Episode 68: Chicago’s Puerto Rican Fest & Creating Community Events for Us, By Us
The Puerto Rican Festival begins today through September 26! It’s been going strong for 39 years, but was once at risk of not happening in 2019 due to the unethical stewardship of the committee in charge at the time that ended in the organization filing bankruptcy. The group of community leaders we have on today’s show actually stepped up during that time to organize the fest successfully within less than 2 months.
They had to be scrappy then and they needed to be scrappy this year, not just because of the pandemic, but because they are starting from square one. They're showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon, so we're happy to welcome them to the show to talk about how they are elevating the experience for festival gowers compared to previous years, what you should keep in mind if you want to start a community event of your own for your neighborhood, and their thoughts on what it means to be Puerto Rican.
Episode 60: Why Go Mainstream When You Can Breakthrough?
We welcome Monica Cruz. She's a labor reporter with BreakThrough News and host of the weekly podcast, On the Picket Line. She's a 3rd generation Afro-Boricua raised in New Jersey and an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. We discuss the PRO Act, a major labor legislation that could transform the lives of working class people and labor organizing, and what that means for Puerto Ricans, the wider BIPOC community and the working class as a whole.
We also talk about why it’s so hard to make a good Mofongo, where mainstream media is lacking in their reporting on labor and her labor reporting for BreakThrough news, especially what she experienced during the Amazon Warehouse unionization efforts in Alabama.
Episode 44: Organizing in Puerto Rico & Chicago, Attack at the Capitol & More w/ Alderwoman Rossana Rodríguez Sanchez
Alderwoman of the 33rd Ward, Rossana Rodríguez Sanchez, joins the show. We talk about life growing up in Puerto Rico, her experiences and the contrasts she saw in her organizing both on La Isla and in Chicago, the reason why she migrated to the states, policy she is advocating for in the Chicago City Council, her reaction to the coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol last week and a whole lot more.
Episode 38: The Puerto Rican Electorate with Erica González from #Power4PuertoRico
In case you were living under a rock, the U.S. Presidential Election took place last week. To help us understand the Puerto Rican Electorate in this election, Erica González, Director of #Power4PuertoRico & Founding Editor of IDAR/E, is with us today. In addition to insights on how Puerto Ricans voted and issues that resonate most with our community, we'll discuss the organizing work Power4PuertoRico did in the lead up to the 2020 U.S. Election, the 2020 Puerto Rico Election and statehood referendum vote, the problematic narrative coming out of election coverage about Latinx voters, and a whole lot more.