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There are times here at The Latino Newsletter when, once you commit to producing and publishing a story or an audio podcast, you have to see it through.

This was one of those times.

Back in mid-March, I was contacted by the campaign of Melisa López Franzen to see if I would be interested in interviewing her. Melisa was born and raised in Puerto Rico, has called Minnesota home for more than 20 years, and is now running in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) primary for the 2026 United States Senate election, which will likely include several candidates.

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I am fascinated by stories like Melisa's, especially as a journalist who has covered Puerto Rican communities for a while now.

I produced and edited this bonus episode of The Latino Newsletter podcast, and Melisa was a wonderful guest. She shared a lot about growing up in Puerto Rico and why a former state senator is now running for a federal seat.

I produced and edited this podcast solo, and most of my audio work has all been self-taught. In post-production, I made some additional edits to my part of the show, not because of anything Melisa said, but because I didn’t like how I sounded. I had a mic issue, and did the best I could to fix it. I also felt like I was already late in delivering the episode, so I felt good about the edits I made to my sections so that this conversation could be published.

The result is a personal portrait of a candidate with roots from Puerto Rico.

Here is the episode, which we are releasing first here on our site.

About the Author

Julio Ricardo Varela is the founder and publisher of The Latino Newsletter.

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