The purpose of this study is to allow space for mothers to provide their voices both in the design and implementation of research about their experiences. As stereotypes such as the welfare queen, hypersexualized baby-breeder and lazy immigrant come together, they have specific consequences for Latina mothers that are raising children entirely or mostly by themselves. The goal here is to conduct a descriptive study where mothers have the agency to tell their stories the way they choose, rather than the way an outsider would tell it. This is inspired by the style of testimonio, a Latina Feminist research method articulated by the Latina Feminist Group in "Telling to Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios". 

My role in this began and continued with substantial readings about motherhood, latina parenting, immigrant families, family studies, policy, and more. Using these reading and my own experiences as the daughter of a single latina mom, I formulated questions to get at demographic info that would allow the women to tell their stories in a pointed but not limited way. I spent time with the mothers both in their homes with their children and in public spaces. Dr. Nia helped to connect me to the mothers, provided editing and writing input on the IRB and recruitment process, and her ideas and input on the direction of the project. 

Over the course of the open-ended interviews I conducted with the mothers, several themes emerged in their stories. I list those themes below, but in an effort to not remove the story from the person it belongs to I have also included a page on each of the mothers to preserve the ownership of their stories.

The original goal of this project was to conduct a descriptive study where mothers had the agency to both create and answer questions about their experiences. As the beginning of this I sought demographic information from the participants that would allow me and the reader to place their stories in context of their identities and life experiences. However, through the course of gathering this demographic information I found it to be rich with data in itself and worthy of further examination. In many ways the mothers did create their own questions by taking the open-ended question they were given and providing the information and stories that they felt were important.