Learn Spanish with Stories

Have you ever heard of the Mapuche people, or the historical country of “Wallmapu”? Probably not, and there’s a reason for that: the Mapuche people have been conquered, colonized, and excluded for centuries, since the Spanish arrived in South America... to the present day when modern governments continue to ostracize and bar them from possessing the same rights as everyone else. It’s a controversi...

While capitalism has undoubtedly brought us some of our most impressive advancements as a species, it has also done some pretty terrible stuff to people across the world. Latin America is not an exception. In the early 20th century, as corporations in the United States began looking outward and started entering poorer countries (under the guise of "foreign investment"), governments acros...

When you watch a pirate movie, have you ever asked yourself where most of them are based? Heck, isn't the most famous movie pirate saga based in, precisely, Latin America (the Caribbean)? And I bet you didn't know that most of those characters, events, and legends are based (loosely) on real stories and treasures - yes, it's not an exaggeration when we're told that reality surp...

Did you grow up loving dinosaurs like me? Maybe, maybe not, but you have to admit that it's sad how they disappeared. One day they were out there doing their thing, and then BOOM! A giant asteroid fell from the sky and ended them all.   But where did that asteroid land? To be honest, there are mixed studies, but it is widely believed that the Yucatan extinction event was the cause for the dis...

It may be surprising if you didn't already know this, but back in the late 1980s, a son of first-generation Japanese immigrants rose enough in political power and popularity to become president of a South American nation.   We're talking of the ex-president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, who was elected in a time of great economic and social struggle in the nation. There was even an ongoing...

What if I told you that there was a "day in which the mountain rolled into the sea" in Venezuela? What would you think? It sounds almost poetic, but it describes the country's worst natural tragedy in history.   It all began with a week of heavy rain, a storm at the beginning of December 1999, when the whole nation's attention was fixed almost entirely on the shifting political...

Did you know that one of the most influential writers in history is actually from Latin America? Colombia, to be exact – I’m talking of Gabriel García Márquez, of course!   Father of the amazing and refreshing genre known as “Magical Realism”, this Aracataca-born man changed the course of Latin American literature forever with his classic “One Hundred Years of Solitude”.   In this latest episode o...

Do you know what’s one of the strangest things in Latin America? The fact that the biggest country in a Spanish-majority region (with a third of the total population in Latin America) speaks a different language: Portuguese.   You’d think that somehow, Brazil would have adopted Spanish like their neighbors, but they never did, and even today, it is a minority language among many others. So… why? W...

Have you ever wondered why Paraguay isn’t really a big, star destination in South America? In fact, it’s actually one of the least talked about locations in all of Latin America despite its size and location.   Well, this might have a lot to do with the fact that it went through a truly terrible war in the 1800s that decimated its infrastructure and even its population (up to HALF of Paraguayans d...

Many of the best heroic stories end in tragedy. Such is the case of Kiki Camarena, the ace DEA agent with a magnificent sixth sense and an ability to sniff out the bad guys unlike any other.   Although his career was centered on U.S. law enforcement, this Mexican-born special agent was transferred to Mexico to keep an eye on the ongoing events of the criminal underworld and soon realized that thin...

Some people are born different. Talented, special, prodigies… whatever you want to call them, they are able to do things others could only dream of. Gustavo Dudamel is one such man – from a young age, he demonstrated an immense ability in the world of music.   This music conductor not only became the best of his nation, Venezuela, by the age of 18, but also soon dominated South America, Europe, an...

In 1985, Colombia was going through one of its most terrible periods in all its history. On one side, Pablo Escobar was destabilizing the nation with his drug trade and violence, and the Cali Cartel was growing in power. On the other, only two years before, a terrible earthquake had destroyed the city of Popayán, scarring the memories of local citizens and bringing fear to those around the nation....

Welcome back to the Learn Spanish with Stories podcast by Lingo Mastery! We’ve arrived once more, this time with Season 3, to bring you the best in Spanish learning.   This time, we want to travel across the world, away from Latin America… all the way to the Philippines, where a very interesting Spanish-related development happened between the 1500s and late 1800s – the colonization of these encha...

We’ve reached the Season Finale of another wonderful season, and we want to thank you for your support all throughout the year, in which we became one of the biggest Spanish learning podcasts and reached thousands more than we ever had. And, to end Season 2, we want to take you on a journey like no other in this special DUAL-NARRATOR episode. Have you ever felt the threat of burnout, wanted to tra...

When you think of the most impressive empires in the world, you cannot avoid thinking of the Aztec Empire, the powerful Mesoamerican civilization that conquered much of modern-day Mexico and was comprised of several million people. This is because, for a civilization that ruled over 500 years ago, the Aztecs accomplished many impressive feats in terms of medicine, society and technology, and were...

In the history of Latin America, political extremes have caused great pain and suffering, especially to innocents throughout the rural areas of Central and South America. Communism has not been an exception to this rule. And in Peru, during the 70s, 80s and 90s, one particular Communist party made Peru an extremely dangerous and unwelcome place to live in. Led by a narcissistic leader who believed...

Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez. You may love him, hate him, or wonder who we’re even talking about – but the truth is that Nayib Bukele has changed the direction of El Salvador’s history forever, simply by turning it from the world’s most dangerous nation to one of its safest, practically overnight. But we must ask the important question here: is he the Central American nation’s savior? Or is he a tyr...

Did you know Panama has no army? Probably not, but it wasn’t an arbitrary or random decision. You see, it was all due to one man: a dictator, a tyrant, an enemy of the United States of America. Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno, who grew from low-ranking soldier in the Panamanian Army to the most powerful man in the country in just a few decades. And – while they initially loved him as a strong ally a...

So, by you now you know your Latin American beaches, your mountains and waterfalls - of which there are many, so congrats for that – but you probably haven’t yet heard of the lesser-known “bizarre” or even “haunted” places in Latin America. But what makes a place bizarre? Any number of things, starting from a worryingly high number of suicides having occurred there, or a horrific backstory of drow...

While today we may recognize Medellín as a beautiful city that is not only welcoming of tourists and digital nomads but also a safe place to live, it was not this way just a few decades ago… You see, in the 1980s and early 1990s, a wanted criminal known Pablo Escobar had made this city – as well as much of Colombia – his personal territory in which he would grow what was the biggest drug trade bus...

Diego Maradona. Lionel Messi. Cristiano Ronaldo. They have all been the greatest of their times at some point… but there is a player who is even greater than these footballing giants. The winner of 7 Ballons d’Or (you’ll understand in a minute), 3 World Cup trophies (sorry Cristiano), Player of the Century and so many more awards, O Rei Pelé was on a whole different level. Furthermore, having been...

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderón. You may know her simply as Frida Kahlo… An artist with a tragic past. A woman who knew suffering and sadness. A wonderful warrior who fought like no other, both against the societal reality of her time, as well as the difficulties of disability and chronic pain. And yet, her story is not always well told, as it also seems to leave out some important events. ...

South America is fascinating and has some incredibly remote areas, but what if you want to go even more south and even more remote? Well, good news for you, as you would find yourself in Antarctica, the land of the penguins and sea lions, the place where the coldest temperature in history has ever been recorded.    But what is the link between Antarctica and Latin America, how do you get there, an...

This is it. The episode you’ve been waiting for… the long-awaited What If? episode, in which we travel through realities and find out what could have happened in Latin American history. Join Anthony and Li as they make use of a time machine to move across realities and witness the greatest moments of Latin American past, present and future transformed into something very different, with quite surp...

Over time, more and more Latin Americans have left their nations and traveled across the world – sometimes out of necessity, other times out of the desire to triumph in a nation that offers them opportunities. However, this has sometimes brought conflict with the locals, who have disregarded them or their culture.   In this episode of the Learn Spanish with Stories podcast, we want to remind the w...