Racial Justice

Continue the conversation about race, immigration and the American Dream with the Caudillo family around the dinner table of Mac and Velia Salazar. Grandchildren Julian, Sophia, and Olivia all identify as Mexican-American, even though they don’t speak Spanish and don’t have firm roots to the Latino culture.

Ryan and Irene Caudillo have three children – Julian, Sophia, and Olivia – all of whom identify as Mexican-American, even though they don’t speak Spanish and don’t have firm roots to the Latino culture. While the children understand that Ryan and Irene focused on teaching them English in order to provide them the best opportunities possible, they wish that they had stronger ties to their Mexican-American heritage. The family talks with KCPT’s Your Fellow Americans team about the importance of maintaining their Latino culture, the impact that learning Spanish has on maintaining that cultural identity, and the fact that the kids don’t feel as connected to the Latino culture as they would like.

In December of 2014, the Your Fellow Americans team talked with a Mexican-American family in the Kansas City area about their thoughts on race, immigration, and the American Dream. We joined the family around the dinner table of Mac and Velia Salazar, a husband and wife who were both born in Kansas on February 28th, 1925. Irene, one of their nine children, is married to Ryan Caudillo, a third-generation Mexican-American who was also raised in the Kansas City metro area.

This week’s Your Fellow Americans conversations lay out some of the toughest issues in today’s society, and reveal a desire to see change for the better. If this makes the conversation occasionally intense, that’s because this group considers the neighborhoods around Troost, and east of Troost, as theirneighborhoods. And if it’s considered a little bold, or silly, for me – a white guy – to walk in Diamond Cuts and ask probing questions, what does that mean for the thousands of adults and children who call Troost home? What does it mean for your fellow Americans? Have a look at these conversations, and let us know.