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.

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, 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.

This episode comes from outside the Midwest pero decidimos hacerlo because everything that happens at the US-Mexico border affects the entire country, incluyendo el medio oeste.

The experience of 1.5 generation immigrants, a term used to describe people who arrived in the U.S. as children and adolescents, is a unique one. Unlike their first-generation parents or U.S.-born siblings, their identity is split. That in between. Los que hablan más inglés que Español o que a lo mejor no saben mucho acerca de la cultura de sus padres.

Aquí la historia de Janeth Vazquez. She grew up in Liberal Kansas and her father was deported when she started her first year of college. Ella dice que su vida cambió en todo el sentido de la palabra. She went from being a student and a daughter to being the sole provider of her family.

After an abusive childhood in Mexico, Amy's grandfather started telling people he was Italian. He says, “nothing good comes out of Mexico. Nothing." His identity is his business, but Amy knows she's not Italian. As a mixed race Latina with no cultural connection to Mexico, she struggles to express her racial and ethnic identity.

In this episode, our host Paola Marizán shares with co-producer Mareea Thomas how moving from her home country at age 6 made her feel displaced, how domestic violence lead her and su mama to be refugees and how now that she's older tiene que encarar and deal with depression.

An Immigration Center proposed to be built in Elkhart, Indiana, a city big on agriculture, mainly built on manufacturing and close to big areas with large Latino populations, represented a clear threat to Latinos in the area. Many protests halted the proposed center from coming along but people are still nervous about the possible outcome.

Amalia got caught by border patrol and in a split second she had to make the decision; give her baby to the coyote and hope he’ll get the infant safe to her relatives in the U.S. or take her four-month-old back home, to El Salvador.

Imagine establishing a life in a foreign country that then becomes home - mi casa- even more than where you come from. That’s how twenty one year old Laura Ayala feels.

Because Pedro is a U.S. citizen, he was able to sign up for eight years of service and in return, his parents can stay in this country after living undocumented for almost twenty years.

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.

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.

En este episodio our new contributor, Karli Goldenberg, talks to Dr. Juan Carlos Caicedo via Zoom about how he challenges existing healthcare access and created the Northwestern Medicine Hispanic Transplant Program, a culturally competent transplant center dedicated to Latino patients.

“if you go to the emergency room, if you go to a doctors appointment, you know that the one thing that they ask for is insurance. Do you have insurance? You know? I’m not going to say the majority, but a good portion of the Latinos that I deal with don’t qualify for insurance..“

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.

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.

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.

In this episode, co-producer Mareea Thomas talks to Paola about her experience when living in a house where domestic violence was present, about fleeing to New York and on how her family finally left.

After not being able to talk to my family for six days, my mom finally called me from the Island. Hurricane Maria had just passed and she couldn't believe was she was seeing. I didn't know what had happened during that time so she started sending me pictures of what I thought was another country.

Non-Latinos are not the only ones confused about why Cinco de Mayo is celebrated. I’m from the Dominican Republic, and I have to admit that I didn’t know for a long time that this celebration was not the Mexican Independence Day I was misled by the celebraciones en Estados Unidos about este festejo.

Duolingo schools no son nada nuevo. There are many of them around the country, focusing on many different languages, and they’re certainly not new in the state of Indiana. En Fort Wayne, Lindley Elementary ha tenido un programa similar al de Parkview, por más de veinte años.

A casual conversation about Latino art and culture and its influence the Midwest and how it's celebrated where it's people may not feel welcomed.

Para despedir el año, ¿Qué Pasa, Midwest? programmer Mareea Thomas and host Paola Marizán shared their favorite songs of 2017 and some of what's coming up next for the podcast.

Celebrating Christmas as a Latino, today means that celebrations pour over borders and become part of our own traditions. Is not just about celebrating a native tradición but celebrating the traditions we took from our neighboring countries.

Finding the ingredients to feel close to home is always a hassle. Here's my journey finding achiote for my Puertorican Sofrito in the Midwest, how that becomes part of my identity and why Latino-owned businesses matter.

Pulque, an ancient Mexican drink, is milky, slightly foamy and somewhat viscous. The Aztecs made this drink by fermenting the nectar of a cactus plant, llamada Maguey, para curar todos los males.

For this episode, we recap algunas de las historias we told and update you on other ones. How is your recovery coming along? ¿Tienes una situación similar a algunas de estas historias? ¿Haz aplicado para Medicaid Or did you already receive the vaccine? Déjanos saber.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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, our co producer Mareea Thomas and I thought we would dive right into the census. Many millennials haven’t filled the census either so for this episodio we’ll fill out the 2020 census sample questionnaire we found on census.gov.

En nuestro primer episodio, we talked about why the census was important, why some immigrantes didn’t want to respond to the citizenship question on it, about the millions of dollars that are allocated every year based on the census count y como esta estadistica puede afectar las elecciones.

Por si no lo sabias, este año the debate of the citizenship question being on the census form filled our news feeds. Escuchamos que era algo bueno por que it would have given us an accurate count of Hispanos and Latinos that needed help with things like legal aid or language assistance.

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.

Aqui una historia desde Chicago. Our collaborator Judith Ruiz-Branch talks about how although Chicago is a very liberal city with a diverse population that breeds inclusividad, there are still some Latino families, many undocumented, that have completely disconnected themselves from the current political landscape.

En este episodio, we explain how the census count can affect the elections with gerrymandering. También, hablamos con Roberto Arroyo, a Tex Mex Billennial living in Indiana who feels passionate about voting. He compares la experiencia politica of young people in Mexico and the US and Puerto Rico.

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.

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.

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.