“Somos super mujeres!” We are super women, yelled Santa Clarita Planning Commission Vice Chairwoman Patsy Ayala to 200 women sitting in their seats.
“Whoooo!” soared throughout the venue with applause from the ladies of all ages who had huge smiles on their faces and radiated confidence.
Four well-established local Latinas held a free women empowerment seminar entirely in Spanish to celebrate International Women’s Month at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Newhall last week, aiming to create discussion about feminism, success, self-worth, resources available for them and entrepreneurship.
Ingrid Blanco, Patricia Lara, Bertha Zarate and Claudia Carrillo, four women established in different careers and very good friends with one another, came together to plan and organize the all-Spanish event to celebrate Latinas, something they knew was very much needed in their community.
The morning-long seminar seemed like a party with dancing, music and a complimentary breakfast. Toward the end, the panelists had tough conversations about how to navigate womanhood and challenges that are universal to Latinas by sharing their own personal experiences and insights.
The event drew in a large crowd of women from the Santa Clarita Valley and beyond. A few of the attendees commuted from the Antelope Valley, parts of Los Angeles, and as far as San Diego, said Carillo.
“Last year, I was looking for an event in Spanish and there was nothing,” said Carillo. “There’s a need for us to come together to bring those tools to help them [the women] to elevate their quality of life, and in their language.”
Although there are events that provide interpreters all throughout Los Angeles County, some things often get lost in translation, Carillo added.
The recurring themes throughout the morning were stories of coming to this country for a better life, how to navigate womanhood and believing in themselves to create small businesses, and finding self-worth to live a better quality of life for them as individuals and their families. Although each story was unique, the themes were universal and resonated with the crowd.
Ayala served as the master of ceremonies and asked the panel of women a series of questions before the microphone was given to attendees to ask their own questions.
“What’s the biggest challenge you have faced that has made an impact on your life”? asked Ayala in Spanish.
“When I was 18 years old and I decided to cross the border to come to the United States, I left home really young, and my grandfather would say, ‘How are you going to the United States alone? They’re going to rape you or kill you,” answered Lara, CEO and founder of Power Media and Associates, an advertising agency based in Panorama City. “I said, ‘No, I’m leaving,’” she said.
As she thought back to that moment decades ago, she paid her respects to her late grandfather.
“When I was on that mountain right by the border, I was dying of how cold it was and I saw the lights of San Diego in the distance and would say, ‘I will get there. With the help of God, I will get there,” she said.
As Lara shared this memory, the audience fell silent.
“And that was my toughest moment,” she said.
Lara graduated from UCLA and has 20 years of experience in Spanish-focused advertising in the entertainment industry.
The seminar served as a celebration of Latinas with women-owned businesses present for networking opportunities. Although focused on positivity, the morning event did not stray away from hard conversations and reminding attendees that elevating their lives even further was very much possible.
The seminar was the beginning of something much bigger the four women have planned in the future, said Carillo. They hope the event turns into a series, tackling other topics of discussion such as codependency, healthy relationships and other prevalent issues in the Latino community.
“They’re going to see us more here in the community. In Newhall, Canyon Country, because that’s where more [ of the Latino population] is at,” said Carillo.
