YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – It’s hard to function in a community where you don’t speak the language, let alone keep abreast of current events and feel like you belong.
A Poland woman is bringing her journalistic skills and her native tongue to a YouTube show to try to fill that gap.
Paulina Montaldo started a YouTube channel, Somos Youngstown, a few months ago that highlights the contributions of Hispanics in the Mahoning Valley.
“Even though the show is called Somos – we are – Youngstown, I’m trying to cover more than just Youngstown,” Montaldo said. “So it’s basically a show in Spanish for the Hispanic community, highlighting the contributions of Hispanics, telling the stories of Hispanics.”
At the same time, she’s working to inform Hispanic people about what’s happening in the community.
What Others Think
Angelica Diaz, executive director of the Organización Cívica y Cultural Hispana Americana Inc., believes it’s a positive addition to what’s available for the Mahoning Valley’s Spanish speaking population.
“I truly think there’s a need for that,” Diaz said, adding it would be helpful for people new to the area who want to learn about the community and become part of it.
OCCHA is a nonprofit organization serving Mahoning, Columbiana and Trumbull counties that works to improve the lives of Hispanics and others in the multicultural community.
“You have to create community,” Diaz said. “I think that’s what she’s doing.”
Montaldo believes there are a lot of people in the community, particularly older people, who don’t speak English. They need to be informed about what’s available for them in the community.
Valley residents who don’t speak English can go online for national and international news in their native language. But there’s no such option for local news.
“So I do want to focus on local news,” Montaldo said.
Vicki Vicars, vice president for advancement at Thrive Mahoning Valley, a nonprofit organization focused on welcoming newcomers to the Valley, said she believes there’s an audience for Somos Youngstown.
“There’s definitely a large Hispanic community in the area,” she said. “There’s a significant amount of non-English speaking people, and we know that because they’re seeking classes …”
The organization hears that from area schools, where students speak English but their parents don’t.
“We were happy to see that she was doing this,” Vicars said.
Her Background
Montaldo was born in Chile and grew up in Ecuador, and while in high school she started working for a television news station, covering occasional stories.
The station hired her after she graduated from college, and she relocated to Chile.
“But at the same time, I was working as a press correspondent for a show called ‘Premiere, First Impact,’ which is for Univision,” Montaldo said.
In 2001, she moved to New Castle, Pa., to work for a family with whom she lived while a Rotary Club exchange student in her senior year of high school. The business sells golf carts to golf courses.
“I always wanted to go back to TV, but my accent played against me,” she said.
She returned to college, earning a master’s degree in higher education administration at Geneva College in Beaver Falls. She teaches Spanish at Ursuline High School and is an adjunct professor at Youngstown State University.
But news runs in her blood.
“My grandfather in Chile was a director of a newspaper, and my father was a director of the news at the radio station,” Montaldo said. “So that was always in the family.”
Recent stories she’s done on her YouTube channel include a tribute to the late Elba Navarro, a feature on a home health care company that employs both English and Spanish speaking workers and one that highlights an Argentinian man in Girard who repairs pinball machines.
Facebook groups Latinos in Youngstown and Latinos in Warren provide story ideas. She also created Facebook and Instagram accounts for her content.
“So at this point I’m just trying to get people to know that there is such a show, and I’m trying to kind of be the voice of the Hispanic community,” Montaldo said.
Demographics
A 2022 report from the Ohio Department of Development, “Ohio Hispanic Americans Snapshot from the 2022 American Community Survey,” says 517,000 Hispanics, or 4.4% of the state’s population, call Ohio home. Since 2000, the number of Hispanics in Ohio has doubled, according to the report.
While Cuyahoga County tops the list of counties for the largest Hispanic population with more than 84,800, Mahoning County ranks eighth for highest percentage of the population that is Hispanic with nearly 7%.
The U.S. Census shows about 2% each of the population of Lawrence and Mercer counties is Hispanic.
According to DataUSA, of Mahoning County’s 228,000 residents, 14,900 are Hispanic. In Trumbull County, 4,100 people, or just more than 2% of the county’s 201,749 residents, are Hispanic. U.S. Census data shows Columbiana County’s Hispanic population at about 2%.
Montaldo wants to become a voice for the Valley’s Hispanic population, something she believes is lacking.
“I just think because probably there was no one that thought about creating a show in Spanish,” she said.
She considered starting a small Spanish newspaper and distributing it in Mexican restaurants and other businesses. But she’s a television person, and a newspaper demands more resources.
Sometimes a friend films for Montaldo’s shoots, but she usually uses her cellphone. She bought inexpensive microphones, a computer and video editing software.
Ultimately, she’d like to have a segment on local news or a news program targeting the Hispanic community.
“I’m just trying to create a service here because I feel that is needed,” Montaldo said.
Pictured at top: Paulina Montaldo started a Spanish YouTube channel called Somos Youngstown, or We Are Youngstown.