Women's eNews (https://womensenews.org/author/zaira-cortes/)
Midnight passes and it is intensely cold on Roosevelt Avenue. On the corner of 82 Street, Maria Gomez, a-39-year-old Mexican, carefully cleans the space occupied by her food cart.
With water and "jabón Roma," she brushes the fat off the stove that comes from the meat she cooks to prepare tacos.
A close link between poverty and migration exists. Without employment, education, adequate food plus a machista culture, indigenous women face a challenge. Crossing the border may be the only way to get a better life.
Many immigrant mothers who do not speak English find it difficult to find assistance for their children in the U.S. health and education systems.
In her first blog Global Connect! writer Zaira Cortés uses one case of domestic violence in her community to talk about domestic violence against all women to raise awareness of the problem and to encourage women to report incidents.