¿Qué Pasa, Midwest?

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 Center, to unpack this news.

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:

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 fuera de sus local governments.

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

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 in Schuyler. However, it is only because of a unique set of circunstancias que son difíciles de duplicar elsewhere. Jon habla de Victor Lopez y Guadalupe Marino Ramirez who are living through los cambios.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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.