Episode 45: We Chat With Councilwoman Gloria Soto

Welcome back to Conversation on Tap!

In this episode, Joel and Jose were joined by Gloria Soto, a Santa Maria councilwoman, to discuss how the city is responding to the Coronavirus.

Because of social distancing, this was our fourth episode to be recorded via Skype, so please bear with us as the sound quality wasn't especially at its finest. 

As we started the episode, Joel said that he was out of beer, while Jose drank the last of the delicious Negra Modelo in his refrigerator. 

For their FRED Talks, Jose talked about why Easter is celebrated on Sundays, and Joel shared a link (IHME) and his frustration that the media isn't comparing the predictions for Coronavirus and the actual numbers.

In the main segment, Joel, Jose, and Gloria talked about her work on the City Council to confront the challenge of the Coronavirus in our community. Gloria was born and raised in Santa Maria to parents who immigrated to the United States in 1988. Now, after a year into her first term, she has been leading the fight to keep people in their homes and to keep businesses in their spaces. We also discuss how she has been working to help small businesses in our community and opportunities to make housing more affordable. One of the challenges that she has had to confront is a cultural insensitivity by some in City Hall who don't understand the immigrant or working class people in our city. So, she has made sure to get out Coronavirus information and practices out to Spanish speaking and Mixtec speaking residents. We also take time to thank our field workers and medical staff, who are working to feed our families and bring us healing, respectively. It was quite the discussion with a very charming and intelligent young woman!

In the final segment, Joel talked about how he has been listening to Bill Withers' music and playing a game called JetPunk-- and now he knows where Angola is! Jose talked about playing the new Spider-Man game and the new Star Wars: Fallen Order game.

That's all for this week, but keep up with the Podcast by following us on Facebook and Instagram. 

Cheers!