CO-FOUNDER & CHIEF EDUCATION OFFICER

Dr. María Del Socorro Castañeda is Co-Founder & Chief Education Officer, with her teenage daughter Lupita, of Becoming Mujeres. A firm that helps Latina teens and their female caregivers to translate cultural expectations into opportunities. Dr. Castañeda is a sociologist and ethnographer. She holds a B.S. in sociology from Santa Clara University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Castañeda is a Ford Foundation fellow and award-winning author of “Our Lady of Everyday Life: La Virgen de Guadalupe and the Catholic Imagination of Mexican Women in America,” published by Oxford University Press, 2018. Before co-founding Becoming Mujeres, she was Assistant Professor at Santa Clara University in the Religious Studies Department. Dr. Castañeda is a sought-out speaker and expert in the areas of Mexican popular Catholicism, Our Lady of Guadalupe devotion, LatinX cultural expectations, mother-daughter communication, and teenage girls and social pressures. Her research has also been supported by the Hispanic Theological Initiative and The Louisville Institute. She was born in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México and immigrated to the United States, undocumented, as a child. Dr. Castañeda’s goal is to teach Latina teens and women how to transgress oppressive gendered cultural expectations and become the mujeres they were meant to be.

CO-FOUNDER & CHIEF INSPIRATIONAL OFFICER

Lupita Castañeda-Liles is Co-Founder & Chief Inspirational Officer, with her mother, of Becoming Mujeres a firm that helps Latina teens and their female caregivers to translate cultural expectations into opportunities. Lupita is the author of the forthcoming children’s book, I Now Smile More. The book is about the positive aspects of having divorced parents. I Now Smile More, not only tells the story about a young girl and her experience of having divorced parents, but it illustrates how she handles the experience. Besides writing, she also enjoys the outdoors, cooking with her abuelita, and playing with her dog. Lupita is in middle school. Her goal is to foster positivity among teens.