En este episodio, collaborator Leonardo Lopez Carreno dissects the Biden administration’s proposal to give DACA recipients access to healthcare, empezando en Noviembre.  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...

Latinos are historically undercounted in the census, but an Illinois woman we met in Season 4 is determined to change that, despite the coronavirus. Dona Chuy, the long-standing community activist and volunteer in Chicago, continues her work to get Latinos counted for the 2020 Census. In this episodio, host Judith Ruiz-Branch talks to her about what changes she’s had to make due to the pandemic to get Latinos to fill out el Censo del 2020 before the new deadline, el 30 de septiembre. Latinos...

This season is about the coronavirus, but we aren’t sharing the latest statistics and news. Instead we set out (virtually) to find the helpers (like Mr. Rogers) in the Midwest. 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...

Esta temporada queríamos ver if Latinos knew their rights and how their rights could be violated due to language barriers. Esperábamos que entendieras tus derechos, what your rights are regardless of your status, y la importancia of equal representation. 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...

En este episodio, collaborator Angela Gervasi takes a look at how well the rights of Latinos are observed in health care, with an emphasis en los cambios por la pandemia. Ella explora language access en el cuidado de la salud and the negative outcomes if it is denied.

For this episode we hear from a new collaborator, April Alonso, a multimedia journalist from Cicero, Illinois and co-founder of Cicero Independiente, a hyper local news organization. Cicero Independiente publica in print both in Spanish and English para asegurarse que su trabajo is accessible to all Cicero and Berwyn, IL residents. 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...

En este episodio, contributor Jon Orbach explores the challenges Latinos face in getting an equal education in Schuyler, Nebraska. 

En este episodio, we hear la historia de cómo la inmigración de Latinos ha afectado a los pueblos del medio oeste. Collaborator Jon Orbach visits the majority Latino immigrant community of Schuyler, Nebraska. Schuyler is representative de los desafíos y la discriminación faced by Latinos que están buscando sus lugares en los Estados Unidos. Through extensive interviews with both Whites and Latinos in Schuyler, Jon aprende que mientras hayan problemas, Latinos are assuming their rightful place...

This season hablamos de how informed Latinos are about their rights and how they can be violated. Hablamos del Bill of Rights and la Constitución - with collaborators reporting desde el medio oeste, from the heartland. By the end of this season esperamos que entiendas tus derechos, what your rights are regardless of your status, y la importancia of equal representation.

Hola. Bienvenidos a nuestro último episodio of season 6. For this episode, we recap algunas de las historias we told and update you on other ones. 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...

En este episodio Dana Cronin and Christine Herman talk to a group of farmworkers about getting the vaccine. A solo tres días de haber llegado desde Oaxaca, México Sergio Chavez  recibió la vacuna. He’s been coming to the United States for years to work in the farms and says this pandemic affected farmworkers greatly.  He says he didn’t expect the vaccine to go as smoothly as it did. Purdue University estimates that more than 480,000 agricultural workers have tested positive for COVID-19...

En este episodio, we visit the vaccine clinic at a church we talked about in our previous episode - and talk more about the importance of getting everyone informed acerca del virus y los cambios que continúan ocurriendo con la vacuna. 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!

En este episodio hablamos con Barbara Anguiano. Ella nos habla acerca de su experiencia y la de otros descubriendo la falta de información en Español acerca del COVID-19 para las comunidades hispanas en el medio oeste.  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...

In this episode we’re going to tell you a story about local Latinos addressing the deficiencies in the US healthcare system magnified by the pandemic. Hablamos de como los Latinos are bridging the language gap - like they always do - this time translating crucial information about the pandemic. Information that has meant the difference between life and death. In fact, it’s been reported that people have died because of the lack of information made available in Spanish. Un artículo del...

En este episodio we talk about education. Since the pandemic, a lot of things have changed the education landscape. Por ejemplo, in 2021, Undergraduate Latino enrollment decreased by more than 5 percent, de acuerdo al National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.   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...

En este episodio, I want you to meet Mayra Ramirez. Mayra contracted the virus and ended up in the ICU on life support. She was 28.  The virus had severely damaged her lungs and doctors concluded she would not survive without a double-lung transplant.  Y en Junio, Mayra became the first U.S. COVID-19 patient to undergo the life-saving procedure. 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...

In season 6 we explore how Latinx in the Midwest are recovering from Covid-19 - en varias areas - like economic recovery, physical health, salud mental, education and unemployment. 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...

It’s a windy day in Chicago. The sun shines down on a large mural that sits at Carpenter and 18th Streets in Pilsen, a neighborhood on Chicago’s southwest side. 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...

Host Judith Ruiz-Branch, contributor Karli Goldenberg, and producer Mareea Thomas reflect on the season and the year so far. Tienen una conversación not as journalists but as people, human beings who have been affected in every way by the current state of our country. 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...

En este episodio conversamos con la activista Kim Wasserman, residente de la Villita Antonia Quiñones Peña y el abogado John Hazinski about the implosion and continued demolition en la Villita, environmental justice and what community members would like to see moving forward. 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...

En este episodio contributor Karli Goldenberg talks to Chef Benoit Angulo via Zoom about how COVID-19 has brought La Cocinita Restaurant back to its food truck roots and allowed for them to donate over 7,000 meals to date across Chicagoland. 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...

En este episodio our contributor Karli Goldenberg explores collective care, o el cuidado colectivo. 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.

En este episodio, host Judith Ruiz-Branch habló con Shammrie Brown, Senior Outreach Director of New Life Covenant Church Southeast, via the Tape A Call app. Hablaron sobre cómo los miembros de la iglesia continue to help la comunidad despite the coronavirus and unrest following the murder of George Floyd. In addition to supporting local catering companies by purchasing comida para los trabajadores esenciales and those in need, la iglesia also provides pruebas de COVID-19 gratis and other...

En este episodio host Judith Ruiz-Branch habló con Dr. Marina Del-Rios, an emergency room doctor, assistant professor, and research coordinator, via an app called Tape a Call. They discussed the dire need for helpers in the medical field para Latinos en su comunidad, y Dr. Del-Rios shares las soluciones that she’s working on along with the Illinois Latino COVID-19 Initiative. One of the main issues Dr. Del-Rios had to tackle was misinformation sobre el coronavirus due to la falta de reliable...