Latino USA

This week on Latino USA, listen to those directly impacted by the devastating wildfires across Los Angeles County, where at least 25 people have died, thousands were displaced, and communities completely destroyed. Guest host Fernanda Echavarri is joined by Antonia Cereijido, host and reporter at LAist, to talk about the situation on the ground and the community solidarity that has sprung from this disaster. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.

As a Zapotec and Maya Ch’orti’ environmental scientist, Dr. Jessica Hernandez has always found academia to be a hostile place. She had looked forward to sharing what she learned from her grandmother and father about nature as an undergraduate student, but her lived experiences and knowledge were dismissed and sometimes mocked by her professors. Now, Dr. Hernandez is working to change how we think about environmental sciences by centering Indigenous science to heal our planet, because she knows Western conservationism isn’t working. This episode originally aired in 2022. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.

Much has been said about Latino men after the presidential election, but a lot of it lacks context. In order to deepen our understanding of Latino manhood and its influence in the United States at this moment, we are launching a new series, "Hombre: Understanding Latino Men" today. The series features nuanced conversations with a diverse group of hombres latinos. Our first guest is political consultant and Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha. He sits down with Maria Hinojosa to unpack why Latino men shifted further right in 2024 and how the Democratic Party failed to reach these voters. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.

Netflix has brought Gabriel García Márquez’s iconic novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" to life with a two-part limited series spanning over 16 hours of television. The Colombian masterpiece tells the multi-generational saga of the Buendía family, who establish the utopian town of Macondo. The story captures their struggles with love, war, curses, and solitude, intertwined with the magical realism that defines García Márquez’s literary style. We spoke to Alex García López, one of the series’ directors about the experience of creating the magical world of Macondo. This interview was recorded in early November. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.

Nachos: They’re one of the most popular snack foods in the United States, and the name is instantly recognizable worldwide. Bright yellow nacho cheese is now a staple at countless sports events and movie nights, serving as a flavor of nostalgia to many. But nachos’ immense popularity over the years has overshadowed their true history. The first nachos weren’t invented in ballparks or designed for concession stands. They were created 80 years ago in a small town in Mexico, along the south Texas border. And they weren’t made to be a big hit. Still, nachos would end up bigger than anyone could have ever imagined. This episode originally aired in January 2023. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.

For Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Ileana Cabra — known by her stage name, iLe — music has always been a way to reflect and comment on the world around her. iLe began her musical career singing with her brothers in their renowned rap group Calle 13. But in 2016, iLe decided to go solo. She would go on to release three studio albums, using those platforms to explore many musical genres with deep roots in Latin America and the Caribbean: from boleros and salsa, to pop and reggaeton. As a songwriter, iLe puts her lyricism at the forefront, delving into themes of patriarchy and colonialism in her music. In this episode iLe walks us through the evolution of her music as a form of protest, and how she is daring herself to show a more personal side in her most recent album, “Nacarile.” This episode originally aired in 2023. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.

On May 3, 2017, a young woman was found dead on the campus of a prestigious university in Mexico City. Soon after the Mexico City Attorney General's office sent out a series of tweets—that would be picked up by the Mexican media—that characterized the 22-year-old as a dropout and alcoholic. The response online was immediate: many women saw these tweets and media reports as an attempt to discredit the woman as a victim and in response, thousands of women started to tweet with the hashtag #SiMeMatan or “if they kill me.” It was short for: “If they kill me, what will they say to blame me for my own death?” Latin America has some of the highest rates of femicide in the world—and Latino USA dives into a case that demonstrates the deep challenges that remain for women in Mexico. This episode originally aired in 2019. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.

Filmed over six years, "The Silence of Others" reveals how survivors and their families have struggled to cope in the aftermath of Spain’s 40-year dictatorship under General Franco. The film, executive produced by Pedro Almodóvar, follows the victims as they organize a groundbreaking international lawsuit and fight a “pact of forgetting” around the crimes they suffered. Survivors of the dictatorship and human rights lawyers built a case in Argentina that Spanish courts refuse to hear. Maria Hinojosa speaks about the film with its directors, Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar. This episode originally aired in 2019. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.

The Yakama Indian Reservation in Eastern Washington is home to 11,000 Native Americans and almost three times as many Latinos. Over recent decades, the reservation has attracted Mexican farmworkers and their families who made the valley their home. Despite shared indigenous roots, living side by side hasn't been easy, and tensions between the two groups are high. On this collaboration with Northwest Public Radio, Latino USA dives into the dynamics of the reservation, exploring how two communities living side by side try to learn to get along. This episode originally aired in November 2015. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.

Javier Zamora was nine years-old when he made the journey from El Salvador to the U.S.-Mexico border. Last year, nearly 20 years later, he returned to the country where he was born, to apply for a visa that will allow him to continue to live in the U.S. In this award-winning episode from our vault, we follow Javier's return in his own words: through audio diaries, archival family tape, and interviews. "The Return" is an intimate portrait of what gets left behind when we immigrate and what we can gain when we return. This story originally aired in December of 2018. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.

Natasha S. Alford has always been three things: Black, Latina and an overachiever. Weeks after a historic presidential election, Maria Hinojosa and Natasha —a political analyst, journalist, and media executive— sit down to talk about solidarity between Black and Latinx communities and Natasha’s latest achievement, her debut memoir American Negra. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.

This week Latino USA brings you an episode of the In The Thick podcast. ITT hosts Maria Hinojosa and Paola Ramos are joined by NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff for a deep dive into the devastating consequences of Donald Trump’s first term immigration policy. They discuss the upcoming film “Separated,” based on Soboroff’s 2020 book by the same name, Trump’s child separation policy, and what a repeat of one of the darkest chapters in U.S. immigration history could look like. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.

The “virtual wall” across the U.S.-Mexico border is made up of things like drones, sensors, cameras and… surveillance towers. Both Democrats and Republicans have supported border technology through the years, but advocates and researchers argue that a virtual wall can be as controversial, and deadly, as a physical wall. On this episode, producer Reynaldo Leaños Jr. travels to southern Arizona where one of the first major concentrations of surveillance towers on the southern border were built, and he looks at what these towers mean today, and for the future of those crossing, and living, there. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.

This week Latino USA brings you an episode of the The Burden: Avengers podcast. Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At age 19, she was kidnapped for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from cargo planes into the ocean. Miriam survived. Then as a journalist, she waged a campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is a podcast series produced by Orbit Media that tells the story of one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.

Felipe Coronel, aka Immortal Technique, is a legendary underground hip-hop artist known for his skills on the mic and his raw, highly political lyrics. The Peruvian-American rapper became well-known for his first album in 2001, "Revolutionary Vol. 1" and particularly for his infamously brutal song "Dance With the Devil." Tech says growing up in Harlem during the 80's and 90's caused him to harbor a lot of rage—much of his music discusses colonialism, poverty, and corruption. We sit down with Immortal Technique to get a deeper sense of what it was like growing up in Harlem and how his rage has played into his successful music career. This episode originally aired in 2019. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.

In 2001, Nickelodeon started airing "Taina," a show about a Latina teen who attends a performing arts high school in NYC and daydreams of being a star. While the show only lasted two seasons, "Taina" is seared into the memories of many who grew up watching it, because at the time it was rare to see an authentic portrayal of what it was like to be a Nuyorican teen in the early 2000s. In this episode from our vault, Maria Hinojosa talks to the show’s award-winning creator Maria Perez-Brown, who is Nuyorican herself, about jumping into the world of children's television after being a tax lawyer, and the surprisingly long legacy of “Taina.” This episode originally aired in 2019. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.

With DACA and the Dreamers poised to be back in the center of the national conversation, Latino USA revisits this episode about what it means to be young and undocumented in the United States today. In 2013, a group of young undocumented activists known as the Dream 9 staged one of the riskiest protests in the history of the immigration rights movement. They willingly left the U.S. to Mexico, and then demanded to be let back into the country despite lacking legal status. Their efforts landed them in detention—and in the national spotlight. This episode originally aired in October 2015. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.

This week Latino USA brings you an episode of Future Hindsight. Host Mila Atmos is joined by Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, the Policy Director at the American Immigration Council, a non-profit organization that strives to strengthen the United States by shaping immigration policies and practices. They discuss how out-of-date immigration laws are and why the only cure is comprehensive immigration reform from Congress. U.S. immigration laws have not changed since the 1990s. The current border enforcement and asylum system dates back to 1996, and in fact, one of the reasons that asylum seekers are living in shelters is because Congress decided in 1996 to make it illegal for them to get a work permit until six months after they apply for asylum. The asylum system is severely underfunded and is a major reason for processing delays. In addition, there are more than 4 million people who have already been approved for visas but the wait time to get the legal status is decades long. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.

Maria Hinojosa sits down with award-winning Mexican actors Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal to talk about their latest projects together—"La Máquina", Hulu’s first original Spanish language series and "State of Silence," a Netflix documentary about the threats and dangers Mexican journalists face while reporting in their country. Diego and Gael also discuss how they foster their lifelong friendship, and how the two create politically powerful art. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.

When Paloma, a second-generation Mexican-American trans woman, was attending Maria Hinojosa’s class at Barnard College, she was using they/them pronouns. Back then, she was downcast and barely spoke a word. Years later, Maria started seeing Paloma’s social media posts as a fabulous and outgoing drag performer. How did that happen? In this episode, we follow Paloma in her journey to womanhood—a journey that started in her family home in the Bay Area and continues today, after months of Hormone Replacement Treatment (HRT). Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage.