One Year Under Quarantine, Part I: Zoom Weddings, Raising Kids, and Connecting Poor Communities to Health Tech

05/29/21 • 77 min

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 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.

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

Previous Episode

The Importance of the Census Count and How Trump Tried to Undermine It

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.

Next Episode

One Year Under Quarantine, Part II: Grubhub Worries, Trans Discrimination, and Creating Music In Peru

In the second part of the latest episode of the El Progreso podcast (formerly Techqueria), reporter Jose Fermoso continues to speak to Latinx people in tech about how they've handled the last year of the pandemic.

Featuring the following guests:

Alexia Núñez, a trans Grubhub software engineer who worried about her parents and her own mental and physical health in the middle of a rise of hate crimes across the U.S.
Clara Yolks, a Peruvian pop star who released several songs during the pandemic, including the hit "Millennial," about connecting with people from her generation beyond social media constraints.
Camilo Payet, a software developer from Florida whose wife lost a parent during the pandemic.
Miguel Gomez, a financial advisor who took the extra time available at home to connect with his children.

We also explain why we changed the name of the podcast!