Latino USA
454 episodes - English - Latest episode: 14 days ago - ★★★★★ - 3.6K ratingsLatino USA offers insight into the lived experiences of Latino communities and is a window on the current and merging cultural, political and social ideas impacting Latinos and the nation.
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Episodes
How I Made It: Flor De Toloache
April 16, 2024 06:00 - 15 minutes - 14.5 MBWhen Mireya Ramos found herself subject to scrutiny and machismo as the only woman mariachi singer in the male-dominated mariachi circles, she decided to do something about it. So she founded Flor De Toloache in 2008, the first all-female mariachi in New York City. The Latin Grammy winning group's new album, 'Indestructible' features beautiful harmonies and creative fusions that go beyond traditional mariachi. Today, we hear from core members of the group who describe how they came ...
Nikole Hannah-Jones: Beyond the 1619 Project
April 12, 2024 06:00 - 55 minutes - 50.8 MBPulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones rose to instant recognition when she published the 1619 Project in 2019. Since then she’s received countless praise, awards and recognition, but the project also engulfed her into a media firestorm with many on the far-right going after her and her work, with some states even banning the teaching of the 1619 Project. In this conversation with Maria Hinojosa, Nikole Hannah-Jones reflects on how she’s pushed ahead despite controve...
Mimy and Tony Succar: Music Is Better With Family
April 02, 2024 06:00 - 16 minutes - 14.7 MBMimy Succar arrived with her family in Miami over three decades ago, she had three kids and a dream. A talented singer and performer from a young age, she was born in Peru to a Japanese family and maintained the traditions of her grandparents. Together with her husband Antonio, they had a band who played throughout Lima. But in the late 80s, they didn’t see a future for their family and moved to Miami with their children, Claudia, Tony and Kenji. The children began showing interest ...
Will Abortion Rights Energize the Latino Vote?
March 29, 2024 06:00 - 38 minutes - 35 MBTwo years ago, the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, creating a cascade of harmful abortion bans and restrictions. But from Colorado to Florida, Latinas are fighting back for their bodily autonomy and a chance to reframe abortion as a human rights issue. In this episode, we speak with three Latinas on the front lines of reproductive justice: Lourdes Rivera, President of Pregnancy Justice, Stephanie Loraine Piñeiro, Executive Director at the Florida A...
Sandy's Pandemic Diaries
March 26, 2024 06:00 - 25 minutes - 23.5 MBSandy Fleurimond, a first generation Haitian-American student at Temple University in Philadelphia, was looking forward to her senior year of college. She dreamed of studying abroad and graduating in a field full of friends and family. But being a college student in 2020, meant that many of these long-awaited milestones didn't go according to plan. In collaboration with Philly Audio Diaries, Sandy shares her story of loss and growth after the pandemic flipped her senior year of coll...
She Migrates
March 22, 2024 06:00 - 55 minutes - 101 MBIn a new migration reality, women and children are requesting asylum in Mexico at higher rates than men. But even as more women are crossing borders in long and dangerous journeys, many hoping to ultimately reach the United States, we rarely hear about their stories and what it’s like to migrate undocumented when you’re a woman. For women, their body takes a central role when they’re in transit, regardless of their age. Some are forced to disguise their gender for protection, others...
Alex Padilla, From California to Capitol Hill
March 15, 2024 06:00 - 31 minutes - 28.7 MBIt was an anti-immigrant initiative in his home state of California that pushed Alex Padilla into politics, now he is making history as the first Latino to represent California in the U.S. Senate. In an extended interview with Padilla, Maria Hinojosa asks the senator about Prop 187, the controversial 1994 ballot measure that politicized Padilla, and many other Latinos of his generation. They also discuss the senator’s career-long focus on voting rights, and the threats they face tod...
Samanta Schweblin’s Unsettling Normality
March 12, 2024 06:00 - 17 minutes - 31.3 MBIn her work, Argentine author Samanta Schweblin explores the feeling of eeriness that accompanied her childhood. Samanta was born in Buenos Aires in 1978, just after the start of a violent dictatorship. But, while violence surrounded her growing up, there was also art: her grandfather was a famous artist who began to train her as a writer when she was six years old. Together they took trips, stole books, rode the train without tickets and went to plays and museums—all in the name of...
Toñita's Club Fights Erasure
March 08, 2024 07:00 - 42 minutes - 77.1 MBWhen you enter the Caribbean Social Club, or Toñita’s, it feels like you could be in your grandmother’s living room. And that’s exactly what its owner, Maria Antonia Cay —better known as Toñita— was aiming for when she opened the club in the 1970s as a gathering place for the local baseball team. 50 years later, Toñita’s is still standing in Los Sures, the south side of Williamsburg—the most gentrified neighborhood in New York City. Yet over the years, Toñita has faced ever greater ...
The Unmarked Graveyard: Stories from Hart Island
March 05, 2024 07:00 - 16 minutes - 15.2 MBThis week, Latino USA shares an episode of The Unmarked Graveyard: Stories from Hart Island podcast. When Annette Vega was in elementary school, she found out the man she called “dad” wasn’t her biological father. But all she knew was that her mom had had a teenage romance with a guy named Angel Garcia. Annette has searched for Angel for more than 30 years, a search that is finally coming to the end. “The Unmarked Graveyard: Stories from Hart Island" is a new series from Radio Di...
Latino Hustle: Oscars 2024
March 01, 2024 07:00 - 54 minutes - 49.3 MBThe 96th Oscars ceremony is a new opportunity for Latinos and Latin Americans in the moviemaking business to be recognized for excellence in cinema. America Ferrera has earned her first Oscar nomination and Colman Domingo has become the first Afro-Latino nominated for best actor. And yet, representation of Latinos on the big screen has remained stagnant. But there are several Latinos and Latin Americans nominated who you may not have heard anything about yet. We spoke to Andes sur...
Myriam Gurba Unmasks the Creeps
February 27, 2024 07:00 - 26 minutes - 47.7 MBMyriam Gurba is a writer and artist from California. Her most recent work is a collection of essays named “Creep: Accusations and Confessions.” In her book “Creep,” Myriam examines individual creeps, as well as how creeps exist in the larger systems and environments that protect them. In this episode of Latino USA, we hear author Myriam Gurba read from “Creep: Accusations and Confessions” and talk about why it’s important to unmask the creeps.
Javier Zamora on the Role of a Writer in Today’s World.
February 23, 2024 07:00 - 39 minutes - 72.8 MBJavier Zamora is a writer who believes he has a particular responsibility: to understand and also change the world through words. He comes from a tradition of poets in El Salvador who used poetry to denounce injustices, the “Generación Comprometida,” and his personal experience of migrating as a child alone to the United States has shaped his worldview. In his work, Javier has shared some of the most intimate and difficult moments of his own history, first in the award-winning poetr...
The Matter of Castro Tum
February 16, 2024 07:00 - 41 minutes - 75.1 MBIn 2018, a young Guatemalan man named Reynaldo Castro Tum was ordered deported even though no one in the U.S. government knew where he was, or how to find him. Now, his unusual journey through the United States' immigration system has sucked another man back into a legal quagmire he thought that he'd escaped. This episode follows both of their stories and the fateful moment they collided. This episode originally aired in October 2020.
Finding Legitimacy With Aida Rodriguez
February 06, 2024 07:00 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MBIf you’ve ever been to an Aida Rodriguez comedy show you’ve probably heard Aida crack jokes about her family, her upbringing, race, politics, everyday life and Latinos. She recently published a memoir called “Legitimate Kid: A Memoir.” In this episode of Latino USA, we hear Aida Rodriguez talk about, and read from her memoir and we get a front row seat to one of her recent comedy shows in New York City.
Sec. Xavier Becerra on Health, Immigration and Latino Representation
February 02, 2024 07:00 - 39 minutes - 35.7 MBThe Department of Health and Human Services oversees several agencies: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Office of Refugee Resettlement are just a few of them. But since its founding in 1953, HHS had never been led by a Latino, until now. Maria Hinojosa sits down with the first Latino to lead the department, Xavier Becerra. They discuss mental health, Latino representation in the Biden-Harris White House, immigration, and more...
Portrait Of: Sandra Cisneros LIVE in Chicago
January 30, 2024 07:00 - 29 minutes - 27 MBSandra Cisneros doesn't need an introduction. Her coming-of-age novel, "The House on Mango Street," has sold over six million copies and has turned the Chicago native into a household name. Earlier this year, the Mexican-American author joined Maria Hinojosa for a live conversation at the Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. The conversation was part of WBEZ's Podcast Passport series, in partnership with Vocalo Radio. In this live and intimate conversation, Sandra Cisneros reflects on ...
A Conversation With Jeh Johnson
January 26, 2024 07:00 - 31 minutes - 29.2 MBSince the beginning of the Trump administration, the U.S.-Mexico border and immigration policy have been front and center in public conversation. However, a humanitarian crisis at the border is nothing new. Jeh Johnson was the Secretary of Homeland Security during President Obama’s second term, from late 2013 to 2017. He ran the agency during a tense period—when tens of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children and families were arriving at the border to claim asylum. Latino USA’s...
Pepón Osorio’s Accumulation of Memory
January 23, 2024 07:00 - 26 minutes - 47.7 MBGrowing up in Puerto Rico, Pepón Osorio never thought that decorating the wedding cakes his mother made would spark his passion for art and his signature big installations full of tiny objects, sounds and memories. In 2023, the New Museum in New York City hosted Osorio’s most comprehensive exhibition to date. In this episode of Latino USA, we tour the exhibition with Pepón, and we learn about how he found a home in the Bronx, switched careers from social worker to full-time artist, ...
Eugenio Derbez Gets Serious
January 19, 2024 07:00 - 33 minutes - 30.4 MBEugenio Derbez is a Mexican actor, writer, director and producer who got his start at the forefront of many comedy series in his home country. After decades of making families laugh across Latin America, Eugenio reinvented himself in Hollywood. In recent years he played the role of a music teacher in the movie “CODA,” which went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture in 2022. In 2023, Eugenio returned to Mexico to star in “Radical,” his first leading dramatic role. In this episode of ...
Monumental
January 16, 2024 07:00 - 42 minutes - 38.6 MBThis week Latino USA shares an episode of the Monumental podcast, from PRX. For generations, Christopher Columbus has been glorified in monument after monument across the United States. And while Columbus statues have recently started coming down, including in cities like Columbus, Ohio, the largest one in the world is standing tall —very, very tall… in a U.S. territory— the beach town of Arecibo, Puerto Rico. In this episode, reporter and journalism professor Gisele Regatão travel...
Maria Martin, With Love and Light
January 12, 2024 07:00 - 1 hour - 59.9 MBA special episode remembering Latino USA founder and pioneer public radio journalist Maria Emilia Martin, who passed away on December 2nd, 2023. After a career in public media of almost 50 years, Maria left a mark as a journalist, educator, and tireless advocate for Latinos, Latinas, and Indigenous voices in journalism in the United States and Latin America. In this hour, we hear from journalists who knew and were mentored by Maria Martin and we present some of the extraordinary a...
How I Made It: El Peso Hero
January 02, 2024 07:00 - 22 minutes - 20.7 MBBy day, Héctor Rodríguez III is a school teacher; by night, he’s creating the world of “El Peso Hero”, a comic book superhero based on the border that is celebrating its 10th anniversary. In this episode of our "How I Made It" series, Héctor talks about growing up loving superheroes, but not feeling represented by them. Something he’d eventually deal with by building his own comic world centered on the border. This episode originally aired in July of 2021.
Unsafe In Foster Care, Part 1
December 22, 2023 07:00 - 46 minutes - 42.7 MBAfter a domestic violence incident, Leah Garcia called the police looking for safety for her and her two children. But her calls triggered the involvement of LA’s Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), the largest child welfare agency in the country. Leah’s 5-month-old baby, Joseph, the son she had with her abusive partner, was placed with a foster care family. What happened after became a mother’s worst nightmare: the same system that was supposed to keep her child safe...
Imperfect Paradise: Nury & The Secret Tapes
December 19, 2023 07:00 - 41 minutes - 37.7 MBThis week Latino USA shares an episode of the podcast, Imperfect Paradise: Nury & The Secret Tapes, from LAist Studios. Imperfect Paradise: Nury & The Secret Tapes tells the story of the biggest political scandal in recent Los Angeles history. A secret recording leaked online in 2022 exposed then-LA City Council President Nury Martinez making racist and derogatory remarks. A year after the scandal, host Antonia Cereijido challenges Nury on her racist comments and the deeper systemi...
Still Hopeful: Immigration Over 30 Years
December 15, 2023 07:00 - 56 minutes - 51.7 MBLatino USA continues to mark its 30th anniversary and look back at its reporting throughout the last three decades. On today’s show we look at immigration, then and now. Maria Hinojosa is joined by Camilo Montoya-Galvez, immigration and politics reporter for CBS; Natalia Aristizabal, Deputy Director of Make the Road New York; and Lee Gelernt, Deputy Director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project. Together, they discuss immigration policies from the last 30 years.
The Gun Machine
December 12, 2023 07:00 - 40 minutes - 37.4 MBThe Gun Machine is a new podcast from WBUR in partnership with The Trace, exploring the 250-year history of one of the most tragic and confounding forms of addiction in America: guns. Listen to all eight episodes wherever you get your podcasts. You can subscribe to The Gun Machine here.
A Night With Monsieur Periné
December 05, 2023 07:00 - 23 minutes - 21.5 MBAs part of our 30th anniversary celebrations, we bring you a taste of a very special evening with the Colombian band Monsieur Periné—hosted at the Greene Space at WNYC and WQXR. Catalina García and Santiago Prieto play songs from their latest award-winning album, “Bolero Apocalíptico”, and chat with Latino USA’s senior producer Marta Martinez about how they mix classic and modern influences, their love for their Colombian roots and how they found inspiration in the pandemic.
The Archivists: The Unseen Fight to Preserve Our Stories
December 01, 2023 07:00 - 42 minutes - 38.6 MBAfter months of working closely with the archivists and librarians of the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas in Austin, the Latino USA team wanted to dig deeper into the history and treasures in the library. The Benson has been around for more than a hundred years, and it’s one of the most important institutions in the world collecting the history and stories of Latin America and U.S Latinas and Latinos. But, that history comes with some baggage. ...
United Stateless Podcast
November 28, 2023 07:00 - 33 minutes - 30.7 MBThis week Latino USA brings you an episode of the United Stateless Podcast. United Stateless Podcast documents the stories of "returnees", people who immigrated to the US, largely as children, and have since returned to their home country. In the first season, we focus on Mexico. It's a story of life, love, Spanglish, culture shock, missing bagels, and figuring out where home really is. In this episode, what, exactly, is Mexico? And what's it like to actually grow up there? And wh...
By Right of Discovery
November 24, 2023 07:00 - 50 minutes - 46 MBOn Thanksgiving Day, hundreds of people gather on Alcatraz Island, the famous former prison and one of the largest tourist attractions in San Francisco, for a sunrise ceremony to honor Indigenous culture and history. Fifty years ago, an intertribal group of students and activists took over the island for over 16 months in an act of political resistance. Richard Oakes, a young Mohawk from New York, was one of the leaders in this movement dubbed the "Red Power Movement." Latino USA te...
Bad Mexicans: Borderland History that Resonates Today
November 21, 2023 07:00 - 20 minutes - 18.5 MBAt the turn of the 20th century, revolution was starting to brew in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. A group of Mexican revolutionaries had fled to the United States and were working to overthrow a dictator in their home country. They were called Los Magonistas, and both the U.S. and Mexican governments put all of their efforts to spy on them and suppress their revolution. In this episode, historian Kelly Lytle Hernandez tells the story of this cross-border insurgency that has been lef...
Dolores Huerta: Don’t Let the Haters Divide Us
November 17, 2023 07:00 - 42 minutes - 38.6 MBLatino USA continues to celebrate 30 years of being on the air, as well as bringing you important conversations as part of our ongoing political coverage. For this episode, Maria Hinojosa sits down with legendary labor leader and civil rights activist, Dolores Huerta. They speak about politics, the current state of organizing, sex and passion, and much more. Editorial note: This interview was recorded in September of 2023 before the current crisis in Gaza began.
Gustavo Dudamel’s Harmony in Times of Crisis
November 10, 2023 07:00 - 35 minutes - 32.8 MBGustavo Dudamel is one of the most famous and acclaimed conductors in the world. He’s been the Music and Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 2009, when he was just 27 years old. El maestro is the best-known graduate of El Sistema, Venezuela’s national youth music education program. In the years since, Dudamel made a name for himself conducting world-famous orchestras, running his own arts charity — The Gustavo Dudamel Foundation — and founding the Youth Orchestra...
Classy with Jonathan Menjivar
November 07, 2023 07:00 - 41 minutes - 38.3 MBThis week Latino USA brings you an episode of the podcast, Classy with Jonathan Menjivar. In this episode, we can’t talk about class without talking about race. Through eye-opening conversations with two people of color in the fashion industry, Jonathan realizes some hard truths about the ways he’s adapted in order to blend in. And he reveals how one small, but bold act is helping him to reclaim his cultural identity. You can subscribe to Classy with Jonathan Menjivar here.
Kamala and the Latino Youth Vote
November 03, 2023 06:00 - 58 minutes - 53.3 MBMaria Hinojosa and Latino USA producer Reynaldo Leaños Jr. join Vice President Kamala Harris aboard Air Force Two as the vice president makes her way to Miami, Florida, as part of her “Fight For Our Freedoms” college tour. Later, Maria sits down with Vice President Harris for a one-on-one interview where they discuss young Latino voters’ participation, reproductive rights, immigration, and more. Editorial note: This interview was recorded in September of 2023 before the current cr...
City of Oil
October 27, 2023 06:00 - 32 minutes - 29.6 MBLos Angeles, you might be surprised to learn, sits on top of the largest urban oil field in the country and has been the site of oil extraction for almost 150 years. Today, nearly 5,000 oil wells remain active in Los Angeles County alone, many operating in communities of color, often very close to homes, schools, and hospitals. Latino USA visits a neighborhood in South Los Angeles, the epicenter of an anti-oil-drilling movement that is gaining momentum. We meet Nalleli Cobo, the 18...
The Art of Growing Into Yourself With Y La Bamba
October 24, 2023 06:00 - 22 minutes - 20.8 MBLuz Elena Mendoza Ramos is a Chicanx artist and musician who has been playing under the name Y La Bamba for nearly 20 years. As the child of immigrant parents, Luz Elena struggled to feel seen in the music industry, but as they’ve continued making music, they have grown into their identity as an artist. Last year, Luz Elena moved back to Mexico City to explore where they come from. That search also led to the publication of their seventh studio album — “Lucha” — and to Y La Bamba p...
My Uncle Juan, the Bracero
October 20, 2023 06:00 - 36 minutes - 33.4 MBIn this episode of Latino USA, historian Mireya Loza and her uncle and former bracero Juan Loza meet at his home in Chicago to reflect on the legacy of the long-running and controversial labor Bracero Program and its impact on their family.
How I Made It: Grupo Fantasma Takes On The Wall
October 17, 2023 06:00 - 13 minutes - 12 MBWhen Austin's cumbia-funk institution Grupo Fantasma went to record their seventh album at a studio in Tornillo, Texas, they had no idea that right next door was a tent city for detained immigrant youth operated by ICE. When they found out, they decided they had to do something. So they teamed up with fellow legends Ozomatli and Locos Por Juana to create a sinister funk tune with a message about the walls that divide us. On this edition of How I Made It, members of Grupo Fantasma br...
When Alaska's Snow Crab Went Missing
October 06, 2023 06:00 - 57 minutes - 52.9 MBIn 2022, the Bering Sea snow crab season was canceled for the first time in history. Essentially 10 billion snow crabs went missing. The cause? Warming waters due to climate change. In this episode, Latino USA producer Reynaldo Leaños Jr. travels to Kodiak, Alaska to see how a fishing community is trying to stay afloat as climate change disrupts their industry—and lives.
Caliber 60
October 03, 2023 06:00 - 17 minutes - 15.8 MBThis week Latino USA brings you an episode of the Caliber 60 podcast. Avocado consumption has exploded in the U.S. over the past decade. But what’s rarely seen is the rotten underbelly of this industry, controlled by armed groups in Mexico who use smuggled weapons from the U.S. to keep control over this lucrative business. Meet Linda, who lives in Ixtaro, a small avocado producer town. She experienced unimaginable horrors while under the siege of narcos. You can subscribe to Calib...
Mary’s Journey
September 29, 2023 06:00 - 1 hour - 58.4 MBOne in four women in the United States have a family member in prison—and those carrying the resulting financial and emotional burden are disproportionately women of color. Mary Estrada is one of them. She’s been taking care of her husband Robert for 40 years, as he’s been in and out of prison throughout his adult life. Most Sundays, Mary wakes up at 3 a.m. and drives 135 miles each way from Pomona, California to San Diego to meet her incarcerated husband. In this episode of Latino ...
Portrait Of: Miguel
September 26, 2023 06:00 - 20 minutes - 19.1 MB“Too proper for the Black kids, too Black for the Mexicans," sings Grammy award-winning artist Miguel Pimentel. Miguel is the son of an African-American mother and a Mexican-born father. He's known for his eclectic sound, shaped by his home: Los Angeles. This year, he’ll release a deluxe version of his album, 'War & Leisure,' which will include songs in Spanish. It was inspired by a trip to Zamora, where he met his family in Mexico for the first time. Maria Hinojosa talks to the sin...
It’s My Podcast and I’ll Cry If I Want To
September 19, 2023 06:00 - 36 minutes - 33.4 MBFive years ago, Latino USA producer Antonia Cereijido was only an intern and still in college when she did what a lot of people do when they're not sure what their life will look like after graduation: she cried in the bathroom. After wiping her eyes and returning to her desk, she tried to comfort herself by calculating how many other Latinos had cried at the same time she had. This led her to ask herself: do Latinos cry more than other people, on average? Thus began her strange and...
Belonging, Recruitment, and Remembrance
September 15, 2023 06:00 - 58 minutes - 53.8 MBLatino USA continues to mark its 30th anniversary and look back on its reporting throughout the decades. One topic the show has heavily reported on is Latinos serving in the military and today we take a new look at that subject. In this episode, producer Reynaldo Leaños Jr. travels to Laredo, Texas on the U.S.-Mexico border. He brings us the story of Lance Corporal David Lee Espinoza, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2021 during the U.S. withdrawal from the country. Reynaldo meets...
Ballet Brothers
September 12, 2023 06:00 - 23 minutes - 21.8 MBBrothers Isaac and Esteban Hernández have performed on some of the most prestigious stages in the world. But their journey to the top rank of their industry had a unique start. Originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, Isaac and Esteban's first ballet teacher was their father, Héctor, and their first ballet studio was their home’s backyard. Last year, they became the first siblings to achieve the rank of principal dancer for the San Francisco Ballet.
The Revolutions of Gioconda Belli
September 08, 2023 06:00 - 37 minutes - 34.4 MBGioconda Belli is an award-winning Nicaraguan author. She has published novels, essays, poetry collections, and a memoir called “The country under my skin,” which recounts her time as a member of the Sandinista National Liberation Front—fighting to free her country from a dictatorship. Now, 40 years after the Sandinista victory, Gioconda finds herself living in exile and unable to return to Nicaragua. She was recently stripped of her citizenship by the person who once was her comrad...
9/11’s Immigration Legacy
September 05, 2023 06:00 - 1 hour - 60.6 MBThe September 11th attacks left nearly 3,000 dead, many more injured and an entire nation traumatized. The 24-hour news cycle that followed focused endlessly on the identity of the terrorists: non-citizens who had been able to exploit “vulnerabilities” in the system. The United States government responded with harsh policy changes in the name of national security, including the Patriot Act, but it also focused the weight of policymaking on curbing immigration, funding astronomical b...
At the Mercy of the Courts
September 01, 2023 06:00 - 53 minutes - 49 MBIn this episode of Latino USA we partner up with Documented, a nonprofit news site that covers immigrants in New York City, to get a behind-the-scenes look at the experience of trying to navigate the immigration courts as an asylum-seeker under the Trump Administration. We follow the story of Wendy and Elvis, Guatemalan newlyweds who flee violent extortion threats only to find themselves in a maddening and punishing U.S. court system that is now the norm for immigrants seeking safet...