Dos Mundos

Interview with former Missouri state representative Paul Rojas about his experience with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City. He recalls the need of Hispanic businesses to be able to access bank loans, insurance, and opportunities for state contracts, and that the local chamber led to the formation of a United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce a few years later. He discusses the chamber's role in increasing Hispanic visibility in local governance, their growing political astuteness and advocacy, and linking the business community and social services.

Interview with Dos Mundos newspaper founder Clara Reyes about her life and her experience with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City. She recalls immigrating to the Kansas City area from Guadalajara, Mexico, to join family, her work in dentistry and real estate, being the niece of Hector Barreto, founder of the local and national Hispanic chambers of commerce. She discusses Barreto's interest in advocating for the Hispanic business community, early members of the chamber, covering chamber activities in Dos Mundos, and Rockhurst and Penn Valley colleges working with the chamber to offer scholarships to minority students. She also discusses Barreto's role in the founding of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, originally located in Kansas City, and its move to Washington, DC, the local chamber's role in helping small businesses access bank loans and encouraging entrepreneurship, and lists the Kansas City chamber's presidents from its founding to the present.

Interview with Lucy Lopez about her life and work as a preschool teacher and with the Dos Mundos newspaper. She recalls growing up in the Armourdale neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas, where her parents worked for the railroad and packinghouses. She shares memories of the 1951 flood, including the family moving in with relatives in the Westside where the family ultimately remained. She also recounts working at the Muehlebach Hotel's Terrace Grill where she met many celebrities, her school experience, encountering discrimination when seeking employment, and giving birth to two of her children while living in Chicago; and discusses motherhood, and her work and further schooling in early childhood education, the establishment of Dos Mundos bilingual newspaper, and her own experience maintaining fluency in Spanish and English.

Interview with Ruben Garcia about his life and experience as an artist. He discusses the background of his parents, their move to Kansas City after World War II, his childhood and education, and shares his memories of the Westside neighborhood during the 1960s. He also recalls being an award-winning cartoonist at Westport High School, working at various jobs, his interest in art, working on and planning for murals on the Westside, and creating a comic strip for the Dos Mundos newspaper.