Watch Mom Reveal Dark Secret That Compelled Her to Over-Protect Daughter

The Latina Love Project profiles the lives of women — mothers, daughters, sisters — who often sacrifice their self-care in their struggle to balance and care for family, friends, and work. In this series sponsored by Ford, we spotlight their struggles and triumphs and learn how they create time for their themselves.

In last week’s episode of the Latina Love Project series, we saw Daniela Herrera, a 22-year-old college student working toward a degree in journalism, and her brother Christian, a 16-year-old high school junior, go head-to-head in an emotional exchange about family secrets, old wounds and regrets. This week, Daniela sat down with her 44-year-old Colombian mother Maribel Tapia, who works in early childhood education, to understand the hard choices and sacrifices she had to make to protect her daughter from sexual abuse and insure she’d grow into the healthy, strong, and independent women she is today. In a compelling and deeply affecting conversation, the two get closer as they unpack a painful history.