Latino USA
467 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month 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
Pump Up The Jam: LA's Backyard Party Scene
July 30, 2019 10:30 - 18 minutes - 16.5 MBLatino USA sits down with Guadalupe Rosales of Veteranas and Rucas and Map Pointz, two archival projects focused on the backyard party scene of 80's and 90's Los Angeles that celebrate big hair, house music and endless nights. Rosales is joined by Eddie Ruvalcaba, who photographed the scene with Streetbeat Magazine and attended parties as a teenager. In this episode from the Latino USA archives, the two speak about the power of documenting youth culture and why those parties still mean so muc...
A Conversation With Pete Buttigieg
July 26, 2019 10:30 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBJust a year ago, not many people outside of South Bend, Indiana would have recognized the name: Pete Buttigieg. Known as "Mayor Pete," Buttigieg is in a wide-open primary race for the Democratic nomination to challenge President Trump. Since throwing his hat in the ring, he has gone from a virtually unknown second-term mayor, to a viable candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Latino USA's Maria Hinojosa sits down with Pete Buttigieg for an in-depth conversation about his though...
How One Native Language Survived Extinction
July 23, 2019 10:30 - 36 minutes - 33.1 MBThere are an estimated 7,000 distinct languages in the world—but researchers say nearly half are in danger of extinction, and on average, one language dies about every two weeks. In Hawaii, the practice of speaking the Hawaiian language from birth nearly died two generations ago—until one man started a movement to preserve the Hawaiian language—without being a native Hawaiian speaker, himself. This story comes to us from our friends at NPR's Code Switch.
Of Bloodlines And Conquistadors
July 19, 2019 13:38 - 35 minutes - 32 MB"Hispano" is an identity unique to New Mexico and southern Colorado. It defines people who consider themselves to be descendants of the Spanish conquistadors that arrived in the 1500s. Hispanos have lived side by side the Pueblo for centuries—mixing cultures, identities, and even bloodlines. But recently, tensions have risen between the two groups over Santa Fe's annual conquistador pageant, known as La Entrada, which celebrates the arrival of the Spanish. For some, it celebrates heritage. Fo...
Could Synthetic Biology Stop Global Warming?
July 16, 2019 10:30 - 17 minutes - 15.7 MBIt's a fact: Latinos are concerned about climate change—actually more than non-Latinos. Producer (and guest host) Antonia Cereijido is no exception and her anxiety led her to the work of Héctor García Martín, a scientist at the Joint BioEnergy Institute. Synthetic biology is an emerging field that allows scientists to re-engineer biological systems for new purposes, and one major thing it could lead to is new biofuels which would reduce the release of carbon dioxide—the main cause of global w...
How I Made It: King of The Bongo Makers and Ambar Lucid
July 12, 2019 10:30 - 23 minutes - 21 MBIn this episode, we're sharing two segments from our "How I Made It" series, which dives into the stories behind creative processes. Today, two music stories, separated by two generations. We hear how a mambo-obsessed Jewish kid from the Bronx ended up starting a Latin percussion empire, thanks to the trade embargo with Cuba. And, songwriter Ambar Lucid travels to Mexico to reconnect with her father for the first time since his deportation when she was a young girl.
Portrait Of: Luna Lauren Vélez
July 05, 2019 10:30 - 28 minutes - 26.3 MBFor the past 25 years, Luna Lauren Vélez has been portraying powerful Latinas in front of the camera. From a young Nuyorican mother in the 1994 cult classic "I Like It Like That" to a Cuban police captain in the hit show "Dexter," the actress has been able to show the complexities of identity in her characters. That inspiration didn't come out of nowhere. Vélez is one of eight siblings in her large Puerto Rican family and is continually inspired by the strong women that raised her. Luna Laure...
Portrait Of: Cypress Hill's Sen Dog
July 02, 2019 10:30 - 24 minutes - 22.7 MBSenen Reyes, also known as Sen Dog, is one of the founding members of the pioneering rap group Cypress Hill. Their music differs from other West Coast hip-hop from the 80s and 90s—Cypress Hill was less concerned with gang life and focused more on marijuana activism. But Cypress Hill's legacy extends much further than making weed mainstream—they were the first all-Latino hip-hop group to have platinum and multi-platinum albums. Sen Dog joins us to talk about the legacy of his group Cypress Hil...
Portrait Of: 80s Ball Subculture In FX's 'Pose'
June 28, 2019 10:30 - 26 minutes - 24.3 MBWhen you think of the 1980's in New York City, you might think of grit and crime – but a vibrant, dazzling underground ball scene? Maybe not. The hit series "Pose" on FX is now telling the stories of that scene – a subculture of LGBTQ people of color creating a safe and joyous space during a time when they were not accepted. "Pose" is making history by featuring the largest cast of transgender actors ever on TV as well as the largest recurring cast of LGBTQ actors for a scripted series. Starr...
Seeking Asylum, Seeking To Stay Together
June 25, 2019 10:30 - 22 minutes - 20.5 MBMauricio Pérez and his boyfriend Jorge Alberto Alfaro González met on Facebook in El Salvador during the summer of 2015. After Mauricio's sister was killed by members of a gang and Jorge's young cousins were killed by a rival group, both of them became targets of repeated attacks and death threats. So by January of 2016, Jorge and Mauricio decided to flee the country. They both applied for asylum in Mexico. But only Jorge's application was approved, forcing them to navigate Mexico's complex a...
Comedian Arturo Castro Finds Humor In This Political Moment
June 21, 2019 10:30 - 27 minutes - 24.8 MBArturo Castro is a Guatemalan actor and writer best known for playing "Jaime" on Comedy Central's "Broad City" and cartel leader David Rodriguez on Netflix's "Narcos." Now, after a decade in the business, Castro is taking the lead and starring in his own sketch show on Comedy Central. "Alternatino with Arturo Castro" is about Castro's identity as an immigrant and navigating life as a Latinx millennial. We sit down with Arturo Castro to talk about how he got his start in comedy and how he draw...
A Conversation With Cory Booker
June 14, 2019 10:30 - 28 minutes - 26.3 MBLatino USA continues its coverage of the field of candidates for the 2020 Democratic nomination with a conversation with Senator Cory Booker. Booker has come a long way since 1995 when, while attending law school at Yale, he moved to Newark to help the community, later moving to a housing project where he lived for a number of years before it was demolished. He became mayor of the New Jersey city in 2006, then went on to become a U.S. senator. Latino USA's Maria Hinojosa sits down with Cory B...
Laura's Mission
June 11, 2019 10:30 - 22 minutes - 20.3 MB27-year-old Laura Molinar was in medical school in Chicago, when she was flooded with news about the family separation crisis. Born and raised in San Antonio, Molinar felt moved to action—so she started Sueños Sin Fronteras, an organization to bring medical professionals to shelters on the border. While volunteering, Laura began to notice a need among the migrant women there—for access to birth control and emergency contraception. There was just one concern: the shelter was run by a Catholic ...
A Conversation with Jeh Johnson
June 04, 2019 10:30 - 33 minutes - 30.5 MBSince the beginning of the Trump administration, the U.S.-Mexico border and immigration policy have been front and center in public conversation. However, while the increased attention may seem new, 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 bo...
It's My Podcast and I'll Cry If I Want To
May 24, 2019 10:30 - 39 minutes - 36 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. Which led her to ask herself: do Latinos cry more that other people, on average? Thus began her strange and lachrymo...
All the World's a Coachella Stage
May 17, 2019 10:30 - 34 minutes - 31.3 MBEarly this year, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival announced their 2019 lineup, boasting over 10 Latino acts—including Bad Bunny, J Balvin and Los Tucanes de Tijuana performing on the festival's main stage. Coachella is one of the largest music festivals in the U.S. and one of the highest-grossing annual festivals. Historically, the festival's headliners have skewed white and in English, but that seems to be changing. Latino USA goes to the most Latino Coachella ever and speaks to ...
American Flavor
May 14, 2019 10:30 - 19 minutes - 17.7 MBDid you know that Marvin Gaye's classic song "Got to Give it Up" is influenced by the cha-cha-chá? And that the cha-cha-chá has been a part of U.S mainstream music for decades? Latino contributions to American pop music are present everywhere from salsa to punk and jazz to hip-hop and they're all celebrated in a book titled "American Sabor: Latinos and Latinas in U.S. Popular Music." One of the authors, ethnomusicologist Marisol Berríos-Miranda, joins Latino USA to discuss some of these Latin...