Latino USA

Two years after her untimely death, Cecilia Gentili remains a legendary trans icon. As International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia approaches, we celebrate it by revisiting our conversation with Gentili.  In 2022 she spoke to Latino USA about her memoir, “Faltas,” written as a series of letters to people in her hometown in Argentina.  Cecilia goes back to...

Grammy award-winning Mexican artist Julieta Venegas just released an album and a memoir all about being a Norteña . But like many growing up in the north of Mexico, near the U.S. border, she was also heavily influenced by music and pop culture in English. She loved The Cure as much as she loved Juan Gabriel.  Listen to Julieta Venegas talk about her iconic sound, strict Mexican dads wh...

Governments worldwide are restricting press freedom, with the U.S. experiencing a drastic decline under the second Trump administration. Funding cuts to public media, lawsuits, federal censorship, and confrontations with ICE have become the norm. Journalists of color, Latino and immigrant journalists are disproportionately impacted. In this episode, we are joined by Maritza Félix, the found...

Estefany Rodríguez, a Nashville-based journalist from Colombia, was arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement this past March. In this episode, Estefany gave Latino USA a shocking account about her detention and the inhuman conditions she experienced and witnessed. Estefany’s lawyers argue that her detention was retaliation for her reporting on immigration enforceme...

In this intimate reflection, Colombian-American producer Tasha Sandoval takes listeners with her as she returns to her native Colombia, after a lifetime of living in the United States. For a few years, Tasha has had a growing desire: to find out what life would be like if she relocated to the country her parents left, to go back to her homeland. And she’s not the only one– Latin Americ...

After World War II, Puerto Ricans began settling in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, drawn by economic opportunities among Mennonite farming communities. Several generations later, they’re honoring their history and reclaiming their identity as “Dutchiricans” within the Mennonite church—and beyond.  Tune in to listen to the story of a Dutchirican matriarch —from her f...

“If Hamilton is an Obama-era hope musical, we are a Trump-era protest musical," said Nygel D. Robinson, co-creator of “Mexodus.”   “Mexodus,” a high-energy Off-Broadway show that explores a lesser-known part of U.S. history: the Underground Railroad, south into Mexico. In the 1800s, thousands of enslaved Black people fled to Mexico, where slavery had been ab...

Shortages of food, fuel, and basic goods are deepening the crisis in Cuba. For many families living on the island, survival now depends on an outside connection. In Miami, an entire economy has sprung up, with people sending packages of food, medicine, and even motorcycles, trying to fill the gap, while Trump keeps saying that “Cuba is next.” Latino USA’s Peniley Ramirez takes us...

John Leguizamo is back on our screens—though he never really left. For decades he has played characters that have become comedy cult classics: Chi Chi Rodriguez in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar , to Benny Blanco in Carlitos Way , and Tybalt in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet . He’s the voice of Bruno in Encanto and Sid the Sloth in Ice Age . Roles that he argues...

Petrona Martínez is one of the most important Black singers in Colombia's modern history—and she didn't get her big break until she was 60! She’s known as “the queen of bullerengue,” an ancestral music tradition that goes back to times of slavery in the Colombian Caribbean Coast. For much of her life, Petrona dealt with isolation, poverty and invisibility as a Black...

Real Estate duo Miss Jamie Zapata and Kasandra Alicea went viral on social media in 2025 after showcasing luxurious homes as themselves: “Big ass trans women from South Texas.” Their content has raked in millions of views and people especially connected with them because they called themselves “The Real Estate Dolls.” The two are using their newfound virality to fight trans...

Once a protected group of immigrants, people with DACA are now being detained and deported under the Trump administration. More than half a million people brought to the U.S. as children have gone through the rigorous process to get this protected status over the last 14 years, so what’s happening to their status now? We bring you the latest from NBC News’ Nicole Acevedo and take a loo...

In 1989, Maria Hinojosa gave up her Mexican citizenship when she became a naturalized U.S. Citizen. She didn’t know it at the time, but she’d spend years of her life trying to get that legal status. And Maria is amongst the thousands looking for belonging and political power outside of the United States. And even though Maria’s journey is very personal, it asks inherently politic...

In 1916, a Mexican composer named Maria Grever moved to New York City with her two kids. She went on to write about 1,000 songs until her death in 1951. She composed numerous top charting hits, scored for the big movie houses, wrote operas and Broadway musicals. One of her biggest hits from 1934 received a Grammy and yet many have never heard her name. Maria Grever the person is a mystery, making...

In 1902, Isabel González arrived in Ellis Island, pregnant, alone and with only $11.00 in her pocket. She —like others before her— was detained for being an "alien" and at risk of becoming a "burden" on the state. But Isabel took her fight to the courts, defending her right to stay in the country that had invaded her homeland just four years earlier. She fought all the way to th...

For decades, Cesar Chavez's name has been synonymous with workers’ rights. School buildings and streets bear his name. Alongside Chavez always stood Dolores Huerta. She’s a co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association and together they led a movement that profoundly transformed working conditions for farmworkers in the U.S.  Now, Dolores speaks to Latino USA about being sex...

“We are dealing with the consequences of a demographic paranoia now.” Journalist, historian, and author Jelani Cobb often looks to the past to better understand the present, and he says the right’s pushback against immigration and multiculturalism is rooted in this country’s history. He speaks with Maria Hinojosa about the parallels between recent ICE raids and the Fugitive...

Journalist and author Sam Quinones spent his career reporting on crime, drug trafficking and addiction. After his latest book on the opioid epidemic, he turned to a vastly different topic that long held his interest—the tuba, an instrument that for decades was often looked down on or ignored.  The more Quinones learned about the tuba, and the people that dedicate their lives to masterin...

The Oscars are back! The live three-hour broadcast can be a pressure cooker of high emotional stakes, with technical failures and unpredictable celebrity behavior. All leading to a range of cultural moments from slaps to political dissent.  In anticipation of this year's Oscars, Maria Hinojosa sits down with film critics Rosa Parra and Carlos Aguilar to break down this year’s nomination...

In Georgia, most abortions are illegal after six weeks, which is often before most people even realize that they are pregnant. At one abortion clinic in Atlanta, Tracii, the head of security, spends her days guiding patients past shouting protestors of megaphones, and into the clinic where she assures them that they are safe. In this episode, Maria Hinojosa interviews producers, Soledad O’Br...

What started decades ago at the U.S.-Mexico border didn’t stay there. Journalist, author, and professor Jean Guerrero speaks with Maria Hinojosa and argues that communities on the southern border were a “testing ground” for the increased immigration enforcement that we’re seeing play out across U.S. cities. Jean also makes the case that Honduras may be the next laboratory f...

After the longest State of the Union address in U.S. history this past Tuesday, we go beyond the lies and omissions to assess where our country stands. A sobering look at what President Trump has built, and dismantled, during his second term in office. We analyze plans to build an economy around mass immigration detention, the precarious state of finances in so many U.S. households, and the duty c...

Ana Tijoux’s decades-long career is recognized and regarded for music that disregards borders and genres. Born in France to Chilean parents who fled Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in the 70s, Ana Tijoux grew up between worlds. Rooted in culture and global by nature, her music is heavily influenced by Chilean musical revolutionaries and French and US hip hop of the 90s, including great...

ICE is waging an “information war” on social media, TV, and radio. Washington Post reporters got access to thousands of chats and internal communications from the employees running PR for the Department of Homeland Security.  They run a taxpayer-funded media machine whose main goal is to go viral, whether people love or hate the content. The goal is to go viral. But recent polling...

Last year in March, Honduran composer and singer artist Aurelio Martinez died in a tragic plane crash. Aurelio was the voice of the Garifuna people and a fierce defender of their music and culture. Almost two decades ago, producer Marlon Bishop became friends with Aurelio, living and traveling with him for several months. He shares the story of their time together. Latino USA is the longest-runnin...