El Progreso

In the first episode of Techqueria, reporter Jose Fermoso speaks to three people who find themselves in widely different circumstances as they face the coronavirus pandemic.

In part 1, Jose speaks to Dr. Luis Rubio, a graduate of the top medical school in the United States, The University of California at San Francisco. Dr. Rubio finds himself in the war zone of the hospital with the city’s biggest COVID-19-infected Latinx population.

This episode will be followed by Part II, which features Dr. Nyah Zarate, the CEO of Continuous Solutions, and emerging cumbia star Ivan Montemayor, known as Mister Cumbia.

Host: Jose Fermoso

Producer: Neil Godbole

In this week's episode of the Techqueria podcast, our host Jose Fermoso speaks to Matthew Zayas, a young father who has spent a lot of his adult life reconciling with the racism he experienced as an Afro Latino child in New York's Staten Island. From fights in the back of the school bus in his teens to his work in psychology with new businesses, Matthew opens up about his fears for the first time and looks forward to the future.

Featuring analysis and conversations with the following Afro Latinx experts:

• Kia-Fiara Melendez, a Founding Social Worker at New York City's School on the Square
• Dr. Adolfo Cuevas, the Director of the Psychosocial Determinants of Health (PSDH) Lab at Tufts University
• Prof. Jill Richardson, the Associate Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and The CUNY Graduate Center and author of The Afro-Latin@ Experience in Contemporary American Literature and Culture: Engaging Blackness

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Produced by Neil Godbole and Jose Fermoso, with editing help from Ami Icanberry.

In this episode of the Techqueria podcast, Jose Fermoso talks to lawyers and academics about the United States Census, one of the most important civic events in the country. As we prepare to learn about the full results of the 2020 Census, we find out how and why the actions of the Trump administration likely severely and negatively affected the accuracy of the count, especially in Latinx communities, including how congressional apportionments may suffer.

Our guests include:

• Dale Ho, the national Director of Civil Rights at the ACLU and lead counsel in the recent U.S. Supreme Court case New York v. Trump.
• Jose Perez, the chief legal officer of LatinoJustice, one of the non-profits that submitted an amicus brief on behalf of Latinx communities in the above case.
• Natalia Molina, a USC history professor, and 2020 MacArthur Foundation Fellow.
• Onesimo "Ness" Sandoval, a St. Louis University Demographics and Computational Spatial science professor.
• Lara Manzanares, a former enumerator who wrote a fun song about the importance of taking the census.

Produced by Jose Fermoso and Neil Godbole.

In this week's episode of the newly renamed El Progreso podcast (formerly Techqueria), reporter Jose Fermoso speaks to a series of Latinx people in the tech industry about how the last full year of dealing with the pandemic under quarantine has affected their and their loved one's lives.

In part 1, Jose speaks to two young mothers who've had to rearrange the focus of their businesses, their work processes, and even where they live.

First, Cecilia Corral, the co-founder and VP of Product at CareMessage explains how she, while pregnant, had to pivot their financial model to a free version so needy health clinics could help their clients connect to key medical, food distribution, rental assistance, and financial support. She also moved to Austin, Texas, with her husband while dealing with the immense loss of family members to the coronavirus.

Second, Jeanette Corona, a long-time tech product manager, tells us how she moved her mom into the home she shares with her partner and their new child. She also changed jobs in the middle of the pandemic, managed to support her mom's restaurant business, and, yes, directed her full, incredible wedding over Zoom.

Part II will follow this episode, which features Alexia Núñez, a Grubhub software engineer, and Peru pop star Clara Yolks, who has written and performed some of the catchiest songs in Latin America in the last few years.

By the way, we'll explain the change to our new name in part II!

In the second episode of the Techqueria podcast, Jose Fermoso speaks to two software engineers still new to the profession. First, Jose speaks to Gabriel Lujan, a Bay Area native who worked on the electronic media side of tech as an A/V pro until his interest in programming led him to the San Francisco bootcamp App Academy to boost his skills. Then Jose talks to Steffany Bahamon, a Miami techie who was the first person in her family to go to a U.S. college and works for a bank hoping to help Latinx avoid disastrous financial decisions like those made by people she knew in the run up to the 2008 global financial crisis.

Host: Jose Fermoso

Producer: Neil Godbole