A pesar de que este announcement fue considerado una Victoria para los DACA recipients, the announcement comes at a difficult moment for the DACA program as a whole. Hablamos con Dr. Rachel Fabi, an Associate Professor at SUNY Upstate Medical University, and Diana Pliego, a Policy Associate at the National Immigration Law Center, to unpack this news.

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Music:

Jazzaddict's Intro by Cosimo Fogg (201) / cosimo-fogg Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/jazzaddicts-intro Music promoted by Audio Library

And for this episode, that’s exactly what we’re going to do with the help of Dr. Nick LaRowe, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Southern Indiana. Te contamos más acerca de tus derechos.

Resources:

• Find Your Representative

• Indiana Legal Services - Immigrants & Language Rights Center

• La Constitución de los Estados Unidos en Español

En este episodio we talk about the first amendment and how communities of color in the formerly sundown towns of Cicero and Berwyn se estan organizando dentro y fuera de sus local governments.

Se puede leer la historia completa en español aquí. | Read the full story in English here.

Pero primero queremos decir, a big thank you to all of you who listen to our podcast. Gracias por su apoyo and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter - at que pasa midwest.

Ahora, empecemos con nuestro primer episodio. En este, we talked to Amy about finding adequate healthcare during the pandemic - while she was pregnant and unemployed - something many had to do en esta crisis. Amy had her baby and they’re doing great. 

For our second episode, we heard the story about the first double-lung transplant patient - Mayra Ramirez. This story was en colaboracion con Christine Herman with Side Effects Public Media. We reached out to Christine para ver como sigue Mayra pero according to her, Mayra had been recovering from being in the ICU again, because of another infection after the surgery.

En el episodio tres we talked to Kassandra. She told us the story from a student’s perspective and how it was so mentally draining to study online and how the sense of community was lost among amigos that usually gathered at the multicultural center. She said she was eager to go back to in-person classes and to socialize with more of her peers. To her, this is what recovery is about. Being able to grow together and mingle sin preocupaciones.

Nuestros ultimos episodios - Episode six and seven - were focused on learning more about why Latinos were not getting vaccinated. Descubrimos que, la comunidad Latina no tenía la información necesaria to make an informed decision and consent to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. En estos episodios, hablamos con las personas que hicieron de esto algo más fácil. People who not only translated the state’s department of health intake form to Spanish - but who also put together a vaccine clinic at the local Holy Rosary church.

Más de cien feligreses se pusieron la vacuna luego de la misa. And recently, they all had the chance to get their second vaccine. A step forward in the right direction - para que las personas se sientan más cómodas y seguras.

Purdue University estimates that more than 480,000 agricultural workers have tested positive for COVID-19 nationwide and at least 9,000 have died from it. This figure likely underestimates the number greatly since it excludes contracted and temporary labor.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, o CDC por sus siglas en Espanol, says farmworkers are at risk because farmworkers often have close contact to one another both in the fields and indoors like shared housing, cooking and eating areas, bathrooms, and laundry facilities. 

The farming industry depends largely on migrant workers, according to the Department of Agriculture. The USDA says the number of worker visas, or H-2A, requested and approved has increased fivefold, from just over 48,000 positions certified in 2005 to nearly 258,000 in 2019. 

There are 2.4 million farmworkers in the U.S. — at least half of whom are undocumented, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and all of whom should be prioritized for COVID-19 vaccines, according to the CDC. The CDC also recommends that vaccinations for farmworkers be offered near their worksites or in their communities. 

This story was produced by Harvest Public Media and Side Effects Public Media in collaboration with the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting.

Dana and Christine are reporters with Illinois Newsroom. Follow them on Twitter:@DanaHCronin and @CTHerman.

In fact, it’s been reported that people have died because of the lack of information made available in Spanish. Un artículo del Chicago Tribune reporta el caso de Maria Isabel Alfaro, a 50-year-old who didn’t speak English and who died after contracting COVID-19.

Maria’s husband, Rodolfo Reyes told the Chicago Tribune que antes de morir Maria “expressed the anguish and desperation she felt because she wasn’t able to understand or communicate with the medical staff.”

There’s no way to really count cuántas personas han muerto esta pandemia porque no tuvieron la información necesaria - en su lengua - to understand the ins and outs of this virus. 

Pero algo que si podemos claramente ver es la falta de informacion that is not available in Spanish or has just been made available recently. Like for example; no hace poco, our que pasa midwest team learned that in Indiana the vaccine consent form y otra información acerca de la vacuna was not available in Spanish until April of this year - 2021.

De hecho, a recent poll conducted by Voto Latino and Media Matters For America found that almost 4 in 10 Latinos respondents report having seen material or information that makes them think the COVID-19 vaccines are not safe or effective. En adición 6 en 10 Latinos conocen a alguien en su hogar o comunidad que no está dispuesto a ponerse la vacuna porque creen que es peligrosa.

Barbara y su familia no son los únicos en esta posición. Y muchos hispanos ya se están vacunando pero even after more information is being made available for hispanohablantes, muchos aún no confían en que esta vacuna es segura y otros no saben dónde registrarse o los documentos que tienen que proveer para vacunarse. 

In the next episodios, we chat with the people who made the vaccine information available in Español and visit a vaccine clinic at the Holy Rosary church la cual tiene servicios en Español. 

Y tú y tu familia, ¿se han vacunado o planean vacunarse? Let us know, tweet us @quepasamidwest. 

Y tu, ¿Ya te pusiste la vacuna? 

Would you be comfortable at a doctor’s office if no one understood your culture or spoke your language?

Let us know your thoughts, tweet us!

We talk to a student about her experience during the pandemic. We also talk to a student advisor about how for multicultural students the pandemic meant more than just leaving campus and lower grades.

Kassandra and Cesar tell their stories about como sus notas bajaron y como les hace falta la vida en campus a los estudiantes.

As the vaccine becomes available to more populations, some universities are starting to plan for clases en persona this Fall - like the University of Southern Indiana - something both, Kassandra and Cesar are looking forward to - cuando la universidad planea abrir su campus otra vez and college life will be more like it was.

This past year, educators and parents have suspected that online learning would bring challenges. But now, we can actually see the data that indicates students are falling behind. 

Uno de los estudios de Northwestern Evaluation Association analyzed test results of about 4 million students in 3rd to 8th grade, comparing test results from 2019 to this past fall. The results indicated that students scored 5 to 10 percentile points lower on math tests than last year. Latino and Black students also did worse on reading tests than in previous years.

En los primeros meses de la pandemia del COVID-19, she spoke with Christine Herman una reportera from Side Effects Public Media about what she’s been through in the past year.

This episode was developed with the help of Side Effects Public Media, a public radio collaboration reporting on healthcare in the Midwest. You can follow Christine on Twitter: @CTHerman.

This will resonate with many parents caught up in the need to work while also caring for their children forced out of school by the pandemic.

En este episodio, I want you to meet Amy Gastelum. You may have heard her en otro de nuestros episodios contando cómo su abuelo nunca le dijo que tenía ascendencia Mexicana and how she was learning about her identity. 

In this episode, Amy nos cuenta, how she navigated health care while pregnant and unemployed, while being a mom to a six-year-old and still caring for some of her patients.  Amy es enfermera.

Some of Amy’s patients are undocumented o con problemas financieros so she tells us how after quitting her job she had to enlist in Medicaid - something that some of her patients are not eligible for. 

So in this episode we talk about how the pandemic highlighted the need for better healthcare options for pregnant women de recursos escasos.

The mural is hard to miss and attracts everyone who passes because of its colorful homage spotlighting three of the community’s own. Pilsen is a community that has overcome hardship long before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, a community whose hope is as essential as its workers.

An indigenous serape pattern serves as the colorful backsplash for Javier, a U.S. Postal worker, Rosalinda, a clerk at Los Jasmines, the corner store where the mural is located, and Juan, a butcher shop worker, all pictured in their work uniforms and masks. The pattern is intentional and pays respect to the culture and history each proudly carries.

Esperamos que las historias from this season have given you some hope during this difficult time and maybe even inspired you to find ways to be a helper en su comunidad.

The song para este episodio es "Color Esperanza 2020" by various artists.

That’s not a disparity, a disparity is a difference, it’s an inequity. And the difference between a disparity and an inequity is that an inequity is inherently unjust. So, inequality is an affliction all by itself. It’s the epidemic of inequality that COVID exposes.

— Dr. David A. Ansell

Resources: 

• Piece about Little Village’s fight for change after the implosion co-authored by Maria Cecilia Quiñones Peña

• Recursos Compilados para abordar el impacto del COVID-19 en La Villita

• Hilco statement

• ProPublica Investigation

• Harvard Public Health Study into power plant emissions effects on Illinois communities

Nuestra canción para este episodio es “Sana Sana” by Alejandro y Maria Laura, a song that reimagines the healing song of Sana Sana and applies it to the environment’s natural resources.

Rachel and Benoit Angulo, owners of La Cocinita Restaurant and food trucks, have teamed up to donate meals a los más afectados por el coronavirus.

We had this humongous change, like this monumental change on everything that we were doing, and I like how although stressful, and I lost a lot of sleep over it, I like how we were able to get together and figure out a way to make stuff happen. That will be like the thing that I will look back on. -Benoit Angulo

Before the U.S. declared a national emergency and Illinois issued a “Stay-at-Home Order,” Karli attended a community conversation about wellness hosted by Northwestern University’s Multicultural Student Affairs. Dr. Asif Wilson, Associate Dean of Instruction at Harold Washington College in Chicago, talked about collective care for people of color.

La canción para este episodio es, “No Estas Solo”, a collaboration from Carlos Vives and Ruben Blades, dedicado a todos los afectados por the coronavirus pandemic. Proceeds from the song will benefit two separate charities in Panama and Colombia.

Photos courtesy of New Life Covenant Church Southeast

One of the main issues Dr. Del-Rios had to tackle was misinformation sobre el coronavirus due to la falta de reliable información confiable en español. IllinoisUnidos.com was the solution. The website provides reliable, user-friendly coronavirus information in English and Spanish. The Illinois Latino COVID-19 Initiative and the website also provide helpful resources for various other issues, such as housing, which have been amplified by the pandemic.

Our song for this episode was chosen by Dr. Del Rios - Hijos de Caña-veeeral by Residente - it’s one of her favorites. We hope you enjoyed. 

Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Del-Rios

“Entonces, tenemos varios centros en la nación donde están implementando este tipo de aproximación, que es muy sensible. Esto no es ciencia de cohetes y cosas intergalácticos o complicados, es entender una cultura, una idioma. Pero entendiendo, se puede tener un impacto muy grande.” -Dr. Juan Carlos

For more información bilingüe sobre los trasplantes de órganos, you can visit the Programa Hispano de Trasplantes website and Infórmate, a site created by Dr. Caicedo and Dr. Gordon para ofrecer más información sobre los trasplantes y el proceso de donación de órganos a lectores Latinos. 

Resources: 

• Programa Hispano de Trasplantes

• Infómate: a website created by Dr. Caicedo and Dr. Gordon to give information about transplants and donation to Latino readers

• Hispanic Transplant Program

The song for this episode es titulado “Vamos a Donar” by La Asociación Peruana de Autores y Compositores, a song created to increase visibility for organ donation in Peru.

Latinos count en el Censo del 2020

Escucha as Dona Chuy talks about how she’s had to adjust and how not even a pandemic could make her abandon her mission because in the grand scheme of things, every count still matters.

The song for this episode es titulado “Aguzate” by Ricardo Ray & Bobby Cruz. Judith chose la canción because it is one of their most known songs, and along with it showcasing their signature orchestra, the message is uplifting and inspires us to keep pushing and fighting for good. 

Photo Credit: Judith Ruiz-Branch

Paola is working with regional and national collaborations to translate and share coronavirus información in Spanish across el medio oeste and the country. One of our contributors from Season 4, Judith Ruiz-Branch, will be our host for this season, and she will be joined by a new addition to the team, Karli Goldenberg. They found people who are finding soluciones a los problemas caused by the pandemic. Esperamos que sus soluciones can help others en el medio oeste and beyond find solutions and hope during this difficult time.

The song for this episode es titulado “You and Me” by Michel Camilo.

Photo Credit: Daniel Knight

Graphic Design: Mareea Thomas

Tu voto cuenta. Este año que viene mas personas de color van a ser elegibles para el voto que en años pasados. According to the Pew Research Center, the 2020 election will mark the first time that Hispanics will be the largest racial or ethnic minority group in the electorate. 

En terminos mas simples, a projected 32 million Hispanics and 30 million blacks will be eligible to vote in 2020. This increase is at least partially linked to inmigracion and naturalization. Por que one-in-ten eligible voters in the 2020 election will have been born outside the U.S.

Like for example Mayra Fortes. A Mexican born professor who recently became a citizen. Our collaborator Emily Hunsberger talked to her in Michigan about why she decided to become a US citizen.

Por ejemplo, in an interview with National Geographic the attorney who heads Defenders of Wildlife conservation programs, said that “Whatever they build, it’s going to be destructive to natural habitat.” Tambien, with Mexico being the third-largest trading partner of the United States many fear that this could create a trade war, and stories of farmers forced to let crops rot due to labor shortages have become more common. So, Yes, what happens at the border affects the Midwest.

We moved our hips to artistas como Making Movies, the Grammy-winning all-female Mariachi Flor de Toloache, Migrant Kids, Reggae prodigy Zion, and Appalatin.

We also talked to expertos como Music Journalist Catalina Maria Johnson and Producer Brick Briscoe.

And we discover nuevos artistas como Ambar Lucid, Caetano Veloso and CimaFunk.

En nuestra próxima temporada, we’re talking about the Census and the Elections in 2020. Both of those will impact our comunidad and we want to bring you the most accurate and latest news and stories on it.

Quedate pendiente and stay connected with us on social media and through our newsletter.

A special thanks to all our guests and to you. Gracias por escuchar and for making us part of your favorite shows.

Escucha nuestra entrevista and dance to this episodes musicians - a Cuban band called Cimafunk, Jazz mixed with hip hop from the Colombian Mabiland and bilingual New Jersey based Mexican Dominican Ambar Lucid.

We decided to do this episodio because even thought in the general sense, Zion is not considered a Latino, being from the Caribbean, he shares a lot of the same struggles and experiences Latinos face.

We want to thank Zion for this interview and for his live performance en nuestro studio. You can listen to más de su música, see behind the scenes and explore his homeland through videos on his website zionalbert.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive content!

You can listen to their music, including their newest album Las Caras Lindas,  on Spotify, Apple Music or on their website mariachinyc.com. Don’t forget to signed up for our newsletter para ver el exclusive content.

We’re not only showcasing their music and work but also conversations about current topics that affect us all. We talked to them about the migrant caravan, racism, their muses, their instruments and how they see the Latino community in the US.

Jackie Coleman from Flor de Toloache talks to us about her role as a negra in the mariachi, Enrique Chi from Making Movies talks about the separation of children from their parents that were traveling with the migrant caravan and Zion talks to us about how religion shaped his future.

Don’t miss the exclusive content on our newsletter!

But that’s not all we’ve done. Thanks to our Summer intern, Emily Miles, we were able to bring you animations of some episodes, cool social media posts and a Spotify Bilingual playlist.

We want to say Gracias to our editor Sophia Paliza Carre, our contributors Grisel Barajas, Barbara Anguiano, Amy Gastelum, Emmy Beltre and a huge thanks to everyone who shared their stories with us over the past two seasons.

And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook to keep up with what we’re up to behind the scenes and more.

Please seek help. Busca ayuda. No estas solo/a.

1) https://espanol.thehotline.org/

2) https://www.thehotline.org/2018/05/09/help-undocumented-experiencing-intimate-partner-violence-rights-reaching-support/

3) https://casadeesperanza.org/es/

4) http://www.nationalcenterdvtraumamh.org/

5) https://www.nrcdv.org/domestic-violence-safety-tips/

6) https://ncadv.org/other-organizations

7) https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline

Emmy is part of this generation. He was brought to the Midwest as a little boy by his parents who had a visa to establish churches in the region. Emmy, now 31 years old, wants to connect more with his Dominican heritage and pass this knowledge along to his daughter Charlie, who is 9 months old. El solo le habla español and says it’s important to him that his daughter knows what at some point he was ashamed of showcasing - his Latino heritage. Emmy tried to fit in for many years.

Escenas como esta son cada vez más común en las noticias. We see the people being surrounded, the agents, the buses and sometimes the facilities but what we don’t see is the trauma this causes for not only the companies and the community but for the families of these individuals.

Janeth works at the local community college in Liberal, Kansas as an academic advisor, helping students navigate college and immigration when needed. Ella también ayuda con el festival del Cinco de Mayo since she was the first Cinco de Mayo Liberal Kansas queen in 2002. Janeth’s mission is to help the youth and the community. She’s involved in many non profit organizations and committees around the city of Liberal trying to help those who are lacking the education to better navigate the systems.

Help for families of deported individuals. 

Ayuda para las personas detenidas o que enfrentan la deportación. 

Guidance for schools.

Immigrant Defense Project.

More Resources.

Alfonso was kidnapped on a fishing trip in Venezuela and when he escaped to el Medio Oeste he was just supposed to be here for 3 months. Pero Alfonso’s kidnapping was more a plane robbery than un secuestro.

De afuera, la escuela primaria Parkview en Valparaiso, Indiana, looks like any other school in Northern Indiana. Teachers greet kids outside the main doors, little flashes of color swipe past you as kids scurry to get to their classrooms, there’s a smell of plywood, because estan renovando la escuela.

A couple of years ago, Parkview received a state grant to create a pilot bilingual immersion program. Woodetski says como 23 por ciento de los estudiantes son hispanos, y los estudiantes bilingües y de habla hispana were getting left behind. The idea is to teach kids subjects such as math and science en Español por medio dia, y el resto del dia la instrucción es en Ingles.

Pero no todos los estudiantes se sienten cómodos con el Español. Bryan and Osvaldo son hermanos. They’re in different grades. Los dos son bilingues.

Y ser bilingue sometimes means you’re the voice for your family.  A veces tienes que traducir, and that can be tough, take the classic cashier scenario. If you’ve ever translated for your parents you know exactly what we're talking about.

¿Qué Pasa, Midwest? contributor Barbara Anguiano talks to a Latino who was in favor of the center, a young immigrant who returned to Elkhart to help Latinos and a lawyer who understands the economic impact this can have on the immigrant labor force.

Last year, Cuba announced that next month, en Marzo del 2018, they will have elections to choose new members of the National Assembly. See this is historico because after that the new parliament will choose the country’s next president. Raul Castro or the Castro’s for that matter will no longer be in power after six
decades of dictatorship.

En los cicuenta, Fidel Castro headed an attack against
the barracks Moncada of Santiago de Cuba, east of La Havana. Castro was
arrested and convicted to 15 years of prison but two years later he, along with
other rebels, was amnestied. After that, Castro leads guerrilla fights, the
cause of the United States removing their military support to the government.

In 1959, Fidel then became First Minister, helping implement
politics of nationalization and approaching the Soviet Union. The US imposes
the economic embargo to the island that same year and breaks all diplomatic
relationships with Cuba.

Ese mismo año, a strong migratory current of doctors and
teachers begun toward the US and Fidel Castro declares the socialist character
of the Cuban Revoltion. In 1991 the country falls in a strong economic crisis.

Today, relations with Cuba have backpedaled after the
last administration begun dialogue and trade with the island. Hoy día, el presidente
no esta de acuerdo con que nos acerquemos a la isla.

So, what do Cubans in the Midwest think about all this?
Will they go back to an island they haven’t seen in decades or some – never? Do
Cuban Americans miss the island they remember, communist Cuba?

We went to Ohio to talk to Juan Guardia, a Cuban
American who saw his break to visit the island of his parents shut down when relations
with the US became cold again.

So, as time has passed by y han habido tantos cambios,
no tan solo en poliza sino tambien en culturas and costumes, Cuban Americans
and the ones who fled the island during the start of the regime are more
comfortable staying in the country that they now call casa.

The policies between the US and Cuba are still rocky but like Juan, some are still hopeful to experience the authentic Cuban cultura.

San Salvador is ranked as one of the top murder capitals of the world - one of the reasons why Amalia was fleeing the city she loved. In this episodio, we talk about the US/Mexico border with an expert and hear a first-hand experience of a mother crossing what’s commonly referred to as ‘no man’s land’.

In this episode, WNYC journalist Sophia Paliza Carre and host Paola Marizán talk about their Christmas in Perú and the Dominican Republic and about the fusion of traditions happening in Latin America.

Sophia a Peruvian Francesa y ahora Neoyorquina reminisces on Peruvian Panetón while Paola remember listening to Perico Ripiao in every colmado in Dominican Republic. 

See, Laura can navigate the city of Cincinnati easier than she can travel through the roads of Bogota, Colombia because she moved from Colombia when she was just four. . Cuando estaba cerca de graduarse de High School, empezó su busquedad for the best university.

Laura began researching online, asking friends, and even attended college fairs to see what it was going to be like to start college and establish a Career in Ohio.

When Laura was just fifteen, Laura found out she was undocumented.

In this episodio we meet DACA recipient Laura. Una Latina that didn’t know about her legal status until she wanted to apply for college and about the taboo many immigrant families have en casa when talking about immigration.

En este episodio, We meet Pedro Alvarado. He tells us about the deal he made to keep his parents in this country. In fact, miles de personas like Pedro have made this very same deal. Un acuerdo que puede desanimar a algunos and that it involves loyalty and trust for his parents and this country.

The drink of the gods is at least 2000 years old and is seen as a cultural resistance to today’s political divide by those from the native land of Pulque.

We wanted to know why is this drink becoming a catch in North America's heartland because no hace mucho you could only try Pulque in places like New York, California and Chicago pero ahora pulque has made its way to smaller cities like Frankfort, Indiana, where Ye Olde Spirit Shoppe, sold us two cans of this fermented Mexican drink.

We tried Pulque with Norma Rosas Mayén y  Manuel Apodaca-Valdez, Mexican immigrants who teach Spanish at the University of Southern Indiana;  at their home en un pequeño barrio en Evansville, Indiana, where Norma tells us what does it mean for Mexicans to drink pulque en el Medio Oeste?

¿Tienes preguntas? Got any questions? Email us at qpm@wnin.org. Dinos, ¿qué pasa, midwest?