[upbeat traditional Latin music] - [Announcer] Funding for "i¡Ahora Si!

Jersey's Latin Beat: "A Chat Box & Qué Pasa Heritage Month Special," provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, New Jersey Economic Development Authority, working to grow the state's economy and increase equitable access to opportunity, online at njed.gov.

Promotional support provided by the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey.

Learn how to join our familia at shccnj.org.

[upbeat traditional Latin music continues] [upbeat traditional Latin music continues] - Hello, everybody, welcome to a special Chat Box, and Qué Pasa New Jersey mashup we're calling "i¡Ahora Si!"

I'm David Cruz.

We're joined by the host of "Qué Pasa New Jersey," Carlos Medina.

Carlos, how you doing, bro?

- Hola, David, it's great to be with you as we celebrate Latino culture, politics, food, and music, all the things that make this community now almost 25% of the state's population so unique.

- I like to say Hispanic Heritage Month is every month, but the fact is that these are also challenging times for our community, from immigration and the migrant crisis to tough economic times.

We're gonna try to get to as much of that as we possibly can.

- And making sure that we showcase the best of what our community has to offer.

We have a full hour, and I'm sure it won't be enough, so let's get started.

i¡Ahora Si!

David, take it away!

- All right, Carlos, thanks.

We begin with the discussion of where we're at as Latinos in all walks of life in New Jersey and around the country.

The highest ranking Latina in New Jersey government is the Senate Majority Leader.

She's Teresa Ruiz, and she joins us now.

Senator, always a pleasure.

- Thank you for having me.

- So, can we start with an overview, Latinos, seems like it's one step forward, two steps back when it comes to gaining seats of power, do you think?

- Absolutely, I think we joke amongst the community, [speaking Spanish], you stay in the same space a little bit for a little while, but we can't overlook some of the huge strides.

I have an opportunity to be in leadership as the highest ranking Latina ever in the history of New Jersey.

When I entered as an elected official in my time of public service, I was the first and only in 2007 and subsequently, we welcomed Senators Paul and Senator Nilsa Cruz-Pérez.

And the assembly side, we've diversified.

We're more Latinos coming into the base.

But yeah, there's still a lot of work to be done and oftentimes I feel it's a double-sided approach.

As a community, we're quiet, which is insanely interesting because as a cultural community, we're not.

- We're a festive people.

- Right.

But from a perspective of bringing the noise and voicing our concerns, it's almost in that sense of how we were raised.

[speaking Spanish] Be quiet, be respectful, and so I think there's a lot of space for us to really galvanize who we are.

And from the other lens is always, I think, approaching the Latina community as a myopic group and we're so diverse in extraordinary ways, including our ideologies.

- Yeah, including Republicans.

- [Teresa] Correct!

- Yeah.

- So here, just for some context, we had a lot of people calling for Senator Menendez to resign, mostly Democrats.

But as you and others pointed out, there was little discussion about succession there with anybody, except some of the names that have been bandied about, but zero consideration for any Latinos or Latina candidates.

- So clearly, the events that are current right now in this circumstance are devastating.

But the fact that we are not talking about, or that the names that have surfaced are not more inclusive of the Latino community is a huge space for concern for me, for Latinos in the state of New Jersey, and quite frankly, for Latinos up and down the eastern corridor of this country.

When you look at the Latinos in the Senate, most of them are from the West Coast.

The Eastern Coast, we have Florida representing us.

And there are several issues from education to immigration to cultural barriers.

It is just, I think, a smack in the face to the community, quite frankly, and to be very direct, and this is no disrespect to anyone who has presented themselves to be a premier candidate, to even consider the fact of how critically important it is to continue that voice being represented on the federal level.

- I was gonna say that, because I don't know, with all due respect to those names that have been mentioned, I don't know that anyone is gonna be as forceful on an issue like immigration and as in the weeds as Menendez has been.

- Correct, so for whatever is happening now, you can't take away the decades of service and the advocacy.

I saw it firsthand when it comes to the status of Puerto Rico.

So there are so many things at bay right here that a Latino-centered person, someone who understands the community, someone who captures the voice, to me that is the primary focus.

There is no vacancy currently right now, but when there is one, Latinos in the state have to be loud and proud about who we want representing us.

- So let's talk about some of these issues that you brought up.

Immigration is one that has been going forever and will continue to go for a while now, but the migrant crisis seems very current.

Does New Jersey have a role to play in taking in migrants?

- Look, I think every state is gonna be forced to deal with this, but the truth of the matter is this is a federal issue that has to be handled and they have to come up with a blueprint.

And while that's a very present issue, it's in tandem with the immigration lack of a blueprint policy that hasn't been presented in decades.

So really, the Federal Government needs to deal with the honest conversations of what's happening in all of our states.

- Yeah, you were a former Education Committee chairperson on the Senate.

I know that recently there was a ruling on the segregation, a case that is still pending against the state.

It acknowledged that segregation exists in the state, but gave no remedies, suggested no remedies.

The legislature is gonna have to get involved in this.

Yeah, you're gonna lean in on this?

- So I think it's open-ended.

What the case did determine was that the advocates have an opportunity to litigate the case on their merits and what they found.

The greater issue is that it's gonna require a lean-in from everyone who feels responsible to this issue, all of us, including myself.

What are the key factors?

They're not solely based on the educational systems.

It goes back to opportunities to live in different communities.

How do we make communities more accessible and more affordable to individuals who perhaps are not part of the student body?

But as we begin to address those issues, there are present day crises that are facing our students today.

50% of fourth graders in the last data that I looked at are not reading at grade level.

And when you peel that back, it's 75, 76% of Latino and African American students.

There are things that we have to be doing currently right now.

This other issue of segregated schools is as important and is our responsibility to all of us to lean in, but there has to be a multi-pronged approach when it comes to the state of education in a state that often gets touted as having the number one public schools, which is infuriating, because it is not a truth for all of our families.

- Yeah, running out of time, but I know that you mentioned the status of Puerto Rico as one of the things that you and I have talked about several times.

Where are we right now?

Is there another plebiscite upon us with multiple choice questions?

- So this is why the importance of having a representation who understands the dynamic of who we are in this country and on the island, and that kind of having two feet in one place at the same time.

The Congress has reviewed a bill.

The Senate is in the process of looking at it, and there's three approaches, whether it's independent, statehood, and then some third kind of, I don't know- - Continued weird relationship.

- Continued weird relationship.

For me, the lean-in, in this space is that the complexity of the relationship of the island in this country, I think that this government still owes a lot to the people of Puerto Rico, and we should make sure that we clean up those opportunities and repay those opportunities before we talk about anything else.

- Okay, a conversation starter, let's hope.

Senate Majority Leader, Teresa Ruiz, good to see you in the house, thanks for coming on.

[Teresa speaking Spanish] You can't discuss where we're at without talking about the dollars and the cents.

So we'll throw it back over to the Agnès Varda Studios where Carlos Medina has that side of the story, Carlos.

- Thanks, David, the Latino Donor Collaborative recently released a report, which covers, among other metrics, the gross domestic product for Hispanics living in the United States.

Nationally, the Hispanic GDP is $3.2 billion, and right here in New Jersey, the Hispanic GDP is over $100 million.

Joining us to dig into this phenomenon is Tomas Porturas, Vice President and Senior Community Impact Specialist from Wells Fargo Bank and Monica Martinez Milan, owner of Stumpy's Hatchet Throwing venue in Greenbrook, New Jersey, and a very well known Hispanic business leader.

Thanks Tomas, thanks Monica, thanks for joining us.

- [Monica] Thank you for having us here.

- [Tomas] Likewise.

- Tell me a little bit about growing up in the Iron Bound section of Newark.

- Well, that's why I'm so prideful of being here with you today, because we are in Newark, a place that is near and dear to my heart.

I was born and raised in Newark, daughter of immigrants that settled here in Newark and eventually, pursued their American dream to open up their own business, to be small business owners, entrepreneurs.

My father worked three jobs at one point, and he served coffee in the building where we're filming this episode, so it all goes full circle.

But it reminds me a lot of the movie "In the Heights," where we had, when you're in Newark, the smells, the abuelas, the tias, the neighbors, those are the people that helped to raise me and to give me such a solid foundation.

- Great, Tomas, born in Peru.

Tell me about your immigration journey here to New Jersey.

- Yes, thank you for the invite.

My family's from Peru, from the north of Lima.

There is a town called Chimbote.

So we came in 1989.

Since then, all our time, we have lived in New Jersey, and we love this state.

I have two children, two boys.

One of them is already a doctor, working in Manhattan, by the way.

The other one is a computer electric engineer.

He's working in California in Silicon Valley.

We really have a wonderful life.

We enjoy this state and of course, we know that we have a lot of things yet to do, so we are very pleased to be here.

- So, you heard the numbers, right?

Hispanic businesses, many would argue, saved the economy back in 2009 during the last great recession.

'cause Main Street businesses were dropping and Hispanic businesses were growing.

Tell me, Monica, what would you say is the state of Hispanic business here in New Jersey?

- Well, from the research we've gathered, Latina-owned businesses are opening businesses six times greater than the national average.

So that really just, it says it all.

You can research it and pull some numbers yourself, but you'll see that we are growing, and we mean business.

And that also means that as we have proven ourselves, where we're employing over 600,000 people in this country, and that number continues to grow.

We also started to see opportunities where we have a seat at the table and board of directors.

We really do make an impact when we all work together.

- That's great, Tomas, Wells Fargo has been a partner of many nonprofits here in New Jersey.

How do they see the Hispanic business community and how are they implementing programs to help that community grow even further?

- Yes, we have seen the growth, of course, and we want to be part, we have been.

Just to give you a quick data, we have been serving the Hispanic Latino community for more than 160 years, so there's a lot of history And I know that I have seen personally the growth in the Hispanic small business community.

But still, I see an opportunity, especially when it comes to financial tools, be prepared in case of emergency, access to capital.

I think there is still a lot of opportunity, and this is when we are working with nonprofit organizations that provide these type of services.

I am privileged to be part of that group called the Social Impact & Sustainability.

They manage the foundation.

So I have the opportunity to use this privileged position, I would say, to award these wonderful programs.

- What message would you give to corporations and to residents in New Jersey about Hispanic business?

- Well, we're very resilient, as you can see.

We survived so many challenges, especially during COVID.

I know personally with our statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey, out of all of the members, we haven't seen any businesses close.

And that speaks a lot for our resiliency and our desire to continue to grow, pivot, and prosper.

Being part of a chamber is critical, especially for our Hispanic community, our business community.

It's having a connection within different networks and corporations, and we also see that a lot of corporations are contacting us to ask us, "Hey, do you have a reference or so-and-so "within this organization that we can work with?"

So we're starting to see so much more come through, which gives us a lot of credibility, because we've proven ourselves.

- That's great, Tomas, what would you tell other corporations saying, "Wells Fargo's doing a good job, "but unfortunately not everybody's at the table "doing the same things you are."

What would you tell other organizations?

- Well, to invest in our communities, no doubt.

I think this is our responsibility.

When we see businesses succeed, we all succeed, so we all are in it together.

And this is what we are doing.

We have been doing, I would say good work, making sure the financial education, for instance, is accessible, housing is more attainable.

We wanna see more business thriving and also, more communities, stronger, resilient, and of course, sustainable.

- Thank you for joining us.

It's been very eye-opening, some of the numbers and God bless.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you very much.

- David, back to you.

- Thanks, Carlos.

Our next guest has been around the world bringing us important stories of what it is to be Latino in this day and age.

She's also helped to build a media company that is on the cutting edge of sight and sound.

Pulitzer and Peabody Award winner, Maria Hinojosa joins us now.

Maria, welcome, good to see you again!

- Great to see you, David.

What's up, what's up, New Jersey?

Love you, love you!

- Last time we were together here, we were talking about the crisis at the border, and here you are two years later, and we have to talk about the crisis at the border, which has spilled into our cities now and that has moved the president to return to some Trump era policies and rhetoric.

It's hard to think of us getting anywhere on anything until we come to some understanding on this, no?

- I have to tell you, David, this has been a particularly distressing time yet again.

What we are witnessing, David, is a moment in which mis- and disinformation that is divisive is being put out there, in our case, in our metropolitan area, New York, New Jersey, and I believe creating a division, sowing a division, and somehow getting people who are incredibly busy, 'cause we know this, everybody in our area is very busy, to find the time to make posters and go and stand and protest against human beings who are refugees.

We can do better.

- Yeah.

I want to talk a little bit about news and journalism and the business side of it and how all of this plays into the narratives that are out there and how they're all really distinct things, right?

You said, when we last talked, speaking to journalists, you said, "Do this work.

We need you.

"Bring your whole self to the newsroom."

That's really critical, especially nowadays, because somebody has to pitch the stories about migrants and farm workers and dreamers and teachers and immigrant families, no?

- Well, it's actually even broader than that.

But yes, we have to be in the newsroom.

We have to, sadly at this point, we have to humanize the people who are being demonized, migrants and refugees, the other.

But when you're talking specifically about Latinos and Latinas, we are actually living through a phenomenally interesting, historical moment right now.

We are beginning in an election year in which presidential politics, democracy, voter participation is going to be the center conversation.

So, this is my mantra that everyone needs to understand and acknowledge, which is Latinos, Latinas, Latinx, Latin A, Hispanic, all of us, we are the second largest voting cohort in the United States.

Therefore, how Latinos and Latinas relate to democracy, it's not just how are we understanding migrants and refugees and what a poor job, frankly, many of our colleagues continue to do in terms of reporting this story that is really so complex.

It's not only just reporting that story, it's understanding the power of Latinos in our country.

- Which goes to having representation.

Let's talk a little bit about Futuro Media, the company that you founded in 2010, I imagine not because you wanted all the extra work of being an executive producer, but you saw the need for this outlet platform, [speaking Spanish] but Futuro Media now is so much more than just Latino USA, no?

- To me, the reason why Futuro Media exists is because we are part of that long trajectory, the long arc of journalism, of conscience in our United States.

Futuro Media was born in 2010 when we were in the middle of an economic depression.

And I said, "I wanna create a space "that is run by a Latina and that is based in Harlem "with everything that that communicates, "and that we are going to do journalism "that is going to help you to understand "the fastest growing demographic group in our country, "along with Asians."

But understanding this, which is actually everywhere around you.

And now, David, actually having to, because with the advent of Donald Trump's presidential campaign began a series of lies about who we are, that we are rapists and criminals and murders.

And so now what we have to do is we actually have to correct the narrative.

No, that is not true.

And sadly, sometimes in our reporting, we actually have to spend time on showing the truth and fighting against what was repeated ad nauseum across the media by Donald Trump and all of the media platforms about who Mexicans and Latinos are, which is again, not true, factually just not true.

- Yeah, and it's just critical to have representation in producers of media just to provide that context at the bare minimum.

So, there was a report by the General Accounting Office that the population of Latinos in the media industry increased by just 1% over the previous decade.

I mean, at this rate, we'll need a century to actually represent us in terms of representation in media, but that also extends to not only journalism and TV news, et cetera, but also to TV and film.

10 leading roles in the top 100 grossing films of 2022.

I mean, still so far to go, yeah, in terms of getting representation across the board.

- So who holds up the movie ticket business?

Who buys more movie tickets than anybody else in terms of their population rate, Latinos and Latinas.

We buy one out of every four movie tickets is bought by a Latino and Latina.

I like to joke, it's because when we go to the movies, we take the whole family from the grandparents to the newborns.

That's like 15 tickets right there.

Or we like to go multiple times.

The point is, is that we are consuming, in this case, Hollywood films, or let's say Netflix, for example.

And yet, we do not see ourselves represented.

To me, and I'm playing in this fear now, David, as Futuro Media, [indistinct] Pulitzer Prize for our Suave podcast, we've had interest, whatever.

I'm just telling you that I'm not afraid to move in this area of Hollywood, because we have to be there.

There's no reason why we shouldn't be trying to break in and make our films and tell our stories.

We are part and parcel of the American reality.

And the sooner that people all around us base your reactions to us on your empirical interactions with us, as opposed to what's being told to you on the media, the better things will be.

- [speaking Spanish] And Maria Hinojosa is walking the walk.

It's always good to see you, sister.

Thanks for coming on with us.

- It's so good to be with you and what a great conversation.

- Let's go back to the Varda Studio now, where Carlos has a musical guest, Carlos.

- Thanks, David, great interview with Maria.

It's my pleasure to welcome singer, songwriter, and actress Allison Strong to the show.

This Jersey girl, whose family immigrated from Columbia, can be seen on Netflix portraying Adam Sandler's daughter in the movie "The Week Of," which also stars Chris Rock.

And Allison's not stopping there.

From her latest album to opening up for country icon, LeAnn Rimes, we're honored to welcome the multi-talented Allison Strong, welcome.

- Thank you so much, Carlos, it's an honored to be here.

- Last time we were talking about your project with Adam Sandler.

- Yes.

- And the mark of a good, talented actress is you get invited to do more with him.

- Absolutely, yes.

- So tell me about the new animated feature with Adam Sandler, which will be on Netflix.

- Absolutely, so we are on strike right now in SAG-AFTRA.

It's a difficult time, but most animation is not on strike, so we're allowed to promote.

So I have "Leo" coming out with Netflix animation and that also stars Adam Sandler and myself.

- That's amazing, that's amazing.

Will you sing at all in the movie?

- I do sing, it's an animated musical feature.

- I love it.

- And Robert Smigel, who was the director of "The Week Of" was also involved in this project, - [Carlos] That's great, that's great.

so it's wonderful to have the family back together.

That'll be November 21st.

- Beautiful, tell me a little bit about the song you're gonna perform for us.

I know it's based on abuelita soledad molina.

- Sí, well, she never let me call her abuela, first off.

She was a real character.

We always called her Momita.

My grandmother was our pioneer in this country.

She came in her 40s with $200 in her pocket as a Red Cross nurse and a Rockefeller scholar.

And she came alone, truly so, so brave.

And she was the matriarch of our family.

She would always say, [speaking Spanish], "I love you all the way to Pluto and beyond."

And so when she passed away, I imagined that she was my moon carrying me through the darkest night of my life.

And so, that's what "La Luna" is about.

- Sure, tell me a little bit about what family means to you.

- It's everything.

In the Latin community, multi-generational homes are very common, and I grew up with my grandma in the attic, my mom and I on the first floor, and my aunt underneath our apartment.

So, it's been amazing, because our family in this country is quite small, but we've always been around each other, orbiting each other and supporting each other in that way.

So in that way they're my constellation, always with me.

- Do you, besides this song, do you turn to your family for songs and reasons to write?

- Absolutely, and my grandmother appears in both of my records, my first record in my song book, "Poco a Poco" which means little by little.

She would always say, [speaking Spanish].

So always an inspiration, and even if I don't talk about my family with words in the song, they're always inspiring me and always there for me on this road, on this journey of an artist, which is always colorful and interesting.

- That's beautiful, that's beautiful.

Tell me about the other Latin group that you're gonna be performing with or opening up for rather.

- Oh, I opened for Jesse & Joy, a Latin Grammy and Grammy winning group, and that happened within 24-hours notice in June, the day after my album dropped.

- [Carlos] Wow.

- So it was crazy.

They found me on Instagram.

- [Carlos] That is amazing.

- Yeah, it's pretty wild.

- That is amazing.

So Allison, as a young person, as a role model, tell me what does being Latina mean to you?

- [exhales] It means being part of such a beautiful and colorful culture and wearing those colors proudly every day.

For me, I grew up in Union City, New Jersey, which is a highly diverse community.

So my friends, my family, everyone around me, I felt so fortunate to be around so many different cultures.

[speaking Spanish] We are like a fan of different colors, ethnicities, and communities, and we make one beautiful Latin community.

So to me, it's about honoring that culture and wearing it proudly through our music, our dance, our music, food, everything.

- Beautifully stated.

Now performing her original song, "La Luna," Allison Strong, accompanied by Brett Parnell on pedal steel.

[gentle guitar music] ♪ La luna salió ♪ ♪ Y no me dejó dormir ♪ ♪ Ella quiso decir ♪ ♪ Yo también te alumbro ♪ ♪ Yo la admiré ♪ ♪ Y le canté de ti ♪ ♪ Se puso a llorar por mi ♪ ♪ Luego aconsejó ♪ ♪ Siempre sale el sol ♪ ♪ Siempre sale el sol ♪ ♪ Ten fe ♪ [gentle pedal steel music] ♪ La luna contó ♪ ♪ De astros cerca de aquí ♪ ♪ Donde pudiera vivir ♪ ♪ Y yo le dije no ♪ ♪ Dudó porque ♪ ♪ Porque jamas fingi ♪ ♪ Un mundo lejos de ti ♪ ♪ Y libre de amor ♪ ♪ Bueno, siempre sale el sol ♪ ♪ Siempre sale el sol ♪ ♪ Ten fe ♪ ♪ Me vistió de estrellas ♪ ♪ Me enseñó a iluminar ♪ ♪ Recordé que cosas bellas solo resaltan en la oscuridad ♪ ♪ Me acobijó en las nubes ♪ ♪ Me arrulló sobre el mar ♪ ♪ Soñé con cosas bellas resaltando de la oscuridad ♪ ♪ Y después salió el sol ♪ ♪ Después salió el sol ♪ ♪ Después salió el sol ♪ ♪ Y brillé ♪ Thanks Allison and back to you, David.

- Thanks, Carlos, great performance there from Allison.

Let's extend our conversation about Latino representation with two people who have been in the trenches in that regard for years and from opposite ends.

Maria Rodriguez-Gregg is a former assemblywoman and currently serves as Director of Government Relations and Community Affairs at Montclair State University.

And Junior Maldonado is a former city councilman, freeholder, slash commissioner and current county clerk in Hudson.

He was recently elected as President of NALEO.

That's the National Association of Latino Elected Officials.

Welcome to you both.

Junior, let's start with you.

Congrats on the presidency.

- Thank you.

- It's a good place for us to start here.

Is it getting harder or is it easier now to make elected officials who happen to be Latino?

- I can't speak to whether it's hard or easy.

I will say for instance, 20 years ago, NALEO statistics had Latino-elected officials at about 4,400.

Today we're at 7,100, so that's like a 60% increase over that time span.

So I think Latinos are more engaged, more motivated.

They're able to raise more money and be able to filter into other communities to get into elected posts.

- It was in 2013 when Maria Rodriguez-Gregg was elected to the assembly as a Republican.

It is now 2023, and you were the first Latina Republican elected to the assembly and still the only, right?

- Correct.

- But Latinos are making strides in the Republican Party.

I mean, Donald Trump got almost 30% of Latinos.

- Well that sounds great.

He increased it by 10% from previous years, but it's still not to where it used to be.

During George W. Bush and previous years, we were up to about 40% of the Latino vote.

So, there's still a lot of work that can be done in that regard with the Republican Party.

And even though we have, and just in general, non-partisan increased representation, we still aren't at parity.

So we still have a lot of work to do when it comes to having more elected Latinos.

- Do Democrats do it better?

Why do they hold the edge?

Is it just the demographics of the regions, what?

- It's hard to say.

Sometimes it's demographics.

You hear it all the time.

The Latino community is very diverse.

We are not a monolith, we are not homogenous.

So sometimes it depends on the region.

Also the issues, so right now, economic issues have been very important, which that's why there was an increase for Trump.

But there are many other issues that matter to Latino voters, and so education, economic issues, but social issues as well, especially now that a large voting block of Latino voters are younger.

And so those issues that matter when it comes to education, higher education, economic prosperity, especially social justice issues, really do matter to young voters right now in the Latino community.

- We hear a lot, Junior, that Democrats are taking Latino and minority voters for granted.

There's something to that, no, there's not?

I mean, I feel a lot like sometimes Democrats are like, "Well, they're with us, "so we don't have to try so hard to get that."

- Well I think both parties lack and being able to do an adequate job of reaching out to those communities.

And yes, I tend to agree with that assessment that they take us for granted, and because we have historically been democratic voters.

But I think with what happened with Donald Trump and the last election and the percentage that he got, I think that raises the bar for Democrats to make the outreach pitch for the Latino community to get more engaged and to bring them back into the vote.

- Are Republicans having difficulty attracting and maintaining Latinos because of their stance on immigration?

- Not necessarily, because as I said before, the Latino community is diverse.

And so, it doesn't matter to every Latino, while it is an important issue, I think it's more of the consistency.

- What's in the forefront for young Latinos in terms of issues?

- I can't really say.

It's a myriad of issues.

Right now, they're concerned about are they going to, when they get out of college, one, is college gonna even be affordable?

When they get out, are they going to have a good paying job?

Right now, inflation is at an all time high, costs are up.

What is it going to look like for them to create a future for themselves and their families?

So, there are many different issues as well as, as I said, social issues.

There are their own rights, bodily autonomy, those issues matter, so it's a myriad of issues.

I can't say what exactly is the most important to young voters.

It really just depends especially on the region and what's impacting them at that moment.

- We were talking earlier with Senator Teresa Ruiz, and we mentioned the situation with Senator Bob Menendez, and we were talking about how no Latinas were mentioned in there at all in terms of who might be a successor.

Did you notice that, and what do you think about that?

- Well, yes, so the powers that be have not mentioned a Latino or Latina in their dialogue.

But certainly, there have been groups that have proposed certain names of which a lot of them are good names.

So we'll see how that flows and what the powers that be decide, but ultimately, it should be a Latino representing the state.

- Is there, in your mind, an opportunity here for Republicans to win a statewide seat, which they haven't done since the 1970s?

- I think there is an opportunity.

The list of Latinos that are absurdly qualified for that position is very, very long.

And so there certainly is an opportunity in the Republican Party to put forth a Latina or Latino candidate for that office.

- My question always is, I know that Latinos will always vote for a Caucasian for office.

Do you see the reverse happening?

Let's ask you first, Junior.

- Well, I mean Senator Menendez is a perfect example of how non-Latinos have voted for a Latino, because he's gotten elected in a statewide election.

And Latinos in New Jersey currently make up almost 22%, but six years ago, we did not, so the numbers have fluctuated.

So yes, I think it's a crossover, same thing in Hudson.

We have Latino representatives at all levels of government.

The county executive is an Anglo, but we support 'em, because they do the right thing.

And as long as that elected person is doing the right thing by the community, we have no problems with that.

- All right, a lot to think about here.

Junior Maldonado, Maria Rodriguez-Gregg, great to see you both, thanks for coming on with us.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Let's go back to the Varda Studio where Carlos has a guest who is cooking up something delicious, Carlos.

- Gracia, David, an important discussion about the power of the Latino vote.

It's my pleasure to welcome our next guest, Chef Ronaldo Linares.

This Cuban Colombian chef runs a successful chef business and is a Marine Corps veteran, and we thank you for your service, Ronaldo.

He's here to talk about the trip to Mexico he took to explore the legend of Día de loa Muertos, or Day of the Dead, to show us a few recipes he picked up on this amazing journey.

Welcome Chef Ronaldo.

- Thank you, welcome.

Gracias, Carlos, always a pleasure to be here and to be able to talk with you on Hispanic Heritage Month.

- So you took a little trip?

- Yes, we did.

We took a trip down to Mexico City and from there, we took a [speaking Spanish], a little bus down to Oaxaca, Mexico.

And the things that I found out about myself, about food, about the culture, and just about thriving with nothing, but they have everything.

I'd rather be there than sometimes here.

- Sure, so Día de los Muertos, you're talking about sights, sounds, flavors.

Tell me that experience of being at the city, the region where Día de Muertos was first celebrated.

- Yeah, for sure, so we had the opportunity to go during Día de Muertos, and the flavors there, they're everywhere.

We got to go into people's homes, into restaurants and got to experience flavors that I've never experienced before.

We got mole tours.

We were able to go into the mercado.

There's a mercado there called Mercado Cinco, I believe, where you go in there, and it's like a culinary heaven.

You got fruits, you got vendors here, you got an [speaking Spanish], which is like a barbecue area where they're cooking meats to the left and right.

And I was able to sit down and have some of the items I have here.

So a huarache is a sandal of a shoe and then this is the actual [speaking Spanish], how you make it, and then pretty much you get your dough, you press it in, and you get this wonderful, oval sandal-looking thing, and it's topped with different toppings.

We'll get there in a little bit.

Then we got the salsa molcajete.

It's all made in a molcajete.

It's a volcanic rock that is shaped into a bowl.

Garlic, roasted peppers, tomatoes and all that, a little vinegar, salt and pepper, incredible.

And then we got the Mexican atole, which on special occasions and served during the Day of the Dead, which is a Mexican corn drink, a little bit thick, a little bit sweet, but delicious.

- When we spoke prior, what intrigued me was you mentioned how, here in the US, we're all obsessed with our phone, our device, but there you felt like people were really observing and appreciating their surroundings.

Talk to me a little bit about that experience.

- Oh man, that experience was incredible.

The connection that people have there to the land, you don't see people looking down at their phone or doing none of that stuff.

They are communicating, they're talking.

They're sitting at the bench.

They're drinking [speaking Spanish], which is over there, which is chocolate coffee, and man, I actually want some right now.

And then just see that, and you could just pull up to anybody and talk, which was really great, to be disconnected, and you felt like you were in another world, experiencing sounds of the street vendors, smells of restaurants.

I must have ate three or four times that I didn't want to eat, but it just smelled so good.

- [Carlos] Sure, sure, well let's see what you got.

- All right, so over here we have our huarache.

So the huarache, you take the masa, and you put it right in there.

I already preformed one.

We cooked this one up already.

We have some refried beans.

So what they typically did over there, they would start doing the toppings on top, so we got a little bit of onion.

Now we got a little bit of Oaxacan cheese, which is a string cheese, and it's just incredible, so we have it right over there.

So we gotta take queso fresco on top, 'cause the queso Oaxaca is a little bit sweeter, and then the queso fresco has a little salty components to it.

Now we have some fresh green.

We have a little bit of cilantro on top.

And then we have a few radishes for the crunch.

Radishes bring a good spiciness to the game here, so we're gonna put 'em nicely over here.

So it looks incredible.

It's just a lot of fresh flavors as you can see.

And now, we have a salsa verde, tomatillos, cucumbers, a little bit of serrano peppers, and we're gonna just toss it over the top, let it be, let it land, and we cannot leave the avocado out, so let's just kind of toss it there.

It's gonna look good.

The colors are amazing.

And not but not least, we have the Mexican crema, and then we're just gonna drizzle that right over the top.

And then you have your huarache, so you'll get this at the market.

This right here, you sit down, you eat it, and it is absolutely incredible.

The salsa molcajete, roasted garlic, roasted tomatoes, poblano peppers.

So what is important here, you have to do it in layers.

Mash the garlic up, now the poblano peppers, the tomatoes, and then you create this wonderful dish right here, which it's good on anything, tacos, carne, your vegetarian, anything vegetarian, you could just have it on its own with a nice tortilla chip.

So, those are some of the things that I was able to captivate over there, but to use the flavors in many different ways.

[speaking Spanish] - Tell me you had a real surprise when you went there.

Tell me about the abuelita that you met.

- I met the abuelita, so we were in Oaxaca and they were like, "Oh, we're gonna go on this trip."

We're like, "All right, cool, anywhere in Oaxaca, I'm down."

So we ended up at the school where I got to talk to the grandma that inspired that Día de los Muertos movie that we all watched probably, I've watched it probably 20 times with my kids, and I watched about five times on my own.

- [Carlos] You can say the name, "Coco," Disney's, "Coco."

- So Disney's "Coco," we watched that, and I got to sit down with the grandma, actually cook with her for a little bit, talk to her about her flavors, what she does.

And you always learn a lot from the OG chefs, right?

So we sat down, and we had a great, great conversation around when they came and talked to her, who you think she was, and she answered me very funny.

She's like, "It's kind of like you.

"I just saw some White man came and started talking, "so what you're doing right now."

So I was laughing, and one of the things I asked her, I'm like, "What gets you up every day?"

And then she very humbly answers, she's like, "Well, the money that my nephew pays me," and I was just dying laughing.

And she's like, "Well also, being able to cook, "being able to keep these traditions alive."

And there's a lot, there's about 100 kids that go in and out of there, like cycle through that are from the town.

So they teach 'em math, English, art, that kind of [speaking Spanish], all of that stuff.

You see it everywhere, and it's pretty amazing.

And it's maybe like five people that run the whole show.

- Got about 30 seconds left.

Tell me what the greatest takeaway was learning about the origins of the Día de los Muertos and meeting the young lady that Coco's life was based on.

- Man, it was loyalty, culture, love, and then the food.

All of that encompasses to one wonderful recipe, wonderful dish.

- Amazing, thank you for joining us, Ronaldo.

- Carlos, always a pleasure, Papi, thank you, man.

- David, back over to you with a sports icon with Jersey roots.

- All right, Carlos, good stuff.

I'll be shooting over to the Varda Studio in a few minutes, but we wanna welcome silver and gold medalist, Laurie Hernandez to the party.

Laurie, it's nice to meet you.

- Hi, it's nice to meet you.

- You know, I was shocked to learn that you are just 23 years old.

I feel like you've been a part of the American consciousness for longer than that.

- Ooh, thank you.

[laughs] - Did that little girl from Jersey, Puerto Rican, envision this life at 23 years of age?

- Oh, definitely not.

Since I was a little girl, my dream was just to do gymnastics, to enjoy it, and to get to the highest possible level I could, and so much has come from that.

So, I feel really quite lucky.

- [David] I also imagine that you didn't encounter a lot of little Puerto Ricans doing what you were doing back then, huh?

- Yeah, Latino representation in gymnastics was something that was pretty scarce, and it wasn't something that I had noticed was lacking up until I got a little bit older.

I think now, being 23, I recognized that there isn't a lot of representation for us.

However, growing up it was something that my parents really wanted to make sure I didn't, not necessarily that I didn't notice that, but that if I wanted to go somewhere, and I wanted to do something big, that I could do it, that nothing could stop me, including lack of representation.

They hadn't talked to me about that.

I think if that were an issue, they would probably wait for me to do that, but yeah.

- Yeah, it's interesting you mentioned that, because that's my mom, my mom was the same way.

We never discussed being the first anything, but never thought that there would be any limitations on what we were able to do.

- Yeah.

Yeah, my parents were like, "If you want it, go do it."

- Yeah, and you were the first Latina to make an Olympic team in decades, so the pipeline isn't flowing, right?

- Yeah, it was shocking, because I didn't realize the statistics of that up until Olympic trials in 2016.

We had just figured out who was gonna be on that Olympic team.

And I remember sitting in the press room afterwards and a bunch of interviewers and writers and people were coming over to me and saying, "It's been a little bit over 30 years "since there was a US born Latina "on the women's gymnastics team, how does it feel?"

And me, I just freshly turned 16, didn't realize the weight in the gravity of that.

So I have a lot of gratitude.

I have a lot of respect and a lot of love for my community.

- [David] Yeah, because at that time, at 16, you're like, "[speaking Spanish] I just made the Olympic team!"

- Yeah, I mean, I have no idea what to expect.

And I think it was important for me to block out any outside pressures coming into the games and just make sure, okay, I've trained for this, nothing changes.

It doesn't matter what I look like.

I'm here for a reason, and that's all that matters.

And then once the games were over, that's when it really hit me, families coming over and saying, "It's because you have curls like my daughter.

"She saw someone who looks like her "and now she wants to do gymnastics like you," and I just, that was how I started gymnastics.

I didn't know my life would come full circle like that of me watching another athlete and saying, "Mom, I wanna be just like this girl."

And now that was happening to me just because of how I look and because of my culture and because of who I am, so that's pretty exciting.

- You cite Rita Moreno as an influence, how so?

- I feel like Rita Moreno is just notorious, especially in the acting and entertainment industry.

She is someone who's been very outspoken in Puerto Rican culture, I think, and she is just a firecracker.

I love her, I love her!

- Yeah, she's like everybody's feistiest grandma.

- She is, she will put her foot down, and I love that.

I hope that's me when I get older.

- And she looks like in her day, she would throw a chancleta, right?

- [Laurie] I think she still would.

I think she's still got good aim.

We'll have to find some.

- Laurie Hernandez, so good to meet you.

Thanks for coming on with us.

- Cheers, thank you so much.

[upbeat dance music] - [Carlos] The art form of flamenco dates back to the 18th century and incorporates a variety of cultures from southern Spain and influences from the Middle East and beyond.

- It's at the core of the Alborada Spanish Dance Theater based in Middlesex County and dating back to 1965.

Its artistic director, Eva Lucena, joins us to talk about the company's journey and this amazing art form.

Eva, welcome.

- Thank you very much.

I'm happy to be here.

- So, so many influences to this music.

I hear Sephardic and and Moorish influences in the singing.

Where do we see the interaction of all of these cultures?

- Well, it stems from the fact that when the Sephardic Jewish people were kicked outta Spain, about 1492, what was left behind were some Moors.

The gypsies who came from India traveled through Egypt into southern Spain.

And the local people, they went underground, and they formed this flamenco form.

They formed this whole style of flamenco, and that's the journey they started, and that was from 1492 onwards.

- Dance has the ability to inspire, brings out emotions in the audience.

Tell me a time that you felt that you really inspired the audience, and tell me when you set out to do a dance and your dance troupe comes out, what is the emotion you're trying to draw out of that audience?

- Well, I could very specifically talk to you about this one dance called Tanyaderas.

And unfortunately, it deals with the expulsion of the Sephardic Jews, and I created a choreography, women with these big black shoals over their heads.

Then I had a a one of my singers singing Hebrew about the suffering, and then I choreographed this dance of suffering, and in the end, I fell on my knees and implored, 'cause I couldn't leave Spain.

We created a story around it that my husband was too sick for me to leave Spain.

So the whole end scenario is me on my knees imploring that they go to safety wherever they were going to.

And afterwards, I would say about 30% of the audience were crying.

I went out afterwards to talk amongst the audience and absolutely, I got them crying.

- This is not pop music.

Is it a challenge to reach audiences, or is the whole point of this that this is not pop music, and it goes back hundreds of years?

- Hundreds of years, it really does, because you've got the Moorish influence, which dates back to many hundreds of years.

And then you've got all the various travelers of Spain who went into Cuba.

They went into the Far East.

They went to Singapore, and they brought back all these various cross-cultural things.

One of the best things is that we did journey of following the Trail of Gold.

And what we did, we went from the Puerto Rican flags that brought the Spanish slaves over and the West African slaves, and we then went into Peru, took the Trail of Gold into Peru, swapped the Trail of Gold, took back what we got from them, of the cross-cultural influences of their art form, and then we went into Mexico and then in Cuba.

And this began, all this whole kaleidoscope of what we try and do on stage.

We're very diverse.

We really are diverse.

- [Carlos] We have the good fortune of having your troop here today.

Without further ado, here now we have the Alborada Spanish Dance Theater.

[bright guitar music] [singer singing in Spanish] [singer continues singing in Spanish] [singer continues singing in Spanish] [singer continues singing in Spanish] [bright guitar music continues] [singer continues singing in Spanish] [singer continues singing in Spanish] [singer continues singing in Spanish] [singer continues singing in Spanish] [bright guitar music continues] [bright guitar music continues] [bright guitar music continues] [bright guitar music continues] - Well now that's how you close out a show.

The Alborada Spanish Dance Theater closing it out for us on "i¡Ahora Si!"

Thanks to all of our guests, Teresa Ruiz, Maria Hinojosa, Junior Maldonado, Maria Rodriguez-Gregg and Laurie Hernandez.

- Yes, thanks to Monica Martinez Milan, Thomas Porturas, Allison Strong and Chef Ronaldo Linares.

David, a pleasure working with you on this, and I really think it showcased the impact Latinos have had and are having all across New Jersey.

- For sure, how far we've come and how far we still need to go.

I'm David Cruz, host of the "Chat Box."

- And I'm Carlos Medina, host of "Qué Pasa New Jersey."

[bright guitar music] - For all the crew here at Gateway Center in downtown Newark, thanks for watching.

[bright guitar music continues] - [Announcer] Funding for "i¡Ahora Si!

Jersey's Latin Beat: "A Chat Box & Qué Pasa Heritage Month Special," provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, New Jersey Economic Development Authority, working to grow the state's economy and increase equitable access to opportunity, online at njed.gov.

Promotional support provided by the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey.

Learn how to join our familia at shccnj.org.