Were you the first to leave your home country to settle in the USA? Were you the first to go to college? If any of these scenarios, whether you are Latina, or not, hold true for you, then it’s important for you to uncover the subconscious cultural narratives that could be affecting you or holding you back today.
Today’s guest is Valeria Aloe, the author of Uncolonized Latinas: Transforming Our Mindsets And Rising Together. It’s an award-winning book that decodes cultural limiting beliefs holding back Latinas from a life of fulfillment and success.
This is what a conversation sounds like between two educated and empowered Latinas, who also happen to be moms who want to ensure their kids are not held back by the subconscious cultural narratives we may have inherited.
Valeria shares how we can take back ownership in experiencing our own transformative process and reimagine what's possible for us. Learn how we all can contribute to society through our differences. She also shares valuable insights from the 55 interviews that she led upon writing her book.
Moreover, if you are on the verge of leaving your high-pressure and inflexible corporate or around-the-clock job, and trying to figure out what's possible now, there’s an exit strategy that you can implement at this stage of your life.
Remember, you are not alone!
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Forward this with a Latina or an ally who wants to better understand the cultural narratives shared by many Latinas and how to navigate them with mutual success.
Valeria Aloe’s Biography
Valeria Aloe is an award-winning author, speaker, and entrepreneur. She is the creator of a bilingual mindset transformation platform for Latinas and other diverse women who are first-generation in academic and professional spaces.
Valeria is the author of Uncolonized Latinas: Transforming Our Mindsets And Rising Together, an award-winning book that decodes cultural limiting beliefs holding Latinas back from a life of fulfillment and success. Her book offers powerful insights into unlearning cultural mindsets, not just for Latinas who seek to thrive in their careers and lives, but also for allies whose goal is to become more assertive mentors, and for professionals looking to better serve the Latino market.
Her work to empower and elevate the Hispanic community has earned her several awards, including “Top 50 Women in Business in New Jersey in 2020”, “5th most influential Hispanic in New Jersey in 2021” and “Truth and Integrity of the Written Word, by Golden Door Global Awards in 2022.”
Highlights
Stories: We need to tell our stories. In the Latino culture, oftentimes, what happens in the home stays at home. But there's so much power in knowing where people are coming from. And you have to share your stories to reawaken your imagination.
Ally: Consider how you can bring other moms into your tribe. Find people who are in positions of power in the field of your choice. You have so much to learn from them, and they have a lot to learn from you.
Limiting belief: One of the commonalities is a shared mindset or the ancestral limiting beliefs that we bring from our culture and that hold us back in addition to the trauma.
Indoctrination: You could still be a Catholic but may now have a newer and better understanding of your faith.
Control: All of these stories that we have, culturally, even as adults, even though we may feel that we're in control, the collective unconscious that we bring from our culture controls and influences our decisions.
Narrative: There are all these cultural narratives in our unconscious of things like feeling inadequate, feeling lacking, and feeling we need to be thankful to be allowed to be in this country.
Safety: Many children of legal immigrants, or even parents, insert themselves into the system working very hard but trying to remain invisible because the system was not open and friendly with Latinos coming in. And so they feel it’s safer to be invisible.
Shame: Many Latinos have a hard time really embracing who we are. And we feel we need to change who we are to be accepted or to belong. And shame is the underlying cause of feeling we need to change who we are.
Therapy: There's a stigma in our community with therapy and there is also shame in saying that you go to a therapist because of the stigma. But all of us need to process everything we're going through.
Future: Your well-being will dictate the success of the next generation. Children of immigrants help their parents navigate the system. We need to shape them to become leaders.
Trauma: At an early age, they have navigated different cultures to communicate with different audiences. But they could have certain traumas that need to be healed as well.
Unity: 24% of the Latino community self-identifies as Afro-Latino. And they fall through the cracks because they don't feel they are Latino enough, or they're Black enough. We need to unite as Latinos and rise together.
Motherhood: As mothers, there are limiting beliefs from our culture that to be good mothers, we have to be there full-time and make hot dinners every night. But that could be too much and it could lead to burnout. Delegation is important.
Time: Find those little moments to sit down and talk with your kids. Have meaningful conversations with them.
Self: We forget to put ourselves first to then take care of others. And there is guilt in putting yourself first in our culture and that it’s selfish.
Team: To be a successful mother and a successful professional is not something you can do on your own. It's a team effort.
Mindset: We, as Latinas, need to open our mindsets and create a life that makes us happy individually.
Culture: Merge the culture of the heart (nurturing family and friends) and the culture of the mind (results, career progression, numbers).
Opportunities: Being willing to discover possibilities. Allow yourself to flow with whatever is present. If you combine this idea of this desire to touch a lot of people with the power of the business mind, you could be the master of scale.
If you enjoyed this conversation, check out these episodes with similar themes:
Links to continue to learn from:
Website: www.uncolonizedlatinas.com and www.abundanciaconsciente.net Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valeriaaloe/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valoe Book: Uncolonized Latinas: Transforming Our Mindsets And Rising TogetherWant to grab your free copy of the Courage Makerspace (™) Playbook?
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