Chino Y Chicano

Send us Fan Mail Hattie Kauffman was the first Native American to become a network news correspondent. She joins the Chino Y Chicano to talk about her journey into broadcast journalism and a different type of storytelling she has pursued in retirement, oil painting.  Kauffman began her television news career in Seattle at KING 5 in the mid 80s before joining ABC News for three years as a special c...

Send us Fan Mail Ramon Rivera is the Washington State Music Teacher of the Year. Rivera is the Mariachi and Folklorico Dance Director in the Mt. Vernon School District. He joins the Chino Y Chicano to talk about importance of music, dance and the arts at Mt. Vernon and how it is growing in a time that other public school districts are cutting back and eliminating music and arts programs. Mt Vernon...

Send us Fan Mail Is running for public office these days worth it? We take up that question and more with Seferiana Day, founding partner of the Seattle political consulting firm Upper Left Strategies.  Day joins the Chino Y Chicano to talk about the challenges candidates need to consider. Along with fundraising, campaigning and making the case for election, candidates need to think about their sa...

Send us Fan Mail Washington Supreme Court Chief Justice Steven Gonzalez joins the Chino Y Chicano to share his perspective on the declining trust in the U.S. Supreme Court, the Clarence Thomas controversy, racial bias in the courts, the importance of civics, and how the late artist Alfredo Arreguin left his mark in our state's Temple of Justice.  Read: https://southseattleemerald.org/voices/2...

Send us Fan Mail As mental illness and drug use impact our communities, librarians find themselves taking on the role of social workers. In Seattle, the central branch in downtown employs four social services librarians who help people seeking information about shelter, food and other social services. Seattle Times staff reporter Esmy Jimenez joins the Chino Y Chicano to talk about this role in Se...

Send us Fan Mail Seattle artist and activist Erin Shigaki is the co-chair  of the Minidoka Pilgrimage Planning Committee. She helps to coordinate the annual commemorative trip to the Minidoka  National Historic Site near Twin Falls, Idaho. In 1942,  Minidoka was the site of an incarceration camp  where Shigaki's parents and some 13 thousand other people of Japanese ancestry,  many Americans c...

Send us Fan Mail Recently, protesters showed up outside the homes of Seattle City Council members Sara Nelson and Alex Pedersen. Both opposed a late fee cap of $10 for renters. They were not against a late fee cap but supported a different formula. That didn’t stop a small group of protesters from showing up with signs and flipping off Nelson. These actions are no longer rare.  But are they affect...

Send us Fan Mail It has been almost a year since the Chino, Matt Chan was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Since then, he has been through ups and downs in his treatment. On this episode, we get an update on where he is now and what he has learned about living with cancer.  Read: https://southseattleemerald.org/voices/2025/07/22/masked-men-are-detaining-people-when-will-washingtons-leaders-protect-us...

Send us Fan Mail Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell joins the Chino Y Chicano to talk about the state of the city.   A recent poll commissioned by the Downtown Seattle Association and Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce found the Mayor with a 67 percent favorable impression among the respondents.  However, the poll also found that 60 percent of respondents felt the city is on the wrong track. Mayor...

Send us Fan Mail In her first interview since announcing she will not seek re-election, Seattle City Council President Debora Juarez opens up to the Chino Y Chicano about her decision.  In a wide ranging, personal and blunt conversation, Juarez speaks out about the 2020 Seattle protests over the murder of George Floyd, and how her refusal to back a pledge to defund Seattle police brought protester...

Send us Fan Mail Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz’s joins the Chino Y Chicano to talk public safety in Seattle. 2022 was a particularly challenging year as the violent crime rate was the highest in 15 years. Homicides increased 24 percent. Gun violence was the cause of death for the majority of the victims.  Diaz served as interim police chief for two years before becoming full time chief earlier...

Send us Fan Mail Thomas Saenz is the president and general counsel of MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He joins the Chino Y Chicano to explain why the civil  rights organization plans  to open a Seattle office this year. Saenz also talks about the growth of the Latino population in the United States, plus, the challenges faced in politics, voting, immigration, the c...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Amy Cooter is a senior research fellow at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and its Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism. In a sobering conversation with the Chino Y Chicano, she talks about the rise of domestic extremist groups in the United States such as the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, Neo-Nazis and militias,  and their threat to democracy and c...

Send us Fan Mail  Seattle Times food writer Tan Vinh joins the Chino Y Chicano to talk about the Seattle area food scene. He shares his thoughts on the state of local eateries after the Covid pandemic. Vinh weighs in on why some people think ethnic food prices should be cheaper than mainstream establishments. He also talks about the future of outdoor patio seating that increased during the pandemi...

Send us Fan Mail Jaci McCormack is a Native American basketball legend. She grew up in Lapwai, Idaho on the Nez Perce reservation where she became Idaho State Player of the Year, and eventually earned a scholarship and a degree at Illinois State University. But her journey from the reservation to the college court was not easy. McCormack joins the Chino Y Chicano to talk about her playing days, th...

Send us Fan Mail Former Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best speaks out on the fatal beating death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police. Best says she was horrified by the video of the beating. She says the death of Nichols raises questions about police culture, special units and the need for police reform. Best also weighs in on the potential impact of recruiting people to become police off...

Send us Fan Mail For more than 40 years, Assunta Ng has guided the Seattle Chinese Post and the Northwest Asian Weekly. As founder and publisher, Ng is relentless and fearless as a journalist and business owner. But after four decades, major change is underway for both publications, brought about by the pandemic, economics, social media, and time. The Seattle Chinese Post is ceasing publication, w...

Send us Fan Mail Leesa Manion is the new King County Prosecutor. She was elected to the office in November, becoming the first woman, and person of color to hold the post in King County. She is also the first Korean American woman to be elected prosecuting attorney in the United States.  Manion joins the Chino Y Chicano to talk about her to decision to seek elected office for the first time, the c...

Send us Fan Mail Peter Bacho is a lawyer, professor, writer, and author. He joins the Chino Y Chicano for a humorous and insightful interview about his latest book, Uncle Rico’s Encore: Mostly True Stories of Filipino Seattle . The book features a series of mini memoirs about the people in Seattle’s Filipino community that molded Bacho’s life and reflect an important history that people need to kn...

Send us Fan Mail 2022 marked the second year of the Chino Y Chicano podcast with Matt Chan and Enrique Cerna. It was year of challenge especially for Matt who left retirement to join Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s administration, then learned he had kidney cancer, and despite his illness, led a successful Seattle Chinatown International District community protest against King County’s proposed expa...

Send us Fan Mail When Marcus Harrison Green was fifteen, he tried to kill himself. Fortunately, he failed. Still, he has struggled over the years with mental health challenges. He has been open about those challenges in hopes that others, especially youth of color, can understand that it is not a weakness to seek help. On this episode, Marcus and the Chino Y Chicano have a serious, in-depth conver...

Send us Fan Mail Los Angeles based film critic Carlos Aguilar joins the Chino Y Chicano to talk about  Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta and how his breakthrough role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is important in fighting  racism and colorism in the movie industry.  Aguilar wrote about Huerta in a recent New York Times article. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/16/movies/tenoch-huerta-mejia-wakanda-fo...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we dissect the 2022 midterm election campaign with Seattle based author, historian and former journalist Rick Shenkman. Shenkman says the fate of our democracy should be the main concern of voters as numerous election deniers are seeking office. But will democracy be overshadowed by the economy and concerns about rising crime?  Read: https://southseattleemerald.or...

Send us Fan Mail After strong pushback from the Seattle Chinatown International District community, King County Executive Dow Constantine announced the county will scrap its plans to expand a homeless shelter near the area. It was a major grassroots victory for the community which says it is not against helping the homeless but felt the C-I-D is housing more than its share of homeless services. Th...

Send us Fan Mail Seattle's El Centro de la Raza, the center for people of all races, is celebrating its 50th anniversary.  We celebrate as well with Executive Director Estela Ortega who has been there since the beginning. We talk about El Centro's past, present and future in a candid conversation about this iconic institution Read: https://southseattleemerald.org/voices/2025/07/22/masked...