Viral TikTok Pays Tribute to Single Latina Mother: ‘I’m Crying Reading This’ 

A heartwarming trend that’s been sweeping TikTok for the last few months has users play the popular Lana del Rey song “Norman f—ing Rockwell” while they write a long description of someone important in their life. This past week, TikTok user @martinimami used the trend to pay tribute to her Latina mother.

The way the trend works is this: instead of just gushing about the person, you write, “I don’t have a _____, I have a ______.” For instance, one TikTok user who goes by @sienna.mads writes, “I don’t have a boy best friend, I have a Zac,” followed by a list of traits, good and bad, that make him so lovable.

Searching by sound allows you to see literally hundreds of examples of this trend from the last few months. Some of them are hilarious, some are heartwarming and others are just downright bizarre. 

But one viral TikTok posted in the last couple of weeks hit closer to home than most.

In her post, @martinimama, whose real name is Sabrina Bolivar, writes, “I didn’t have a regular mom or a ‘cool’ mom, I had Petra,” followed by a list of all the amazing things her mother has done and the sacrifices she made to make sure her daughter had every opportunity in the world to succeed.

“She was a full-time student, a Budweiser model, a bartender and a limo driver all while being a single parent,” writes Sabrina. Any kid who was raised by a single mother knows how far they’re willing to go for their babies, and Latina mothers are no exception.

TikTok fell head over heels in love with Petra and her daughter, with commenters reminiscing about childhood with their own single mothers. Some just came to spread the love, with comments saying, “I’m crying reading this,” but a lot of them demanded a “Petra reveal” to learn more about this uniquely passionate parent.

Sabrina, a 22-year-old ASU graduate who travels between California and Arizona, eventually obliged, posting a slideshow of photos from her life, highlighting her hard-working, stylish, independent and beautiful Latina mother. It’s a heartwarming tribute to a woman who had Sabrina when she was only 19 years-old and did everything she could to make that child feel loved and supported.

Set to the tune of “Sea of Love” by Cat Power, this mini-journey through Sabrina and Petra’s lives is enough to bring a tear to your eye, especially after reading the initial post. In the video, Sabrina calls her mother a “master of every look and hairstyle,” an “icon” and someone who provided her “the greatest gifts.”

Toward the end of the video, Sabrina reveals her two younger siblings and calls them “forever besties”

If that wasn’t enough to put a smile on your face, Sabrina uploaded another, more recent video of her mom at ASU Family Weekend drinking a beer through an ice luge.

With Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” playing in the background, the caption reads: “Double Mom reveal because my mom who NEVER drinks understood the assignment as resident hot mom of parents weekend when I was in college.” Never underestimate the power of “work hard, play hard.”

Finally, there’s another touching tribute on Sabrina’s page, this one directed towards her stepdad, Carlos, who entered Sabrina’s life when she was 11 years old and he was only 24. In this wall of text, Sabrina admits to trying to get rid of him at first. Through persistence, Carlos eventually won over Sabrina’s trust. Now, the two of them have an unbreakable bond.

“I didn’t get a ‘step-dad,'” reads the post. “I got Carlos.” She continues, “Carlos used to do my makeup for every single dance, treated me to my favorite food everytime I got my heart broken, and got season tickets to my college football games so that there was an excuse to travel from CA to AZ every other week to visit me because I was having a hard time out of state.”

Sabrina also mentioned that Carlos outlasted her biological father and that she no longer considers him a stepdad, but a dad. Even her caption reads: “Wouldn’t be who I am today without my dad.” Anyway, it’s time to go, someone just started cutting onions in here!