This month’s issue of Milwaukee Magazine features the six winners of its 2024 Betty Awards.
The awards honor extraordinary women who are doing remarkable work in Milwaukee.
One of the recipients is Mariana Rodriguez. She’s the founder and director of the Latina Resource Center for UMOS, a nonprofit that advocates for underserved people.
Rodriguez was recognized for her work in providing support to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking in the Latino community.
Lake Effect’s Xcaret Nuñez spoke with Rodriguez, who shared how she’s seen the resource center grow since it opened 23 years ago.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Mariana Rodriguez: We started in a little corner office. I had no staff. I had just had my daughter. I think the expectation was very focused like, ‘Let’s address this.’ And very quickly, we realized there were other things that were happening in the lives of victims: sexual assault, immigration needs, poverty, economic support. So all of these factors played a role in why it was difficult for women to leave abusive relationships.
So it was the victims who really pushed for more and designed what kind of a center needed to happen to help victims. So it was beyond a shelter, because often in communities of color, a shelter is not always the answer. So I like to say that cultural-specific centers, like the Latina Resource Center, have played a very big role in reshaping the movement of responding to the needs of domestic violence victims.
So I think that I really learned to respect and understand my role in all of this — my number one job is to listen. To really listen to our community and really hear what it is that they're saying, and how do I strategize to make those things that they need a reality? So the survivors have really made me grow as a human being. They’ve made me grow to be brave and to work hard. I always say this — where I'm at today is because of all of those families that have come through the center, and I am so deeply grateful to them for who I am right now as a woman and as a leader.
Is this issue personal to you or does it touch your life in any way?
It is very personal to me in many different ways. As a survivor myself, in my teen years of dating violence, it's very much a personal mission for me to really reach out to youth and to educate them and empower them about information and healthy relationships.
The other part too, that is extremely personal, is the human trafficking. My father was a sponsored worker, and that's what brought my family to the United States, and he experienced a great deal of exploitation and abuse. You know, we didn't have that terminology back then. We didn't have federal law back then on human trafficking, and so everything that my father went through, there's a lot of things that are very much personal to me. I was exposed to a lot of violence in my home too. So there's a lot of elements of what I do that really comes from a place of ‘I know this, I've been here, and I think I have something that I can do to help.’
Milwaukee Magazine's Betty Awards is meant to recognize remarkable women in the community supporting other women — as you are doing. What does this award mean to you?
This award means a lot in terms of the work that goes into helping build a community to be safer. It means a lot to me because it validates everything that has been done to advocate and its impact — to me, it's a symbol of what we did together. It's a reflection of an entire community. I don't think it's just about me, but it's giving me the opportunity to share the story of this very small but mighty center.
You can find an article about Rodriguez and other Betty Award winners in Milwaukee Magazine’s November Issue, which is out now.
