to thrive. drop off your donations at any mancini sleep world location. learn more or donate online at sleep world.com. this is a heloc. it looks like a credit card. it works like a credit card, but it's actually an easier way for me to access the equity in my home. with the avon card, i get an ultra low interest rate up to $250,000 spending limit and cash back with every purchase. oh, and the best part? it cost me $0 to get go to avon.com today and find out if you prequalify for the smartest credit card for homeowners damian trujillo: hello, and welcome to "comunidad del valle," i'm damian trujillo. happy cinco de mayo, and remember that qr code at the bottom of your screen, that is so you can register to vote here on "comunidad del valle." that qr code will take you directly to the office of the secretary of state of california. there you will be able to vote. we are done with excuses when it comes to the latino vote.

well, today, an amazing local help for el salvador on your "comunidad de valle." ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ damian: and we begin with some amazing opportunities for women over at vta. with me on the show are shannon arms. she's a vta transportation superintendent, and alma ramirez is a bus tech trainer. welcome to the show, ladies. shannon arms: thank you for having us. damian: yeah, no-- shannon, tell us about these amazing opportunities for women. well, for everybody, but in particular for women at vta. shannon: yeah, well, thank you for the opportunity to speak about it. so my name is shannon arms. i'm a transportation superintendent at valley transportation authority in san jose, vta. and we have started a great cohort of women who are all

currently bus operators or light rail operators or previously been a bus or light rail operator, and we are hoping to recruit as many women as we can into the transportation agency. damian: why is that important to the agency? shannon: well, you know, women have been under representative in transit for many years, and we decided to get a cohort of women together because wherever you have a group of women, any agency that they start at, you become a stronger, you know, company, and so we really want to see women grow within the transportation department. and anybody who's out there looking to pivot careers, looking to start a new career, you know, transportation is a wonderful avenue to go. damian: and alma, we're looking at video right now of one of the graduation ceremonies, if you will, for the female bus drivers. talk about-- you know, whenever we graduate, move on to the next

level, it's emotional for us in the family. talk about your experience at that graduation. alma ramirez: so, in my experience, when i was a bus operator, when i did go through that graduation, there wasn't very many of us, right? alma: it wasn't like-- there wasn't-- it was kind of like you-- there was those few that you graduated with and then you move on to, you know, driving a bus, and then you don't really see many women out there. it's always a selected few in different divisions. and something that vta would like to see is, you know, more women coming into the classes and more women becoming bus operators and taking advantage of all the opportunities that vta has to offer. damian: and you're one of the trainers, what are some of the experiences that these ladies come in with? zero experience driving a bus? i mean, you have to have something, right? alma: yeah, so if you have your class c and a clean driving

record, right? they could come in, but a lot of them come in with zero. zero experience of driving a commercial vehicle. most of the experience that we see is from men, and they bring that commercial vehicle-- like truck drivers, right? or they've worked for-- for example, so. but for women, it's a little bit rare to have somebody come in with that experience. damian: and shannon, i mean, i used to drive a 20-foot sprinkler pipe when i was a farm worker in the salinas valley. driving a big bus like that, or maybe even light rail, it's not easy, so i guess it's a challenge for the driver, but also for the drivers around it, so we need to pay attention to the buses and and make sure that we give them the space they need. shannon: yeah, absolutely. you know, when i started, i just came in with my class c. i hadn't drove anything bigger than a volkswagen at the time.

i was a single mom looking for a career and, you know, some benefits for my children. and as soon as i went through the training, we have a world renowned program, you know. you can have a class c license and come out as a bus operator in a few weeks and have a career for you and your family. so, absolutely, you know, coming to vta and becoming an operator, it's open to anybody, and particularly, we're looking for women. damian: all right. well, i've asked you all the questions. we have about a minute left. give us your sales pitch, i'll let you have the floor here, shannon. shannon: oh, okay. well, you know, women innovating transit is an initiative that we started here at vta, and we really are a sisterhood of women that want to, you know, support women in a public transportation environment. we're advocating for safety and inclusivity for all women, and anybody who's looking to come and have a great career and longevity, please apply at vta. we're here with open arms looking for you.

damian: all right. we have about 30 seconds. alma, any final thoughts? alma: yes, i just want to say, you know, i have a family-- it's a family of six-- and with this job, with this-- and the opportunities that vta does offer, i've been able to, you know, have housing for my kids. i've been able to take 'em out on vacations, and it just-- also opportunity to further my education. so, i think if you come in to vta, it's a great career. it's a great career to be here. damian: all right. well, thank you so much for sharing that information with us here on "comunidad del valle." shannon: thank you for the opportunity. we appreciate it. damian: and remember, everybody, give them the right of way; they're driving those huge buses. for more information, we're gonna show you that website for the career center over at vta. there it is, right there on the screen. a bunch of opportunities for women over at vta. up next here on "comunidad del valle," an innovation called latizmo. stay with us.

damian: we're back on "comunidad del valle." remember that the qr code at the bottom of your screen is so that

you can register to vote. takes you directly to the secretary of state's office. well, it's called latizmo. jay torres is the founder of the program. janet molina-heathcote is also with this fine institution. welcome to the show, folks. jay torres: all right, glad to be here. jay: thank you so much for having us. damian: thank you for being here. well, tell us about it, jay, this is fascinating. jay: latizmo hip hop productions. i created latizmo about-- well, now, 20 years ago. i started in hollister, california, and then i made my way out here to the bay area. let me tell you something: in the present right now, i never thought that latizmo, a dance and energy that i created, which is latin-based hip-hop-- that's exactly what it is-- would have such influence on people here and in the different abilities community. i have never been in a community that is so hungry and excited. so latizmo is hip-hop.

it's latin-based dance, and it's infused, infused with energy. and that's exactly what makes it unique, and it makes it pivotal for every dancer that engages in latizmo. damian: and that dancer has special abilities, right? tell us about who that target audience is. jay: oh, the target audience. well, let me tell you. but-- i call my target audience the beautiful people. that's what i call 'em. i could name dancers off the back: oliver motiee, justin mancuso, lisa henderson, rachel henderson. you know, jenny, you know, everybody. johnny, alyssa, renee. i can name her son-- janet heathcote's son. janet heathcote's son is one of our rap instructors. how about that? janet molina-heathcote: jay hires from within the community, so all of jay's associate professors have differing abilities. damian: wow, and so, jay, you're telling-- you were telling me earlier that these are students, dancers, who have autism, who

have down syndrome, who had other needs, if you will. jay: yes, yes. cerebral palsy. we have students that have cerebral palsy, autism, down syndrome. some stu-- one of my students is 88 years old. damian: wow. jay: yeah, so we have a beautiful, beautiful spectrum of people. lgbtq+, you know, multicultural. i'm a person who never felt like i wanted to minimize or just stay in one category of a community. i've always wanted to be open to everybody, and just, you know, just to share something that has been so powerful and helpful to me, and it's been evolving. it's been growing, and our students are just embracing it, and they're becoming independent, you know?

from dancing to speaking. some of these students didn't even know how to speak verbally. damian: oh, that's fascinating. jay: yeah, so. damian: janet, you have personal stories. i mean, not only is your son an instructor, but, you know, you're a part of it. you're living it. janet: i'm the mother of five, and three have autism. and it is-- i know anybody who's listening right now and has children with different abilities, they recognize how hard it is to find programs that enrich their children's lives. that's more than just being babysat. it's rough. it's rough out there. and it's really rough to find opportunities for them to become professionals in these areas. and with jay, you know, they take the dance classes, and then they can become part of the professional dance troupe. if they really excel, and maybe what they really want out of life is, you know, become like an instructor, because jay is a

big hero to these guys, and they can become associate professors for jay. so jay only hired-- hires from within the community. so all the teachers have differing abilities or have had strokes or, you know, have suffered those kinds of things, so it's a very holistic approach to dealing with the special needs and concerns the body and the movement and the speech, and so jay is, you know, his program is remarkable. damian: we have about a minute left jay, but you've mentioned that even some students who didn't speak before kind of learn how to speak in the program. jay: yes, you know, one thing that dancing does-- latizmo does-- it is awakens one's soul. i've always said that. it awakens one's soul. what we can't express, we depress as human beings. and what latizmo has done for these beautiful people has given them a source to pull from and to be able to just let go and

then also find their own voice, you know, through-- as they continue their dance classes, they become, you know, more comfortable, and they know they're in a safe environment. but i'm gonna tell you something, fire begets fire. you know, when you put passion and you have passion there and it's running freely, let me tell you, there's something about that beautiful passion that just touches another soul. and that's exactly what i love doing. i love breaking barriers. i love giving people encouragement where they haven't had encouragement, and then just gifting all that up in some music and some dance. and it is a beautiful remedy, and that's a remedy for anyone. and that's what latizmo hip hop productions is doing in the bay area. and we're hitting a professional platform. so we're getting the respect of not just being people with different abilities and, you know, not-- don't label us because we're going to supersede that, and that's exactly what

we're doing. we're trailblazers, and i'm proud of my group. they are beautiful. damian: you make me want to break out my break dancing, so don't do that to me, jay. i appreciate everything that you're-- you're doing some amazing work with some amazing people, and we're grateful that you're doing that for our community. thank you so much. jay: thank you so much for having us, appreciate you. damian: thank you. all right, well, let's see the website for latizmo. they're here all around the bay area. they're helping out in every which way they can, helping some amazing people. latizmohiphop.com. up next here on "comunidad del valle," local education help for el salvador. stay with us.

damian: and we're back here on "comunidad del valle." reminder that that qr code at the bottom of your screen is so that you can register to vote. that takes you directly to the secretary of state's office in sacramento, so you can register to vote now here on "comunidad del valle." well, some great things happening here in the bay area through el salvador. with me is luis lopez and joe albers, co-founders, both of

them, of the grande center for education and economic opportunity. gentlemen, welcome to the show. joe albers: thank you. damian: thank you for being here, thank you. well, we'll start with you, mr. albers. tell us about the grande center and how you're working collaboratively with them here in the bay area. joe: yeah, so grande center started as a dream of mine for a long time. i first went to el salvador when i was 20, 24 years ago and fell in love with this amazing community, which luis is here and can tell you a little bit more about directly. and since then, i've been in a relationship and lived there after i graduated college and always done everything i can to help, and the pandemic inspired me to work remotely to be able to help the people of el salvador and start grande center for education and economic opportunity. damian: and what's that center doing for the folks in el salvador, sir? joe: so we have a k-12 catholic school. right now, we just have first through fourth graders that will continue to grow out until we get all the way through high school. and we also have an adult training workforce initiative

that-- we train local adults into entry-level tech careers, and we also launched a company to have them work remotely from el salvador for usa-based companies in artificial intelligence, a job called data labeling. damian: wow. what kind of difference, luis, has this been making in el salvador for you? luis lopez: well, i think this is a very important program for our country. and as we know, we are the first company doing this data labeling. so that made me feel proud because i'm doing something for my country. damian: and it's important, right, mr. albers, that countries like el salvador do not fall behind when it comes to technology and the the usage of technology this way? you want to make sure that every country is on par, if not even better, than some of the other, maybe more developed countries? joe: yeah, we're in a unique opportunity time frame, right,

in the world and the global context with understanding how the way of working is changing, and we're trying to leverage into-- to really bring more opportunity to regions like el salvador to really open up and show the world its talented workforce that we have that can grow and be very capable of accessing and supporting companies here in the united states. damian: talk, if you will, luis, about the the situation in el salvador. how are things there and how is this, again, how is this agency helping maybe improve things for every family there? luis: well, i think the most common thing is that when a young man, a young woman finish the high school, they-- their plan is come to the united states and looking for a better opportunity, and i think with this program, we are providing them a chance to stay in the country, to stay with the families, and to provide them a job to support their families,

so i think it's very important. damian: that's a fascinating aspect, if you will. and are you-- did you dig back mr. albers to your jesuit upbringing in the government and santa clara university? joe: absolutely. education is all about transformation and opening doors for people. so, when i lived in el salvador, six months after the high school there i graduated, i taught english in the school, 90% of the students had immigrated illegally to the united states. and for me, the loss of talent and ability for social transformation and economic development in the region takes a significant hit when your most talented people are leaving consistently. so our mission is to give people opportunity, open doors for them to be able to stay with their family. people don't immigrate for no reason. they immigrate for education, for economic opportunity, for a better future, and we're trying to build that in el salvador. damian: how are american countries receiving that or how

have they received it to-- it's a fabulous opportunity for them and for central america. joe: yeah, so we're in the process of trying to grow our company. we just opened our doors last march. and we're looking for companies in artificial intelligence-- those who are working in any type of computer vision or natural language processing and need data labeling in their own time zone. that's our big advantage we can offer. most of these operations operate out of india or other parts across the globe. and our client that we've been working with is very happy that we are working live and we're able to give much higher output and stronger results with them as they also are participating in a great mission. one thing i forgot to mention is that our company-- the profit from our company doesn't go to any investors; it goes, actually, straight back to the school. and so, it's a cycle of opportunity, leveraging the own talent of salvadorans to help their future generations have better education. damian: wow. no need for that urgent necessity to immigrate to this

country for a better life. they're finding it, and hopefully with the expansion things might improve even more. let's show you some information on the screen. if you want to get a hold of the folks that are here with this great program helping the folks in el salvador, there is the website. it's the grande center for education and economic opportunity. educating the folks in el salvador. we'll be back with this great organization here on "comunidad del valle." stay with us.

damian: and we're back with luis lopez and joe albers, the co-founders of the grande center for education and economic opportunity in el salvador. mr. lopez, talk about the job force, the workforce in el salvador. how ready are they for this? nobody needs to question how smart they are because we all know they are, but how ready are they to take on the technology in the 21st century-- technological issues that we're facing? luis: yeah. i think i tell this before.

we were waiting for this opportunity. we have people capable to do this. and the best thing of this is you can work right after six months of training, and all of the people who's studying wants a chance like this, you know? because four or six years of career is such a long time, so we only need six or seven months to training, and then you are ready to do this. so we are getting terreno in our country in chalatenango. the people now know about us, so we now have 12 employees working full-time, and all of the area is knowing about us, so i think we're ready. we are ready to do to do this. damian: all right. is this something maybe the state department to look at, mr.

albers, given the fact that the immigration issue and maybe this is one way to prevent them from having to come to this country? joe: yeah, there's a national-wide project for root causes work, and we have yet to connect with the folks in the state department on that, but if anyone has any introductions, we'd be more than happy to have them. we're starting small, where our goal is to grow very large, to grow up to a thousand workers one day. that's the capacity that we want to get over the next ten years, kind of a ten-year plan to grow up. and so, we would love to partner with other companies and government agencies that can help us grow to serve these amazing people, to have economic opportunity, and let them shine and show the world how good they are. damian: and so, this is-- funding is an issue? you're-- mr. lopez is traveling the country to raise money, and that's the whole purpose, is to make sure that there are enough funds to keep this going. joe: yeah, we're a scrappy start-up. i mean, just to start this project as a fully volunteer basis to start.

now, we've kind of formalized with the board of directors and fundraising, and we're just in that, you know, kind of month-to-month existence right now. we have this major shot of support in-- a local donor in el salvador has committed to building our first phase of capital construction and donating land for us to build a permanent site, which is massive for foreign aid-- foreign, you know, nonprofit to get from a local agency in el salvador. very unheard of, and yet, we were able to secure that, and he very much supports our work. his name's don jose elias romero, and he is all on board-- a local business person who is investing in us as well, but on the usa level, we-- you know, we need money to pay teachers and all those types of things. and so, we're always in that, you know, 200 here, 500 here, just making the struggle work to support these amazing people in el salvador. damian: yeah, well, good luck with that. and you know that area better than anybody, señor lopez. how ready-- i know that we're gonna start small, el salvador first.

how ready are honduras and nicaragua and guatemala for something like this as well? luis: well, i don't know exactly, but i'm for sure there are people good to work and ready, waiting for opportunities like this. i lived in honduras many years ago as a refugee, and i know that honduras has strong people, hard workers, too. and almost the whole region is-- has the same ganas to work. yeah, it's something like this. damian: that's what it takes. and, you know, probably like anybody else, you would rather, or they would rather stay in their country and do the work there than having to come here and do it here. i would imagine. joe: absolutely.

damian: any final thoughts? we have about 30 seconds. mr. albers, any final thoughts? joe: consider, you know, supporting us. our mission really is to be-- is different, is to be self-sustaining, to really open doors for people to show their talent. and i know salvador seems far away, but i know there's so many people in the bay area who are salvadoran themselves, and other people. we're really about relationships. we're about helping people and really about letting them shine and do the great work that we know they can do. damian: well, it's a solution-minded project. we wish you all the luck. thank you for being on the show. both: thank you. damian: all right, thank you. again, we're gonna show you the website one more time. for more information, you can log on and find out more, maybe how you can help and make sure that this program expands and reaches more people in el salvador and in the rest of central america. well, if you want to get a hold of us here on "comunidad del valle," you can follow me on instagram. my handle is @newsdamiantrujillo. there is my email address again. we thank you one more time for sharing a part of your sunday with us on "comunidad del valle," and we hope you have a

great cinco de mayo. we'll see you back here again next week. remember, you can register to vote here on the show there. so, we'll see you next week. ♪♪♪

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