Que Lo Que Podcast

Club Tipico Dominicano is more than just an anchor business in Miami's Little Santo Domingo neighborhood of Allapattah. For nearly 35 years, it has been a community hub, local business booster and a cultural gatekeeper. The first and last stop where people could find authentic Dominican music and meals in a city that often forgets there is more than one island in the Caribbean.

It's a responsibility of food and fun that founder Luis De La Cruz has passed down to his daughter Jasmely D. Jackson -- one that she has embraced by being equally dedicated to tradition and innovation.

As hipsters prepare to descend on Miami for Art Basel, we sit down and talk to Jasmely about Tipico's legacy, its future amid a quickly gentrifying neighborhood and the challenge of keeping both the food and the music fresh for today's audiences.

photo credit: the New Tropic

So many Dominican-Americans are student leaders early in their life, either at their schools or in their neighborhood communities. Yet, what happens after graduation? This week, we talk to Sanctuary for Families' Lucero Jorge about being a leader after college, (re)defining Latinidad and what she has learned working with families dealing with gender-based violence.

It's our way of leaning into this holiday season of thanks, paying attention to our younger generation and starting a discussion around gender violence on the heels of the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

GOOD BOCHINCE

Passion Project: @blacklettuce (IG & Twitter) - cannabis / alternative self care project.

Sanctuary for Families (@sffny on IG) Helpline: 212-349-6009 for Legal and Clinical Services

Tony Peralta of the Peralta Project - @peraltaprjct y @taller_peralta (on both IG and Twitter)

Mami Chula Social Club - @mamichulasocialclub. Founded by Claudia Mendoza (IG:@mujeronmondays)

MORE ABOUT LUCERO JORGE

Lucero Jorge is currently the Senior Project Assistant and Outreach Coordinator for Sanctuary for Families, one of NY's leading service provider and advocate for survivors of Domestic Violence and other forms of gender-based violence.

There, she helps manage cases and the organization's helpline. She is only three years removed from graduating from Columbia University, where she was an active student leader, including being President of El Grupo Quisqueya no, the school's Dominican student organization and one of the founders of the school's First Generation, Low-Income Partnership (2014).

WHERE TO FIND LUCERO

@beinglucyj (IG & Twitter)

Phillip Jerez is a former teacher who got involved in local politics as a way of trying making a greater impact outside the classroom. That led him to stints working for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz and serving as a Political Director for Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum's historical 2018 gubernatorial run.

Today, the Bronx-born, Columbia University graduate is President of Progress for Florida, a campaign consulting firm, which works to elect progressive candidates at every rung of the ladder.

We travel to CIC Miami to talk with Phillip about his career, the politics of identity, his deep appreciation for his older sister and the danger in telling a singular story.

Miami's Gabriela "Gaby" Guzman is helping women see and own their power through connection, community, joy, and authenticity via "Las Comadres" network. She also hosts masterminds and other online experiences that enable women to achieve the clarity, support and courage that they need to start and grow their own businesses.

Ir's not the road that she anticipated moving from Santo Domingo at the age of 19. We talk about that journey, how the need to build community is baked in Dominicans' DNA and what it takes to grow a support network committed to uplifting one another in life and in business. Mix in some reflections on race, parenting and politics and you have the kind of "good" bochinche that we need to thrive.

WHO SHE WANTS TO PAY IT FORWARD:

Sus comadres of course. Check out the full directory of members at: https://www.lascomadres.club/directory

HOW TO FIND GABY

Best spot is on IG at @thegabyguzman

Born in DR, Julia Mejia made history Election Day when she became the first Latina and Dominicana to win a seat on the Boston City Council.

For us here at Que Lo Que, the victory was emocionante from afar because we can connect so much with her story. Rising from poverty to be the first in her family to go and graduate college. Returning home to get involved in non-profit, education and civic engagement work. Stepping up to meet the next leadership challenge by running for office.

However, history is now on hold, as her razor thin margin of victory has triggered a recount. How did this single mom without ties to City Hall ties manage to get this far? What's her vision, not just fo the Council but for her community? Hear the answers from Julia herself and learn how you can help her seal this important victory.

HOW YOU CAN HELP JULIA?

Donate: https://oyen.me/donate2julia Volunteer: https://oyen.me/volunteer4julia

ENGAGE WITH HER ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

FB: https://www.facebook.com/JuliaforBoston TWITTER: @juliaforboston IG: @juliaforboston

Here at Que Lo Que, we know that supporting and training the next generation of leaders involves not just sound judgement, but also a commitment to looking in the mirror and challenging our own perceptions and perspectives. So, this week, we sit down in a crowded Harlem café to talk with educator and Wesleyan University alumnus Marvin Cabrera about his work helping students get to college, the shifting definition of manhood and the tricultural journey he's taken to become a better teacher and father.

Marvin is currently National Director of Dreamer Programs at the "I Have a Dream Foundation" where he helps support students from kindergarteners to alumni. Before his current role, he was a longtime employee at Columbia University's Double Discovery Center where he directed one of its TRIO programs serving youth with a specific focus on academic tutoring, enrichment activities, and college counseling help.

With Election Day less than a week away, we continue on the politics theme, introducing you to a young woman looking to make waves in Florida Politics and flip a seat blue in Florida's State House of Representatives.

Gabriela "Gaby" DeJesus was born in PR and grew up in Santo Domingo, the child of Puerto Rican and Dominican parents before settling in Miami via a brief stop in NYC. Her dreams of being the next hot shot chef were derailed by an accident that left her not just changing careers, but also wanting to change lives. What followed was Master's degree at FIU and helping to create the school's graduate school Puerto Rican Association in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

Now she's looking to take that a no-nonsense mix of data and grassroots advocacy to Tallahassee and take on an incumbent that has his sights set on the Florida Speakership.

We sit down and talk to Gaby about what's it like balancing her two cultures when people and the media often expect you to choose, what she's learned early on about this side of the political process and how her love of cooking and food is a potential gamechanger on the campaign trail.

---------------------------------- WHERE YOU CAN FIND GABY

Website: https://www.gaby2020.com/

FB: @GABY202FL

Twitter: @Gaby_2020FL

IG: @Gaby_2020FL

#electwomen #latinopower @gaby2020 #PlatanoPolitcs

For the first time in a long time, Miami's traditional Dominican community of Allapattah will get a chance November 5th to elect a new city commisioner.

With early voting starting this weekend, Venus & El B sit down at Tipico Dominicano Restaurant with The New Florida Majority's Electoral Field Director Melanie McRae and Gender Justice Organizer Ysabella Osses to discuss what's at stake in this election and the issues that local residents are talking about.

It's a part of a series of special episodes that we will regularly feature discussing the cities and neighborhoods that our people call home.

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For more information on early voting in Miami, visit https://www8.miamidade.gov/global/service.page?Mduid_service=ser1511962555914873&Mduid_organization=

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MORE ABOUT OUR GUESTS

The New Florida Majority's Electoral Field Director Melanie McRae is a proud Canadian transplant of Caribbean heritage who has spent most of the last decade as an advocate for candidates and issues that she believes in strongly. A U.S. Army veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom, Melanie has worked on everything from local municipal races and ballot initiatives to issue advocacy and statewide political campaigns. The learned common thread through all her experiences is that while great campaigns are people powered, successful campaigns connect the power of the people with insightful strategy that can only be gleaned from excellent data.

NewFM Gender Justice Organizer Ysabella Osses was born and raised in Santiago, Chile. She lived through the aftermath of the Pinochet dictatorship, which inspired her passion for politics, organizing, education and perreo. Ysa is a graduate of Florida International University and holds degrees in sociology, political science, and women's studies. Her purpose in life is to fight for the liberation of all women and femmes and does so as an Organizer with the New Florida Majority.

Politics in any country is often a matter of who you know. But how do you break in, especially when you can't lean on family or college connections? If you are Miami resident Teresa Guzman Pagan, you take your love of Anderson Cooper and the West Wing and just jump in.

We discuss with the Manhattanville College alumnus what it was like to work on Hillary Clinton's Presidential run and how her work in local races since then have shaped her political education and perspective. We also talk to her about her current work as Senior Voter Registration Manager for the New Florida Majority and what the political landscape looks like heading into 2020. What's the difference between political engagement here and in the DR and what does the future hold for a demographic that is still waiting to find its political voice in the Sunshine state.

Her social media: Twitter: teresagp94 | IG: @chiefofstaffpagan

Who she is paying forward: Visual artist and positive body image advocate Yadira G. Morel (IG: @somefreesoul), musician La Marimba (IG:la.marimba) & designer Erica Hernandez-Guttmann (IG: emhouseofdsgn)

Episode 3: One of the reasons why we created this podcast was to uplift the stories and work of Dominicans who are doing some great work here in Florida. People who might be thought of as working behind the scenes but whose efforts are having a great impact.

One of those folks here in Miami is Darwin Rodriguez. Darwin is a public historian and arts educator that believes in breaking down barriers that often separate communities.

A former Miami Dade County public school teacher, he is currently a lead teaching artist at the Perez Art Museum (PAMM) and an adjunct history professor at Florida International University FIU). His scholarship has focused on mass genocide around the world, as well as how the Atlantic Slave Trade is taught in the contemporary American History classroom.

We sat down with Darwin to talk about his journey from Washington Heights to Miami, his role as an educator at one of the nation's most influential art museums and his efforts to break down the walls that often separate Black and Latinx youth from the art world.