STRUGGLES AS A TEEN MOM Photo contributed by Lucia Gutierrez Lucia Gutierrez and her husband, Edgar Gutierrez, take a family photo with their three children, Melanie Gutierrez, Edgar Gutierrez Jr. and Briana Balmori.
By Teresa Balmori Perez
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t was late afternoon when my sister and I arrived at my cousin’s house. We entered her house, where she converted her bedroom into her own proper salon. This is where she operates her own business doing eyelash extensions. As she removed my sister’s old eyelash extensions, she told us about her big plans for her daughter’s quinceañera. “Briana wants a red dress for her quinceañera,” my cousin said. “When is the party?” I asked. “It might be in May, next year, right around her birthday,” she said.
8 | SPRING 2023
Lucia Gutierrez has been raising her daughter, Briana Balmori, since she was a teenager. She found out she was pregnant at the age of 15. During this time, she was expecting to have a quinceañera. However, due to her being pregnant, she was not able to have one.
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ccording to Gutierrez, before she found out about her pregnancy, she was living with her boyfriend after moving out of her parents house. “My step-dad was always against me like, he just always neglected me. He always just put [my halfsiblings] before me and it was sad,” Gutierrez said. “My mom
would never have my back; she would always have his back. I felt like [moving in with my boyfriend] was my only way out from the home that my mom provided that didn’t even feel like a home.” Soon after she moved in with her boyfriend, she discovered that she was pregnant. Gutierrez and her boyfriend were the same age. She told her boyfriend about her situation with her step-dad and he offered her to stay with his family. “I was just scared. I felt like the whole world just collapsed,” Gutierrez said. Gutierrez explained that she