‘Breaking Bad With Show Tunes’: A Kamala Harris Super Fan Reflects on How She Changed His Life
Many of us are still rocked by the siege of the Capitol, and some of us are anxious about the upcoming inauguration. But a lot of Californians are getting ready to celebrate. Our state is about to send the first woman of color to the White House. The whole world will be watching next week as Kamala Harris is sworn in as our next Vice President. But there’s one person who will be tuning in who says he owes his life to her. The California Report’s health correspondent April Dembosky brings us his story.
Oakland Interpreter Helps Students Hold On to Native Language, While Embracing a New One
The pandemic has been making things more challenging for schools that serve some of the newest Californians: Guatemalan immigrants who speak a Mayan language called Mam. Maria Aguilar grew up speaking it, but she says back in Guatemala in the 1980s, her teachers would punish her and other students for talking in Mam, and tell them to speak Spanish instead. Aguilar never had an interpreter to help bridge the language divide, but today that’s exactly what she’s doing in Oakland, which is home to one of the biggest Mam communities in the nation. Until recently, Aguilar was the only full-time Mam interpreter for the school district. KQED’s education reporter Vanessa Rancaño tells us Aguilar’s job has only gotten more demanding.
Remembering the Food Pioneers We Lost in 2020
If you’re a regular listener to our show, you’ve probably heard our series California Foodways, with reporter Lisa Morehouse. She visits every one of California’s 58 counties to take us into orchards, tiny family-run cafes, and into the woods to forage for wild mushrooms. She’s also introduced us to some incredible Californians who harvest and prepare the food we eat. And as 2020 came to a close, she learned that some of them passed away. We remember those food pioneers, and hear about their legacies.