Dance is a powerful tool that brings generations together. This week’s ¡Dímelo, Columbus! features the stories of a mother, daughter, and educator who use Folklore Dance (Baile Folclorico) as a means of exploring and sharing their cultural heritage. Continue reading
In the 1950’s, representatives from a steel company in Lorain, Ohio traveled down to Puerto Rico to recruit much-needed factory workers. They succeeded in convincing Crucita Flecha’s maternal and paternal grandparents (among many others) to move from their small town in Puerto Rico to the Midwest. Flecha’s grandfather worked in these Ohio steel mills until retirement, while her father found work at a Ford Automotive Plant in the neighboring city of Vermillion, Ohio.
Look closely between the chain restaurants and vestiges of deindustrialization on Columbus’s West Side, and you’ll notice a few colorful gems jutting from the landscape. One of these is Panaderia Oaxaqueña – a business located on 63 South Murray Hill Road that boasts some of the best Mexican pastries in town. This week, Dímelo features Genesis Cruz-Santos and his insight on the changing Latino community of the city.
A native of Columbus, Ohio, Andrea Magaña Lewis serves as Public Policy Officer for the Ohio Latino Affairs Commission (OCHLA). In this position, she develops programming that promotes community engagement and civic education while introducing Hispanic leadership in the state to government and elected officials. She bridges the state government and Ohio’s Latin American community to advocate for the state’s New American community.
In the small town of Weslaco, Texas, Ramona Reyes grew up sharing a room with grandmother and namesake, Ramona. Her parents and grandmother sought to break the family’s cycle of migrant farmworking by urging Reyes and her eight siblings to earn at least a high school diploma. Reyes surpassed her family’s educational goals by enrolling at Ohio State on scholarship. Now an Ohio State graduate living in Columbus, she seeks to use her education and experience to give back to the city’s Latino community.