Midwest Mujeres Inc. will celebrate the fifth anniversary of its annual Voices & Dreams Live/Voces y Sueños en Vivo on Sunday, Nov. 1, bringing women together to share personal stories about what the American Dream means to them.
The event will take place at the Goodman Community Center on Madison’s East Side under this year’s theme, “The American Dream: A través de los ojos de mujeres/ Through the Eyes of Women.” Eight women will share their stories, joined by keynote speaker Gabriela Parra, a Milwaukee-based immigration attorney.
(Photo courtesy of Midwest Mujeres)
“Gabriela has an amazing and inspiring life story,” said Araceli Esparza, founder and executive director of Midwest Mujeres, in an interview with Madison365. “We look forward to hearing from her.”
Midwest Mujeres Inc. is a Madison-based nonprofit organization working to reduce poverty and income inequality by creating educational, leadership, storytelling, and economic-development opportunities for women, particularly first-generation Latina and Black women.
Sunday’s event marks the culmination of the nonprofit organization’s 2026 Voices & Dreams Academy, a leadership, workforce development and storytelling program led by Esparza. The program helps women build confidence, strengthen professional and entrepreneurial skills, and develop their voices as leaders.
“What I felt necessary was to really curate these stories of different women coming from different walks of life,” Esparza says. “You don’t have to have a career to be part of our group.”
The academy welcomes women from a range of backgrounds and experiences, Esparza says. Participants do not need to be immigrants or speak only Spanish or English to take part.
“A lot of people think they have to be completely Spanish speakers or English speakers, or they can only be women, or they can only be immigrants,” she says. “No, this program has been and continues to be open and powered by community demand.”
This year’s 15 academy participants received individual coaching, mentorship, professional headshots, networking opportunities and free blogs with search engine optimization support to help them share their work and stories.
Through the academy, participants work with coaches, mentors and community leaders to develop their stories before sharing them publicly. The annual event gives them a platform to reflect on opportunity, belonging, family, economic challenges and the future.
This past year has been the largest cohort ever, Esparza says, but the Voices & Dreams Academy faces ongoing financial challenges, including securing funding for weekly meals and childcare for participants.
“The hardest challenge that we have every year with our academy is getting enough funding for the hot meal that we provide every week and the childcare,” she says. “It’s a struggle to keep those things afloat.”
Midwest Mujeres invites community members, employers, entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, educators and families to attend the Nov. 1 event.
Admission operates on a pay-what-you-can basis. Tickets are listed at $15, but Esparza says attendees who cannot pay will not be turned away. Registration is free, and community members may also attend without paying at the door.
This year’s event also falls on Día de los Muertos, the Mexican holiday honoring deceased loved ones. Esparza hopes attendees will bring photographs of those they are remembering and stay to hear the storytellers.
“This is a great opportunity for people to come over after church and have community with us,” Esparza says. “We’ll have pan de muerto, traditional Day of the Dead bread, from 3 to 5 p.m. We’ll have a large altar, photography, and champurrado, which is a warm, chocolate-based drink.”
The event aims to highlight both the barriers women have faced and the possibilities they envision for themselves, their families and their communities.
“I’m just looking forward to seeing people come with their pictures of their dearly departed, and then staying with the story so that they can go with assurance that hope is still alive,” Esparza says.
“We’re listening to people. There are rumors of unrest and chaos everywhere, and all of those things may be true,” Esparza continues. “But this is also true: Hope is still alive, and these eight women are going to chaperone us into reimagining the American Dream.”
