¿Qué Pasa, Midwest?

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 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. 

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 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 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 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.

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 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.

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 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.

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 various artists.

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 the epidemic of inequality that COVID exposes.

— Dr. David A. Ansell

Resources: 

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.

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 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

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.