Latino voices being heard on Chicago Tonight: Latino Voices
Photo by: Valeria Garcia
Hugo Balta is both host and news director for WTTW’s weekend show “Chicago Tonight: Latino Voices,” a thoughtful news analysis that offers authentic conversations about issues that matter to the Latino community.
Chicago Tonight: Latino Voices highlights both stories and Latino voices from the Chicagoland area that occurred during the week. Balta describes these stories as a way to amplify conversations and dig deeper on issues that matter most to the community.
Past stories from Chicago Tonight: Latino Voices have included efforts to increase affordable housing, gentrification on the Southside, check in with the neighborhood tamale guy, celebrating and supporting Latino LGBTQ communnity, and the effects of COVID-19 in Latino communities.
“In the last couple of months, largely led by COVID-19, there have been disparities in access to health care, disparities in education, disparities in employment and wealth,” Balta says.
Balta describes his show as having two main components. The first component being providing a platform for issues that matter most to the community. Balta approaches this by talking with the community, business owners, political leaders, and industry leaders in order to have an authentic view and approach to the problems at hand.
The second component is finding community based solutions to the issues raised on Chicago Tonight: Latino Voices, solutions are community based. Balta makes it a priority to hear out the community and be involved in the community in order to create a relationship.
“The solution is about all of us working together towards equity, and not just individual groups. In making the turn from identifying the challenges to then speaking about the solutions, Latino voices, Black voices, and Chicago Tonight, needs to be inclusive of all voices.”
Balta also discussed that there seems to be a negative light in which Latino’s are stereotyped in mainstream media. Stereotypes such as undocumented immigrants, criminals, uneducated people, and/or people that are exhausting resources.
“We are more than those instances. We are and have been members of the community who have been members of the community who have been lifting both Chicago and the state of Illinois…” Balta said.
Balta believes that the biggest issues to affect the Latino community is access to education, wealth, and representation in government.
“If we don’t have a seat at the table, then we don’t have a voice. We’re often talked about, but not spoken to.”
Upcoming Chicago Tonight: Latino voices air dates are posted all the way until the end of the year. It’s also important to note that WTTW Chicago tonight also programs Chicago Tonight: Black Voices that replicates the same concept and thought analysis.