Latino USA

Visual artist Narsiso Martinez uses materials, like discarded produce boxes and dusty charcoal, to depict intimate scenes about the life and labor of farm workers in the United States. Born in Oaxaca, Mexico in 1977, Narsiso says migrant farm work was part of his hometown’s culture — it was normal to see young people travel to the US for work. At 19, Narsiso also made that journey, and went on to...

Author and journalist, Carmen Rita Wong, grew up believing that her father was “Papi” Peter Wong, a Chinese American man. At least, that’s what her Dominican mother, Lupe, told her. But as Carmen's mom neared the end of her life, family secrets came to the surface, sending Carmen on a search for answers. In her memoir “Why Didn’t You Tell Me,” Carmen dives into her family’s story — picking apart h...

In the special presentation of the In The Thick political podcast produced by Futuro Media, Maria and Julio are joined by Jennifer Medina, a national politics reporter for The New York Times. They break down recent polling on Latino and Latina voters, including Futuro Media’s first-ever political poll. They also discuss the issues that actually matter to Latino and Latina voters, and what both par...

Latino USA producer Sayre Quevedo grew up having only met two members of his blood family, his mom and his brother. His father left before he was born and his mother lost touch with her family after leaving home as a teenager. For a long time, Sayre's family history was shrouded in mystery. Until one Mother's Day, when everything changes, and he finds himself on a journey to untangle the story of...

On October 9, the Los Angeles Times of a conversation between now-former L.A. City Council President Nury Martínez, fellow Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León, and now-former L.A. County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, in which Martínez made racist remarks against another councilmember’s Black son and the city’s Indigenous community from Oaxaca. Here’s an episode from our colle...

Between the years of 2010 and 2020, North Dakota saw a growth rate of almost 150% of Latinos and Latinas, according to the U.S. Census —the biggest Latino population growth in the entire country. Jobs in the oil and gas industry are mostly responsible for this population growth in North Dakota. But moving to and living in North Dakota isn’t always easy. And many ask: are Latinos here to stay? In t...

Latino USA is proud to present an episode of Brazil on Fire , a podcast produced in partnership between The Real News and NACLA. Using key issues like family values and security, Bolsonaro’s hateful rhetoric and fake news machine painted the 2018 election as a battle for the soul of the country. This episode looks at Bolsonaro’s most ardent supporters and how a culture war born in the United State...

North Dakota saw the biggest growth rate of Latinos and Latinas in the United States between 2010 and 2020, according to the U.S. Census. Why? Many people moved to North Dakota for jobs, particularly in the oil and gas industry, lured by an oil boom that started around 2008. But how has this increase of Latinos, Latinas and other people impacted the state and how is this rapid growth being receive...

Latino USA is proud to present an episode from The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com Rediscovering: Killed Through The Border Fence podcast. Nearly a decade ago, a Border Patrol agent in the United States shot and killed 16-year-old José Antonio Elena Rodríguez in Mexico. Rediscovering: Killed Through The Border Fence tells the story of José Antonio and his family's search for something still elu...

As a traditionally Republican state, Arizona hadn’t seen a Democratic presidential candidate win since 1996. But then, in 2020, the state became a battleground. Voters chose Joe Biden over Donald Trump with a difference of just 10,000 votes. Much of that shift in politics is attributed to a grassroots progressive movement of young Latinos and Latinas, who mobilized hundreds of thousands of new vot...

As recently as 1955, there were virtually no immigrants held in detention in the U.S. Today, the federal government holds tens of thousands each day, in 130 facilities across the country. But the story of how we got here did not start at the U.S.-Mexico border - it started on Florida’s shores, 50 years ago. Through personal histories and meticulously compiled archival materials, Detention By Desig...

Latino USA is proud to feature an episode from Futuro Studios and Higher Ground’s The Sum of Us podcast, Heather McGhee ’s travel diary about the surprising cross-cultural connections that are rebuilding the American community, from rural Maine to the California coast and everywhere in between. In 1921, the small town of Minden, Nevada began sounding a “sundown siren” that warned Indigenous people...

Poet and spoken word artist Denice Frohman has been performing for more than 15 years now — you may have seen some past videos of her work go viral on the early days of social media. Denice thrives onstage, bringing a musical cadence and emotional depth to work about family, language, queerness, and her Puerto Rican heritage. Her mission is to share her community’s stories in her writing and perfo...

Before it was the classic dress we all know and many still love today, the little black dress was mostly worn by working-class shopgirls and domestics. Monica Morales-Garcia began to research the origins of the L.B.D. to answer: How had so much changed, yet so much had stayed the same? Listen as Monica walks us through the decline of an industry and the rise of a garment. See omnystudio.com/listen...

Bianca Graulau is an independent journalist who's been using TikTok and YouTube to tell you what’s going on in Puerto Rico—whether you live there or not. By explaining Puerto Rico’s colonial relationship with the United States in English to an audience outside of the island, she’s also gathered a huge following there as well. Her own top video has 11 million views. Continuing our 5th anniversary H...

When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September of 2017, there was a complete lack of government response, highlighting the stark reality of austerity politics and colonialism. On this episode of Latino USA, we travel to the city of Caguas and follow the story of the Comedores Sociales de Puerto Rico, one of the many community-led groups that would occupy an abandoned space after the storm and m...

This week Latino USA is featuring the first episode of the Rubirosa podcast, a Witness Docs production. Imagine instead of James Bond it was… Jaime Bond, Javi Bond, Bondissimo. Well, guess what, y’all? The white, British character at the center of Ian Fleming’s super-successful franchise was actually based on a Dominican man. Porfirio Rubirosa was a diplomat, a playboy who spoke five languages, an...

This summer, Latino USA took a trip to the West Coast for a live show in Los Angeles — and now, we’re bringing that special evening to you! On this edited version of our live show, host Maria Hinojosa is joined by actor Danny Trejo and comedian Marcella Arguello to talk about what makes Los Angeles so special — and to celebrate L.A.’s vibrant Latino community. See omnystudio.com/listener for priva...

For the past decade, Armando Perez has worked as a wildland firefighter with the Eldorado, California, Hotshot crew—an elite group that works in the hottest portions of wildfires. For Armando that has meant weeks away from his family, dealing with some of the worst fires in U.S. history. Still, there’s nothing else he would rather be doing. In this episode of Latino USA, Armando recreates what a t...

What and who do you include in a national Latino museum? That’s a question that many have been asking since late 2020, when Congress green-lit the creation of The National Museum of the American Latino. It’s a new addition to the Smithsonian Institution’s roster of national museums, many of which intend to preserve the history and culture of the United States. The fight to create The National Muse...

We're still on summer break so we are sharing an interview from our archives with poet Yesika Salgado. She heads with Maria Hinojosa to the Hunts Point Produce Market, the largest wholesale produce market in the world, to try to identify the sexiest, most romantic fruit. Then they sit down to talk about relationships, lust, and Salgado’s book, “Hermosa.” This episode first aired on February 14, 20...

Latino USA is on summer break this week so we wanted to share one of our favorite recent interviews that we originally broadcast in early 2020. In this conversation with Maria Hinojosa, legendary musician José Feliciano opens up about why he keeps the 70s alive and also describes one of his favorite relationships—the one he has with his guitar. This podcast first aired on February 12, 2020. See om...

Evelynn Escobar-Thomas grew up near a state park in Northern Virginia, but she never visited it. For Evelynn, who is a Black and Indigenous Guatemalan woman, outdoor recreation felt segregated, and she never really felt welcomed in hiking trails and campsites. In 2017, after moving to Los Angeles, Evelynn decided to change that: she founded Hike Clerb, an outdoor club centering women of color. Tod...

In this continuation of Latino USA’s 2022 midterms coverage, Maria welcomes her In The Thick co-host Julio Ricardo Varela and the following two guests: Sonja Diaz , Founding Director of the Latino Policy & Politics Institute at UCLA, and Jazmine Ulloa , national reporter for The New York Times. Looking ahead to the midterm elections, they discuss the role Latinos and Latinas will play, what th...

You probably haven’t met a comedian quite like Julio Torres. Julio’s work is highly visual and deeply inquisitive, often focusing on everyday objects or routine and giving it a surreal twist. After immigrating from El Salvador to the U.S. for college, Julio did the rounds in New York City’s stand-up scene before landing a gig writing at “Saturday Night Live.” After a few years, Julio decided to le...