A first-generation college graduate, corporate professional, and now mom of four, Ash reflects on her journey to motherhood
“Are you proud of me?” I asked my dad years ago. “I mean… for going to college and then choosing to stay home?”
“Of course, I am.”
“It’s just… you and Mom gave us that chance.”
“Don’t even worry about that.”
That conversation stuck with me. Because how do you explain the weight of generational progress? The feeling of holding a college degree — hard-won by the sacrifices of grandparents who worked in fields under the sun and parents who did whatever it took to get by — only to decide that your next calling was one not tied to paychecks or promotions?
My dad is the son of Mexican migrant workers. He spent much of his childhood working in the fields, his hands blistered before he was old enough to vote. Later, as a bi-vocational minister, he pastored a church while working long hours at a manufacturing plant. He didn’t finish his seminary associate’s degree until his late 30s — balancing work, ministry, and fatherhood along the way.
My mom also came from a family that saw the fields. She worked as a waitress before I was born, then later found a job at an elementary school — a job she’s held onto for decades. She earned her high school diploma but always wanted more. Still, she poured everything into her children’s future — into my future.
Together, they built a life they never had — one that included college dreams for their kids. And we made good on that dream. My brother, sister, and I all became first-generation college graduates, and we wore that title with pride. My brother and sister took it a step further and earned their Masters degrees at a prestigious university.
But my journey took a turn my degree didn’t prepare me for.
Before becoming a mom, I built a promising career. A young Mexican-American woman in a corporate environment, fluent in two languages, navigating rooms where I was often the only person of color at the table. I was proud of where I came from and how far I’d come — from a family who spent 12-hour days in the sun to a place where I could request a stability ball for an office chair and chat over gourmet food trucks at lunch.
Then came motherhood.
My path into motherhood wasn’t easy. I experienced three miscarriages before our first child was born, and another between babies two and three. Those losses broke me in quiet ways, but they also reshaped my faith, my strength, and my purpose. When I finally held my first baby, I held not just a child, but a victory.
I eventually made the choice to step away from the traditional career I’d worked so hard to build. I didn’t make that choice lightly. I battled guilt — asking myself if I was squandering the opportunities my parents and grandparents had worked so hard for. Less than 25% of Latinx Americans aged 25 to 64 had a two-year college degree or higher in 2016. I was part of a small but growing number — and I was leaving the boardroom to raise babies.
Would my parents be disappointed? Would they be proud of the mom I was becoming?
Since then, everything has changed.
I’m now a mom of four daughters. I’ve survived postpartum depression three times. I’ve survived a postpartum hemorrhage that nearly took my life. And in the thick of it all, I built Latina Mom Collective, a business rooted in my culture and my calling.
I’ve found my way in the messy middle — balancing client calls with classroom snack duty, writing strategies one moment and teaching my girls how to make fresh tortillas the next. I’m not choosing between motherhood and ambition — I’m redefining both.
And through it all, I know now that I am honoring my parents’ legacy. Not just with a degree or a career, but with a life that reflects their sacrifices, their values, and their dreams.
I’m raising four strong, compassionate, and culturally-rooted girls who know where they come from — and believe they can go anywhere.
I may not bring home a lavish paycheck, but I bring love, history, and power into our home every day.
I am a proud, college-educated Latina mother.
And that is more than enough.
