Sofía Poggi

From webcam studios to sex tourism, Colombia is grappling with a difficult question: Who profits when women's labor, beauty, and intimacy become global commodities? When most people think of Colombia's exports, they think of coffee, flowers, emeralds, and oil. Increasingly, however, another export is drawing international attention: women. Not women as leaders, entrepreneurs, artists, or innovators. Women as products.

Believe it or not there is a United Nations International Day of Happiness, which lands in March every year and a report called the World Happiness Report. This annual review is the result of a committee who examine all 147 countries in the search for the most blessed people in our social fabric. But how is well-being measured exactly? And where are our Latino brothers and sisters ranked?

Every day should be Mental Awareness Month in the Latino community. For many Latinas, emotional pain is often hidden behind strength. Haven't you or someone Latina you may know ever been called 'strong? Anxiety is dismissed as stress. Depression becomes “just being emotional.” In many Latino households, women are expected to carry the emotional weight of family, culture and survival without complaint. But mental health experts say the cost of that silence is growing.