Throughout our lives we create memories that will help to shape our future, and when we look back to our childhood it seems as though those days were better. We long for the past, and wish that things would go back to the way they used to be. As children we are idealist and think that our parents and grandparents will be with us forever. We think that bad things only happen to other people, not to us. However, as we grow older we begin to realize that our invincible parents are in fact vulnerable. They always were, but we only come to this realization as we grow older. In this episode I tell you about how my perception of invincible parents and grandparents started to change with time. We can't stay in the past nor can we try to go back to the past, we need to look forward, embrace our reality and work to make it better. Our new reality includes COVID-19, we need to move on and press forward, not backwards. The old normal is gone, and we need to embrace our current situation and then work to make it better. 

Community of Strangers

Memories: From invincible to vulnerable

What America means to you may be completely different than what it means to other people, especially people from Latin America. In the USA America is a country, but it wasn't always like that. The founding fathers usually referred to the former British colonies as the United States or The Union, not America. In the 19th century, the USA had a nickname, which was Columbia. However, that nickname was eventually abandoned. Then in the early 20th century we started to see how the term America was beginning to be used to refer to the United States. Join me in this episode as I explore the origins of the word America, and how its meaning changed over time. 

What is America?

My parents and your ancestors came to America hoping for a better future, whereas the African people were brought here to start a life of slavery that would leave them with physical and psychological scars. The death of George Floyd has sparked a new wave of peaceful and violent protests throughout the USA, and it might be a turning point in American history. On this episode I recount our African American fellow citizens' struggles for equal rights and equal protection under the law. 

Do we have a problem of racial injustice in this country?

I learned the F-word in the first month after I started the 11th grade in high school. Little did I know that the lesson I got on the F-word would eventually come handy when I had a couple of not so pleasant experiences in which race was an issue. In this episode I also tell you about the only time I had a mild negative experience with the police.

How I learned the F-word

The Italian immigrants endured discrimination as well as substandard housing and working conditions in an attempt to achieve the American dream. Their efforts paved the way for the new generations to achieve things that their parents and grandparents could only dream of. Today Americans of Italian descent have not only melt into the mainstream American culture, but they have influenced and helped redefine what it means to be an American. Join me as I talk about a few Americans who can trace their roots back to Italy.

The children of Italian immigrants

Italy and Mexico do not only have a similar flag and speak a romance language, but they're also mostly Catholic and very family oriented. However, the most striking similarity is the story of their immigrants to the United States. During the late 19th century and early 20th century, Italians immigrants started arriving in the USA by the thousands and by 1920 they represented more than 10 percent of the foreign-born population. Join me as I review the Italian immigration to the USA.

The Italian immigrants were the Mexicans of the 1900's in America

May is Jewish American heritage month. Jewish Americans have contributed in many ways to America's culture and character. Join me in this episode as I briefly review the history of Jewish immigration to America and tell you the story of some Jewish refugees who attempted to flee Nazi Germany before the start of World War II aboard the MS St. Louis. I tell you about their ordeal and their fate after they weren't allowed to disembark in the United States. 

A brief history of Jewish immigration to America

The US congress passed the CARES act with overwhelming bipartisan support and was signed into law on March 27, 2020. This bill is supposed to provide financial relief for US families who have been affected by the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. However, there's a group of US citizens who are being left out; US citizens in mixed-status families. Join me in this episode to learn more about them. 

Mixed status families and the CARES act

Ken Cuccinelli is the acting Deputy Secretary for the department of Homeland Security. He previously served as the acting director for the United States Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) and became the public face for the Trump administration's immigration policies. He's a Catholic, a conservative and an immigration hardliner, who once proposed to make it illegal for employees to speak Spanish at the workplace. He descends from Italian immigrants on his father's side, and from Irish immigrants on his mother's side. On this episode I talk about his views on immigration and the anti-immigrant sentiment that his Italian great grandfather encountered when he arrived in the United States in the late 1800's.

A review to Ken Cuccinelli's views on immigration, and a visit to his immigrant past

Migration is a phenomenon that has been happening for as long as there have been humans on the earth. Migrants are often times not welcome and are at times despised by the local population. In this episode, we explore the main reasons why people migrate. We look at some figures reported by the UN about international migration and where most migrants tend to go to look for a better life. 

Why do people migrate

Le debemos nuestra más profunda gratitud a los médicos, enfermeras, paramédicos y demás trabajadores de la salud que están luchando directamente contra el COVID-19, poniendo en riesgo su salud y la de sus seres queridos para ayudar a los miembros de nuestra comunidad que se han infectado con este virus. Sin embargo, en este episodio los invito a ver esta crisis desde otra perspectiva, una perspectiva que incluye a los jornaleros que trabajan en los campos agrícolas para asegurarse de que nuestra cadena de suministro de alimentos no sea interrumpida. El Departamento de Seguridad Nacional los considera trabajadores esenciales, pero también muchos de ellos son ilegales. Entonces, por el momento, ICE los dejará en paz, pero cuando la crisis haya terminado, volverán a las sombras y si pierden su trabajo debido al COVID-19, no recibirán ninguna ayuda financiera del gobierno federal debido a su estatus legal.

Los otros trabajadores esenciales

We owe our deepest gratitude to the doctors, nurses, paramedics and caregivers who are fighting COVID-19 head on, putting their health at risk and that of their loved ones to help members of our community who have gotten infected by this virus. However, in this episode I invite you to look at this crisis from another perspective, a perspective that includes the farm workers who are working on the fields making sure that our food supply chain is not interrupted. They're considered essential workers by the Department of Homeland Security, but they're also illegal. So, for the time being, ICE will leave them alone, but when the crisis is over, they will be on the run again, and if they lose their job because of COVID-19, they will not get any financial aid from the federal government because of their legal status. 

The other essential workers

Before I moved to USA, I had already come in contact with the English language. I had taken English classes in school, I had heard it in the radio, and it was in the movies. The American culture had expanded beyond its borders, but it wasn't the USA that started the globalization of the English language. In this episode I talk about how English became the lingua franca, a global language. 

How English became a globalized language

The coronavirus, COVID-19, has impacted the way we do things. There are many cancelled events and also many schools districts have closed. Travel bans have been imposed and government leaders have banned large public gatherings. What is social distancing, what is this strategy trying to accomplish, and what can we do to help slow the spread of the virus? I talk about these things on this episode. 

COVID-19 and the case of Social Distancing

El coronavirus, COVID-19, ha afectado la manera en la que hacemos las cosas. Hay muchos eventos cancelados y también muchos distritos escolares han decidido cerrar. Se han impuesto prohibiciones de viaje y los líderes gubernamentales han prohibido reuniones públicas grandes. ¿Qué es el distanciamiento social? ¿Qué está tratando de lograr esta estrategia y qué podemos hacer para ayudar a desacelerar la propagación del virus? De todas estas cosas hablo en el episodio de hoy.

COVID-19 y el caso del distanciamiento social

We discuss all things immigration. We talk about how we are portrayed in the news, the immigrant experience, common misconceptions about immigration and immigrants, etc.

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Community of Strangers

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