- [Narrator] Funding for this episode of, "Que Pasa, NJ with Carlos Medina," has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, The Engineers Labor Employer Cooperative 825, Hackensack Meridian Health, ROI-NJ Business Magazine, The Alamo Insurance Group.

- Welcome familia to this month's episode of "Que Pasa" This month we're very excited and lucky to have the Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Ras Baraka, from PSE and G, Sara Pena, Deputy Mayor of Newark for Community Engagement, Jacqueline Quiles, and from Rums of Puerto Rico, Maite Jordan and Juan Montes.

And don't forget to ask yourself, "Que Pasa?"

(lively music) And our first guest is the mayor of the City of Newark, Ras Baraka.

Thank you for joining us on Que Pasa?

- Ah, it's a pleasure to be here.

- Born and raised in Newark?

- Born and raised.

- Went to Howard University.

- That's right.

- Very prestigious universit.

- That's right, yeah.

Born and raised in the city all my life.

The first time I went away was to Howard University, actually.

Yeah.

- Okay, okay.

So when I read your bio, the one word that comes to me is persistence.

You ran for office 16 years.

- That's right.

- Until you finally won, that's amazing.

- It didn't feel like that until it was done.

(Ras and Carlos laughing) But yeah.

- So tell me how you've tackled the challenges with balancing a budget and things, I mean, the largest city here in the state of New Jersey.

- Yeah.

It's been rough, but we've been blessed, man.

You know, Newark has been doing well for a few years now.

A lot of investment, a lot of interests, people come into the city, a lot of development.

So during COVID, I mean, we got hit hard, you know, even after that we've bounced back so quickly, you know.

Just looking at the numbers, incredible, the people are still coming, still developing, still building, still moving to the City of Newark, it's awesome.

- Tell me also, I mean, there've been big names that have come outta Newark, Queen Latifa, Michael B. Jordan.

- Yeah.

- How do you get them to come back- - Shaquille O'Neal - and feel the responsibility that they've made it and now pay it forward?

- Right.

We just, you know, established relationships with these people and most people from Newark, you know, they have that feeling, you know, that attachment and so you just play into that and try to get them to be interested in what's going on.

And the fact that development is happening in the city, that we're tackling some of the heavy issues around crime and violence and housing and they wanna be a part of that.

You know, they see us really going after those things and not shying away from it.

So they wanna be a part of it and it's really a collaborative and effort.

So they're just getting in, hit the ground running.

Shaquille O'Neal is doing amazing work in the city.

Queen Latifa is building the apartment complex and affordable housing in the City of Newark right now, you know.

Michael B. Jordan comes back and forth every time he does a movie, he does a premier in the City of Newark.

- Oh, that's amazing.

- Yeah.

- That's amazing.

So I was recently talking to somebody.

Somebody you could probably even call a political rival.

- Mm-hmm, Mm-hmm.

- And I told them, I'm gonna be speaking with the mayor, and they said, "You know what, even though he's a rival, what they've done in the city with the lead pipes," he says, "Amazing job."

So kudos to you.

And tell me a little bit how you worked, I know you worked with Joe D and the county.

How did you get those dollars together?

'Cause it seemed insurmountable, the amount of money needed to clean up that problem.

- In terms of, you know, the money side, we were able to go to the county and bond.

You know, do $120 million bond with the county.

And because they had the bond rating that was so good, we were able to get the purchase money for cheap.

We still had to pay the debt service though, right?

And the debt service was about $6 billion a year.

So we were able to make a deal with Port Authority to be able to get about $6 million over the next 30 yeas to help us pay the debt service for the last service line.

So that took care of the financial end of it.

And we did that pretty early on.

You know, we had to change the law to make it possible for us to change the land service lines because you can't use public money on private property and the land service lines actually belong to the homeowners and not the city.

So we had to do that to be able to change it, so it would be no cost to the residents at the same time.

And then change the local law, that allow us to go on people's property and change their land service line even if they didn't own the property 'cause the homeowners, you know, Newark, about 75% or so, people rent.

And just going around trying to get signatures from homeowners was just tedious and almost impossibl.

'Cause many of these folks are not even there, they're LLCs and all of these companies so we had to pass a local law to get that done.

So we had to do this.

So we did everything humanly possible to get it done.

- Tell me about another program that has been successful, The Newark FAM Fund or Forty Acres and a Mule Fund.

- Right.

So we established that around...

Right after George Floyd, the incident, and all of the social justice things that were happening around the country, a lot of financial institutions were beginning to say, "We're gonna put money in Black and Brown communities."

They started setting money aside, we set up a fund so people can give to the fund to help Black and Brown businesses, to help them start businesse, expand their businesses, help them around COVID, all of those kinds of things.

So we got a little bit of attraction, you know, in the beginning to help, you know, kind of nonprofits and small businesses, do housing and stuff like that.

But the kind of funding that we need, you know, people have been shying away from it, you know, big banks, Bank of America, you know, all of the huge banks and huge financial institutions have not stepped up to the plate and did what they were supposed to do.

Private institutions and the state, you know, we could use some of those pension funds and all of that stuff to do the work that we need in these cities.

And people just have to take the risk to do those things.

- Sure.

- You know?

Yeah, and it is a risk.

It was a risk after World War II, when the federal government say, "We're gonna build housing in the suburbs."

And give people low interest or no interest loans so they could build housing.

Just change the trajectory of America.

You know, put a whole bunch of people in the middle clas.

We haven't had that same generosity in our communitie.

- It's true, true.

When you're visiting with other mayors from across the country, I always like to talk to guests about the Jersey grit, you know, the Newark grit.

You know, we just grow up a certain way here in Jersey.

How do you feel when you're interacting with other mayor?

Do they recognize that?

- Oh, yeah.

- You feel that's an asset to you when you're dealing with Shaquille O'Neal, Queen Latifa and other folks?

- Yeah, of course.

I mean, you know, just know the kind of confidence, the ability to navigate those things and negotiate with people.

You know, you get that from being here, man, you know.

We have so many obstacles, we have to get around, we kind of used the obstacle, but there's no obstacle, we feel like something's wrong.

So I certainly do, and Newar, we have so many obstacles just moving them, getting around them, has definitely prepared you to be a better leader and, you know, to get things done.

- Tell me a little bit about, I mean, I love the melting pot, I love diversity.

So I mean, I went to undergrd and law school in Newark in case you didn't know, so Newark always has a place in my heart.

- People come to our community because of the port because of the seaport, the airport.

And we have a huge bustling Latino community in the City of Newark.

We just had the Puerto Rican flag raising yesterday.

And you know, I said there that there were so many flag raisings we did in the Latino community, Peru or Mexico, Honduras, I mean, Ecuador.

I mean, these communities are growing and growing.

You know, adding to the interest in it, it's social and political power, I think it's importan.

As those communities grow, the city gets stronger.

- What will you tell our viewers, young people, people of color that might be, you know, haven't had role models in the past, so they have a role model right here with us today.

What do you tell some of the young viewers about aspirations and role models and coming to visit a city like Newark?

- Well, I would say you should be in Newark, right?

Newark is a up and coming place, especially for, you know, Black and Brown folks that are trying to make it, that are trying to find some assistance to grow and do some incredible things through business, technology, whatever it is that you're interested in, we are trying to attract them and make that the place where people put their flag down and say, "This is our home."

We want that to happen, in fact.

So be as consistent as you could be and not give up, 'cause there will be times when you're falling down, but you know, part of success is falling down, right?

If you don't fall down, then, you know, I think it doesn't get you to where you need to be.

You know, making errors is a part of getting to the right place.

And you can't be afraid to make those errors.

You can't be afraid to fall, you gotta take those risks.

And it's great to take a risk in a place where people around to help you get back up.

- Yep, yeah.

- Right.

- So you'll not fall in some place in a strange land that everybody leaves you.

- Exactly, exactly.

- You know?

You fall down in Newark, we gonna help you back up.

- Great.

I love those words of wisdom, encouragement, and thank you for coming to Que Pasa, I really appreciate it, man.

- I love it, man.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

- Up next, we have Sara Pena from PSE and G. (lively music) - And up next, we have Sara Pena, head of external affairs at PSE&G, welcome to "Que Pasa?"

- Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

- Tell me your story.

You're born and raised in Newark, New Jersey.

- Born and raised in beautiful Newark, New Jersey.

Proud daughter of an Ecuadorian mom, Dominican da, who immigrated to this beautiful country.

Well, most importantly I think it's wonderful to listen to the stories of how they migrated here and the things that they had to endure coming to this country.

- Tell me a little bit about your career, I know you worked at the Center for Hispanic Policy and Research, you were their executive director and we had a lot of interaction in that role, and now you're at PSE&G.

How are you liking your new role handling external affairs?

- I love it because it's still aligned with what I love to do, which is being out there supporting, you know, our communities, educating on our communities on the great work that PSE&G is doing to move forward with cleaner energy and so forth.

And the great programs and payment assistance that's out there for our people and so forth.

So it's really a great role for me because I get to do what I love, which is still be out there in the community and have a voice for many of us that don't.

- You mentioned paying in this tumultuous time with COVID and the economy, not as strong as it's been, How has it been working with the community, Newark, Essex County with payment plans?

I know you have implemented plans to make it a little easier for those to make payments on their electric bill?

- Yeah, well, it's been great.

There's a lot of good strategic plans in place.

We work closely with nonprofit organizations, as well as key community leaders, and our elected officials to ensure that we are getting the word out, that we are helping and assisting as best as we can to make sure that we have a lot of applicants, that they know about this.

It's done in different languages and so so that it encompasses everyone in our community and we're able to assist.

- Tell me about...

I know you have something near and dear to your heart called, the Boys to Leaders Foundation.

- Boys to Leaders Foundation.

It was a vision I had back in about 2010 and '11, and I said, you know, as a single mom I said, "Wow, my son is not really exposed to great leaders that look like him."

You know, or that speak his language.

And he came home from career day one day, and said, "Mom, you know, they was great but there was no one that spoke Spanish."

And I said, "Wow, how could this be in this great City of Newark where I'm raising my son, tht they couldn't find someone or maybe someone wasn't available?"

And I said, "There must be other women like me, you kno, that are looking for that mentorship, that are looking for that male figure to expose their son to.

But because we're working two or three jobs, to just keep food on the table, it's very challenging" And so I decided to create this organization that would empower and inspire our young men and expose them to leaders that look like them.

So we are going into our ninth year, and it has been a dream for me and my son is still actively involved.

We provide scholarships, and great internship opportunities now that we've been able to do.

- That's great, - So we're super excited.

- That's great, and there's another organization, 'cause you're not busy enough.

(Sara laughing) Tell me a little bit about Lupe Fund.

- The Lupe Fund, which is about educating, empowering Latina women in the state of New Jersey.

And the most important thing I think for Lupe right now, is making sure that we have Latinas that represent us at the state legislator.

You're making decisions for our people, you have to look like us and understand where we're coming from, right, and what the need is.

- Tell our viewers what Lupe stands for.

- Latinas United for Political Empowerment.

- Excellent.

- And we will be celebrating 20 years next year.

- Wow, 20 years.

What would you tell some young Latinas that are getting into the workplace, maybe starting a business, starting their careers?

- I think my story is very similar to many of your viewers, right?

Humble beginnings, yes, limited resources.

Things that we were living in our community, that really... We didn't know that we didn't know.

You don't know what you don't know, right?

And I think my advice would be, to just continue to believe in yourself because if you stay positive and stay focused on seeing te light, it will come to you.

- Thank you for joining us, Sara.

And much success in all your endeavors.

- Thank you, thank you.

It's been a pleasure, and good luck to you.

- And up next, we have Jacqueline Quiles, Deputy Mayor for Community Engagement for the City of Newark.

(lively music) Welcome back, and up next we have the Deputy Mayor for Community Engagement for the City of Newark, Jacqueline Gilles, welcome to "Que Pasa?"

- Ola, Carlos, thank you for the invitation.

I'm so happy to be here today with you.

- Tell me about your upbringing, you were born in Newark, New Jersey.

- I Was born in Newark, New Jersey, raised in Puerto Rico and my parents came back to the city when I was 12 years old.

- So reading your bio, the word that stood out is bridg.

You're the bridge between the diverse communities, which Newark is one of the most diverse cities in the United States.

So tell me about the work you do with Mayor Ras Baraka.

- So I became the bridge to the Latino community, right?

Our community, sometimes, it's hard for them, right?

They have several jobs.

They don't be on Facebook, they don't have social media because they have to work so hard to put food in their table, right?

So what I do, I do meetings at night, daytime, we go to the community and we explain to our community, in Spanish, the great programs that the City of Newark provides.

Also, we create programs.

We have a lot of programs that we have created, one of them that I love is the Latina empowerment branc.

Where we bring Latinas from all over the state of New Jersey.

They come in and they talk to the girls.

When I was growing up in the City of Newark, I never had a woman that I could look up to, and for me it's very importat that the students understand that there's many powerful Latinas, not only in the City of Newark, statewide.

We also, now we getting closr to Hispanic Heritage Month, which every year we also acknowledge Latinos that have made so many contributions to the City of Newark.

But we also last year established the Latino Hispanic Heritage Month scholarship.

So this year again, we are gonna give five scholarship to five Latino students from each ward of our city.

As you know, we are the largest city in the state of New Jersey.

We have five wards, and we are gonna honor five students this year.

- Tell me about your work with the census, I know it was very important in 2020.

- Oh my God.

- To make sure everybody was counted 'cause money for bridges, roads for education, they all count on that.

And I know Newark performed very well and got good accurate numbers.

- It was so hard because we had a pandemic and we had a like, start all over again.

How we gonna touch the community, how we gonna get them to sign up?

So we came up with a plan to set up a booth right next to, where people were getting tested and once you go get tested, we will count you and we'll do the census with you there.

So we came up with a lot of plans.

We went door to door, we did events in the community and we were number one once again.

With the pandemic, it was a lot of work, but I am so proud that for the next 10 years we secure the future of our cit.

- Tell me a little bit about some of the performers you've had at different festivals in Newark and different parades.

It's reading through your bio as a who's who of performers.

- Yeah, I've been doing this right all my life.

I think I started when I was five, but no.

We created another big event for the mayor.

It's called the Newark a Latin Festival.

- Okay.

- So we bring people from all over the Latino community.

We have Peru, Ecuador, and we bring a major artist right to the community.

This year we have the honor to have a Latina Grammy, five-time Grammy winner, Olga Tanon.

So, (Jacqeuline speaking in Spanish) everyone was there, everyone was there celebrating, looking at a great concert.

But at the same time, we have many city departments there giving out information.

We have the fire department that is hiring, and you know, we want Latinos to participate and apply.

We have recreation, economic development, we have La Casa de San Pedro, Focus, all this organizations that are part of our community and helped us move our city forward.

- As a Latina role model, what would you tell young Latinas, I know you mentioned that you lacked some role models in Newark, but what do you tell the young girls when you do your event in Newark and when you're mentoring, I know you mentor a lot of young students.

What- - Yeah, one of my schools, it's Roberto Clemente.

And I always pick that school because it's a lot of immigrant kids there.

And I feel bad because they don't speak English and nobody reads to them in Spanish.

So I go in and I read to them and I tell them, "When I came back from Puerto Rico, I didn't know English.

But I work hard, I was dedicated, I concentrated, I knew I was gonna do something big in the city and you could do the same thing.

It's gonna be hard, it's gonna be challenging, but you can make it in the city of Newark."

- Jaquie, thank you for joining us in "Que Pasa?"

And I wish you continued success.

- Thank you.

And thank you for the invitation.

I'm so proud of the work you do and how you highlight Latinos that are making different in the state of New Jersey.

I follow your work, you make us proud too.

- And up next from Rums of Puerto Rico, Maite Jordan and Juan Montes.

(lively music) Welcome back.

And up next from Rums of Puerto Rico, we have Maite Jordan and Juan Montes.

Thank you for joining "Que Pasa?"

- Thank you.

- Thank you for having us.

- Thank you for having us.

- Tell me a little bit at what you do at Rums of Puerto Rico.

You're the new executive director.

- I'm the director for the program, yes.

Our mission mainly, is to promote the Rums of Puerto Rico, the sale in the US, that's our main goal.

We want everyone in the US to love our rum, to buy, to experience it, and then visit us.

We have 10 distilleries that we want everyone to experiene and enjoy.

- I saw on your literature something about like a rum trail.

Can you tell me a little bit about that?

- Yes, yes.

'cause we're a small island, so the fact that we have 10 distilleries is like, you know, I think it's pretty special.

So we want everyone to join us.

We have the rum route, that we want our guests to experience, experience our rum.

The versatility of our rum.

It's not just, you know, to sample it straight up or in a cocktail.

You can cook with it also, you can make sauces.

It's awesome.

And the different variety of rums that our distilleries offer, it's incredible.

So, we want everyone to come and not miss it.

- Tell me about some of the events that you execute.

- So, eh, obviously, Maite, we met last year, in a initiative they did, which was the cocktail derby.

And the cocktail derby got what I would believe to be the 10 best bartenders on the island and put us on a challenge for three days each creating 15 different cocktails over those three days.

And at the end it was a speed round with a mystery cocktail, which just happened to be Pina colada, which I serve a hundred of those a week.

So after that we actually ended up choosing three ambassadors of which I was lucky to be skilled enough to be among those.

And since then, it's been like, Maite that said, it's been travel, we started off in New York last year, so we were here for the grand opening of Chaco Barn, South Bronx in Mott Haven.

And so we went there with cocktails and we made something that had to do, a little reminder of the summer months here and during what was December.

So we made a cocktail called Umberan on New York, NY York after the famous song.

And with then it's just been, you know, exactly as she said, We're trying to promote what is these sales of Rums and what is, you know, every kind of different style that we have of rum on, not just on the island but also United States, which what makes us the rum capital of the world, and notice the amount of sales that we have, 80$ if I'm not mistaken about the rum produced on the island is going towards the United States.

So, there's a definitely a market there.

But in the past year, yeah, we've been to Austin, I personally have been Miami, Orlando, at Washington DC, the Aspen Food and Wine Festival.

- Excellent.

- Which is kind of the conjunction of all those things know what rum can really do.

So we make a barbecue sauce in my bar with the aged rum, you know.

So shows the versatility of what you can do.

And not only that, the rum route is also what we're really trying to push, you know, what Kentucky has done with the bourbon route and what Napa Valley does with wines.

We have the same thing, where it's 100 by 35-mile island, you know, so we have 10 distilleries there, kind of almost strategically placed all the way around from Vieques to Ponce, to Bayamon.

And in the center of the island, even Jayuya, you kno, where you're going through mountains and coffee fields.

And so there's a little bit of everything for everybody and that's what we're here for.

- So is it fair to call you the Puerto Rican Tom Cruise from the movie "Cocktail"?

- I think so, man.

Next time they make that number two.

I'm telling you, this face is going to be in the audition, right, so I've been practicig on the flare a little bit, but no yeah, that definitely has opened up the doors.

But we're really trying to go towards what is the quality, no?

So all the classic cocktails that you can make with any other type of eight spirit, we have a phrase that's called, "Ronero" or rum it.

And next time you want an old fashioned, next time you want a Manhattan, a Boulevardier, and Negroni, try with the aged rum.

So that's been our kind of slogan everywhere we go, and when you come by and you say, "Oh, I don't know what I wan, simple, rum it," you know.

- Excellent.

I've been, last time I was in Puerto Rico, I saw the new Facundo line, the Bacardi- - The Bacardi.

- I got one of the ones in a nice little leather box, aged 25 years.

- Yes.

- It was excellent.

- It was really special.

- So I try to replace it with scotch, like you said.

- Of course.

- So I do like scotch, but I've been leaning now towards the sipping rums, the aged rum, which are excellent.

There's a lot of variety.

- Yeah, yeah.

No, and there's an audience for it right now.

I mean, personally before, you know, a couple years ago I wouldn't think of, you know, drinking just like straight up, aged rum.

But when you learn about it and you also appreciate it, it's part of our culture of being Puerto Rican.

You know, rum is Puerto Rico.

So, you feel like this warmth towards it and you enjoy it more.

- Where could folks get more information about the rum trail and other Rums of Puerto Rico events?

- Oh, of course they can join.

Look in our social media, it's Rum Capital.

Rumcapitalpun.com or rumcapitalpr.gov, both.

And our social media is, Rums of Puerto Rico.

- Anything else you want to tell our viewers about Rums of Puerto Rico?

- We're waiting for you.

- Yeah, we're definitely waiting for you.

Distilleries are all around, aging places are all around.

And look for us on the next event.

So like I said, we're sending us everywhere and anywhere and our mission is to really provide, no improve that Puerto Rico has a product tht can go against anything else you could find in the world.

Be it bourbon, be in scotch, be it, you know, even wines, you know, from another area.

We really have something to offer now just in the cultur.

I mean, rum isn't ingrained into the culture in Puerto Rico.

- Sure, sure.

- For a very long time.

So come by, visit us on the island, which I think will be the very best way.

You could definitely check it out and as soon just look up rum PR and just like that you could definitely find something going on.

- Definitely.

- Yeah, and next time you want a cocktail, remember just rum it.

- Rum it.

- Rum it.

- I like it.

- Or you know, the sauce, whatever you're cooking.

Just a couple of drips.

- Okay.

Well thank you for joining "Que Pasa?"

- No, thank you for having us.

- We look forward to hearing more about your events.

- Absolutely.

Thank you so much.

- Ladies and gentlemen, that's a wrap.

You heard from amazing allies, success stories in the Latino community.

Have yourself a little rum and enjoy the weekend.

But don't forget to ask yourself, "Que Pasa?"

- [Narrator] Funding for this episode of "Que Pasa, NJ with Carlos Medina," has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, The New Jersey Economic Development Authority, The Engineers Labor Employer Cooperative 825, Hackensack Meridian Health, ROI-NJ Business Magazine, The Alamo Insurance Group, This has been a production of the Modesto Educational Foundation.

(lively music)