Tell me a little bit about yourself and what it’s like being a parent today.
I just turned 40. I’m a mom of an autistic 6-year-old boy. I’m a first-time mom, but my partner has a 22-year-old daughter who’s out of the house.
Nobody expects your child to be born with a neurological disability. There’s no manual for parenting. We all just do the best that we can. I have a sibling who has a son who’s also on the spectrum, so I feel like I did get a little bit of insight into what that’s like from my sister. However, compared to what they went through, I feel like now there are a lot more accommodations and services for special needs children that alleviate that burden on the parents and do give us a lot of help. Especially for my son’s development in school, so I’m trying to navigate that right now.
Also, living in Los Angeles with one income is nearly impossible unless you’re making a whole lot of money. So, we’re not planning on having more kids, and of course my age is a huge factor, but also financially it almost feels impossible.
You’re also a part of LIFT’s entrepreneurship program. Can you tell me a little bit about that experience, what that’s like, and how that program has affected your life?
I feel like the program has helped me to continue to understand the rules of carrying a business. There’s a lot of invitations that come through for learning things outside of just the first steps of starting a business. I’m learning about the employment laws in California, I thought that was super important.
Can you tell me a little bit about your business?
I’m now a stay-at-home mom, but at the time I got my license to be a private patrol operator for a security company. My partner and I now have a security business called Wolf and Raven Security in Los Angeles (my son, his name is Wolfgang and my partner’s daughter is Raven). We do security for filming. I’m the qualified manager and I do invoices, basically all the office stuff, while my partner is out in the field making sure randoms aren’t coming through, protecting equipment and being vigilant of the area, making sure that the cast and the crew are all safe.
Has your experience as a parent influenced your drive to be an entrepreneur?
Oh yeah, for sure. My partner and I, way before we started the program, were homeless. We were on the street. We were addicted to drugs. And then his uncle came out and found us, and we were doing really bad, we were under a bridge, and he was like, ‘what are you guys doing?’ And he told Henry, my partner, ‘this, isn’t you. You have got to cleaned up. I’m going to give you a chance, but I need you to get yourself out of this situation.’
We always talk about how interesting it is that his Tio [Chava] came looking for us when we were both at the end of our rope. Not just like quote unquote rock bottom, but like life kind of didn’t matter anymore. We were in a very sad, dark place. But after, we sobered up. We came back together and started working, doing security, minimum wage and it was fine. And then I got pregnant. And we’re like, ‘oh, no. What are we gonna do?’
It changed everything because it was OK to be poor, for us. We grew up humble. We had just come from the streets. So, anything that we had was better than where we were at. I continued to work up until I couldn’t and then we went down to one income. So, my partner started working twice as much as before and he was killing himself. He’d come home and he’d just sleep because he was so exhausted.
So, we’re like, ‘what if we start our own company doing the same thing we’re already doing?’ Chava and Henry became well-known in the industry for being good people, good workers, and so I started learning. And trying to learn the process while having a baby, it was hard. I had a lot of struggles trying to understand.
Separately we started noticing my son had a developmental delay. He wasn’t reaching his milestones and it also made us a little bit more like, ‘Oh my God, Belen, you need to stay home. We need to get this business going.’
He totally encouraged us to do better. Cause it’s okay for us to only have enough for us, that was enough. But bringing a whole new human into this world is like, nah, if he wants a taco, he’s gonna get a taco. If he wants something more, we want him to be able to have all that. It made us want more out of life
How did the Entrepreneurship program help guide you in your plans?
I was doing the LIFT coaching first and that was really helpful because I was trying to navigate other things. I had stepped away from society for a while, so coming back and literally relearning things…I don’t even know how to explain it but making lists, making my appointments, doing things… when you step away from this routine, from doing all the things that you’re supposed to be doing, you have to get back into it. And it’s weird. It was really helpful to have coaches give me some tools and even help me research certain things for my son. I feel like all moms should have coaching.
When I did the Community Business Academy, it helped me with what the model would look like for my future business. Things that I had not considered. And then with the Entrepreneur Program, I was able to learn certain things through the online information. Also, just being able to come in and talk to Carlos [LIFT-LA’s Director of Entrepreneurship] to figure out some applications and things that I need to do has also been helpful. As a mother, and my partner always going to work, a lot of these things I’m trying to learn and tackle on my own.
I also know that you were interviewed by the press to tell your story. Can you tell us a little bit about that experience and what it was like to share your voice with the world?
Many times, when my partner and I have had the opportunity to share our experience, there’s always someone that will take us aside and say, ‘I have a person who’s in their addiction and your story gave me hope,’ and that makes me feel so happy because it’s true. I’ve had family members, including myself, get lost. And I do want people to know that it’s not always the end of the world. You can give a person another chance. I can’t speak for everybody, but I do want people to know that there is a possibility that the person can recover and start over.
I don’t really like speaking in general. I’m kind of shy. Speaking to a lot of people, I do feel a little uncomfortable. But when I know that there’s a message that can be passed on, I didn’t feel like it was really about me. It was more like I wanted to promote something that I think is good for the community. When I look at it like that, then it’s easier for me to be like ‘hell yeah, I help this out, more people see this, and maybe a family or a parent feels inspired to start reflecting on ‘could my dreams come true if I if I apply myself?’’ Yes, they can.
What do you wish the average person could know about what it’s like to be a parent in today’s day and age?
I think it’s unfair for a parent to have to drop off their children somewhere to go and work. It’s like we’re spending less and less time together as a family because we’re working. It takes away from the family unit. I wish that more people had the opportunity that I did as far as having that kind of support because it really made a difference in our lives.
What does advocacy mean to you? How would you want to use your voice to advocate for the things that you think we need?
As a mother, there’s a lot of different causes that are more near and dear to my heart than I ever thought of before. I feel like in my youth, I was for sure a social justice to the core person, but I didn’t do anything about it. I was too busy partying. And now, looking at the world more realistically than just lost in my own world, and having a son, and having a son with disabilities and being a Mexicana, there’s so many things that are at risk. I want to be a conscious business owner. I want our people to come up and not to walk around in fear. I don’t want my son’s services to be taken away, because they’re for his development.