Shortly before the COVID lockdown took hold in March 2020, Yolanda Alonso arrived in Bloomington with her husband, and their 3-month-old daughter.
Like most people, the challenges of the pandemic meant the family didn't venture out much during the next few years. But as society has opened up, Alonso — who hails from north central Mexico — has started exploring the Bloomington-Normal area this year.
She said she and her husband, Efraín Ocón, an engineer at Rivian, want a culturally enriching experience while they are here, especially for their toddler Margot. So the family finds library story times, museum exhibits, family activities and seasonal fares — like visiting the Haunted Trail in Normal, or the Downtown Bloomington farmers market.
Along the way, Alonso noticed her family was among only a few Latinos attending the often free, public events.
A journalist and business professional from Mexico, Alonso decided in April to launch Latinos en BloNo, a project anchored with a Spanish-language community events blog. Not long after, she joined the board of Conexiones Latinas de McLean County.
One fan of Latinos en BloNo is Camila Graunke, Hispanic outreach director at Western Avenue Community Center.
There's a real need for more Spanish media options in the area, said Graunke. For thousands of people, Spanish is their first and sometimes only language.
Cindy Bedolli, of the Illinois Press Association says the statewide press organization has no Spanish-language media members outside of Cook County.
"It's been really nice to know there's a space where the community can find that information in one spot," said Graunke. Events may be open to the public. But they're usually promoted in English marketing efforts. "Yolanda making those posts in Spanish and English invites our Spanish speaking community to be a part of them," said Graunke.
As Latinos en BloNo gains momentum with more than 500 followers in just a few months, WGLT spoke with Alonso about her goals for building a bridge between Spanish speakers, and the broader community.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
WGLT: You are originally from Mexico, and you've lived in the United States for a couple years in some different places?
I have been here for six years now, in the United States. In Bloomington, it's my third year. I came with my family — my husband and my daughter.
I just started, six months ago, the Latinos en BloNo blog. It's on Instagram, and Facebook.
What led you to create this blog?
I am a mother of a toddler. We were looking for events or something to do with my daughter. We like to go to the library, to the parades, to the events.
I really noticed that there aren't many Latinos in these places — only us. So, I started asking myself why. Are they working, or they don't know where to look? Why only us?
I just started to ask some Spanish speakers, ‘Do you know where to find the information? Or what the community is offering?’ And they’d say 'No. We're struggling with English. It's the first time we’ve been in the United States. It's overwhelming.'
Well, I have some journalism skills. So, I tried to share what I know. That was the idea.
You were a journalist for more than 10 years in Torreón. That's in the Mexican state of Coahuila. Can you tell us about that?
I have a bachelor's degree in journalism and communication, and a master’s in business administration. (Alonso is co-owner of Amelia Torreón, a clothing business in her hometown. The city's about a 10-hour drive south of the Texas border.)
I worked for 11 years at a newspaper — as a photographer, journalist, editor, co editor, macro editor.
How have you found that experience applying to the Latinos en Blono blog?
Now I am the “everything.” I am the photographer, the journalist, the editor — I am my own boss.
Have you gotten any feedback from people in the community?
Yes. Well, now I know a lot of Latino people. So they just started to say, 'Hey, thanks. I know what to do now. … I went to the band or the parade. And it was so great, amazing for the kids.'
Illinois State University's Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development has a new study showing a $1.2 billion dollar economic impact from the nearly 12,000 immigrants that live in Bloomington-Normal. What benefit is there — for the community as a whole — for your blog to reach, now, hundreds of people?
I think it's a win-win. You know? There are a lot of people coming to the area. And, we need houses, we need cars, we need food. We need entertainment — we need everything.
It's like everything is growing, we can collaborate with that.
Latinos in Blono participated at the Illinois Art Station teaching a piñata class. Can you tell us about that?
We collaborated — Conexiones Latinas and Latinos en Blono. We talked withIllinois Art Station Executive Director Hannah Johnson, and we just started a piñata workshop. It was Sept. 17, part of the Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month (Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.) It was so fun, I was a teacher.
(Johnson said art instructors Jonathan Stein and Maggie Lesser worked with Alonso on the project. The collaboration marked the one-year anniversary of the IAS being in its new building, on Vernon Avenue in Normal. The nonprofit wanted to use the opportunity to connect with the Latino community, and advertised the event as its aniversario de papel, or paper anniversary.)
You're the newest member on the board of directors for Conexiones Latinas de McLean County. What is the organization?
Conexiones Latinas is a nonprofit organization. They are trying to help the Latino community to be together — to support the Latino projects here, in the area. We worked with the soccer team Diablos, in the summer. (The adult competitive soccer club from Bloomington plays in the Midwest Premier League.)
We invited the Latino people to go to the games to participate. The kids joined in the opening.
You took part in the Hispanic Heritage Month activities?
The city of Bloomington contacted me through the blog. The event, it was Reyna Grande, a writer. She went to the Miller Park Pavilion on Oct. 15 to talk about her latest book, “A Ballad of Love and Glory."
(The event was cosponsored by Latinos en Blono, Illinois State University’s Latin American and Latino/a Studies, and the Illinois Art Station. Grande is best known for her memoir "The Distance Between Us" about growing up in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant. Her books are available in both Spanish and English.)
Mayor Mboka Mwilambwe and Bloomington’s Diversity and Inclusion Director Michael Hurt also attended the event. This was the city's first Hispanic Heritage Month. The mayor told me the next one will be even bigger, and that he wants to do more with the Latino community, not just in September and October.
Do you think the presence of Latinos en Blono helped support the number of people that attended that Oct. 15 event?
In a humble way, I'm going to say yes.
Do you happen to know about how many people attended?
I don't know, maybe 30 people at the afternoon book signing at Barnes and Noble. At the pavilion, I think we had maybe close to 50. It was a big start, for the city hosting a Hispanic Heritage Month event.
The Latino community is growing. The city's seeing that. It’s watching — and it is trying to open the spaces for the Latino community. So, I think that was a very good story.
