When one of the biggest immigration raids in American history took place in Postville, Iowa, attorney Sonia Parras Konrad led a rapid response to try and keep as many families together as she should. She mobilized people to help hundreds of workers and dedicated...
Hispanic Heritage Month started Sept. 15 and it is a time to celebrate the history, culture, and contributions of Latinos/Hispanics/Latinx to the United States. It was California Congressman George E. Brown who introduced the first commemorative week in 1968....
Guest post by Vanessa Marcano-Kelly, who served as one of the Spanish-language interpreters for Gov. Kim Reynolds last year during her then-daily coronavirus press conferences. Since my informal community organizer/interpreter days, I was aware that my job as an...
Ahmed Agyeman is living his American Dream and works to help others achieve theirs. In June, the Ghana native was chosen to lead the Evelyn K. Davis Center for Working Families at Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) Urban Campus where he continues to do what...
Vanessa Marcano-Kelly of Des Moines played a key role during the pandemic as one of the Spanish interpreters for Gov. Kim Reynolds’ daily news conferences, making sure Spanish-speaking Iowans stayed informed on the public health situation. Fluent in English,...
Some statements by Gov. Kim Reynolds make me question her level of knowledge about what happens on the US Southern Border. “Part of the problem is the Southern Border is open and we’ve got 88 countries that are coming across the border, and they don’t have vaccines...
Although the latest federal ruling on DACA does not affect enrolled recipients, many of them are still frustrated by the program’s instability. “Every time this program is challenged, we feel that they are playing with us,” said Juan Antonio Garcia. “I would like...
Henny Ohr has dedicated her life to empowering communities and showing what determination and caring for others can accomplish. She is the director and co-founder of Ethnic Minorities of Burma Advocacy and Resource Center (EMBARC) in Des Moines. EMBARC is a...
“We are having another May 1st rally this year," Jose Alvarado told me a few months ago, about the event in support of immigration reform. During my conversation with Jose, I had a flashback from fifteen years ago, when I participated in “A Day Without Immigrants”...
The moment was finally here! I was eligible to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and I was ecstatic. The opportunity to feel some safety against the virus and gain some sort of normalcy was within reach. It has been more than a year since the pandemic started and we...
