticking with that, we encourage you to develop and embrace a growth mindset that allows you to see challenges as opportunities to learn and grow. Remember, your financial habits are not set in stone. If something’s not working for you, you can change it and develop healthier money habits. Doing that is how you start to heal your relationship with money.

Create a financial plan for yourself

Woman studying her personal finances

Photo by Karolina Kaboompics on Pexels

Creating a financial plan doesn’t have to be complicated and crazy. It’s just creating a budget and sticking to it. To do that, you need to track your income and your expenses to see where your money is going. It’s good to do this for a couple of months so you can identify areas where you can cut back, like shopping, to have more money for your financial goals. Your financial plan needs to align with those goals, so make sure they’re specific. Whether you just want to build an emergency fund, save for one thing or another, or invest, you need your budget to support that and help you achieve it.

Practice mindful spending

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One thing many Latinos do, especially if they’ve always been discouraged from spending because “money doesn’t grow on trees,” is spend more than they have. Instead of being scared of spending, they go the other route and spend without thought. Both extremes are wrong, but when it comes to spending in particular, it’s important to be mindful. It’s very easy to make impulsive purchases because everything’s available online and we’re constantly being asked to buy, buy, buy. You have to keep yourself in check, though. Before you buy anything, pause and ask yourself if it’s taking you closer or farther from your goals. This is how you can above impulse buying and make conscious choices about money.

Ask for help!

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Understanding personal finances and what works for you isn’t always something you can do on your own. Sometimes, you need the guidance and support of someone who already got the hang of it and overcame their generational trauma. That’s where financial advisors and financial coaches can come in handy. They will help you create financial plans, find solutions for any current financial issues, and make informed decisions about investments and more. They can also help you build better financial habits and address the generational trauma holding you back.

Review and adjust regularly

Woman studying her personal finances

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Your financial plan is not set in stone! As you make progress on your goals, you’ll need to review and adjust it. Tracking your income, expenses, savings, and more isn’t something you do once and be done with it. It needs to become a part of your routine because it’s how you will stay on track. It’s not about obsessing over money, it’s just about having a clear picture of your financial circumstances, your priorities, and what you’re doing about healing your relationship with money. Remember, money is a tool to live your life, not a source of limitations.

This Viral Video Game Is Changing the Face of Voter Outreach

In 2024, voting campaigns have evolved greatly, to say the least. Creativity is now the name of the game and tongue-in-cheek humor is expertly leveraged to drive action. One example of that is Bop the Bigot, a revival of a viral game created in 2016 by Bazta Arpaio, an Arizona activist group, as part of a campaign to unseat Maricopa County’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Arpaio lost his re-election to Paul Penzone that year.

The game has now been updated for the current election cycle and relaunched by On Point Studios, with new features added to enable players to find out what’s on their ballot, confirm voter status, and register to vote.

Much like its former 2016 version, the game allows users to take out their political frustrations by virtually “bopping” GOP candidates in the head. It’s very similar to whack-a-mole, except the mole is replaced by former President Donald Trump, Ohio’s Senator J. D. Vance, and Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation, which is spearheading Project 2025.

cartoon renditions of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance around a Bop the Bigot logoPromotional image provided by On Point Studios.

B. Loewe, Director of On Point Studios, came up with the concept for this game when working as the Communications Director at Bazta Arpaio in 2016, and is the executive producer of this revamped version. In the first version of the game, Bop the Bigot players used a chancla (flip flop) to “bop” the characters, tapping into Latino culture by leaning on the childhood experience of being set right by a flying chancla from a fed-up mother or grandmother.

This year, the chancla is replaced by a more current element, a green coconut, referencing Kamala Harris’ coconut tree meme. There are also side characters like “the couch,” cat ladies, and more coconuts. All references to jokes about Vice-Presidential candidate Vance, or insults Vance has made about women on the campaign trail.

Another new addition is that Harris’ laugh is immortalized as the game-over sound effect, an unexpected detail that adds even more humor and levity to the game.

cartoon renditions of Donald Trump, Kevin Roberts, and J.D. Vance around a Bop the Bigot logoPromotional image provided by On Point Studios.

Bop the Bigot, which is playable on desktop and mobile, is intended not just as a way to vent political frustrations, but also as a tool for activism and securing voter engagement.

For example, the game supports the work of Mexican Neidi Dominguez Zamorano, Founding Executive Director of the non-profit organization Organized Power in Numbers by using the “game over” screen to prompt players to donate to it and support their efforts.

Organized Power in Numbers is focused on empowering workers in the South and Southwest of the U.S. through collective action and comprehensive campaigns. Their mission is to create a large-scale movement that challenges the status quo and advocates for workers' rights, and racial and economic justice.

Currently, Dominguez Zamorano is leading worker outreach to 2 million working-class voters in the South and Southwest through doorknocking, texting, and calls with the help of local groups in North Carolina, Arizona, New Mexico, and more.

“We have been blown away by the enthusiastic reception for the video game. We knew we wanted to be part of its creative approach because our movement needs more fun and laughter. We need more ways to connect with nuestra gente so we can feel joy among all the absurdity we witness every day,” Dominguez Zamorano shared with Luz Media via email.

“Our people are gente trabajadora and we deserve to feel uplifted even in our toughest moments. We are deeply involved in the South and Southwest so we know what’s at stake in this election and we’re happy this can be a resource to mobilize, raise spirits, and get out the vote," she concluded.

Dominguez Zamorano is a committed activist for immigrants and workers' rights, known for her strategist skills and expertise. She played a key role in the campaign to win DACA and has also held roles in major campaigns, including as Deputy National States Director for Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign. In addition to her work with Organized Power in Numbers, Dominguez Zamorano is serving as a Senior Advisor to Mijente’s Fuera Trump Initiative.

Grassroots efforts like these have taken on new life in 2024, with Bop the Bigot adding to the larger, ongoing fight against political apathy and disinformation. Just as it did during the 2016 race, the video game uses humor to soften the serious task at hand—getting people to the polls.

"We want the game to be a fun and comical outlet for anyone who’s been insulted, frustrated, or harmed by Trump in the past and everyone who is ready to move forward as a country after election day," explained Loewe in a press release. "The proposals in Project 2025 and the beliefs of Trump and Vance aren’t just weird, they’re truly harmful. We wanted to give people a humorous and peaceful way to smack down their racism and sexism. We hope it makes people laugh and also feel empowered and motivated to get to the polls on or before election day."

With a mix of satire, sharp political critique, and nostalgia, the game is a call to action. The upcoming election, which is getting closer by the minute, has sparked fierce activism and creative yet grounded initiatives like these aim to ensure voters are engaged, especially young Latinos and disenfranchised groups.

hands holding up yellow protest signs that say Hands Off Our Bodies
Photo Credit: Gayatri Malhotra via Unsplash

Originally published in Common Dreams. Reprinted with permission.

The Latino electorate will prove decisive in securing reproductive freedom and abortion access through ballot measures around the country, particularly in states where Latinos are a significant portion of the electorate.

In November, abortion rights measures will appear on ballots across ten states, including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, and New York, where Latinos make up a significant portion of the electorate. For decades, pundits and politicians have recycled long-held misconceptions about Latino voters and abortion access, citing our conservative and religious beliefs.

Anti-abortion extremists have long fueled these misconceptions through misinformation and disinformation campaigns targeting Latino communities with egregious lies and inflammatory rhetoric about abortion. Yet, polling, focus groups, and direct interactions with Latino communities have debunked these outdated tropes.

The Latino electorate will prove decisive in securing reproductive freedom and abortion access through ballot measures around the country, particularly in states where Latinos are a significant portion of the electorate.

For Latinos, the freedom to decide, a pillar of our American democracy, is critical. Meanwhile, Latinos are being hit directly with anti-abortion efforts that take away that freedom such as the six-week abortion ban put into effect by the Florida Supreme Court and the 1864 abortion ban upheld by the Arizona Supreme Court. In the wake of the Dobbs decision, people of color and Latinas have felt the impact of a lack of abortion access, an element of basic healthcare.

A 2023 report by the National Partnership for Women and Families estimated that nearly 6.5 million Latinas, or 42% of all Latinas of reproductive age in the country, live in a state that either had or was likely to ban abortion. Ironically, it will be abortion access and anti-choice efforts to restrict freedom of choice that will mobilize Latino voters this election.

In a poll conducted by three national reproductive justice organizations, 87% of Latinas named abortion and women’s rights as one of their top priorities as they head to the polls. Another battleground poll conducted by Somos PAC and BSP Research found that 61% of Latino registered voters expressed a more positive/favorable view of Kamala Harris after hearing that she will protect abortion rights, versus only 19% of Latinos who said they had a more negative view of Harris after hearing that.

In key states to secure the White House and both chambers, Latinos make up large chunks of the electorate: Arizona (25%), Colorado (15%), Florida (20%), Nevada (20%), and New York (12%). In the face of unprecedented attacks on basic healthcare access and targeted attempts by extremists to mislead and divide our community on this issue, this November Latinos will be key deciders on abortion access across the country.

Mari Urbina, Managing Director of Indivisible, Battleground Arizona Lead and former Harry Reid advisor.

Héctor Sánchez Barba is president and CEO of Mi Familia Vota (MFV).