- [Narrator] Funding for this episode of Que Pasa NJ with Catalyst 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.

- Hola familia, welcome to this month's episode of Que Pasa.

This month we're lucky to have Marco Gonzalez, attorney at law, Sandra and Diana Gonzalez-Morett, who went from dementia caretakers to filmmakers and Aixa Lopez, professional engineer and Vice President of Operations for the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey.

Again, ladies and gentlemen, Que Pasa.

(upbeat music) And our first guest is Marco Gonzalez, attorney at law.

Welcome to Que Pasa, Marco.

- Thank you for having me.

- Tell me a little bit about your family's journey to the Tri-state area.

- Well, I was the first born here in the States.

My father's from Cuba, my mother's from Puerto Rico and they met at a church dance in a basement cafeteria in the the late fifties and I was born in the early sixties.

The first to be born here in this country.

- [Carlos] Awesome, awesome.

Now you served in the Marines and you worked at Lockheed Martin working on their stealth fighter project.

- [Marco] Yes.

- [Carlos] Tell me about how some of those experiences shaped your legal career and even got you interested in a legal career.

- Well, it started really, as a child.

My parents enrolled me in scouting.

So I was a Cub Scout and then a Boy Scout and I earned the Aviation Merit Badge.

And that interested me because growing up in the South Bronx where the projects, where I lived LaGuardia was a flight path.

So, I would see the planes coming down and I always wondered how did these things fly?

And that led me to the Aviation Merit Badge, Aviation High School and then the Marine Corps.

And after active duty, I was recruited by my old high school to interview with Lockheed.

At that time, I didn't know what the project was but it was a top secret project and it turned out to be the F-117A Nighthawk, the world's first stealth aircraft.

- So tell me how scouting had an influence growing up.

I know you grew up in the Bronx in a pretty rough neighborhood.

- I grew up in the Metro Projects.

138th Street and Willis Avenue.

Tough neighborhood at the time.

Still a tough neighborhood.

My parents are enrolled me in St. Jerome's Elementary School, a Catholic school.

So that kept me bonded, right, with my faith and then scouting gave me the values and implementing those values in the leadership program.

Scouting's the same thing.

I'm involved now as an assistant scout master in my local troop and as a boardman member with the Patriots Path Council, which is northwest Jersey and central New Jersey.

So, not only did scouting help make me who I am today but I'm trying to pass that forward to our youth today, as well.

- Tell me, I know your law practice, you focus a lot on the Caribbean and in Cuba, which is very complicated to do work in Cuba.

How long have you been doing work in the Caribbean?

And tell me about the state of that.

- It started with doing work in Puerto Rico.

In the nineties, late nineties, started doing work for the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and other companies down there and then, that led me to do a lot of work with regards to trade and sanctions laws.

And that's how Cuba got involved.

Some of my clients asked about what they could do, what they couldn't do, at the time, with regards to the Cuban Asset Control Regulations which dictate what type of trade you could do with Cuba under the embargo.

And so, that led me to do a lot of that work.

Things have changed in the last few years.

There was a period there where there was more trade, more allowances to go back and forth but since the pandemic hit there hasn't been a change in those regulations.

The pandemic really hit Cuba hard, as you probably know.

And so, we're in this waiting period to see if the political climate changes so that there could be more interaction with the Cuban people.

- Nice, nice.

Tell me, if somebody were to ask some of our viewers and I do get asked this quite often, I want to go to Cuba, what are the, you know, gimme the elevator pitch on why you can and cannot go.

- There's ways to do that under the regulations.

I advise that you, that your viewers seek counsel to make sure they're not going in violation of those regs.

You know, there are people that go through other cities in Latin America and passports are not stamped but that's not compliant with federal regulations.

So, there are humanitarian reasons to go down there for educational purposes, academic.

There's a list of exceptions to travel down there and the requirements for them.

You could find those in the Office of Foreign Asset Controls Cuba webpage which you could find and you could Google that and you could get some basic information.

But for more specific stuff you should probably talk to your attorney about that.

- So if I want to go just for a week vacation that's prohibited today.

- Correct.

- Okay.

So, as somebody who advises many businesses what will you tell our business viewers?

What's the most important topic or subject that they're not paying attention to that you would give them some advice?

- You know, I see this a lot, especially small and Midcap companies, is that they go in and enter into business relationships with other vendors, clients, employees and they don't look at the fine print.

They have these contracts sometimes, you know, they get the contracts from their vendor.

They get it from someone else.

They don't hire someone to look at it or at least read the fine print and then that may get them into trouble later on.

So, one of the things I do, and as you know I teach a class for Chamber, Hispanic Chamber students in the HETP program on legal basics for entrepreneurs.

And so, one of the things I do is look, give them some tips on what to do when they have a contract, when they enter into a business relationship and for goodness sakes, don't enter into a business relationship without some form of writing.

Some form of agreement that dictates what are the rights and obligations of each of the parties.

That's probably my biggest, my biggest advice.

- Can you tell our viewers what HETP stands for?

- Hispanic Entrepreneurship Training Program.

- [Carlos] Excellent.

- Run by this statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey.

Excellent program.

That's for free, right?

They have to qualify.

Viewers, business people have, they have to have an existing business.

They go in and they go through several weeks training by professionals in the various areas legal, insurance, marketing, business, business development.

And they are taught a lot of the skills that are necessary to set up a business plan, right?

To set up, you know, what their budgets are gonna be, profit and law statements, accounting, all of the essential things that a business small business person needs in order to succeed.

And so, the HETP program that the Hispanic Chamber runs is an excellent program because it provides these essential tools to to the chamber members and those who graduate from the program so that they can succeed and take their business to the next level.

- That's great, that's great.

We'll put some information on the screen for our viewers but Marco, thank you.

It's been a pleasure.

- Thank you for having me.

- And up next, we have Sandra and Diana Gonzalez-Morett, who went from dementia caretakers to filmmakers.

(upbeat music) Welcome back, up next we have Diana and Sandra Gonzalez-Morett, caregivers and filmmakers.

Welcome to Que Pasa.

- Hi, gracias.

So happy to be here.

- Thank you.

Tell us about pedacito de carne, which roughly translate to a piece of meat.

- A little piece of meat, right?

Well, it's something that my mom would always say to us, you know, like, pedacito de carne you're a little piece of meat and "Pedacito de Carne" is a story written based on her and our experience being her caregiver as she is living with Frontotemporal Degeneration or FTD.

So, the film follows Sandra.

- She named the character after me.

(both laughing) - A young Latina millennial caregiver who is taking care of her mom while also having to deal with the some of the nonsense of the system, that the healthcare system and also, grieving the loss of her mom.

And so, trying to find her womanhood she takes a night off and tries to, and then, I can't tell you what happens, but you guys watch the film.

- Okay, okay.

- Yeah, you know, it's a personal story, obviously.

We wanted to make the film because we think it's important to make other millennial caregivers feel less alone but also to raise awareness for FTD, which is I'll let you talk about FTD.

- Yeah, so FTD has various names.

So Frontotemporal Degeneration, Frontotemporal Dementia, Pick's disease.

So, it usually affects your behavior or your language.

So it's different in Alzheimer's because as we all know, Alzheimer's affects your memory.

Whereas in FTD, memory is usually one of the last things to go.

So frontotemporal just means the region of the brain it affects.

So, the front part of the brain because it affects another part of the brain.

It affects different things.

So, you know, when we first started noticing some changes in our mom, we had no idea what it was.

We were told it was depression.

We were told it could be a psychological disease and it took us a long time to get the diagnosis.

So, you know, because we've been on this journey since 2017 we want to make it easier for other families.

Not only, you know, every family in the US and worldwide but Latinos because- - They're usually the ones that are last to be diagnosed, statistically.

- Sure.

- For many reasons, right?

Like it's, you know, maybe a trust within the healthcare system.

I think, you know, our culture is a beautiful one, Latinadad and we have a joyous and happy culture and sometimes that can be a detriment to us because maybe we don't wanna look at certain things or you know, sometimes it's like, ah, (foreign language).

But once you have a diagnosis there's so much more that can get done.

Like, you know, get more resources, learn and learn how to become better caregivers and get more support when this is such a difficult journey.

So, what we hope that people would see some signs or learn about the signs of FTD and also care healthcare workers can also learn because when everybody knows then we can have an earlier diagnosis, which makes a big difference for people.

- How do you feel, and you very succinctly say that Latinos, we generally don't want to go to the doctors.

We're healthy, we're fine, we're strong.

How do we change that dynamic?

How do we start educating the Hispanic community that FTD and other diseases can be prevented and can be treated properly with caring and dignity, but they need to be educated first.

- Right, that's why I think representation matters on film and TV, right?

So, in this film, we see a Latino family and in just seeing ourselves maybe you can be like, oh, you know what?

Maybe I should go check this out or, you know, and seeing their journey on film that's one way that we can have a broader impact in our community.

- And just having contact with your provider you know, checkups, make sure you have that conversation especially if you have a history of dementia or any disease to let your doctor know is very important to build that relationship.

- Are you navigating all the responsibilities of life and also, as sisters taking care of your mom?

- It's really challenging, I'm not gonna lie.

The burnout is real, especially when caregiving because it's not only, you have to, you know, organize and plan, and as well, as at the same time you have to deal with the anticipatory grief and the ambiguous grief while you're witnessing someone slowly go away.

And that is heartbreaking and heart wrenching.

So it's a balancing act.

But I think, you know, the other beautiful thing about Latinidad is that our family is very united and we come together and we work together in that way to make sure that we can be there.

And also, asking for help, right?

Like, the AFTD has been an amazing organization that has helped us a lot through learning more, to finding other supports, to support groups, things like that, that help kind of find your people that make you feel less alone.

Which is another reason why we made this film is for people to feel less alone.

You know what inspired the film was I had just graduated from an acting program and I was about to start my life and it was amazing.

I felt like I was on top of the world and then I got the call of my mama's diagnosis.

And at that point, you know, my mom was my best friend.

We talked on the phone all the time and all of a sudden she would hang up on me just randomly.

I was like, what did I do right?

Like, what did I?

I'm like, I haven't done anything wrong.

Like, why is she not responding that way?

And then, when we got the diagnosis we kind of had to make a choice, right?

Like, do I pursue my career or do I become a caregiver and have to let go of that?

And I fell into a depression and anxiety and I was completely lost until I had a dream.

And I saw my mom in the clouds and we were having tea and she was looking amazing.

And then she told me to follow my dreams and to always know that I loved her no matter what.

And then the next morning I called her up and said, hi, mommy, I had a dream with you.

And she goes, I know.

I was like, what?

And she's like, we were in the clouds and we were having tea and I told you that I love you and to follow your dreams.

And Sandra could attest.

- Yeah, I was there.

- She was there.

I had not mentioned anything about the dream.

And I think that connection and that bond between, you know (foreign language) that is so important to help you through this process because that hope is what gets you in the day.

Because it's like, I know that no matter what happens this is the coolest disease that, right?

60 minutes is called it.

- [In Unison] The coolest disease disease you've never heard of.

- That hope and that love is what keeps you going.

So in the film, we really wanna highlight that that that FTD is a diagnosis, but it's not the end because there's so much room for adventure and love and joy and that we can't just push our loved ones with dementia with any dementia, to the side.

We have to include them in part of our community.

And, to know that it's not the end.

- What would you, what advice would you give to other families dealing with loved ones dealing with issues similar or the same as FTD?

- Oh man, breathe, you're not alone, first of all, and take one step at a time.

I think, Sandra, you're actually the one who told me this was like, sometimes you're you're gonna feel like you're juggling a lot and some of the balls that you're juggling are glass and some of them are made out of rubber and sometimes you just have to focus on the glass ones and let the other ones just go aside.

And also, to take care of yourselves too.

Mental health is really important in it and I think caregivers are very isolated.

So making sure that you reach out to someone and, but also know when you need to be left alone, too.

- Being a caregiver is, you have to be a detective a doctor, a nurse, just so many different things at the same time.

You always have to think two steps ahead.

Yeah, just being a caregiver is a universal thing but I get the sense that it's just become that much harder.

- Thank you so much for coming and sharing your story and congratulations on the movie and keep plowing ahead, as they said.

- Thank you so very much.

- Thank you so much for having us.

- And up next we have Aixa Lopez, professional engineer and Vice President of Operations for the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

(upbeat music) Welcome back, and our next guest is Aixa Lopez, professional engineer.

Welcome to Que Pasa.

- Thank you Carlos.

Thank you for inviting me.

- So you're a professional engineer originally from Puerto Rico.

- [Aixa] I am.

- Tell me a little bit, I know your career you started at Johnson and Johnson.

Tell me what got you into engineering in college and tell me about your career start at Johnson and Johnson's.

- All right, I always liked math and fixing things, right?

So when I had to choose what I wanted to study I did some research.

I went to public schools in Puerto Rico, so they I didn't have a lot of resources, but there was a person that gave me a book about engineering.

And I started reading a lot and industrial engineering caught my attention.

So I decided to study that.

I graduated and at that time in Puerto Rico there were a lot of pharmaceutical companies.

So I started working for J and J.

They hired me to be a third shift production supervisor and technology transfer engineer.

So I was 21 years old and I was supervising 75 people that doubled my age.

So, it was a great experience.

I learned a lot, I was guided a lot and I cried a lot.

But I learned about the skills that an engineer has to have to solve problems and survive, right?

Innovation and creativity, problem solving, all of the above.

So, I loved it.

- Tell me how it was for a woman in that industry which is male dominated.

Probably of your 200 employees how many were men and how many were women?

- I only had three women.

- Wow, wow.

- It was my secretary and two more administrative assistants.

It was tough because they weren't expecting women and they weren't expecting a non-civil engineer and someone that young, especially a non-political person.

So it was a shock for them, but it was a shock for me too.

I was brought to the building and there was a sea of men waiting for me and I was dressing like this.

So, it was a shock for everyone.

It was just like, okay, what am I gonna do here?

But little by little what I decided to do was to allow them to see my vulnerability but also to let them know that I was there to help them, right?

So, you know, working in a male dominated industry is all about working together and allowing men to understand that you're there to work with them, not against them.

- And then you moved to New Jersey.

- And then, I moved to New Jersey.

(everyone laughing) I moved to New Jersey because my husband is also an engineer.

We got to New Jersey and the next journey started.

And then, getting involved with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

- That you're now our Vice President of Operations.

- I am the Vice President of Operations.

Doing what I do.

Putting people to work (Aixa laughing) and strategizing, trying to implement processes that make sense, that make the organization leaner and more productive and I love it.

- Tell me what you love about it.

Tell me about what the positive that the Chamber does and how do they impact lives, the Chamber?

- The Chamber is an amazing organization.

Not only help people like me connect with other Hispanics in the state but I think the Chamber has grown into being more than that.

It's a platform and a space for people, entrepreneurs in the Hispanic community to get to know each other but also to connect with non-Hispanic especially, corporations that want to connect with the Hispanic community.

Plus, it provides these programs that allow the entrepreneurs to learn and grow and explore other areas of their businesses that they may not have thought of and that impact, the revenue and the operations and the financial wellbeing of the company.

So, the Chamber embraces all that.

Put it together in a box for everyone in the community.

- You were recognized by NJ Biz as a top 50 Woman in Business.

You've been able to speak at NYU at one of their big STEM conferences.

So, you're obviously a role model.

As a role model what will you tell some of our viewers who are embarking on their career?

- You know, there's gonna be always challenge.

Yeah, challenges because they're women.

Challenges because you're a minority.

Challenges because we live in a world that is difficult, right?

And those challenges sometimes transform but they don't end.

But I always tell people, don't let that discourage you and don't let those challenges make you forget your skills and what you can contribute and your purpose.

Yes, you can take a minute to complain.

You can take a minute to cry if you have to, but at the end of the day you need to go back to the roots of why you, you're doing what you're doing.

And when you do that, you reset, you reconnect and you keep going.

- Thank you for sharing your journey with us and your words of wisdom and best of luck.

Gracias for joining Que Pasa.

- Thank you, thank you Que Pasa.

And here I am, to keep working and serving.

- Thank you so much, Aixa.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's a wrap.

This was an amazing episode.

You heard from Marco Gonzalez, you heard from Aixa and you heard the touching story of Diana and Sandra.

My family has dealt with this disease.

Dementia and Alzheimer's are very difficult disease but it's great to see somebody surviving, thriving, using film as a media to heal.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you.

That's a wrap and see you next month.

- [Narrator] Funding for this episode of Que Pasa NJ with Catalyst 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.

Thanks to the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey.

Find out more about our familia at shccnj.org.

This has been a production of the Modesto Educational Foundation.

(upbeat music)