Gonzalez herself became pregnant at 17, while still a junior in high school, and survived both an abusive marriage to her first husband and life as a struggling single parent, something she attributes to her faith. “I really believe that had I not had Jesus and God in my life,” she says, “I would not have survived it.”

    Unaware at the time of resources available to help women in these circumstances, Gonzalez today tries to make women aware that there are places they can turn to for assistance. For her, it had been basically a lone struggle to find a place to live, maintain a job and continue her education. She went on to study Radio-TV-Film at San Antonio College (currently serving on that department’s board), leading to her now established career in the music business, but recalls being so poor as a student she had to use her children’s diaper bag as a back pack.

    “I didn’t have Lamaze, I didn’t have parenting classes till after the baby was born,” she remembers. “A lot of these little girls, they don’t have any kind of education at all,” she says ruefully. “I was scared and I was going on 18 years old — I was almost an adult.”

    Once a month Gonzalez visits the residents at Guadalupe Home, a part of Catholic Charities. “I fellowship with them, I try to help them with whatever their needs may be,” she says. This includes bringing with her such basics as diapers and baby wipes, the latter being something she pops 20 packs at a time into her shopping cart every time she goes to the store. “They’re so inexpensive nowadays,” she says with a smile. She also distributes Bibles and brings clothing items for the moms as well as their babies.

    “I also try to take care of the moms,” she adds, “because if they’re not happy with themselves, how can they possibly take care of their babies?” She tries to get wish lists from them and return with a couple of items from their lists. “Some of their requests will just blow you away,” she says. “I mean, basic necessities like shampoo, conditioners, soap — things that we take for granted.”

    Sometimes she brings along lunches or dinners for the women at the home, which is not a typical shelter, but a large house where they can temporarily reside while receiving the assistance they need to get back on their feet.

    “You can kind of tell that they’re maybe a little bit lost there,” she relates. “They’re just down and out and they’ve lost hope and have no self-esteem.” Some are reluctant to talk at first, but Gonzalez’s bubbly personality and narrative of her personal experiences soon serves as an ice-breaker. She gives them her card, saying to call her if they need anything and promises to pray for them. “I feel that by me sharing what I’ve been through and just witnessing to them,” she says, “there’s some kind of hope given to them.”

    She notes a primary cause of the situation the single moms of all ages find themselves in is lack of self-esteem. “When they lack that,” she says, “when they lack confidence and they lack ambition and drive and all those positive things — that positive energy they need, they start making pretty bad choices and start tending to go in the wrong direction.”

    Gonzalez credits her early Catholic schooling (she attended Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic School for five years) for giving her a strong religious foundation — the feeling that she was never alone — and enabled her to get through her own trials and tribulations. She is strongly pro-life and encourages the women she talks to, both at the home and elsewhere, to stay positive and not get discouraged.

    While the women range from teens to mature women, she notes that “at the end of the day, it’s still the same thing — it’s about a baby, a baby that God chose for them to have, and it’s up to them to care for it and love it. And also, love themselves.”

    One of the more memorable success stories she has encountered was a woman from South America who had come here to work in hopes of making a better life. She fell in love with a man who wound up kicking her out on the street once she became pregnant. Speaking no English and having let her visa expire, she was unable to find a job and was in a desperate situation when she came to Guadalupe Home. She possessed a strong faith, however, and was determined to do right by her child and now has a beautiful baby girl, her own home and a good job, as well as an amazing aura of serenity. “You can tell,” Gonzalez adds, “the Holy Spirit is totally in that lady.”

    A common thread Gonzalez sees in the case of many young women who become pregnant is a lack of parental supervision and communication in the home. “These children are pretty much raising themselves,” she notes, “and they don’t have any kind of guidance or values.” As such, they are easily swayed into making unwise choices.

    “There’s also a lack of Godly foundation in the home,” she adds. “A major lack of Godly foundation.” These are young people who, when asked, can’t remember the last time they went to church. “Or they might have heard, here and there, about God,” she says, “but they don’t really understand who God is.” Many are also from broken homes.

    And a surprising number are bright girls, good students in school, who ended up in a bad situation because they lacked basic guidance. All they needed, says Gonzalez, was this and a hug once in a while, maybe a simple “Hey, how are you today? How was school?” Gonzalez makes it a point to get to know all her children’s friends and is often a source of guidance for them as well. Her two teenage daughters often accompany her on her trips to Guadalupe Home and her husband is also a strong supporter of her ministry.

    Sometimes, when meeting the mothers of the teenage moms, it is evident that they themselves made poor life choices which led to their daughters doing the same. Recalling the horrible physical and emotional abuse she went through in her first marriage, Gonzalez points out that while it takes “a lot of guts” to leave an abusive marriage, it is really the best thing a woman can do — not just for herself, but for her children.
    “The kids are the ones that get the short end of the stick,” she says, “because they’re the ones watching all the abuse happening,” which can lead to them accepting the same in their later relationships.

    Most importantly, what is needed, she stresses, is teaching our children about God, getting them involved in church and being involved in their lives. “Know your kids. Love your kids,” she says. “I can’t emphasize that more. I feel if parents do that, we would have less teenage pregnancies and we would have more successful children for tomorrow.”