We're Hiring Student Journalists in Western Massachusetts

We have some exciting news to share.

In partnership with New England Public Media (NEPM), The Latino Newsletter is excited to announce a unique internship opportunity for high school students interested in journalism and media!  

Our founder, award-winning journalist and nonprofit media leader Julio Ricardo Varela, will be heading up the team, so the three interns would be a key part of a production team that will create interviews and stories from the point of view of the Latino community in Western Massachusetts.

Here are the topline details (the full job description is here):

Position: High School Student Intern
Type: Hybrid (6 hours per week, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 3:30p-6:30p)
Duration: September 16-November 15

Location: Main offices of New England Public Media, 44 Hampden Street, Springfield, MA
Compensation: $17 per hour

The direct link to apply is the following Google Form:

A little more about the Springfield, Massachusetts area (via data from UMass Boston’s Gastón Institute):

• Springfield, the third largest city in Massachusetts, has 69,301 Latinos according to the 2015-2019 American Community Survey. They represent 45% of the city's population.

• Although the city's population increased by only 1% from 2010 to 2019, the Latino population increased by 26%.

• The large Latino population is driven by the city's high concentration of Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens and who number 59,211.

• Latinos have a median age (26.8 years) that is younger than the statewide Latino median (28.1 years) and much younger than the median age of Blacks (31.9 years), Asians (34.6 years), and Whites (46.7 years) in Springfield.

• Latinos are overrepresented in sales and service occupations (55%). Correspondingly, Latinos are underrepresented in what are traditionally considered white-collar jobs, consisting of professional and managerial occupations (18%) and blue-collar occupations (27%).

• Latinos in Springfield have the lowest median household income ($24,722) compared to the other ethno-racial groups in the city.

To our subscribers and their allies, feel free share this post with anyone you know in the Western Massachusetts. Let’s work together to shine a light on this amazing Latino community.

What We’re Reading

The Latina $1.3 Trillion GDP: This lede from the Associated Press this week says it all, “Latinas contributed $1.3 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product in 2021, up from $661 billion in 2010 and at a growth rate nearly triple that of non-Latinos during the same time period, according to a new report funded by Bank of America and conducted by professors at California Lutheran University and UCLA.”

The Labor Market Experiences of Afro-Latinos: Via our friends at the UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Institute, a new report released this week that explores labor market outcomes for Afro-Latinos.

Here are the five conclusions from its summary:

1. From 2010 to 2022, unemployment and labor force outcomes for Afro-Latina women were closer to those of Black women than non-Black Latina women.

2. During the pandemic’s economic downturn, Black, Afro-Latina, and non-Black Latina women experienced similar unemployment and labor force shocks.

3. Afro-Latino men experienced worse unemployment and labor force outcomes than non-Black Latino men but better outcomes than those of Black men between 2010 and 2022.

4. During the pandemic’s economic downturn, Black and Afro-Latino men experienced harsher unemployment and labor force shocks than their non-Black peers.

5. Among the U.S.-born, unemployment rates for Afro-Latina women and Afro-Latino men were closer to their Black peers than their non-Black Latina/o peers from 2010 to 2022.

Read the full report below.

La Abeja Is Here: This looks promising.

New Voter Registrations: A very informative clip about new voter registrations from CBS News has garnered close over 1.7 million views on Twitter.

Do you believe in creating new journalism lanes for Latinos and Latinas? Do you believe that U.S. mainstream outlets will never understand our community? Consider donating to The Latino Newsletter. Any little bit helps to keep this newsletter free and accessible to all. ¡Gracias mil!