Viva la Mami - Latina Motherhood, Modern Parenting, Latina Well-Being

126. Season 5 Premiere

• Jessica Cuevas • Season 5 • Episode 126

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Welcome to Season 5 of Viva la Mami! I'm so excited to share this new season focused on reclaiming our cultura as Latina mothers. In this premiere episode, I open up about what's been happening in my household with my boys who are 4 and under, and how watching them naturally connect with our traditions inspired this season's theme.

I share updates on our podcast journey - we now have over 120 episodes and 6,000+ downloads - and discuss how we're expanding the show while staying true to our mission of empowering Latina moms to redefine madrehood on their own terms.

What You'll Hear:

  • How my boys' natural curiosity about our cultura sparked this season's focus on reclaiming our roots
  • What "reclaiming our cultura" means for modern Latina mothers and why we don't have to choose between worlds
  • This season's exciting lineup
  • Four ways you can support Viva la Mami as we grow and expand to new platforms like YouTube
  • A major announcement coming this Monday, May 26th that newsletter subscribers will hear first

For detailed show notes, visit vivalamami.com/episode126

Resources Mentioned:

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Welcome back to the Viva la Mami podcast. I am your host, Jessica Cuevas, and I am absolutely thrilled to welcome you to season five of our show. If you've been with me since the beginning, bueno, thank you so much for sticking with me through this incredible journey. And if you're new here. You've joined us at such an exciting time because this season is going to be unlike any other, and mammies. I have some huge news coming that I'm literally bursting to share with you. You'll have to wait for just a little bit if you haven't signed up for a newsletter yet, now is the time the Viva la Mami newsletter subscribers will be the absolute first to know about this exciting announcement coming Monday, May 26th. So trust me, you don't want to miss this one. Before we dive into what's coming this season, let me give you a little update on life in the Cuevas household. Well, my boys are growing up so fast and it's just wild to me how fast. Time really goes by my youngest one, Mateo, will be turning two this coming Monday, and I just can't believe it. I remember when I first created this podcast, I wasn't even pregnant of him. And Diego, my oldest, who will be soon a four and a half year old, was just around 18 months when I started the show. And so time absolutely passes by when you're in the thick of madrehood with two little ones who are for and under. We are still in Chicago. We are house hacking and honestly, we're still figuring it out one day at a time. But you know what? Something beautiful has been happening in our home lately, and I've been watching my boys naturally gravitating toward their cultura. In fact, just recently, we came back from Mexico for a quick trip, and I just love how they're so connected with the language. Diego at this point is a Spanish dominant kid who really, Spanish is all that he's interested in speaking and so I am just letting him really embrace his cultcultura through language. And Mateo is also developing his language skills and. I just love how they are communicating with mis abuelitos, mis tios, mis tias, even my cousins who are back home in Mexico, and they are really embracing this sense of identity that we often lose here in this country, in the United States. And so. From them wanting to hear Spanish songs like 1,2,3 Andrés and asking questions about our family traditions. It is such absolute joy to see them really embrace their cultura in a way that our ancestors really wanted us to keep holding on. And so these moments, like these really got me thinking. And how many of us Latina moms sometimes feel like we're kind of caught between two different worlds. Like we're trying to honor where we come from while also embracing where we are. And this realization became the heartbeat of what Season five is all about. And so, you know, after. Over 120 episodes now, which is wild. Um, I've been reflecting on this incredible journey that we've been on together. When I started Viva La it was purely from the heart, a labor of love from my own need to see ourselves represented, to hear our stories, to feel less alone in this wild ride of being a Latina mom. And look at us now. We have over 6,000 downloads and we're still counting, and this community just keeps growing. But here's the thing, mommies, and I'm being completely honest and transparent with you. What started as this passion project has grown into something that deserves to thrive as a sustainable platform. And so we've built something beautiful together and I'm ready to take it to the next level. Here's what's been on my mind. Did you know that we as Latinas are the largest consumer group in the United States? We have incredible purchasing power and that is over trillion annually. Yet, how often do we direct that power back into our own comunidad? How often do we support the Latina owned businesses that are creating exactly what we need? I've poured my heart into this platform because I believe in the power of our community. I believe in the magic that happens when Latina moms support each other. And as we enter this new season on this podcast, I want to share how you can be part of growing this movement. Especially because some big changes are coming that will make this support even more meaningful. But first, let me tell you what Season five is all about. Well, amiga, this season we are diving deep into something that I believe is at the core of our mahood journey, and that is reclaiming our cultura. I am talking about those beautiful traditions, practices, and wisdom that are abuelas and mamas passed down to us. The ones we might have tucked away because they didn't feel modern enough or because we weren't sure how they fit into our lives as modern mama. And I've also been thinking about how there is beauty within our Cultcultura, whether if you have family from Mexico or Guatemala or anywhere within Latin America, or even Espania, and our African ancestors as well. But what I've learned is that our cultura isn't something that we need to choose between. It's something we can weave beautifully into our modern motherhood. We don't have to be, we can be, and that's our superpower. And so this season we are going to explore how to raise bilingual children without the guilt of not doing enough. We're going to talk about ancestral practices that can actually support us in our modern parenting journey from traditional postpartum care to healthy remedies. Our abuela, we're going to have conversations about how to pass down our stories, our language, and our values to our. peques in a way that feels authentic and sustainable for our busy lives. And trust me, some of the conversations we'll be having this season are going to take on a whole new meaning with the big announcement I have coming up. And so as always, you can expect are three types of episodes that you've been come to love and the first one are. My solo episodes, and I'll be sharing my own journey of reclaiming Cultura in my household, the wins, the struggles, the everything in between. I'll be getting real about bilingual parenting and maintaining traditions when you feel disconnected from them, and about finding our way back to practices that can actually serve us modern mamas. And let me tell you. My upcoming adventure is going to give me so much content to share with you about this journey, and so stay tuned as I will be sharing some more solo episodes about this. I'll also be having expert guests on the show who really understand our unique experiences as Latina mamas. We'll be talking to bilingual speech therapists, cultural historians, traditional healers, entrepreneurs who are really understanding how we can. Embrace our cultura as bilingual mamas, as modern mamas, and we're also going to interview child development experts who can give us practical advice for honoring our cultura while raising confident bicultural children. And of course, our. VLM Spotlight episodes where real mamas, just like you share their stories. This season, you'll be hearing from many mamas who are being intentional in raising bilingual children, mamas who are incorporating traditional healing into their families' wellness routines, and mamas who are creating new traditions that blend the old with the new. And of course so much more. But I am being intentional about the guests and the topics that are discussed in this season as it comes to how we can reclaim our cultura. And it's really being intentional of how we have that superpower in being right and. embracing just like how we can bridge these two identities into one really, and that this is what makes us unique as mamas who are Spanish speaking, who are Latinas, who are bicultcultural, who are multicultcultural or multilingual. And so this is the essence of the season, and here's something exciting for you. Starting this season, we're also expanding to YouTube. I have a YouTube channel. If you didn't know that, and my audio episodes automatically go to YouTube. So if you are not like an Apple user or a Spotify user, or Amazon or whatever other podcast platform you utilize, YouTube also has a way for my episodes to convert. On YouTube, however, these are just audio based. It's just like the image of my podcast cover, but I. This time around, I will be having video. And I initially had that in the very beginning when I had the bandwidth, but then life happened and I became a mama of two, and life was just busy. But now that I'm in a season where I'm, for the most part, solely dedicating my. business, I am able to now edit and, be able to really have this YouTube channel to be intentional. And you'll be able to see facial expressions during personal stories. And for our expert interviews, you'll be able to see. Them as well. And so if you prefer to watch these podcast episodes on YouTube. Now there will be video ones and there will also be additional content on YouTube that is in addition to the podcast, so I'll be sharing that more as time goes on. But just to let you know that we're also going to exist on YouTube. And so now I want to share four ways that you can support Viva la Mami as we grow into this new season. And trust me, your support is going to be more important than. Ever with what's coming. Number one, keep doing what you're hopefully already doing, and that is listening to the podcast and subscribing to our YouTube channel. But here's how you can amplify it. What I would love for you to do is to subscribe if you haven't already, and leave us reviews. And seriously, like those five star reviews, changes everything for the algorithm to work, and it could work on my favor. And please, please share episodes that resonate with you. When you share our content, you're helping other mommies find their people as well. And oh, and I love when you slide into my dms with topic suggestions or guests you'd love to hear from. So your voice literally shapes what we talk about here. Number two, subscribe to our VLM newsletter. It's completely free and it comes to your inbox once a week. And our newsletter subscribers are always the first to know about special announcements, events and resources. And speaking of special announcements, if you haven't subscribed yet. You need to do this before Monday, May 26th, because I have some huge news to share and I'm dying to share, really. And so newsletter subscribers will be the absolute first to know about this special announcement. And trust me on this am all right. Number three, join the VLM Collective. This is our membership community, a sisterhood of Latina maas who truly get it. We offer different membership tiers to meet you exactly where you are in your journey. It's about connection, mentorship, and. Celebrating our cultcultural identity while we grow personally and professionally. And we're also revamping the collective to create more deeper connections and more meaningful community experiences, especially with some of the changes coming to Viva la Mami. So if you've been on the fence, now is the perfect time to join our. VLM Collective, and I'll be sharing the link in the show notes as well as all the things that I'm sharing here on this episode. And finally, number four, check out our VLM merch and resources when you shop online through Viva la Mami, you are not just getting something beautiful, you're directly supporting the growth of this platform. Every purchase helps us create more content, host more events, reach more mommies, and now produce quality video content for YouTube. But here's what I really want you to understand. Your support, whether if it's a follow, a listen, a watch, a share, or a simple interaction, it all matters. You're not just supporting a podcast or a business. You are supporting a movement that says that Latina mothers deserve spaces created specifically for us by us. When you engage with Viva la Mami, when you share our content, when you tell another mommy about us, you are creating ripples. You are helping build something that honors our experiences and elevates our voices. And so if you are feeling disconnected with your cultura. If you're one of those mamas who feels like you don't know enough to pass anything down, well Amiga this season is especially for you because reclaiming our cultura isn't about being perfect or knowing absolutely everything. And trust me, even though I am raising Spanish dominant kids, this doesn't mean that. The mental load isn't real like it is so real. The mental load of bilingual parenting is so real, and it's about being curious, asking questions, and taking small steps towards honoring our roots while growing into the mamas that we want to be. So send me an email if you have any questions or you wanna share your story or if you have any. episode topic suggestions, you can email me at podcast@vivalamami.com and you can also tell me about cultcultural practices that you're curious about, the traditions you want to reclaim, but don't know how or the ways your. Already weaving cultura into your motherhood journey. And seriously, if you take one action from this episode, make it signing up for our newsletter before Monday. I cannot stress this enough. The announcement I have is going to change everything about how we approach this journey of reclaiming our cultura together. And so Amiga, I am so excited to embark on this journey of reclaiming our cultura together. Remember, you don't have to have all the answers. You don't have to be the perfect keeper of traditions. Also, you just have to be willing to explore. To learn and to honor the beautiful blend of who you are and where you come from. Our cultura is not something that holds us back. It's something that propels us to move forward. It's our strength, our wisdom, and our gift to our own peques. All right, am Well, thank you for being here, for trusting me with your time and for being part of this incredible community of Latina mamás who are redefining what madrehood looks like. So here's my challenge for you today. Pick one way to support us and take action. And if you do nothing else, please sign up for the newsletter before Monday, May 26th. You're going to want to be the first to know what's coming. All right, amiga. Well, thank you so much for listening, hasta la próxima, and I'll catch you in the next episode.