- [Narrator] Funding for this episode of Que Pasa NJ with Carlos Medina has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, PSEG.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Hackensack Meridian Health, the Engineers Labor Employer Cooperative 825, ROI-NJ business magazine.

Please remember, the COVID-19 vaccine is safe, effective and free.

- Welcome to this month's edition of Que Pasa, this month we're very lucky to have Luz and Luis Miranda.

New York City power couple, who also happen to be the parents of Lin-Manuel Miranda.

We have Tanya Ramos, the head of the Latin GRAMMY Foundation and Carlos Lejnieks, from the Boys & Girls Club of New Jersey.

And don't forget, que pasa.

(Latin theme music) So we have Dr. Luz, Towns-Miranda and Luis Miranda, JR. - Thank you for having us here - A power couple from the tri-state area.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Luz, I was reading your bio and I know you spent your entire career working as a psychologist and many underserved communities.

And Luis, I know you at least 20 years but I know you go back 40 years, Hispanic Federation, your firm, now working with Viva Broadway, is it then?

- (Luis speaks foreign language) - It's Viva Broadway.

- Yeah.

- So my question to both of you is, where does this spirit of giving back, of philanthropy come from?

'Cause it's something that my father really instilled in me, so success doesn't impress me.

What impresses me when I see people like you, that have achieved a level of success, but know you give back and have instilled that in your children.

That to me is amazing.

- I think it comes from the fact that you don't make yourself.

You're sort of the end result of many people, some that did a lot and some that did a little.

I would have not gotten such an easier transition coming to New York, 18, 19, if it would've not been for ASPIRA.

So you always have to give back, is there someone else who's gonna need that push?

- I think both my families came from very modest means but I think partly through Catholicism, in terms of always being concerned for others, there but for the grace of God go I.

That even when we had very limited means there was always a pool of money that was for charity because there's the idea of taking care of those that are less fortunate.

- So now that you've achieved a much greater platform, is giving easier, do you have more people knocking on the door?

The ability to reach more people, what have that done to your philanthropy and your family?

- We certainly do probably too much.

And every time at the end of the month when Luz gets the credit card bills, she reminds me.

And we did this and this and why did we do this and that and the other.

But, we now have a small donor advise fund, so we probably do too much.

And it's a combination of people asking because they see what we do, and it's a combination of that with us going and ask institutions and people that we see that are in our same journey.

So we love to bring them along and do stuff with them.

- Sure.

- But I also think it's in keeping with our areas of interests.

I've, I've worked in the South Bronx most of my professional career, with underserved, lots of mothers and children and so I am particularly invested in underserved families.

And I think with my husband and my son, they're interested in underrepresented people that are looking to get into the arts.

- Sure, I'd like to pivot off that Luz.

As a psychologist, the last 18 months have been very difficult.

What have you seen in underserved communities as far as the mental health crisis that we're facing - There has been a tremendous increase in depressions, in hospitalizations.

Because I'm still active in two underserved communities through two different clinics.

And there's been an exacerbation in individuals who previously could function, who COVID and the problems it broke, tipped the scales in terms of their capacity to cope.

And it's been a significant struggle, not just for the adults coping with their children, but for children and the isolation and difficulty with virtual schooling as well.

- Interesting, I wanna give you both a shout out.

I recently saw the, "In the Heights" movie.

- Ah, yes.

- I saw you guys exiting the vehicle very eloquently.

(Carlos chuckling) - Yes, no, I think we should be nominated for... - (Luz laughing) Supporting actors.

- Supporting actors.

- You have my vote.

(everybody laughing) How has that experience been?

- I think that I bothering Manuel so much that at the end he's like, "okay, we'll put you in the movie for a second."

So that's how we ended up there.

- I know when I had you last year and I enjoyed speaking with you about working with your son and how you guys work together.

How was this project for both of you, was it very challenging on the relationship of parent and child, was it easy breezy?

- No, not really.

- No, we both had petitioned him for having a cameo, so it was just a matter of finding a spot that would fit beautifully.

And since it was in the neighborhood throughout, we were monitoring where was he gonna be today, what location did he have?

So it was, it was close to home on so many levels.

- No, Lin-Manuel and I work together every day of our lives, now for a number of years.

I also work with my daughter for the last 22 years, so I'm one of those lucky parents who get to spend time with his kids every single day of my life.

We just separate when we're working and when we're being parents and we have been successful so far in doing that.

- Last year when I had you on, I showed the clip of "Sempra, Luis."

Which was a wonderful documentary, one scene we had the bleep when I was showing the clip.

So I'm gonna ask Luz, what's it like working with somebody that's bleeping relentless.

- I'm not sure what you're referring to by bleep, oh I know what you mean.

- There's a scene when Lin-Manuel says, "my dad is relentless."

- Yes, it's just part of every day, I don't even notice.

That's why I was asking what are you talking about bleeping, that's just how they talk all the time.

I forgot you probably have to sensor that.

(Luz laughing) - Exactly, we put a little cue bleeping.

- Yeah, Luz doesn't even notice-- - Blink at that.

- Notice it anymore.

- If I was around, you might have to bleep me too.

(everybody laughing) - I've learned the trick though, to text him, I gotta do it after midnight and he's like a machine and you said in the documentary, apparently you don't sleep a lot.

- I don't, I figured, I say in the documentary and I say it all the time, there's a time when I'm gonna die and I'm gonna sleep forever.

So while I can get up, I will get up as early as I can and go to bed as late as my body allows me to.

- Yeah, my concern is the lack of sleep could hasten his death, but he still pays no attention to our efforts to try to get him to rest more, so.

- Naps, you gotta take a couple naps during the day.

- Naps, he does.

- I actually do.

- That's good.

- Yeah, he's good at naps.

- I actually do, we watch the 6:30 news.

- Okay.

- And it puts him to sleep.

Now that now that we have a new administration it puts him to sleep.

(Luz laughing) - Before I was screaming at Trump in the news, Now Biden is so soothing, I put my head down, I sleep for 10 minutes and then I'm ready to work for the next six hours.

- Exactly, I have a question for both of you.

So the past year, year and a half have been very challenging for racial tensions in this country.

How do Hispanics act as allies to the African-American community while still expressing that we have needs that are unique to us without disrespecting their needs.

And the fact that they did pave the way for many of us, but I find that conflict to be complicated right now in the country.

- It is, and it'll not to, and if you talk to the African American leadership or the black leadership, they realize that that is so.

That we are part of the equation, that we may have special needs, that there are times when we're together because we have the same needs.

We, for the most part, live in the same communities, but there's also different needs that we may have.

I think that what has been helpful is that, for the first time since I can recall, there are many more resources out there.

So when there's less, we're fighting for (Luis speaks foreign language) - We're fighting for the crumbs that they put out there.

Now that companies, some of them are investing in a serious way, there are more resources for all of us to be able to share.

- But I think it's also brought to the forefront the unspoken aspect of our community, the Afro Latino.

And how that basically doesn't really get addressed much, but there's a real need to bring that issue to the forefront 'cause I think that unites us as well.

- Yeah, definitely, and I've tried, I've actually made an effort.

And I had a call last year episode one, an Afro cubana called me right away.

And she said, "I hope you're gonna have our whole population."

And I said, "yes Maria, send me names, that is my plan."

'Cause it is often, especially on TV, right?

- Right.

- Yes.

- You look at telenovela, it's all beautiful and great.

- You see it in baseball much more than you see it in the soaps.

- Exactly, and music.

- Right.

- It's a reality that we have in our community, and I think Luz is absolutely right, it has made us reckon with our own racism internally.

- Definitely, so two very successful children.

You've probably been asked this before, I apologize if you've heard it too many times, what's the secret sauce?

Having a doctor as a mom and a trailblazing businessmen doesn't hurt as a dad.

- There's several ingredients, first and foremost is emphasizing the importance of family and education and then working with their strengths.

- Yeah, I think we always let them be with guidance and (speaks foreign language), you know what I mean?

Sometimes it's not as smooth as you want it to be, so you make sure that least you tell them what you think the path is, they will either follow it or not.

But I think that the most important thing is that we have allowed them to be who they are and nurture that self that brings the best in each of them.

And we could not have more different kids.

- Yeah.

- Very different.

- Great, thank you both for being here, you guys are role models, I'm very excited to have you on Que Pasa.

God bless you and all your endeaveours.

- Thanks you for having us.

- Absolutely.

- Thank you so much Luz and Luis.

And up next, Carlos Lejnieks, from the Boys & Girls Club of New Jersey.

(Latin theme music) And now we have Carlos Lejnieks, from Big Brothers Big Sisters, welcome Carlos.

- Thanks for having me.

- Now tell me, you're Hudson, Essex and Union County, correct?

- That's right, I've been there for 13 years.

- Wow.

- It's crazy how time flies - Now prior to that, you were a Goldman Sachs guy, you worked in corporate America, what brought you to the nonprofit world?

- Ah man, well first of all, the long story is, essentially the story of our children was a story of mine.

When I was growing up in Montclair, raised by a single parent mother from Ecuador.

She cleaned houses to make ends meet and the blessing was that she advocated and amplified our voice, but sometimes we fell off the track.

And we had mentors that encouraged us to get us back on track and graduate.

I started going off down the Wall Street path for a bit at a college and then I started volunteering mentoring one child in Newark once a week, turned into two children, four days a week.

And while in the private sector, I had my aha moment.

And frankly, that first mentee of mine is still in my life, fast-forward decades later, and I kid you not, we're getting old now, it happens.

He asked me to be the godfather of his son, - Wow.

- And they just gave birth a couple of months ago.

Frankly, that volunteer experience just expanded my sense of hope and possibility of what my role in this world is gonna be, the ping it forward, giving the blessings that I had in my life to others.

- Amazing, now the numbers are impressive I read.

Tell me when you started how many children you were serving and how many you're serving today?

- Yeah, so I took over an agency that was kinda closing its doors, and we had about a hundred young people in our program, and within four years we grew 10X.

And then every single year we've been adding to that, so non duplicative numbers, we have about 5,000 young people that we've served in one-to-one mentoring.

So, this is the blessing of our program, that every single child in our program has one person connected to them.

And we get to know both sides of the ledger, right?

The big and the little, the child and the volunteer mentor.

And it's a real sincere relationship they developed over time.

And it's not just the program, so that's the blessing too, is that at the one-year mark a majority of our mentoring matches don't end at the year, most of them continue.

And then you see these life moments happening, the big gets married and the little becomes part of the wedding, or a child is born and then the little becomes an adopted godfather.

And it's just such a beautiful thing to see the potential of our young people, which we know is absolutely abundant, be loved on and supported and manifested and that's the power of our work.

- Tell me your family story, I know your mom, she's a wonderful woman.

- She's a huge fan of yours.

- Thank you, tell me her story, how she came to the United States and dig a little more into your upbringing.

I know you mentioned earlier, of being at a single parent household, about those struggles.

- Yeah, the path that I am on today wasn't always necessarily written, but the core was always that I had a loving, supportive mother.

She came to this country to merely study abroad, so four years in college and go back to Ecuador, that was the goal.

And then she met my father, got married, had two kids.

And as far back as I can remember, my father really wasn't in the picture.

When I think about fifth grade, moving up ceremony, he wasn't there, eighth grade, he wasn't there, high school, he wasn't there.

So, my mom had a critical decision early on in our lives to figure out, do we stay in the community, Montclair.

Or do we move to other places in New Jersey, or do we move back to Ecuador?

And at every turn, she focused and worked her butt off to keep us in Montclair.

Why, we had access to incredible mentors, the people who were my mom's clients, who cleaned houses, they took an interest in my life and my brother's life the way clients typically don't.

And then secondly, we had access to amazing public schools.

And so she knew that those two drivers were gonna help facilitate our growth over time.

But it wasn't easy, it was a lot of sacrifice, it was a lot of inward questioning.

And then along the way, she became a US citizen and she's been now living in this country for a majority of her life.

We go back to Ecuador on average once a year or so, and of course that's always family but she's built a life here with my brother and me for sure.

- Awesome, I know you serve on many boards, I know you received a medal from NJCU.

- Yup.

- So I know she's a very proud mom.

- Yeah.

- But you have a new accomplishment that's hot off the press.

I believe you are now the president of the Brown alumni society.

- Yeah.

- And how many other Hispanics have there been in the 200 plus year history of Brown University?

- Thank you for shouting that out, I appreciate it.

It's taken me a little while to understand the weight of this.

Brown has been around for centuries, 250 plus years.

- Okay.

- And they've never had a Latino president of the Brown alumni association.

There's a hundred thousand alumni around the world from this Ivy League institution.

It's an institution that really, frankly wasn't built for folks like us, black and brown people.

So over time diversified and changed its complexions, but shockingly enough, when I learned that I'm gonna be president in July, I was told that I was the first Latin ex leader.

So it's kinda hit me hard, but also that we're at the table now, right?

And in an opportunity at the board of directors to kind of guide conversations, to help ask different questions and to embrace a lived experience that may be different than everyone else at the table.

- Sure, I know the census that came out last year, which because of COVID hasn't gotten a lot of attention.

Hispanics in New Jersey are 21%, and when we up that in September it might even grow to 22, 23%.

Tell me a little bit about what does that message mean to you, I mean, I know your mentees, your little's are probably predominantly black and brown.

- That's right.

- But as they're looking for careers and they're going into the workforce, I know I struggle with telling corporations, your board of directors, your C-suite, your vendor spend.

Do you find that even in your world of trying to place the littles into jobs, et cetera?

- Absolutely, we had this tagline whenever I talked to our young people, it's, "you can't be what you can't see."

And sometimes they need just a simple exposure to something new that will spark an interest in their life, in their career, in their personal life.

But we need those people to open up those doors.

And frankly, sometimes when it's on us, we're at the table, then we have to make sure we bring along other people.

And so our littles, they have this incredible creativity, this resilience, this grit, this thing that will make them successful in life.

But now it's on us to kind of give them that exposure, and so we've done programmatically at Big Brothers Big Sisters through our partnerships with NJCU and St. Peter's University and a lot of wonderful institutions.

We've offered them career development opportunities, we take a cohort of our young people to China once a year through NJCU, which is an incredible blessing.

And next year post pandemic we're gonna go to Israel as well.

- Wow.

- And part of that experience with our kids from Hudson, Essex and Union counties, many of them, majority of them typically have never been on a plane, much less out of the country.

- Definitely, I have a question I've asked my guests before and I don't prep them, so-- - Oh oh, here we go.

- Being Ecuadorian American and being in a very culturally diverse area with many food choices, if you had to name a plate, a Latino, Hispanic plate, name your favorite go-to, it could be during the holidays.

- Yeah, no one will do it better than my (speaks foreign language) in Ecuador.

- Okay.

- She has a (speaks foreign language).

A very famous family (speaks foreign language), she has a very specific plate that she presents it in the middle of the table.

It's this mountain of rice, the saffron, the seafood and everything.

It's one of those things where we can't take those things for granted, and if nothing else from the past year, we've learned to count those little moments at a heightened level.

- Exactly.

- We can't take it for granted, so we're absolutely doing that.

- I love it, thank you for joining us.

Thank you for everything you do, Carlos.

- Thank you for that, Carlos (speaks foreign language) - Up next, Tanya Ramos, from the Latin GRAMMY's Foundation.

(Latin theme music) And now we're back with Tanya Ramos, from the Latin GRAMMY's Cultural Foundation, welcome Tanya.

- Thank you for having me, Carlos.

- Tell me a little bit about the Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation.

- Sure, of course, the Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation was established in 2015 by the Latin Recording Academy.

Really, their philanthropic arm, and over the course of the last six years we've donated more than $5.7 million in scholarships.

But what I think is most important, is to remember that we're providing educational equity, access and success to children, the students all around the globe.

And more importantly, we're preserving Latin music because all of our students that have received scholarships, 17 to 24 are students that are looking to be music creators of Latin music.

And so we have the opportunity to really invest in that future generation of Latino music artists.

We also provide a number of cultural programs, so we have Latin GRAMMY in the schools, where we're able to introduce middle school and high school students to musical creators.

We have the Latin GRAMMY Master Series, where we are really focused on our college students and giving them access to music and artists and just getting a real sense of what's out there relative to that career track.

- Sure, now tell me about your career prior to joining and what brought you to this philanthropic organization, to music, giving back.

I mean, it's something I'm passionate about so I love to hear people's passion story.

- Well, I will say that the nonprofit sector has always been part of my DNA.

I'm a New York native, I grew up in Washington Heights.

- Okay.

- So I oftentimes say that I'm Puerto Rican but I'm an honorary Dominican.

(Carlos chuckles) And so for me, we grew up really under-resourced, and education was my escape, education was my opportunity to grow and fly and have opportunities that wouldn't have been afforded me otherwise.

My parents were really young, 21, barely making ends meet, but they invested in the education of both my brother and I.

And as a result, I've had the amazing opportunities to kind of pay it forward and serve the nonprofit sector.

After graduating from NYU and undergrad, I knew that my passion was to give back, to help kids that look like you and I have a starting chance, and so much of my work has been nonprofit work.

- On PBS prior, I did actually interview Gloria and Emilio Estefan and I understand Emilio is somebody involved with the foundation.

- They are.

- Tell me a little bit about some of the names that have given back.

- Absolutely, so as I mentioned, at the Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation, we provide scholarships.

And so we have what's called the namesake scholarship, our prodigy scholarship.

It's often, forgiving me, often named after an artist.

So this year we have Wanis, in 2019 we have Julio Iglesias, and then Gloria and Emilio Estefan in 2018.

And so, they've been financing the scholarship of a worthy musical student, seeing them through for the next four years, and they've been incredibly generous with their time, their resources, just great ambassadors for our work.

- And they do it quietly.

- They do it quietly.

- The time I spent with them during the interview, it was amazing the amount of funding that they give and they ask to be anonymous often, they just do not want the publicity, they just wanna do it for the good.

- They're humble.

- Exactly.

- And very generous, just kind kind people.

- What can you tell us about any upcoming plans now that you're at the helm for over five weeks for the Latin GRAMMY Foundation, any tips or teases you could give us?

- Well, I'm not at Liberty to share, but one thing I will say is that the scholarship winner will be announced.

The Wanis scholarship winner will be announced in the upcoming months, can't tell you who but let's just say it's an amazing student and I think folks will be really pleased.

- Good.

- I think this student will make a real impact in the industry, and one thing I will say, I remember when we spoke with the student, along with Wanis, what I was so moved and impressed by was the student's, well, the student shared with Wanis that they hope at one point to be able to be in a position that he is so that they too could give back and be equally generous and fuel the path of another musical creator.

So I was just so impressed and just honored to be in that presence.

- Yeah, that's beautiful.

When you do announce, please let us know.

- Absolutely, I would love to.

- We'll try to have a segment on the show to cover it.

Yeah, I would like to do that.

- Yeah, I would love to.

- Any plans with the GRAMMY assets that are right here in Jersey at the Prudential Center, do the Latin GRAMMYs coordinate at all with that organization?

- I mean, listen, with COVID-19 a lot of us had to pivot, I will tell you, my foundation was one of them.

We had a lot of what would have been in-person concerts and opportunities on virtual.

As I shared with you, we have our Latin GRAMMY in the schools that all went virtual.

So I think we're all just figuring it out, and now that the world is opening, I'm certainly happy to share our upcoming plans once they become more solid.

- Yeah, I'm looking forward to Ricky and Enrique coming to the Prudential Center at the end of this year.

- Isn't that amazing, I'm so excited about that, yeah.

- I will be there for sure.

- As will I, I'm dying to get out of my house.

- I love it, one question I often ask guests are, what would your perfect Latin, Hispanic dish be if I could make it appear magically in front of you?

Is there a go-to dish, something you have maybe during the holiday?

- Absolutely, always, (speaks foreign language).

- (speaks foreign language) - With (speaks foreign language) - Now your (speaks foreign language) do you have ribs in it or chunks of pork?

- Chunks of pork.

- Okay.

- Listen, I'm Puerto Rican, chunks of pork.

- All right, I've seen spare ribs that fall off the bone.

- Chunks of pork.

(giggles) - Okay, thank you for what you do, Tanya.

- Thank you.

- Let me know any updates.

- Absolutely.

- We'd love to have you back and God bless you.

- Thank you for having me.

- Ladies and gentlemen, that's a wrap.

It was a great episode and I really wanna emphasize this month again, it's important to get vaccinated.

We're about to flatten the curve, get vaccinated, it's safe, it's effective and it's free.

And there's many centers in your neighborhood or nearby that you could go to get vaccinated.

And don't forget, que pasa.

- [Narrator] Funding for these episodes of Que Pasa NJ with Carlos Medina, has been provided by Horizon Blue cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, PSEG, The New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Hackensack Meridian Health, the Engineers Labor Employer-Cooperative 825, ROI-NJ business magazine.

Please remember, the COVID-19 vaccine is safe, effective and free, this has been a production of the Modesto Educational Foundation.

(Latin theme music)