Latino Usa

Recently, our friends at Death, Sex & Money shared a conversation with Latino USA anchor and executive producer Maria Hinojosa. In this wide-ranging interview, host Anna Sale asks Maria about Futuro Media’s 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Audio Reporting win, how she built up confidence in the world of media and the moment when Maria reached a breaking point in a marriage that led to a reevaluation of her priorities. This episode includes a description of a rape. Listen to the Pulitzer Prize-winning series Suave here. To subscribe to Death, Sex & Money, click here.

On Tuesday May 24th, 2022, an 18-year-old man entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and shot and murdered 19 children, as well as two teachers. The ripple effects of this mass shooting have been felt across this small Mexican-American community, and across the country. We mourn with Uvalde. In a tight-knit community like Uvalde, Robb Elementary is the lifeblood of the town. That same elementary school has roots that stem back to 1970 when students, teachers, and parents held one of the longest walkouts in the country’s history to protest discrimination in the school. On today’s episode, we tell the story of resistance of this Mexican-American community—how it stood up against segregation and oppression, and how after such a devastating tragedy, it is trying to heal. Because Uvalde is much more than the headlines.

When Roberto Carlos Lange chose his stage name, he didn’t want to limit himself. Helado Negro represented something unknown and unexpected—and for over a decade, that’s what he set off to explore in his music. Helado Negro’s dreamy, psychedelic soundscapes explore themes of relationships and love, along with his own cultural heritage. Since his debut in 2009, Helado Negro has released seven albums, including his most recent, 2021’s “Far In.” Made during the early days of the pandemic, “Far In” is an exaltation of community and friendship. But the album’s release also coincided with a new chapter in Roberto’s life. Last year, he traded New York City for a new home in Asheville, North Carolina. And at the same time, Roberto began reflecting on his music, his audiences, and his career—along with healing from a lingering sense of burnout. In this episode of Latino USA, Roberto gets real about his journey in music, his relationship to his work, and what it’s like sharing his own life through his art.

In collaboration with the award-winning In The Thick political podcast, Maria Hinojosa and Julio Ricardo Varela explore current immigration policy under the Biden Administration with guest Camilo Montoya-Galvez, immigration reporter for CBS News. They talk about Trump-era policies like Title 42 and Remain in Mexico, as well as the detention of migrant children and the treatment of refugees seeking asylum. Finally, they discuss what Democrats need to do moving forward to reimagine the nation’s immigration system.

From My Cultura Network and IHeart Podcasts Hosts Patty Rodriguez and Erick Galindo reflect on their lives as children of immigrants. They realize that a pivotal moment in their parents and their lives was in fact the signing of IRCA in 1986. That moment defined a generation. To subscribe to Out of the Shadows: Children of 86, click here.

It’s 1993 in California. Dr. Dre is on the radio. The state is in a budget deficit. And a group of Orange County residents collects signatures to put a tough proposition on the ballot that would deny undocumented immigrants access to public services and education. You could say it was the first shot in today’s culture war over immigration. From Futuro Studios and Los Angeles Times, the story of Proposition 187 and how it continues to affect our culture and politics today. A three-part miniseries hosted by LA Times columnist Gustavo Arellano. This podcast was originally broadcast by Latino USA on November 1, 2019.

In this special collaboration with In The Thick, Maria Hinojosa and Julio Ricardo reflect on the mass shooting that occurred in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday. They process the heartbreaking news that an 18-year-old man opened fire at an elementary school killing two teachers and 19 children. They also get into the systemic issues of gun control, policing, and how this intersects with immigration.

From LAist Studios Oscar Gomez was a star of the 1990s Chicano student movement and then, unexpectedly, he died. A rattling event in host Adolfo Guzman-Lopez’s life spurs him to investigate Oscar’s death. To subscribe to Imperfect Paradise, click here.

There are two kinds of immigrants: the ones who don’t look back and the ones who spend their lives looking back. Miguel Macias has been both over the course of his life. “Limbo” follows Miguel’s migration journey after moving to the United States from Spain in 2001, when he was 25 years old. As we learn about the struggles that come with remaining connected to the homeland, and the life-long dilemma of whether to return one day, “Limbo” dives into the ways in which migration and depression interlock. “Limbo” is a love story, but also a story about belonging, purpose, achievement, and the things that matter in life.

If you’re looking for a sign to go get that tattoo you’ve been dreaming of — well, this is it. Tattoo and multimedia artist Tamara Santibañez believes that tattooing can work for anyone who wants it. The art form has existed for thousands of years, and it’s more than a tool for creative expression. In their book, “Could this be Magic? Tattooing as Liberation Work,” Tamara makes the case that tattooing holds deep meaning and even deeper potential: tattoos are a way to reclaim personal and collective histories, help heal trauma, and present one’s truest self to the world. Tamara developed their tattooing ethos across their 13-year-long career. Originally from Georgia, Tamara moved to New York City as an art student and soon after pivoted into the world of body art and tattooing. Tamara developed a specialty in black and white, fine-line tattooing — their style draws from their Mexican-American heritage, and from popular Chicano tattooing styles that originated within the prison system on the West Coast. In t

Violeta Parra changed music in her native Chile and beyond. She is known as the “Mother of La Nueva Canción,” a political folk music movement that swept Latin America in the late 1960s. Most people might have heard a version of her masterpiece “Gracias a la vida,” which has been covered countless times across the world. But behind that anthem of gratitude there is a deeply existential and complex musician who presented love as an ethical principle in her songs, even when her own life was marked by loss and illness. In the latest episode of our Genias in Music series —about the lives and work of notable women musicians— we dive into the complexities of Violeta Parra, a pioneer of political folk music in Latin America.

The Tiarras have been playing together since they were just little girls, but they’ve been sisters forever. The band is arguably best known for writing and performing catchy tunes that dive into themes of Latina empowerment, self-love and they’re not afraid to get political. On this episode of Latino USA, these hermanas tell us more about the role sisterhood plays in their creative process and why they hope their art and journey inspires future generations of Latinos and Latinas.

To kick off Latino USA's 2022 election cycle coverage, Maria Hinojosa and Julio Ricardo Varela are joined by Maria Teresa Kumar, founding president and CEO of Voto Latino, and Jaime Longoria, manager of research and training for the Disinfo Defense League at Media Democracy Fund for a conversation about misinformation and disinformation in the Latino community. They get into who is behind these disinformation campaigns, their impact on communities and the organizing that is being done to counter these issues.

Elizabeth Acevedo is a Dominican-American poet and award-winning author. Her debut young adult novel "The Poet X" made the New York Times bestseller list in 2018. With the Fire on High —Acevedo’s second novel— tells the story of an Afro-Latina who dreams of becoming a chef. We sit down with Elizabeth Acevedo to talk about how storytelling became an important part of her life, her identity, and the impact of her success. This episode was originally broadcast on May 28, 2019.

The following Latino USA story was originally broadcast on May 31, 2019. It was also the recipient of a 2020 Gracie Award from the the Alliance for Women in Media. Huntsville, Alabama has a small, but growing Latino population. It's where Teresa Matías, a single working immigrant mother from Guatemala, lived with five sons. In 2015, Teresa joined a local Catholic church, baptized her sons and found them godparents. The godparents of her youngest son would take a special liking to him. Over the next year, a series of events would begin to unravel —in which the godparents got lawyers and judges involved— eventually resulting in Teresa giving up complete parental rights to her youngest son. But in all these meetings, Teresa, who knows only a few words in English and grew up speaking a Mayan language, never had a proper interpreter. Latino USA chronicles Teresa's story and how she ended up making a life-changing decision without full consent and proper translation.

Latino USA provides an update to a story we recently did about Melissa Lucio, the first Latina on death row in Texas.

Doris Anahi Muñoz always sang. In fact, singing was her first career choice. But reality hit when she realized in her teenage years that she had to secure a career so that she could provide for her undocumented parents. Her dream of becoming a singer came to a halt. Instead, she got involved in the music industry from behind the scenes and became very successful: at 23 years old, she founded her own music management company representing indie Latino emerging artists and launched a series of fundraising concerts for immigrant communities. But soon after she realized she was unhappy.That’s when Doris decided it was time to choose herself and step onto the stage as a singer and musician.

When Elisa Baena and Monica Morales-García first met on their first day as Latino USA fellows, they realized they were speaking a shared language — an ancestral tongue. They were chismeando! Chisme is the Spanish word for gossip. It happens when you speak about someone in their absence, sharing information that’s supposed to be private and not necessarily factual. In this episode of Latino USA, Elisa and Monica travel deep into a chismosa’s universe. They talk to professional chismosas from reality TV, entertainment news and academia to understand why chisme is so central in the lives of Latinas and Latinos.

Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa grew up listening to the stories of her rural Afro Puerto Rican community of Puerto Rico, but when she moved to New York, she realized that not everybody had access to this kind of storytelling. After a long career as school teacher and librarian, Dahlma realized that she needed to write the stories her mostly Dominican and Puerto Rican students in the Bronx were missing. Dahlma shares how she found her writing voice and gives us a sneak peak of her new novel, A Woman of Endurance, which centers the experience of an enslaved woman in Puerto Rico.

La Lupe was a legendary Afro-Cuban singer who was once known as the “Queen of Latin Soul.” She was one of the top performers in Havana cabarets amid the Cuban Revolution and became a legendary figure in New York after fleeing Cuba. She worked with some of Latin music’s biggest names, including Tito Puente, and was known for explosive boleros like “Qué Te Pedí” and “La Tirana.” By the mid-1970s, Lupe’s label was acquired by Fania Records and she was pushed aside. She earned the reputation of being difficult to manage and there were rumors that she was a drug abuser, even though her family and friends have consistently denied these claims. Changing tastes in Latin music coupled with her strained reputation led her career to decline by the 80s. This episode of Latino USA is part of our Genias in Music series, remembering notable women and their contributions to their fields throughout history. We question some of the myths about La Lupe that attempted to delegitimize her music and look at how her identity as a