Latinos En Michigan TV is a website and a YouTube channel that produces stories about events and issues around Michigan that might be of interest to Latinos and Hispanic people in the state.
Liliana Ospina, founder of Latinos En Michigan TV, joined Stateside to talk about how the channel is creating a better community for Michigan Latinos and Hispanic people.
Listen above for the full conversation, or read highlights below.
On the origins of Latinos En Michigan TV
Ospina used to be a reporter in Colombia and when she came to the U.S., she found a lack of Hispanic media outlets in Michigan. She decided to pursue stories that would help Hispanic communities, such as profiling non-profit centers that help immigrants, and HAVEN, a non-profit focused on curbing domestic violence against women. One recent piece focused on a student photography exhibit in southwest Detroit. The coordinator of the program, Ospina said, is the daughter of immigrants.
On how the channel helps Hispanic communities
“I focus on creating stories that identify the reality of Hispanics,” said Ospina. During last year’s election, there was a major focus on immigration, so she made videos informing members of Hispanic communities of all immigration statuses of their rights. “If you are an immigrant, either illegal or not, sometimes when you come to a state like Michigan, everything is so hard because there are not a lot of Hispanics,” she said. “So in my case, I came here 12 years ago and it was so depressing because I left everything, and the Hispanic community is small and is very scattered.”
On why she uses video
Through Ospina’s time as a reporter in Colombia, she was very familiar with video’s power to communicate information. “I really enjoyed doing videos because it’s easy to tell the story through videos,” said Ospina. Now with most people using social media like Facebook, Ospina finds it easy to reach large groups of people. Her Facebook video views range in the thousands.
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