Wanda Fraguada

"Having the role of Mother teaches you more about yourself. You have the responsibility of teaching this other person. You have to push yourself further. I am going to create and raise an amazing human being. And you have to push a little bit harder to show them things are possible." - Wanda Fraguada is a mother and she works at Parallel18.

Maria de Remedio Martinez

In honor of upcoming Mother's Day I will be posting EVE's all week who are mothers. Enjoy.

Today's EVE: Maria de Remedio Martinez

"I give thanks to God that I am a woman so that I could have my sons and my husband and live a happy life." - Maria de Remedio Martinez owns Zaragoza, a Mexican deli/market in the East Village.#damnrightiatetheapple #mothersday

Carolina Rojas

"I have two boys.  Going through the pain of labor and then forgetting the pain once you hold the baby and then an overwhelming feeling you are responsible for a person. I constantly question whether I am doing this right." - Carolina Rojas lives in Los Angeles and is the mother of two boys.

Melissa Tomback

"I gave birth to my younger child, Jacob in my home and that was so empowering.  It made me feel like I could do anything. In contrast to my first pregnancy and my daughter's birth, where I had so much doubt about becoming a new mother and read books and got lots of advice.  Also, after she was born I had postpartum depression.  With the second pregnancy, I realized I had the intuition to deliver him and raise him myself. We had a family bed and I was just calmer, not as anxious." -  Melissa Tomback is a mother, lawyer, photographer and doula.

Zulema Gomez Piedra

"Becoming a Mother was a marvelous thing. I have a four year old boy and I have learned so much from raising him. I teach him and he teaches me." - Zulema Gomez Piedra is a mother and a waitress at Restaurante Jacqueline in Saladita, Mexico.

Brigida Belém Cabrera Reyes

"For me as a woman, becoming a mother was like passing on to the next level of a video game. I can't go back to the level where I was before. It's a wonderful thing. And as a woman, I have always felt a special feeling and need to care for others. Even here at my job I look after my employees. I have worked here for eight years and we are a family here. I feel like I need to protect everyone and this isn't a feeling I can run away from." -  Brigida Belém Cabrera Reyes is the manager of The Inn at Manzanillo Bay in Troncones, Mexico.

Alexandria Cmaylo

"I lost my son, Bear. Absolutely the most joy in my life came from him and the most pain I've experienced came from losing him. And that experience will never be matched. In Bear's birth and in his death he saved me. Joe Biden said, "You get to a point where the memories make you smile more than the pain hurts." He was my only one, and I'm too old to have another. " - Alexandria Cmaylo is an artist and lives in New Orleans.

Dianthe Johnson

"I told myself if I didn't have a baby by the time I was 25, I wasn't gonna have one. I wanted to have a baby, raise her and still be able to be young and live my life. I raised my baby. I'm still young, I move around and I enjoy life." - Dianthe Johnson works in the construction field and is also a Lyft driver in New Orleans.

Ellen Hagler

"I have amazing kids. Being a woman and being able to have children is wonderful but it can also be confining. I couldn't continue with my career because my husband and I started our family. With my husband's career and schedule it would have been really difficult to maintain a house and a family if we were both working. It was a choice to stay home. I am a rather conventional person and I couldn't see myself taking to the streets. This was during the 60's it was a time of turmoil in this country.  It was the beginning of the women's movement. But I wasn't going to go out and burn my bra in protest. That just wasn't me." Ellen Hagler has two children and four grandchildren.  This is my mother and what better day to feature my mother to whom I am  grateful for so many things including the spread she cooked today. 

Kate Winslow

“The work that I do now, and the life and profession that I’ve created with my husband is due in part to being a woman. My real love is home cooking and I’ve been able to explore it naturally and parley that love into my work partially because I am a woman and that is a real joy. Sometimes I do beat myself up b/c I felt I should be doing something grander. But at the end of the day I don’t think there is anything more important than feeding people or teaching people to feed themselves.” – Kate Winslow is a recipe developer and editor. To see her work visit kateandguy.com or @andweate.

Michel L.

"I have one child and one on the way. I've had the opportunity to give birth and the opportunity to be a guide for them, to teach them to be good people and to help others." - Michel L. is originally from Guatemala and lives in Santa Fe, NM and sells clothing near the plaza.

Amanda Tafoya

"Being a teen mother at 17, changed my life. I remember looking into my baby's big blue eyes and I was determined he would have different parenting than I did. I didn't want him to feel unloved or uneducated like I felt. So, I signed up for emotional intelligence classes and I signed up for a parenting class that I went to once a week for many years. And then I sent him off to Duke University where he will be a senior next year.  I have three more children and all of those parenting and education skills trickled down to them as well.  And, after getting my GED I also received my EMT and nursing licenses. And most recently I've become a licensed real estate agent."  Amanda Tafoya is a real estate agent in Taos, New Mexico.

Judy Walgren

"The birth of my son completely crystallized all of my priorities. Anything other than my son moved into 2nd, 3rd, 4th place.  He is still my foundation from which I live my life." - Judy Walgren is the editorial director at Viewfind.com.

Ella Romancito

"Having a child has changed my life. I didn't go to college but I did want to go. Now I am just trying to make it in this town without a college degree. But even if you do have a college degree the options are either working at Walmart or working some job on the Plaza. Rent is expensive and the locals can't afford it. Motherhood is hard and I am just trying to get enough sleep. I still feel like I have bouts of postpartum depression and I am just trying to have enough motivation to get out of bed." - Ella Romancito is a young mother living in Taos, New Mexico.

Donna Hylton

Donna Hylton lives in Brooklyn; she was one of the speakers at the D.C. march rally. “Once, I wasn’t able to speak up for myself but now I can. I am the voice for all women who don’t have a voice or are not allowed a voice. Next week it will be 5 years since I was released from prison. And I am going to Washington to remind people that the women in prison are just like every other woman, mother, daughter, sister. But over 90% of women who are incarcerated are also victims of sexual violence. We have to talk about women and violence. Our very humanity is on the line.”

Dorie Hagler

disclaimer: I am far more comfortable on the other side of the lens and not so good at selfies. "I really love being a woman. For one, I can do this project. I can walk up to complete strangers, ask to make their photograph and then spend 5-10 minutes listening to them share with me important and intimate events from their lives. I have two wonderful daughters and I have a meaningful career. I might feel differently about being a woman if I weren't born in the United States.  If I had to get up at 4am to walk a mile to the river in order to fetch water and had little access to education, I might not love being a woman so much." - Dorie Hagler photographer/activist founder of me&EVE.

Cara Valente Compton

"I had a son that I gave up for adoption when I was 22 years old. It was the biggest heartbreak of my life, but now we are in touch and he has a child and get to sneak peaks at my grandchild.  I have four more children who I have raised - three daughters and one son. Motherhood has really been the most empowering thing in my life.  My youngest child, my son, is transgender and wants to be called Hazel.  So I guess I really have four daughters." - Cara Valente Compton is a Truman Scholar and she attended the Truman Foundation's 40th Anniversary Party at Gracie Mansion earlier this month.

Andi Schreiber

"I spoke with my sons this morning. They are sad about the outcome of the election and they also always pick up what we are feeling. I really believe that change starts close to home.  Now is the time for acts of kindness and introspection and finding ways to lift ourselves and everyone else up. We need to open our hearts more, even if we really don't feel like doing it today, we need to." - Andi Schreiber  

Tattum Yvon

"I had a miscarriage. It was rough." - Tattum Yvon is a fashion stylist.