Governor Maura Healey and Latinos

We are wrapping up the 78th week of The Latino Newsletter, and I do enjoy the weeks when we can share some startup milestones. The first one is that we have a new Deputy Editor working with us — award-winning journalist Serena Maria Daniels. Serena joins us from Detroit and is the founder of the Midwest Mexican newsletter. Welcome to the team, Serena! 

The second one is our latest podcast episode, an exclusive interview with Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey and part of a new editorial partnership we formed with Boston’s El Planeta. Earlier this week, Rosanna Marinelli filed a story about the interview for The Latino Newsletter in English.

She also filed for El Planeta en español.

The podcast episode is the extension of Rosanna’s stories. We conducted the Healey interview at the governor’s office in the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Hill. I recorded the interview (the Boston Red Sox hat with a Puerto Rican flag is the giveaway), while Rosanna and her El Planeta colleague, Liza Martin Carfi, asked the questions. We had about 20 minutes for the conversation, and we wanted to ask at least four to five questions about Latinos in the state. As Rosanna noted in her piece, “What is Governor Maura Healey actually doing to stand with the Latino community beyond policies?”

The Latino population in Massachusetts is indeed growing. In a recent analysis by the University of Massachusetts Boston’s Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy, “From 2010 to 2020, while the overall Massachusetts population increased by 7.4%, the growth in its Latino population was much steeper: 41.4%. Latinos made up 12.6% of the Massachusetts population in 2020, having accounted for more than half (53.9%) of the state’s population growth over the preceding decade.”

We approached the Healey interview with that in mind, along with what both Rosanna and Liza describe later in the episode as a wave of fear permeating through the state’s Latino communities in 2025. Still, even while the demographic shifts might indicate success and the possibility that Latino electoral power is becoming a reality, the mood would tell you otherwise. The “sense of belonging” that Rosanna describes after the interview ends is being questioned more than ever.

Both Rosanna and Liza touch on those issues during their time with Healey, and, like I tell our podcast host Michelle Zacarias, finding more time to engage Spanish-language and English-language outlets that cover Latino communities should be a requirement for all high-profile elected officials. Massachusetts, a place I have called home for more than 30 years, has a bright future, and a big part of that future is Latino, but that future is facing serious challenges, and there is a sense of uncertainty about whether this state is indeed home.

Here is the episode. Let us know what you think.

This episode of The Latino Newsletter podcast was produced by me, Joaquin Cotler, Juan Diego Ramirez, and Michelle Zacarias. I edited the conversation. The music is by Cast of Characters via Soundstripe and Joaquin Cotler.

Season 2 of The Latino Newsletter podcast was made possible through individual donations⁠ and ⁠the Latino Media Consortium⁠.

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Moreno calls it the ‘Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025,’ saying that being a citizen of the United States should be ‘all or nothing.’ Moreno, who was born in Colombia and immigrated to the U.S. as a child, renounced his Colombian citizenship when he turned 18.”

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Julio Ricardo Varela is the founder of The Latino Newsletter. He is also its current part-time publisher and executive director.

Serena Maria Daniels edited and published this edition of The Latino Newsletter.

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