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

06/09/21 • 46 min

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!

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!

Previous Episode

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

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!

Next Episode

How Immigration Is Still Under Assault: Conversations with Border Angels, Latinx in Tech and Soltrón

In this episode of the El Progreso podcast, we discuss the latest news from the US-Mexico border. With undocumented people applying for asylum and crossing the border at record rates, we talk to immigration experts about what the Biden administration has done to move away from the Trump policies and how it has also upheld some of the same harmful laws, including Title 42.

Our guests include Dulce Garcia, the Director of Border Angels, an immigration advocacy organization that among its many efforts, places large water jugs in the desert for people crossing the border. We'll get a sense of how that organization and others like it reach out to immigrants in the US, including day laborers, and help them with basic needs, especially during COVID.

We'll also speak with Latinx people working inside tech companies about how they feel about tools they build being used to apprehend immigrants. And we end the show with a conversation with a San Francisco-based band, Soltrón, whose songs describe the city's political battlefields of gentrification and the immigrant experience.