WSHU: Hi, I'm Randy Kaye, and this is Good at Heart, conversations with people who quietly make the world better. Today's guest, Marlene Correa, am I saying that correctly?
Marlene Correa: That's correct.
WSHU: Was nominated by her daughter. Lillian Chavez, I love when daughters nominate their moms. That shows such an amazing relationship, and Lillian did this from the form on our website @wshu.org, where you can nominate somebody as well. And this is what Lillian had to say about her mother.
"Marlene Correa, I can't think of a more resilient woman who chose to believe that no is not an option for her. She knew no English. Immigrated in her 30s and left an abusive marriage. She was able to start a school and a foundation, which created a pantry for the students during the shutdown. She," I love this sentence. "She created a space that she wished was there for her when she ran away with her kids years ago."
Marlene, welcome to Good at Heart. I'm so excited to speak to you.
M
MC: Thank you for having me here.
WSHU: By the way, it is Gorgeous by Glam.com. So tell me about your school? Who do you help, and how?
MC: I help my friend who feel alone in her destroyed marriage. I have the little girl who never think they have an opportunity for her. I have the mothers who feel that it's nothing for them to do. We help everyone who want to have a better future in their life.
WSHU: I went to your website, and I saw that you have programs for people to become aestheticians, and it's a beauty school, essentially, but it's bilingual. And is it the first bilingual school?
Lily Chavez: So it was the first bilingual school in the state of Connecticut. We actually had to sort of put our foot down with the state, with the Office of Higher Education, to be able to provide these programs in Spanish, because it wasn't a possibility before.
WSHU: Really!
LC: Yeah, so we had to have this big meeting, and our number one argument was, there is no official language in the United States and United States itself, it's multicultural, it's a big melting pot. So many people are coming from so many places. That's how we were created, and that's what's going to help us grow more.
WSHU: I love that, and I've got to say, in this particular political climate, that is a tough argument. I grew up in Queens, New York, which I believe has has the record for the most languages spoken in a county. I think it's like 150 or so, or something like that. So I grew up in a multicultural New York City borough where, you know, they were all kinds of people and all kinds of languages. And yes, English is the one we learned so that we can communicate with each other. So when you say it's bilingual, it's taught in Spanish and in English.
LC: Yes, Spanish and in English. I think the major concern is that sometimes it was thought that people that didn't speak English, there was something wrong with them cognitively, that they just weren't there in their mind. But when you opened up the opportunity and you brought it to the plane that was simple for them and that they understood because it was their own language, you saw them grow. You saw them succeed, and you saw them surpass whatever they thought possible and whatever we believed in them, you know. So it was something that was really important for us. And that's why we started well, Marlene, not us, because I was just a child. But Marlene by herself, a single mom didn't know English, didn't have any life skills, started a school, a state school, to help these women be able to learn in their language and surpass and bring home bread for their families. The fact that we were here now and that now we're in a position that we're able to even start our foundation and be able to give scholarships now, and be able to provide that food pantry, and that we're still ongoing in the food pantry. It's really remarkable.
WSHU: And you're so proud of your mom.
LC: 5,000 percent!
WSHU: I love that, and I will say I have traveled internationally, and there's nothing like being in another country where your English language is not, and they look at you. And it wasn't so bad in France, where I took high school French, but you get that, you know, you pause before you speak, but when I went to Poland to make a speech, and there's nothing that's familiar in Polish, and I didn't have time to learn anything. And it's almost like what it must feel like to be illiterate because you walk by a building and you're like, I don't even know if that's a jail or a university. And there was no Google Translate at the time. So what I'm hearing who you help is not only people who want to learn, but you help them be able to afford it, and you've got a pantry to help feed them. And if you empower the woman as a breadwinner in the family, that changes the whole family. So tell me a bit about your story. So you came here in your 30s with two young children, and Lillian and her sister, her older sister. How old were you?
LC: I was, I believe, 10, and my sister was 13.
WSHU: You come here from Mexico?
MC: Yes.
WSHU: And you were married at that time.
MC: Yes, I was.
WSHU: And not a nice guy.
MC: He wasn't. Well, yeah, that's true.
WSHU: So I believe you told me in your email that you were like home for a year. How did you get from being an abused wife who didn't speak English in a country that was new to you with two young children? How did you get from there to going, I'm going to start a center and help other people.
MC: Oh, wow, yeah, well, it wasn't easy. No, it wasn't easy. It has a lot of struggles. I was alone with my two kids. I was living in an attic in the building.
Lily Chavez: Yeah, after leaving, after leaving the marriage.
WSHU: So you left the marriage with your two kids,
MC: Yes.
WSHU: So now you're alone in Bridgeport, Connecticut?
MC: Yeah.
WSHU: Okay, in an upper-floor apartment, whatever. And you are in school, I imagine at that time?
LC: Yeah, so you know what led up to it is that when she was by herself, and we were children, she was literally all alone because we were too little to understand her struggles. We were just, you know, kids, and my biological father was not the best husband or father to us and to her, and so I think she was...
WSHU: And that was the abusive husband, that was your biological father.
LC: Exactly. So she was just looking at the stations of the year through the window. So she saw one tree that was outside of the door that was in our yard get full of leaves, get brown and red, fall off with the snow and then start budding again, all through the couch. Because she just never she couldn't leave.
WSHU: Were you afraid or you weren't allowed to leave the home?
MC: The thing is, I don't have, the license for Drive. I don't have nothing, no, even the English, you know, so I can’t go to the street. So he said, for your security, you need to be home. You cannot go outside.
LC: So there was a few things that he would say that would kind of frighten her. She would say, if you leave, she came in as a legal resident on her, on her own behalf. And so he would say, if you leave me, you're gone from this country, and you're going to be separated from your children. So it's better if you stay at home, and it's better if you stay here. And so then from that, I think you would go to work. And so then she would go to the library that was about a few miles away. She would walk there in order to be able to learn English. And, you know, years pass and nothing ever changes. They say they'll change, and then nothing happened.
WSHU: Right with abusive relationships, sure. So, just so I have this straight. So you came here, your husband was legal, and you were not.
MC: In that time, he put the application.
WSHU: You were going through the channels to be legally here, and you guys are legally here. I'm talking to us, citizens.
MC & LC: Exactly yes.
WSHU: And so what you went through is very timely. Let's just put it that way. And you know. And as I shared with you before we started recording, I'm the granddaughter of immigrants, and my grandmother came here, didn't speak English, got off the boat, very typical story, and became a citizen. And, you know, it's America. Yeah, it's America. So, but you could have stayed in that house, and you didn't. So you went to the library, you learned English, and you began to empower yourself.
LC: 5,000 percent!
WSHU: 5,000 percent. Love that. And then you decide to start this woman's center, which became…
MC: We moved from Bridgeport, from Norwalk to Bridgeport. We was living in Norwalk before. And when I start, this is when I leave him. So I said, You know what? I need to do something. So I try to go to the school. But the thing is, I have two jobs, and I have no time to go to the school. That's why I was thinking, how can possible someone like me who wants really empower themselves to have the possibility to go better in the life we can't because we don't have the, you know, the opportunity, sometimes.
LC: Yeah, the privilege to be able to have time to go to school. That's not available to everyone. It's a privilege to be able to have time to go nine to five at a place to learn and get a skill. And you know, when you're alone, and you're a single mom, and you have kids to take care of home, you're worried more about the rent and the food than you are about anything else.
MC: There are sometimes the schedule of the school doesn't doesn't help as well, because when you work full time, you have no time to go to the school. So that's what my school does. You know you can choose your day. You can choose your time. It's not like you need to come in here Monday to Friday night. No, no, no. You have the ability to choose what day you have free in your work, in your free day, you can come in to learn something.
WSHU: Can you tell me one story of one woman that your foundation has helped, that your pantry has helped, at your school? I know there's probably 100 . Just give me one.
MC: Yeah. Something very, very recently is a little girl. I mean, it's very young. She was living in her car, and she had three little kids, can you imagine? And she came here in the school. She just got a license. She's now working with someone because we have a nail salon as well, where I can give work to them. So now she's working. Now she has her own place. The kids are with her. You know, that's life change, because she has the opportunity. I see in her something like me, you know. And I say, I'm so happy, and I'm so proud when I saw these stories. And then come back later, you know, like a years past, and they come back to say, “Miss Marlene, thank you, Miss Marlin, to have everybody, and I have my own salon.” Oh, my goodness, it's a lot of happiness in my heart.
WSHU: I can see it in your face, and I can hear it in your voice, because, you know, to pull yourself up is one thing, and then to reach up and help other people up, which is exactly what you did now. Lillian, are you part of this school? Do you work for your mom.
LC: Yeah, I just recently started being there full time, maybe about year or so ago. So we're there full time, and I'm able to kind of reach out more, you know, to all these different places, these organizations that are to say, hey, we're here, we're available, and we're ready to help whenever we can, and from there, that's how we started the Marlene Correa Foundation.
WSHU: Now, tell me about the foundation.
LC: So the foundation is something that we've been doing this off the board for many years, but now it's, like, legit, you know. So now we're able to kind of get the scholarships, and that's how we were able to start a Tiktok so that we can get the pantry items for the food pantry. So it was all through Tiktok that we started going and putting videos saying, hey, we need the community to come rally up, rally in and help us. This is someone that could be your neighbor, this could be your cousin, this could be your sister. This could have been your mom in her time. And so just one $5 for, like, Baby wipes, it can change the person's mindset in school. It's having soup and having snacks to bring home to their kids so that they can have something for lunch that brings them a piece that they're able to sit there and learn. And so that's how we started with that. And now we started the foundation. And so right now, it's just, you know, getting the reins of the school, making sure we're still complying with all the state regulations, making sure all our students are leaving, knowing that they learn something, knowing that they gain the skill. And we're like fulfilled in knowing that this is going to bring fruits, not just for them, but for their families, for their parents, for their children. This kind of is something that Dr. Dre says that I really like, it's “talent is everywhere, but opportunity is limited.” And part of the stories that like one that Marlene said, another one I remember, is a woman that came to the office afterwards who cried, saying, “I'm the first one that's not eligible to get snap anymore.” There were the first person in their family that isn't eligible for SNAP because they make so much more money than the threshold.
WSHU: So that's a mixed blessing, because I think the threshold is kind of low, but what an amazing feeling that is.
LC: Exactly because they could sustain themselves, and they realized that they were like, wow, I don't need any more assistance, like, I can do this,
WSHU: Right. And it's that old adage, " Don't give someone a fish. Teach them how to fish.” So actually, Lillian, you've already answered my next question, which is what inspires you? So you mentioned Dr. Dre, and I love that. I love that quote, Marlene. What is an inspiration for you that inspired you to get out of that attic apartment and go see the world and make a change?
MC: You know what I think about that, about that question, and I think it’s myself, don't be in the hole I was before. And don't, you know, like, I don't want to have my kids pass through all the problems I get in the past.
LC: It was that fear.
MC: The fear and the anger I have, because that life I was living was no was not what I was dreaming when I came the first time to United States.
WSHU: So it was your past self that inspired you to never go there again.
MC: Never go there again!
WSHU: That's a fantastic answer. Question number four: How can people help Gorgeous by Glam? Who helps you?
LC: Oh my gosh, how can we will help so many, so many different avenues that are just going through my mind.
WSHU: DO people donate to the food pantry, for instance?
LC: So it would be through the Marlene Correa foundation. If they log online, Marlene Correa foundation.org, they can donate online, and that's going to go directly to our scholarships. We had a Winter Scholarship that we're funding ourselves. You know, we're trying to get a Spring Scholarship. And these things they when they go to a student and they're applied for a student's education. It's so important that people understand that that scholarship is applied to a student's life. But they're like I said, their children, their families, their generations, like this scholarship, this money, isn't just, oh, just so I can do nails. No, it's so that they can have a new life and a new career and a new beginning. And so for us…
WSHU: That's the American dream,
MC: Yes, yes.
LC: Exactly, exactly
WSHU: My grandparents painted houses and did tailoring. That's they learned. They took that skill with them from the old country. But you know, they just wanted to raise their kids and pay their rent.
LC: They built something exactly. So that's our main form of help. If you help through the Korea foundation.org help in donation for our scholarships, help in our Amazon wish list for our pantry items. We're also trying to get people to come in to be able to educate our students to have events so that they can do financial literacy, so that they can do, hw do you find a house? How do you buy a house?
WSHU: So, It's more than just a beauty school. It's a life skills.
LC: Yes, the foundation branched off from the beauty school. So the Marlene Correa Foundation operates within Gorgeous by Glam, but it's its own entity, because we want to make sure that we help not just our students, but the community as a whole, because we want to make sure that we're a place that people don't think that the doors closed on them. Life is not fair and life is hard. It makes you suffer and it makes you cry, but it doesn't have to go through it alone like it's going to happen. You know, we're all going to be sad sometimes, and we're all going to be in pain, but it doesn't mean we have to go through it by ourselves. We can have community, and we can build each other up, and we can be together so that we can both create something wonderful. Because if we're helping each other, then we're helping everyone around us. If we just keep going in by ourselves, one on one, then nothing is going to happen. It's not going to be the ripple and the wave effect. It's just going to be a tiny pool. But if we are holding our hands together, and we're doing it together, then that's going to cause a size seismic, you know, effect on the world. So that's what we're trying to do with the Correa Foundation. We're trying to make this into a huge thing, and from there, sorry…
WSHU: No, you know, I'm listening. And Ann Lopez, our producer, is like nodding her head in the other room, because you've really just summed up the whole thing, I mean, and you've almost answered question number five, which is the famous closing question. But I wanted you to go on and say what you had to say, because there's so much wisdom in it. Well, let me ask you question number five. Why do you think we're here on Earth?
LC: Such a tough question, and I hear you ask this all the time online, and I always think, oh, what would I answer? But it's tough because I have to base my answers based on the values that are close to me, and that for me is my faith. We're here because we're here to learn. We're here to build each other up. We're not here for ourselves. We're here for other people. We're not here just to make ourselves great. We're here to make sure that everybody else is good and okay. I'm not here because I'm awesome. I'm not here because the world needed a Lillian. I'm here because,
WSHU: Well, I disagree but OK.
LC: But it's because there's so many more people that are probably like me, like I said, talent is everywhere, opportunity is limited. Not everyone had the opportunity to be with Randye, but and there's probably other people that are more able to speak better than me, and so for me, it's like I'm here to help you. I'm here to make sure that you're not alone and that you feel okay. I'm here because we need each other, humanity the way we started, even evolution-wise, we didn't start by ourselves. Humanity the way we started…
WSHU: It was tribes.
LC: It was community. It was tribes. I'm not here for me. I'm here because you need us the same as I need you. It's a reciprocal thing. That's why I'm here. W
WSHU: It could not agree more. I love that. So, Mom, Marlene, are you proud of your daughter right now?
MC: You know Randy, that is my dream, my American dream, you know, is really here. My two daughters, the way they are, the way they are thinking, the way they help everyone. You know, I think my work is done.
WSHU: So how would you answer the question, why are we here on Earth?
MC: Oh my gosh. I don’t know..
LC: She's here because she needs to be my mom. 5000 percent. There’s no other reason why but to be my mom because, if it wasn't for her, that's it. Goodbye.
WSHU: Okay, now you're making me cry.
LC: That's the reason why God needed to have her here, so she could be with me.
