For my blog I wanted to take a different route than choosing a woman who was in the limelight. I wanted to focus more on how much of an impact a person can have in their local community when they do something for it. My inspirational woman is Carmen P Cortez. She was nonetheless my husband's aunt and when I heard about her life I decided to investigate a little more about her. She was born in Kingsville, TX and came to San Antonio as a young adult to study at Our Lady of the Lake University. Upon noticing how many children were mistreated by their parents and how large the incidence of teenage parents there were in this city, she decided to do something about it. By overcoming the adversity and racism that was present in this city towards hispanics, she was able to create AVANCE. Avance is a non-profit organization in San Antonio that specializes in child care for infants, toddlers and preschoolers for the purpose of a head start as well as for the parents to make a better living for their children. This including an array of parenting classes that are required by participants to assist the young parents in the child's growth and development. This program was so effective that it was able to remain even after her death and continues to assist young families. This to me is truly an inspirational woman.
Buckley Blog Comment 1:
ReplyDeleteCynthia,
I thought it was such a great idea to write about a woman with a personal connection to you. I wish there was more women like Carmen in the world with compassion and the drive to do something for others. Young mothers have such a hard time and many obstacles- they are usually raising their children on their own, they are usually struggling to get an education, and they usually cannot afford to pay for childcare and therefore find it difficult to work. Also, according to child developmental researcher Robert Siegler (2011), young mothers are usually less educated and therefore are not actively involved in educating their children. I am glad to hear that AVANCE is continuing to help mothers and the community after Carmen's passing.
References:
Siegler, R., DeLoache, J., Eisenberg, E. (2011). How child develop (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Worth.