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Speaker 2: grass Yas. This is Latino USA, the radio journal of
Speaker 2: news and curlture Latino USA, latin Us, Latino USA.
Speaker 1: I'm Maria Inojosa.
Speaker 2: We bring you stories that are underreported but that mattered
Speaker 2: to you, overlooked by the rest of the media, and
Speaker 2: while the country is struggling to deal with these, we
Speaker 2: listen to the stories of black and Latinos. Studio United
Speaker 2: Latino Front, a cultural renaissance organizing at the forefront of
Speaker 2: the movement.
Speaker 1: I'm Maria Inojosa. Nose Bayan.
Speaker 2: Marta Lopez was sitting in the passenger seat of the
Speaker 2: family car in October of twenty twenty one while her
Speaker 2: husband Freddie drove through the streets of Los Angeles. She
Speaker 2: was checking the local news on her phone when something
Speaker 2: on Univision caught her attention.
Speaker 1: There is Milo Sintras Families cal do Asta.
Speaker 2: The city of Los Angeles was launching a new program
Speaker 2: to support low income families, especially those hit hard by
Speaker 2: the pandemic. But it all sounded Martha thought just too
Speaker 2: good to be true. The program would give them one
Speaker 2: thousand dollars a month for one year. Martha's husband had
Speaker 2: lost his job early in the pandemic and she was
Speaker 2: a stay at home mom taking care of their two
Speaker 2: young daughters, so the family hadn't had a stable income
Speaker 2: for more than six months. Those way up, so Martha
Speaker 2: decided to apply for the program. About six months later,
Speaker 2: she got the call.
Speaker 3: Yeah you medi here on Yosa sikomon chok o Hami No.
Speaker 2: She couldn't believe she had been selected. It felt like
Speaker 2: a miracle.
Speaker 4: She says, Anda youady a media Yes, yes, staff to
Speaker 4: Premier mild is the miss.
Speaker 2: And then Martha got her debit card with the first
Speaker 2: one thousand dollars on it, ready for her to use. However,
Speaker 2: she wanted no rules, no restrictions, no receipts needed from
Speaker 2: Futuru media and pr X. It's Latino USA. I'm Maria
Speaker 2: no Josa today, no strings attached. What happens when people
Speaker 2: who are ruggling to make ends meet get a stable
Speaker 2: income from the government. We look at how this strategy
Speaker 2: could help tackle inequality in the United States. Maybe you've
Speaker 2: heard this term before. Universal basic income. It's the idea
Speaker 2: of giving people cash regularly and unconditionally, so that they
Speaker 2: can spend the money as they wish, regardless of their
Speaker 2: economic status.
Speaker 1: Or immediate need.
Speaker 2: It's all to ensure a basic living standard for everyone.
Speaker 2: It's a concept that's become pretty popular in recent years,
Speaker 2: especially with the fear of technological advances leaving more and
Speaker 2: more people out of work. In his twenty twenty presidential campaign,
Speaker 2: tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang ran on the promise to provide
Speaker 2: people universal basic income. It was the first time a
Speaker 2: candidate had done that.
Speaker 5: Soniversal can Come.
Speaker 2: Would be one thousand dollars dividend for every American adult
Speaker 2: citizen every month under my plan. Cash programs aren't new.
Speaker 2: Different variations have existed for decades, both inside and outside
Speaker 2: of the US. They often target specific groups in need,
Speaker 2: and they try to promote certain behaviors like restricting what
Speaker 2: people can or can't spend the money on. But the
Speaker 2: idea of the government handing people free money is something
Speaker 2: that some Americans still find uncomfortable, or maybe many did
Speaker 2: before the stimulus checks received during the pandemic made us
Speaker 2: a lot more familiar.
Speaker 1: With this idea.
Speaker 6: Federal stimulus checks are being distributed this week, and it's
Speaker 6: a welcome relief for those out of work and hoping
Speaker 6: for better days to come.
Speaker 2: Even before the pandemic, California was already leading a kind
Speaker 2: of renaissance of the basic income idea. More than one
Speaker 2: hundred guaranteed income programs have launched across the country, and
Speaker 2: most are found in the state of California. All of
Speaker 2: them are still in the pilot phase. They usually run
Speaker 2: for one or two years. The results have been interesting,
Speaker 2: but these conversations have mostly stayed inside city councils and
Speaker 2: university classrooms. So what's it like for the people who
Speaker 2: are participating in these programs? How is a guaranteed income
Speaker 2: making a difference for them?
Speaker 1: If at all?
Speaker 2: Latino USA Senior producer Marta Martinez spent a month in
Speaker 2: Los Angeles following two women who participated in one of
Speaker 2: the biggest guaranteed income programs in the country and where
Speaker 2: half of the beneficiaries are Latinos and Latinas. Here's Marta
Speaker 2: with the story.
Speaker 3: Ola p Pasa see Oh Stuck here a Plan.
Speaker 1: It's January twenty fifth, and the twenty fifth of the
Speaker 1: month is when everything starts for participants of Big Leap.
Speaker 1: That's the guaranteed basic income program the City of Los
Speaker 1: Angeles launched in twenty twenty two. Marta Lopev, who we
Speaker 1: met at the beginning of the show, is one of
Speaker 1: over thirty two hundred people who got selected, and almost
Speaker 1: eighty percent of them are women.
Speaker 4: Nokamira for Tunaa Perosi is the Kreya Mucco.
Speaker 1: Marta feels very lucky. More than fifty thousand people applied.
Speaker 3: Sandamlas Say is the La man Larba.
Speaker 1: Marta, who is from Honduras, has been running around the
Speaker 1: house since six am. She's also thirty eighty years old,
Speaker 1: the median age of Bigly participants. She has straight, dark
Speaker 1: chocolate hair cut in the perfect horizontal line right above
Speaker 1: her shoulders. Her prominent cheeks and forehead are sprinkled with freckles.
Speaker 1: Media the program coordinators put me in touch with Martha
Speaker 1: and some other participants who feel comfortable sharing their experiences publicly. Today,
Speaker 1: Martha will get a transfer of one thousand dollars on
Speaker 1: her program debit card for her to spend however she wants.
Speaker 1: Martha only has three deposits left. Her twelve months are
Speaker 1: almost up. Today, Martha hasn't been able to go to
Speaker 1: the ATM to retreat the money, as she usually does
Speaker 1: on the twenty fifth of the.
Speaker 7: Month if on the Yoma is protecting Locala.
Speaker 1: Her daughter, Lizzie, who is eight years old, is sick again,
Speaker 1: so Martha had to stay home and take care of
Speaker 1: her water in Lawuka, the skinny girl with black, shiny
Speaker 1: eyes and two missing frontis, has asthma, and the unusually
Speaker 1: cool temperatures California has been experiencing this winter are testing
Speaker 1: her health. She's been missing school more often than Martha
Speaker 1: would like to beta, and because Lizzie didn't go to school,
Speaker 1: her little sister, Sophia, who is five years old, didn't
Speaker 1: want to go either. No yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 7: Chow.
Speaker 1: Sophia prefers to spend the afternoon hanging from her mother's
Speaker 1: neck and kissing her. She's the clown of the house.
Speaker 1: You never know what will come out of her unfiltered mouth.
Speaker 1: The family of four lives in a one bedroom apartment
Speaker 1: in South Lay, tacked between the One and Freeway and Broadway,
Speaker 1: immersed in the never ending buzz of traffic.
Speaker 7: It's a wainbow. She loves rainbows.
Speaker 1: It's a welcoming home. The living room is filled with toys,
Speaker 1: and there are studio pictures of Lizzie and Sophia hanging
Speaker 1: on several walls.
Speaker 3: Preparing caldo gaina una ros blanco.
Speaker 1: Marta is preparing Lizzie's favorite food, calo hen soup to
Speaker 1: help her recover from her cold. Well she cuts the vegetables.
Speaker 1: Martha shares some tips on how she tries to save
Speaker 1: money Parta.
Speaker 3: De casa, manera massabien and too pecto rodinero bradio La
Speaker 3: casa so significant.
Speaker 1: She cooks at home every day because it's healthier and
Speaker 1: cheaper than eating out.
Speaker 4: Termina sien dome na al gore let's to burget mohrhence.
Speaker 3: Mano.
Speaker 1: Also, eating out can be more of a concern than
Speaker 1: a fun experience for the family because, besides having asthma,
Speaker 1: Lizzie has a severe allergy to cow's milk. Lizzie's fragile
Speaker 1: health has limited MARTA's options to find a full time
Speaker 1: job because she needs to keep a clothes eye on
Speaker 1: her at all times. The family's earnings are under the
Speaker 1: federal poverty line that was less than twenty seven dollars
Speaker 1: a year for a family of four in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: and they rely on food stems for their food supply
Speaker 1: that's usually enough for the month. Lately, inflation has made
Speaker 1: things tighter, but Martha says there are some items that
Speaker 1: she just cannot not buy, like cooking oil.
Speaker 3: Lotre go cord mediavo uno inmoteroluso Martin.
Speaker 1: It's oil to fry food or to make her seasonings.
Speaker 1: So instead of buying two bottles now she buys one
Speaker 1: and moderates use. Having the extra help of one thousand
Speaker 1: dollars a month through the city's program has allowed the
Speaker 1: family to afford themselves a caprico every once in a.
Speaker 3: While prove tacos so they were sen.
Speaker 1: Guando Sunday is smartas day to rest and be with
Speaker 1: her family. Sometimes they eat out, usually tackles, and during
Speaker 1: the summer, she took the girls to the aquarium or
Speaker 1: the beach, Sophia Lizzie. Dinner is ready, but only Sophia
Speaker 1: shows up with her bubbly eyes and mischievous smiles. Lizzie
Speaker 1: has fallen asleep in the bedroom while watching cartoons. Well
Speaker 1: we eat caloa. Sofia tells me where babies come from.
Speaker 1: She says, parents buy them.
Speaker 7: At stores, My mom my Fami.
Speaker 1: Marta came to the United States in twenty fourteen. It
Speaker 1: wasn't her first time visiting, but this time Martha wasn't
Speaker 1: traveling alone. She was pregnant with Lizzi. She first lived
Speaker 1: with her sister in Philadelphia, and that's where she gave
Speaker 1: birth to Lizzi on her own. Her husband, Freddi was
Speaker 1: still back in on duras im Asalio. Lizzie was beautiful,
Speaker 1: like a little doll, Marca says, but it was a
Speaker 1: difficult time for her.
Speaker 3: Not dino yo barra barastra, mihiirago vien duruwa is dressed.
Speaker 1: Martha didn't have money to buy clothes for her daughter,
Speaker 1: not even when they left the hospital. So when Lizzie
Speaker 1: was three months old, Martha had to start working at
Speaker 1: a factory packaging fruit. She worried about so many things.
Speaker 1: Ami Freddie wasn't there to support her. She had to
Speaker 1: earn money to pay for rent a babysitter, to cover
Speaker 1: for her daughter's basic needs and her own. On top
Speaker 1: of the financial stress Martha was dealing with. This was
Speaker 1: nine months old when she was diagnosed with a severe
Speaker 1: allergy to cow's milk. Martha felt like she had failed.
Speaker 1: She started having trouble sleeping, She lost her appetite, her
Speaker 1: hair started falling off.
Speaker 3: But as dion Dia k.
Speaker 1: One day, when she got back from work, she felt
Speaker 1: like her body was exploding. You imps.
Speaker 3: Or Media fell on a party.
Speaker 1: Scared, she couldn't breathe. A tingling sensation spread across the
Speaker 1: left side of her body.
Speaker 3: To the girl, let's say you memor your memoir.
Speaker 1: Martha thought she was going to die. At the hospital,
Speaker 1: doctors told her she had had a panic attack. She
Speaker 1: had never heard that term before, but Marta knew that
Speaker 1: going back to Honduda's was not an option. Two of
Speaker 1: her brothers, who run a bus company, had been killed
Speaker 1: by criminal gangs who demanded a quota, a monthly payment
Speaker 1: in exchange for their safety. Meha Caparos, Martha was scared
Speaker 1: that in Honduras. She could get killed at any moment. Eventually,
Speaker 1: Freddie came to the US and the family moved to
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. Martha gave birth to their second daughter, Sophia,
Speaker 1: and became a stay at home mamuando. When they moved,
Speaker 1: she asked Freddy half jokingly to live near her hospital.
Speaker 3: Well, sim maybe then well.
Speaker 1: Martha says that after the panic attack, her life has
Speaker 1: never been the same. The next day, on January twenty sixth,
Speaker 1: I accompany Marta to get her big lip deposit at
Speaker 1: an ATM inside a supermarket in South La Liza didn't
Speaker 1: go to school today either. She still hasn't fully recovered
Speaker 1: from her code. This is the ATM Marta uses most
Speaker 1: of the time to get her cash from the program.
Speaker 1: She inserts the card into the ATM slot, A button
Speaker 1: appears on the screen that allows her to directly withdraw
Speaker 1: one thousand dollars at once. The program decided to distribute
Speaker 1: the money through prepaid debit cards because they were looking
Speaker 1: for a system that would be flexible but also safe.
Speaker 1: Some of the participants don't have bank accounts, and some
Speaker 1: people aren't used to making card payments.
Speaker 3: Gussie its list.
Speaker 1: In less than a minute. Martha has the cash in
Speaker 1: her hands and she quickly puts the stack of bills
Speaker 1: inside of her purse, except for a couple of twenties
Speaker 1: she keeps in her pocket.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you and nich manus putla Ana.
Speaker 8: Met with.
Speaker 1: These deposits make Martha feel secure and give her the
Speaker 1: confidence that she'll be able to pay for her basic
Speaker 1: expenses each month, which are around fifteen hundred dollars without rent.
Speaker 1: The family pays a little over one thousand dollars a
Speaker 1: month for their one bedroom apartment. Martha uses five hundred
Speaker 1: from the Big Leap program for rent and the other
Speaker 1: half well, in recent months, she started investing the money
Speaker 1: on something she's very excited about. Well.
Speaker 3: In Bertier and Loquez San Pres.
Speaker 1: Martha has been investing the other five hundred on what
Speaker 1: she calls her small business.
Speaker 2: Coming up on letting the USA, we find out how
Speaker 2: Martha is investing the other half of the cash from
Speaker 2: the Guaranteed Income program, and we learn about the origins
Speaker 2: of universal basic income. Stay with us not themas.
Speaker 9: Get usuena umo jote came through Muchasa mucho amor Inlardino
Speaker 9: Musical and Miss Agri and Milman much at the Ponto.
Speaker 2: Hey, we're back before the break. You met Marta Lopez,
Speaker 2: one of the participants of Big Leap. It's the guarantee
Speaker 2: basic income program the city of Los Angeles, launched in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two and one of the biggest in the country.
Speaker 2: Participants get one thousand dollars a month for a year
Speaker 2: without any restrictions how to spend the money. Marta has
Speaker 2: been investing half of the money on something very special
Speaker 2: for her. But before we find out what that is,
Speaker 2: we're gonna meet Michaela, another program participant. Here's Latino USA
Speaker 2: Senior producer Marta Martinez once again with the story.
Speaker 1: It's Saturday morning and we're in the car with Mikaela.
Speaker 1: We're not using Mikaela's last name because she's undocumented. The
Speaker 1: Big LEAG program didn't ask about legal status in its
Speaker 1: application because the city wanted to broaden access as much
Speaker 1: as possible. This is also the first time Mikaela has
Speaker 1: ever gotten any aid from the government. We're heading from
Speaker 1: South la where she lives, to a food bank in
Speaker 1: Korea Town. Mikhaela's landlord is driving.
Speaker 8: TIEMP.
Speaker 1: Mikhayela is fifty one years old and she doesn't have
Speaker 1: a car, so she can only go to the food
Speaker 1: bank whenever her landlord can drive her. She says, you
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to afford a n uber. Mikaela sits
Speaker 1: in the front and most of her face is covered
Speaker 1: by a black face mask, but her eyes are delicately
Speaker 1: made up with a rose colored eyeshadow and a touch
Speaker 1: of glitter. She has a curly mop of blonde hair,
Speaker 1: almost white at the top. Her nails are painted light pink,
Speaker 1: but they look worn down.
Speaker 8: Rat They are rat pour k as the pis fasi.
Speaker 1: Mikhaela says she's very thrifty. In this country, people spend
Speaker 1: money on things they don't need, but she can't afford
Speaker 1: to do that. Mikhayela is a siamstress and a single
Speaker 1: mother of two. The majority of Bigley participants are single
Speaker 1: mothers like her. She came to the US almost thirty
Speaker 1: years ago from Mexico with the father of her two boys,
Speaker 1: but he was physically abusive and they soon separated. Mikaela
Speaker 1: says he has never provided any support for her sons,
Speaker 1: who are now in their twenties.
Speaker 8: Mos Con La Costa for Que Malaga.
Speaker 1: Mikaela relies on her sewing, but it's not a well
Speaker 1: paying job. On a good week, she says she makes
Speaker 1: six hundred dollars, but that means working every day from
Speaker 1: seven am till eleven pm. She rents two rooms in
Speaker 1: her landlord's house, one for her and one for her
Speaker 1: oldest son, who is twenty five years old. She pays
Speaker 1: eight hundred and fifty dollars a month for the rooms,
Speaker 1: and she's been using most of her program money on rent.
Speaker 1: She's also been supporting her youngest son through college in Merced, California.
Speaker 1: He got a scholarship, but it didn't fully cover his tuition,
Speaker 1: so Mikaela sent him about five hundred dollars a month
Speaker 1: to pay for his classes and other things he needed,
Speaker 1: depending on how much she was able to make sewing
Speaker 1: or how much she could borrow from friends and acquaintances.
Speaker 8: Listen dian Naervio's with Hi.
Speaker 1: Mikhaela always worried would she be able to make ends meet,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't just a tuition. He always needed something.
Speaker 8: Then God tample Mansa Kokoopoo pastades Kokopo cal Setenis.
Speaker 1: He texted her saying he needed soap, toothpaste, socks. As
Speaker 1: a single mom, Mikaela has to figure out ways to
Speaker 1: save money all the time, and that's how she found
Speaker 1: out about this food bank. She's been going there for
Speaker 1: ten years now. Nikayla comes every two or three weeks
Speaker 1: to stock up for her and her son, and for
Speaker 1: fifty dollars, she can get as much food as she wants.
Speaker 8: Fat In the end, you say that.
Speaker 5: Mikhaela.
Speaker 1: Mikaela got her twelve and last cash transfer from the
Speaker 1: Big Lee program this month. She was among those who
Speaker 1: were first randomly selected to participate. The City of Los
Speaker 1: Angeles partnered with the University of Pennsylvania to manage the
Speaker 1: selection process, as well as all other research aspects of
Speaker 1: the program. Angelina's were able to apply either online or
Speaker 1: in person during a period of ten days. In the
Speaker 1: fall of twenty twenty one, we.
Speaker 6: Had two hundred and fifty thousand people visit our website
Speaker 6: and in the air little over fifty thousand people applied
Speaker 6: for the program.
Speaker 1: This is Abigail Marquez, the General manager of the Community
Speaker 1: Investment for Families Apartment with the City of Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Her unit is in charge of implementing the Big leap program.
Speaker 1: Abigail says that the fact that over fifty thousand people
Speaker 1: applied illustrates how big the need is. Some ten thousand
Speaker 1: people who applied actually didn't respond when the program informed
Speaker 1: them that they had been randomly selected.
Speaker 6: People distrust government, and so people felt like, this is
Speaker 6: a catch. How is it that that we're getting one
Speaker 6: thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: It's unheard of.
Speaker 6: It really is unheard of.
Speaker 1: Another five thousand out of fifty thousand didn't fulfill the
Speaker 1: selection criteria, that is being an adult living in the
Speaker 1: city of Los Angeles under the twenty twenty one federal
Speaker 1: poverty line and having at least one child that means
Speaker 1: making less than eighteen thousand dollars a year for a
Speaker 1: family of two. Because of the people who either didn't
Speaker 1: respond or didn't qualify in the first selection round, some
Speaker 1: participants got their first CATSH trend first a little bit
Speaker 1: earlier than others, about a couple of months apart. That's
Speaker 1: why Marta, the woman we met at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the show, still has some deposits left, but Mikaela doesn't.
Speaker 6: The pandemic created an opportunity for us to do something
Speaker 6: different as local government in the way that we were
Speaker 6: responding to the needs and challenges, primarily those from communities
Speaker 6: of color. But I think it's an opportunity to reflect
Speaker 6: on how we could do things differently moving forward.
Speaker 1: In early twenty twenty, Mikhaela was working at a textile
Speaker 1: factory and.
Speaker 10: La Pandemias and dicaol Mundo and Sima servajo mebermas carrillos.
Speaker 1: With a pandemic. The world fell apart for her. She
Speaker 1: got COVID, she lost her job. Then she started sewing
Speaker 1: face masks on her own to get.
Speaker 10: By janoomere no poor mir Pergatia, Bantos, dress, Santiacae, Sali,
Speaker 10: Jello so Caveza.
Speaker 1: She couldn't eat, she couldn't sleep. Her head hurts so
Speaker 1: much she felt her eyes would fall out. She had takikardias.
Speaker 1: Her heart started pounding in the middle of the night,
Speaker 1: and she was falling deeper and deeper into dead. To
Speaker 1: help her youngest son.
Speaker 8: For Doma Trasco Noja.
Speaker 1: He was going to graduate from college soon and she
Speaker 1: felt she couldn't leave him hanging. It was actually her
Speaker 1: youngest son who found out about the Big Clip program.
Speaker 8: See applicat meal Manzueles Punao.
Speaker 1: He helped her fill out the online application because Mikaela
Speaker 1: barely speaks English and she's not great with technology either.
Speaker 1: Six months later, she got a message from the City
Speaker 1: of Los Angeles. She had already forgotten what it was about,
Speaker 1: but she went to the government office anyway, and then
Speaker 1: they gave her a debit card tray.
Speaker 8: So inclusive Chao yallow a ladio is positively di Jossi.
Speaker 1: Mikaela couldn't believe it. At first. She thought she was
Speaker 1: going to have to work in exchange for the cash,
Speaker 1: and she worried about how she would combine that with
Speaker 1: her sewing. When she found out that she didn't need
Speaker 1: to do anything, just use the money as she needed,
Speaker 1: she thought she was going to pass.
Speaker 8: Out semi Yeah, not a lass.
Speaker 10: Like you in this difficult tekastoid omega manalo sayula milan.
Speaker 1: For someone who's poor, Mikhaila says, one thousand dollars a
Speaker 1: month is a lot of money. She closed her eyes
Speaker 1: and said, now I have to give it my own.
Speaker 1: The City of Los Angeles has invested more than thirty
Speaker 1: six million dollars into the Big Lee program. The city
Speaker 1: is tapping money from its general fund, which also finances
Speaker 1: it's public safety and infrastructure, among other services. And all
Speaker 1: of that gets funded through taxes, fines, and other fees
Speaker 1: local government collects. This year, for example, LA's general fund
Speaker 1: has a budget of almost eight billion dollars, and so
Speaker 1: the Bigley program is barely making a dent. At the
Speaker 1: heart of the program is the idea that there are
Speaker 1: no rules or guidance on how to spend the money.
Speaker 1: Here's Abigail Marquez again from the city.
Speaker 6: I fundamentally believe that if we remove barriers from people
Speaker 6: to access programs and we empower them to make decisions
Speaker 6: for themselves, they are in the best position to make
Speaker 6: those decisions. Oftentimes, in my opinion, government is overly prescriptive.
Speaker 6: We have too many requirements, too many rules.
Speaker 1: So far, data the city has collected shows that participants
Speaker 1: are spending the money on covering their basic needs.
Speaker 6: Many are spending the money on helping to cover their
Speaker 6: rent costs. Thirty four percent of our participants are spending
Speaker 6: money on food and groceries. They're not spending money on
Speaker 6: purchasing a new car or anything that's lavish.
Speaker 1: We could say that there's a new wave of guaranteeing
Speaker 1: come program, and probably the one that initiated it and
Speaker 1: got a lot of media attention was the one Michael
Speaker 1: Tobs started when he became the mayor of Stockton, a
Speaker 1: city of over three hundred and twenty thousand people in California,
Speaker 1: a central body.
Speaker 11: I told my staff to look at like, how are
Speaker 11: we going to get rid of poverty? At art meet
Speaker 11: and they came back with this idea of giving people money,
Speaker 11: And honestly, at first I was a little bit nervous.
Speaker 11: It felt very bold and very radical, a little bit
Speaker 11: of a crazy idea.
Speaker 1: The program started in twenty nineteen and it gave one
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty five people five hundred dollars a month
Speaker 1: for two years.
Speaker 12: So Stockton is very important because it was the first
Speaker 12: city led or mayor led pilot in the US.
Speaker 1: This is Juliana bi Dada Nure, a political philosopher and
Speaker 1: the faculty director of the Stanford Basic Income Lab.
Speaker 12: After one year into the program, people reported feeling less stressed,
Speaker 12: there was an uptick in employment, and also people spend
Speaker 12: the money wisely.
Speaker 1: Juliana is from friends and the concept of universal basic
Speaker 1: income or UBI can actually be traced back to the
Speaker 1: French Revolution in the late eighteenth century with William Thomas
Speaker 1: Pain's idea of a dividend.
Speaker 12: Essentially the idea that we are all owed a share
Speaker 12: of what we own in common. Could be natural resources,
Speaker 12: you could frame it as the wealth of the earth,
Speaker 12: but it's also connected with the idea that we are
Speaker 12: all owe a share of the wealth generated by previous
Speaker 12: generations and.
Speaker 1: The wealth that we could create as current generations. A
Speaker 1: similar idea became popular among neo liberals as well, who
Speaker 1: saw basic income as a tool to keep the government
Speaker 1: out of people's lives. Even President Richard Nixon in the
Speaker 1: late nineteen sixties pushed for a reform of the national
Speaker 1: welfare system that actually sounded pretty similar to providing a
Speaker 1: basic income.
Speaker 13: And that is why tonight, I therefore propose that we
Speaker 13: abolish the present welfare system and that we adopted its
Speaker 13: place a new family assistance system.
Speaker 1: Nixon's Family Assistance program aimed to give families of four
Speaker 1: sixteen hundred dollars a year, which today it would amount
Speaker 1: to a little over thirteen thousand dollars, so actually pretty
Speaker 1: similar to the amount of money participants of the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles program got this year. But Senators rejected Nixon's plan twice.
Speaker 1: It was a complex process, but basically Republicans thought the
Speaker 1: program was too expensive and expensive, and Democrats thought it
Speaker 1: wasn't enough money for the families. Around the same time,
Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties and seventies, universal basic income also
Speaker 1: became a central fight for feminists. They saw UBI as
Speaker 1: a way to pay for all the unpaid care work
Speaker 1: that women were doing at home, and a tool to
Speaker 1: rebalance the power relationships between men and women men.
Speaker 12: There's also a really interesting origin that comes from Martin
Speaker 12: Luther King, the Black Panther Party, and also the National
Speaker 12: Welfare Rights Organization.
Speaker 1: That was an organization for mostly by black matters, and.
Speaker 12: The idea here was really to ensure that no one
Speaker 12: was reduced to live in poverty without access to the
Speaker 12: means of survival that was supposed to be key to
Speaker 12: the notion of economic freedom.
Speaker 1: More recently, UBI has become very popular in Silicon Valley
Speaker 1: among tech millionaires who see this concept almost as a
Speaker 1: magic wand that could quote unquote disrupt the social welfare
Speaker 1: system and fix all social problems, some problems created by
Speaker 1: these millionaires themselves. For example, Jack Dorsey, the founder of
Speaker 1: Twitter donated fifteen million dollars to a mayor's coalition created
Speaker 1: by the Mayor of Stockton.
Speaker 12: Now, the tendency of billionaires to like quick fixes that
Speaker 12: do not really address the root causes of inequalities and
Speaker 12: poverty makes them really sub optimal advocates of basic income,
Speaker 12: because I think the idea of basic income is really
Speaker 12: one of building a very robust safety net. It's not
Speaker 12: one that makes a system that produces so much inequality
Speaker 12: work a little better.
Speaker 1: There are ubi supporters coming from very different political backgrounds,
Speaker 1: but there are also many critics. Probably the most common
Speaker 1: criticism is the belief that if you give people money,
Speaker 1: they will stop working.
Speaker 12: There is considerable evidence that people want to work and
Speaker 12: will work when given the transfer, and throughout the world
Speaker 12: with cashtroms for our programs, what we've seen is that
Speaker 12: people use the cash to retrain, to get a driver's license,
Speaker 12: to pay for childcare, to do what is needed to
Speaker 12: do to remove barriers to employment.
Speaker 1: Another criticism targets the universal aspect of this concept. Why
Speaker 1: give money to people who don't need it?
Speaker 12: Universality is really key to this sigmatized public assistance. We've
Speaker 12: created this system that is so stigmatizing that a lot
Speaker 12: of eligible people end up not claiming benefits, in part
Speaker 12: by fear of being demonized as welfare queens and benefits scrounders.
Speaker 12: So these stereotypes are very damaging.
Speaker 1: A quick note here, the pilot programs that have launched
Speaker 1: in recent years across the US are not fully universal.
Speaker 1: They all target groups in need, like people living in
Speaker 1: poverty or above a certain age. But they're similar to
Speaker 1: UBI in that they provide a stable income and don't
Speaker 1: have any restrictions on how people can use the cash.
Speaker 1: And then, of course there's the criticism that UBI is
Speaker 1: too expensive. It's undeniable that these programs cost a lot
Speaker 1: of money, But Julianna says there are other important social
Speaker 1: costs in.
Speaker 12: The equation poverty object Poverty costs enormously to communities. You
Speaker 12: just have to think about the costs in terms of health,
Speaker 12: in terms of crime, of the clustering of this advantage
Speaker 12: that happens when people start losing an income, losing their homes,
Speaker 12: and then it becomes extremely costly on the long run.
Speaker 12: I mean, of course, the human cast, the moral cost
Speaker 12: is the most important one, but even in monetary terms,
Speaker 12: it's it's a disaster. So once you start building that
Speaker 12: in and once you start thinking about the fact that
Speaker 12: actually giving people cash can even grow the economy, you
Speaker 12: realize that it's not as bad as it looks.
Speaker 3: Royal Hanna's Taipei.
Speaker 1: We're on a busy block on Manchester Avenue in South
Speaker 1: LA with Martha, the woman from Andudas met earlier, and
Speaker 1: her daughter Lizzie.
Speaker 7: I'm pretty sure my light slow and they're like, berg,
Speaker 7: think it not.
Speaker 1: In left leg, Martha shows me this big empty space
Speaker 1: with very tall ceilings and freshly painted white walls. This
Speaker 1: is how Martha has been investing the other half of
Speaker 1: the big leap money. She's about to open her own.
Speaker 3: Store, well La Mayoria de Cosa so on.
Speaker 1: The Martha will sell mostly clothes, but also toys, shoes,
Speaker 1: women's accessories. She buys these carded palettes from big retailers
Speaker 1: like Target or Costco, and then she sells the items
Speaker 1: at an affordable price in her neighborhood.
Speaker 3: And musium.
Speaker 1: Martha is excited about opening the store, but when she
Speaker 1: thinks about having to make rent for the space and
Speaker 1: about starting something new, she gets a little scared too.
Speaker 1: Her husband, Freddy isn't fully on board with Marthas and Davers.
Speaker 1: He thinks it's a huge financial risk. Her daughters aren't
Speaker 1: very supportive either, because they aren't used to her mother
Speaker 1: spending so much time out of the house. But none
Speaker 1: of that stops Marta la. It's a dream Martha has
Speaker 1: had for a long time, but she was too busy
Speaker 1: taking care of her daughters. She feels confident about taking
Speaker 1: this step because she knows how to run a store.
Speaker 1: She's done it before me Mama.
Speaker 3: Tormented the pas of Pecanos.
Speaker 1: Back in Onduras, Marta studied marketing in college. In the
Speaker 1: small city of Choloma in the northwest of the country,
Speaker 1: her mother opened a mini market. The family business started small,
Speaker 1: selling groceries, and Martha helped her mother manage the store.
Speaker 1: She loved it and she was good at it. The
Speaker 1: business grew and the family soon owned three stores.
Speaker 4: Sstaalas Jimmy Mama's Diversifico muchosun Negosha followed Exito Total.
Speaker 1: When criminal gangs killed her two brothers, Marta and her
Speaker 1: mother decided to close the businesses. And when Marta left Ondudas,
Speaker 1: her dream of following in her mother's steps became more
Speaker 1: and more distant. When the pandemic hit and Freddi lost
Speaker 1: his job and then injured his hand. The family was
Speaker 1: left without a stable source of income for many months.
Speaker 1: They barely survived on the three to four hundred dollars
Speaker 1: Freddy was able to make every week with spontaneous gigs.
Speaker 1: Marta was trying to find ways to help keep the
Speaker 1: family afloat. She applied for the weekly program, but she
Speaker 1: also got creative at home.
Speaker 3: Al Principean Kosalski Missi hasi wan the hand of Kenaiann
Speaker 3: Proveecho Mahenka.
Speaker 1: At first, she was giving away toll is her daughters
Speaker 1: didn't use anymore, using platforms like Facebook. Then people started
Speaker 1: offering her money for them and and that experience revived
Speaker 1: her dream. So when she got selected for the Big
Speaker 1: Ley program, she knew she had to invest the money wisely.
Speaker 3: Jeans closes.
Speaker 1: She could have spent the money on shoes or clothes
Speaker 1: for herself and her daughters, but that would have been it. Instead,
Speaker 1: Marta decided to buy merchandise and then sell it to
Speaker 1: generate a profit. Martha is unfolding clothes and hanging them
Speaker 1: on a circular hangar, being busy makes Marta feel good.
Speaker 1: It's like therapy, she says. Well, she organizes sneakers and
Speaker 1: Ellie caps on a long white plastic table. Martha gets
Speaker 1: a video calls it's Martha's mother calling from Honduras. Her
Speaker 1: name is Martha as well. Moving the phone around, MARTA's
Speaker 1: her mother the new.
Speaker 3: Space, Mama r.
Speaker 1: Martha's mother recommends her not to drill any holes on
Speaker 1: the walls because she might not get her deposit back today.
Speaker 1: She has to leave the space. Martha actually borrowed money
Speaker 1: from her mother and some other family members in Hondudas
Speaker 1: to open the store.
Speaker 3: Grandmos.
Speaker 1: Martha's mother tells her she has a gift that God
Speaker 1: gave her. And look at you're a business woman, her
Speaker 1: mother tells her, as she is, Mamma the.
Speaker 3: Way I am.
Speaker 1: Martha tells her mother she's gonna call her later because
Speaker 1: she needs to call a client who wants to buy
Speaker 1: some gifts. They talk every day, often more than once.
Speaker 3: By a mom.
Speaker 1: I asked Marta if she already has a name in
Speaker 1: mind for her store.
Speaker 4: The one outlet, the one and honor as a your
Speaker 4: daddy was Sonya Looras.
Speaker 1: Martha says she would love to name the store dubone outlet.
Speaker 1: The one is her mother's last name, and she wants
Speaker 1: to honor her, a strong, bold woman who worked a
Speaker 1: lot and was also a dreamer, just like Martha.
Speaker 2: Coming up on Latino USA. We go to Martha's grand
Speaker 2: opening and we asked, what's the future of guaranteed income
Speaker 2: programs in the United States?
Speaker 1: Stay with us, not the ys.
Speaker 5: Hi, Latino USA. My name is Magali garciaflex. I grew
Speaker 5: up along the US Mestical border in Laredo, Texas. The
Speaker 5: first time I started listening to Latino USA was in
Speaker 5: the fall of twenty fourteen. I had just started a
Speaker 5: new job at Providence College, and I turned to Latino
Speaker 5: USA as both material for class, but also as a
Speaker 5: way to feel closer to home. The familiar voices, especially
Speaker 5: the trans languaging between English and Spanish, and the topics
Speaker 5: that really resonated with me are what made me feel
Speaker 5: like I know, USA was so right.
Speaker 3: And so special for me.
Speaker 5: Seal complex, here's too many more.
Speaker 1: Hey, we're back.
Speaker 2: Before the break, we saw how Marta and Michaela, two
Speaker 2: participants of Los Angeles's Guaranteed Income program, are spending the
Speaker 2: one thousand dollars they're getting every month for one year.
Speaker 2: You know, USA senior producer Marta Martinez is going to
Speaker 2: pick up the story from here, Ola.
Speaker 1: Today is the grand opening of Martha's store. I can't
Speaker 1: even recognize the space. It's now so full of clothes, toys,
Speaker 1: home supplies. By the window, there's a display for Saint
Speaker 1: Valentine's Day, full of hearts and stuffed animals. I noticed
Speaker 1: that Marta didn't follow her mother's advice, and she drilled
Speaker 1: two giant racks on the left wall. They're packed with
Speaker 1: T shirts, sweaters, jeans. She's going all in. Hello, ladies,
Speaker 1: how are you today. MARTA's daughters, Lizzie and Sophia are
Speaker 1: also here, and they're dressed for the occasion. They each
Speaker 1: wear a big bowl on their hair. Lizzie is covered
Speaker 1: in rainbows, a big rainbow on her chest and a
Speaker 1: rainbow pattern skirt. Sophia has a T shirt with a
Speaker 1: unicorn on the front and on the back.
Speaker 7: Well, yes, Corney, fairly, Fia, oh, Sophia.
Speaker 1: Marta greets everyone who enters the store and answers their
Speaker 1: questions single promise. In the back of the store, there's
Speaker 1: a small table where they're serving natches the fruit. The
Speaker 1: same long plastic table from the first day I visited
Speaker 1: the store is now covered in all kinds of chips
Speaker 1: and sodas for everyone to pick up for free. Sophie
Speaker 1: asks me if I want anything.
Speaker 7: Oh, by the way, we have chips, drinks, whatever, And.
Speaker 1: Then she tells me about what a particular soda is
Speaker 1: made of.
Speaker 7: And it's made of sugar coop And that's.
Speaker 1: More than a store opening. It feels like a neighborhood
Speaker 1: birthday party. And then Martha's next door neighbors sho Gloria
Speaker 1: and Marcus neighbors.
Speaker 7: Welcome.
Speaker 1: They're both tall and thin and here waiting for you.
Speaker 1: Marcus walks slowly and is always joking.
Speaker 9: Nurse is nice.
Speaker 1: Marcus sits and it's some natchos well. His wife Gloria
Speaker 1: browses around. He sits next to two solvador and women
Speaker 1: who don't speak English, but he seems to be enjoying himself.
Speaker 7: Go back in her pressure room.
Speaker 1: Gloria ends up buying a couple of long sleeve shirts
Speaker 1: and a pair of pants. It took a while for
Speaker 1: Martha to have a relationship with Marcus and Gloria. Language
Speaker 1: was a barrier but over time they've become closer. The
Speaker 1: couple sits down its cake and chats with the group
Speaker 1: for a while. It's getting late. While Marcus and Gloria leave,
Speaker 1: Martha gets a call from her mother. Martha moves the
Speaker 1: phone around and shows her mother how full the story is.
Speaker 1: Now the celebration is complete. The City of Los Angeles
Speaker 1: doesn't have hard data yet on the impact of the
Speaker 1: Big Leap program. It'll still take months to analyze what
Speaker 1: happened during the year when partic sipens cutter cash transfers,
Speaker 1: and what happened during the six months after that. But
Speaker 1: Abigail Marquez from La City Government is quite impressed so far,
Speaker 1: even after twenty years working in public administration.
Speaker 6: It's all anecdotal at this point, but we have learned
Speaker 6: that through this program, people are feeling less stress and
Speaker 6: less anxiety. That's allowing households to plan for the future,
Speaker 6: which oftentimes many people take for granted.
Speaker 1: Reports from over twenty other pilot programs across the country
Speaker 1: have shown similar positive results reduced stress levels, improved physical health,
Speaker 1: higher full time employment rates, including the final results from
Speaker 1: the Stockton program, which came out recently. Abigail says Stockton,
Speaker 1: sparked the national movement.
Speaker 6: We have cities for guaranteed income, we have counties for
Speaker 6: guaranteed income, and we're talking about this at the federal level,
Speaker 6: you know, with the President and many of our congressional
Speaker 6: representatives as well.
Speaker 1: The state of California is funding several guaranteed income programs
Speaker 1: for mothers and children, and in the state of New York,
Speaker 1: people are pushing for a similar initiative. In twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: the Biden administration expanded the Child Independent Tax Credit that
Speaker 1: gave families up to three hundred dollars a month per child.
Speaker 1: They didn't call it guaranteed income, but it was pretty
Speaker 1: similar and it helped cut child poverty in half. For
Speaker 1: many experts, it's clear that guaranteed income programs work. The
Speaker 1: question is how they can strengthen the social welfare system,
Speaker 1: not dismantle it. I shared it with Abigail one of
Speaker 1: the questions that keeps resonating in my head since I
Speaker 1: started reporting on the Big Lead program on what this
Speaker 1: year has been like for Marta and Mikaela and another
Speaker 1: thirty two hundred people.
Speaker 14: They've definitely gotten this economic stability for a year, but
Speaker 14: now are going to stop receiving that, Like, what's going
Speaker 14: to happen to these people?
Speaker 6: So that's you know, that is the unfortunate aspect of
Speaker 6: this work is that we won't really know people are working,
Speaker 6: but the economy is not working for our lowest wage earners.
Speaker 1: I also asked Juliana Bida Lanure from Stanford's Basic Income Lab.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's such an important question. I worry about this too,
Speaker 8: you know.
Speaker 12: I think people have been incredible by enlarged using the
Speaker 12: cash in ways that put them in a better.
Speaker 8: Position after the program ends.
Speaker 12: But it's still a very big concern because the idea
Speaker 12: of the of the program is not like we give
Speaker 12: you cash for a little while and then you're on
Speaker 12: your own.
Speaker 1: It's actually the opposite of that.
Speaker 12: The idea is we create this robust flaw that will
Speaker 12: ensure that this is guaranteed and you know that you
Speaker 12: will always be able to rely on this. And the
Speaker 12: question is also like what kinds of choices you make
Speaker 12: when that's secured.
Speaker 1: Juliana believes that beyond the hard data that these pilot
Speaker 1: programs will gather on their positive impact, there are bigger
Speaker 1: moral and political questions to consider when thinking about the
Speaker 1: future of UBI.
Speaker 12: It's really about what we owe each other. In wealthy Nasian,
Speaker 12: we have accumulated unprecedented wealth off the backs of workers
Speaker 12: past and present, and so I think it's really time
Speaker 12: to redistribute this wealth more fairly.
Speaker 1: And she wishes that the pandemic helps us think differently
Speaker 1: about emergencies.
Speaker 12: Now we think about cashas like effective, but we continue
Speaker 12: to think about cash as only for emergency situations, but
Speaker 12: not realizing that abject poverty, economic insecurity ah emergencies and
Speaker 12: that we need to fix it now.
Speaker 1: I meet Mikhaela at the red brick home in South
Speaker 1: where she rents two rooms. We walked to the backyard
Speaker 1: where there's a shed she has converted into her sewing workshop.
Speaker 10: The man.
Speaker 1: It's been hard to meet with Mikhaela because she's always working.
Speaker 1: Last night she finished her latest assignment. She sold five
Speaker 1: hundred blouses for two dollars.
Speaker 10: Each Plando in Tregando.
Speaker 1: She was folding clothes until eleven pm the night before.
Speaker 1: She won't be receiving any more cash transfers from Big Leap,
Speaker 1: so she feels she can't say no to any new assignments.
Speaker 1: Mikaela shows me around the tiny well organized.
Speaker 10: Shed connom presta Makina is the makina is tramakina.
Speaker 1: After Mikhayela paid off her son's college debt, she bought
Speaker 1: four second hands sewing machinets. They added up to about
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars and she's still paying for them.
Speaker 10: Reno borgestava, pagandoodiz sala rerenta and ton says yo no
Speaker 10: al cansa and no salad in nero.
Speaker 1: She used to pay one hundred and ten dollars a
Speaker 1: month to rent the machines, but now all she makes
Speaker 1: with her work she keeps, even if it isn't much.
Speaker 1: Mikhaela says that without the help of Big Lip, she
Speaker 1: would never have been able to purchase the sewing machines.
Speaker 1: That's because you always left hand to mouth.
Speaker 10: Doosolo parami san sali loyo yora was.
Speaker 8: Mia yudai.
Speaker 1: This whole year of receiving a stable income was a
Speaker 1: big relief for Mikhaela. She felt she was getting out
Speaker 1: of the hole, that she was finally able to breathe.
Speaker 1: But now that the program is over, she still has
Speaker 1: other problems to worry about.
Speaker 10: Miss Manos komote Otterna.
Speaker 1: Mikaela shows me her hands. She wears two black wrisbands
Speaker 1: after developing carpal tunnel on both hands from so many
Speaker 1: years of sewing and iron clothes. The doctor says she'll
Speaker 1: probably need surgery, but she doesn't have the money to
Speaker 1: pay for the procedure and she can't afford going on
Speaker 1: signif either.
Speaker 8: Independent was.
Speaker 1: Medicina, Mikaela shows me a giant orange bottle full of pills. Chelsea,
Speaker 1: and she's taking a hundred milligram ibuprofen pills to keep going.
Speaker 1: A couple of nights ago, at one in the morning,
Speaker 1: she was in bed and the taki cardia came.
Speaker 8: Back my pega barossolo sinkos wundos verte meat.
Speaker 1: Her heart started racing so hard she could even see
Speaker 1: her nightgown going up and down. She thought her heart
Speaker 1: was going to jump out of her chests.
Speaker 8: Yes and dia perro ci fut.
Speaker 1: It went on for twenty minutes. She thought she was
Speaker 1: going to faint, and she ended up calling an ambulance.
Speaker 10: Talvesi yo talves me pantstres prone.
Speaker 1: Mikhaela wonders if all of this is because of the
Speaker 1: Bigley program ending, but she tells herself that she has
Speaker 1: to move forward and work harder. She does have a dream,
Speaker 1: like Marta. Mikaela wants to open her own small business,
Speaker 1: a sewing workshop. She wants to hire about five people
Speaker 1: to help her.
Speaker 10: Permitted questa adasatamente novi aldiya viorna in Berti and ali
Speaker 10: mi propio peke presita.
Speaker 1: With the Big Lip Program, Mikhaela got one step closer
Speaker 1: to her goal of creating her own business, but she's
Speaker 1: still pretty far away from achieving it. I catch up
Speaker 1: with Marta at her store three days before her next
Speaker 1: Big Lip cash transfer, her second to last. There are
Speaker 1: even more goods now, a small fridge with sodas near
Speaker 1: the entrance, columns of toilet paper piling up in the
Speaker 1: back room.
Speaker 4: The loya vendid contradovoice this fetch i dig grandia.
Speaker 1: There hasn't been a single day when Marta left the
Speaker 1: store without selling anything. Today it's three pm and she's
Speaker 1: already made one hundred and fifty dollars. Marta worried a
Speaker 1: lot about being able to cover rent for the space
Speaker 1: with the store cells because it's twelve hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 1: It's the best person.
Speaker 8: See see.
Speaker 4: See I thank you maday, so he puts, yeah, this
Speaker 4: is excellenteo ya competra marcari yoo mas.
Speaker 1: Martha says she's already made double the rent for this
Speaker 1: month and all the extra money she has invested it
Speaker 1: in new merchandise. Martha only has two more cash deposits
Speaker 1: left from Big Deep, but she says she's not sad
Speaker 1: that the program is ending. Having a steady cash support
Speaker 1: allowed her to do things she always dreamed of, but
Speaker 1: she would have never been able to achieve on her own.
Speaker 3: So on those dollar nomelo u ningun son and now
Speaker 3: that sun Cantida buena de avechalgo Provicio's.
Speaker 1: See that's as at brend she would have never in
Speaker 1: her life had access to twelve thousand dollars otherwise, and
Speaker 1: Marta thinks she's used the money well. When she was
Speaker 1: leaving day to day, she wasn't able to think beyond
Speaker 1: how to get to the end of the month, and
Speaker 1: like Mikaela, that made her physically sick. Once they were
Speaker 1: able to get out of survival mode and keep their
Speaker 1: head above water, that's when they started thinking long term
Speaker 1: and making smart decisions about money. Both Marta and Mikhaela
Speaker 1: had dreams to open their own businesses, businesses that would
Speaker 1: employ other people and contribute to the economic prosperity of
Speaker 1: their communities. But now that they'll stop receiving cash, it's
Speaker 1: not clear what they'll be able to keep up with
Speaker 1: the steady growth They've both decided to keep trying. Martha
Speaker 1: gets to work for herself now, not for others, making
Speaker 1: her own schedule and adapting to her daughters too, and.
Speaker 7: We don't think connecting for snack time.
Speaker 1: Her husband, Freddie, picked up the girls from school early
Speaker 1: today because Sophia isn't feeling well. No, it looks like
Speaker 1: the virus that first made Lizzie sick has been passing
Speaker 1: from one family member to another. The girls and Freddie
Speaker 1: still aren't fully on board with this new life of
Speaker 1: Martha as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 13: Why you don't like here?
Speaker 7: And there's no TV so I can't do anything.
Speaker 1: After school, the girls spend some time at the store
Speaker 1: with Martha, and then they all go home for dinner.
Speaker 1: Martha has no plans to go back to the life
Speaker 1: she had before the.
Speaker 7: Program, unless my belly will get my dad's.
Speaker 1: Sophia looks very pale and her stomach aches. She's far
Speaker 1: from her usual bubbly self, but she'll still make the
Speaker 1: most unexpected comments, like when she's talking about her dad.
Speaker 7: Him and Spanish. I call him Babby in the English,
Speaker 7: as you know, but I've called him sometimes sometimes I
Speaker 7: call him that.
Speaker 1: It's almost five pm. Marta decides that today she's gonna
Speaker 1: close the store early and she's gonna go home and
Speaker 1: take care of her daughters. Yeah, because now she is
Speaker 1: the boss.
Speaker 7: However, s we go about?
Speaker 3: Have you seen?
Speaker 2: This episode was produced by Marta Martinez and edited by
Speaker 2: Daisy Contreras. It was mixed by Stephanie Lebau and Julia Caruso.
Speaker 2: Fact checking for this episode by Monica Morales Garcia. The
Speaker 2: Latino USA team includes Andrea Lopez Ruzado, Mike Sargent, Miktrri Estrada, Rinaldo,
Speaker 2: Leanos Junior, Patricia Subrand and Elizabeth Loental Torres. Our editorial
Speaker 2: director is Fernande Santos. Our associate engineers are Gabriel La
Speaker 2: Bayez and JJ Carubin. Our marketing manager is Luis Luna.
Speaker 2: Our theme music was composed by Sane Rubinos. I'm your
Speaker 2: host and executive producer Maria J. Josa join us again
Speaker 2: on our next episode. In the meantime, look for us
Speaker 2: on social media. Remember and we'll see you on the
Speaker 2: next one.
Speaker 6: Joe Latino U s A is made possible in part
Speaker 6: by California Endowment building a strong state by improving the
Speaker 6: health of all Californians. The Ford Foundation, working with visionaries
Speaker 6: on the front lines of social change worldwide, and the
Speaker 6: Anni E. Casey Foundation, creates a brighter future for the
Speaker 6: nation's children by strengthening families, building greater economic opportunity, and
Speaker 6: transforming communities.