Latino USA

Irene Vallejo never imagined she would become a global literary sensation. In 2019, the Spanish author and academic published an essay about a somewhat obscure topic: the ancient history of books. After a short literary career, she thought it would be the last book she published. Instead, “Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World” has become an international bestseller since then. It w...

In Part 2 of The Moving Border, we visit Tapachula, Mexico in search of a young man whose life is in danger and we find a new frontier where refugees trying to make it to the U.S. are increasingly stuck thanks to an international effort to make Mexico a destination state for asylum.  The Moving Border series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center, with additional support provided by...

Making Movies is a band based out of Kansas City, Missouri that mixes Afro-Latino rhythms and psychedelic rock’n'roll. The group members have roots in Panama and Mexico. It’s composed by two sets of brothers, lead singer and guitarist Enrique Chi and bassist Diego, and Juan-Carlos and Andres Chaurand on percussion and drums. In this edition of our series “How I Made It," Latino USA sits down with...

In this 2-part investigation, The Moving Border from Latino USA delves into the increasing pressure put on refugees seeking safety in the United States via its southern border. It reveals the surprising support the Trump administration has received to create an impenetrable policy wall that pushes asylum seekers south, away from the U.S.  In episode one, The North, we visit Juarez and tell the sto...

It was only a few years ago that Erik Rodriguez was attending medical school in his native Cuba, following his family of careerists’ footsteps. But then, when he heard James Brown’s "I feel good," he realized that he was meant for a different path.  In this segment of “How I Made It,” Erik takes us through his transformation into Afro-Cuban artist Cimafunk—a Billboard’s “Top 10 Latin Artists to Wa...

Gun violence is a top voting issue for Latinos and Latinas this election cycle. So to explore how Latines are thinking about the topic, we traveled to Texas. The Lone Star State has more registered guns than any other state in the country, and it’s also home to some of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history — many of them directly targeting Latinos and Latinas. On this episode of Latino USA, pro...

The Puerto Rican singer and songwriter Draco Rosa just released a new album, "Monte Sagrado," after several years without sharing a new collection of work, and after battling cancer. Born Robert Edward Rosa Suárez in New York, Rosa is a Grammy-winning artist, and a member of the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is behind hits including “Livin’ la Vida Loca.” Draco Rosa talks about his career, hi...

After Texas passed a six-week abortion ban and Roe v. Wade was overturned, many abortion clinics had to close in the Lone Star state. Some providers considered opening clinics in eastern New Mexico, so that they could keep providing services to women from Texas and other states where abortion is banned. But some neighbors in eastern New Mexico were not so welcoming to this idea.  In this episode o...

This week Latino USA shares an episode from the podcast "Imperfect Paradise: Return to Mexico," from LAist.  In 2011, Daniel Zamora took a road trip that shattered the course of his life. Lulled to sleep by the drive, he awoke to find that his boyfriend had taken a detour, curious to look at the border wall, and that they were surrounded by Border Patrol.  Imperfect Paradise: Return to Mexico tell...

The Mortgage Wall is a special episode by Futuro Investigates in collaboration with Latino USA. As housing has become one of the top five concerns for Latino voters for the first time ever this election cycle, we dive into the disparities that make it harder for Latinos and Latinas to overcome mortgage lending barriers and achieve homeownership. You can read more about the episode here .  Subscrib...

Daymé Arocena is a Cuban singer, songwriter and composer who left the island looking for artistic freedom. Arocena has been described as one of the most explosive and dynamic voices today. In her latest album "Alkemi" she bridges her knowledge of jazz, Afro-Cuban percussion, and even a little 90s R&B. These last few years have been a time of intense transformation for Arocena, so on this episo...

Vicente Montalvo's grandparents grew up and fell in love in Palo Verde, one of the neighborhoods that make up a community known as Chavez Ravine. In the early 1950s, the city decided that Chavez Ravine was the perfect site to build public housing. So the residents were forced to sell their homes under the city's use of eminent domain. But the election of a new mayor, would end up canceling those p...

Alaska is a Mexican-born singer from Spain with one of the most definitive LGBTQ Spanish anthems: "¿A quién le importa?" by the duo Alaska y Dinarama. In the late '70s, Alaska was one of the key figures of La Movida Madrileña, the era post-dictatorship in Spain. In this episode, the singer discusses her music career, how she went from being María Olvido Gara Jova to Alaska, and the message behind...

As Vice President Kamala Harris ascends as the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate this November, we revisit Maria Hinojosa’s sit-down 2023 conversation with the vice president. We also hear from our Latino USA listeners about how they feel about VP Harris and what they expect from her should she become the next president of the United States. You can read more about the episode here . ...

Roberto Deniz is a Venezuelan investigative journalist whose work has uncovered widespread corruption in Nicolás Maduro’s government. With the elections in Venezuela approaching on July 28th, Roberto sat down with co-executive producer Peniley Ramírez to discuss his work uncovering a big corruption scandal, the role the United States played in it, and the political landscape in Venezuela leading u...

Many of us grew up flipping to the horoscope section in magazines or waited for that weekly hit with celebrity astrologer Walter Mercado—or maybe you have a full-blown astrology practice and plan your days according to the way the stars and planets are aligned. Whatever your feelings on astrology are, it is by no means new, and it’s experiencing a renaissance—especially among Latinos and Latinas. ...

Anthropologist Ruth Behar is a groundbreaking scholar who also delights in salsa dancing. Born in Cuba to a Jewish family, Ruth draws from her heritage as an anthropologist and writer. Her latest middle grade novel, “Across So Many Seas,” was released in early 2024. In this episode, we spend the afternoon with Ruth and producer Elisa Baena before salsa class. They discuss Ruth’s writing process, h...

Today, Latino USA shares episode 2 of the "My Divo" podcast. Get in, we’re going clubbing in Juárez! It’s going to be glitzy, it’s going to be gritty. This is the nighttime scene that birthed Juan Gabriel. But like many cities, Juárez holds secrets. Maria uncovers a haunting secret about Juan Gabriel and, along the way, confronts a dark piece of the past in her own family.  "My Divo" is an Apple O...

This week, Latino USA shares an episode of the "My Divo" podcast. For host Maria Garcia, Mexican megastar Juan Gabriel has always held a singular allure. He was a prolific composer and one of the world’s greatest showmen. There was a lightness and a bigness to him—a big queer exuberance. And now, as the first openly gay woman in her family line, Maria looks to Juan Gabriel as a key to reconcile he...

In part two of our two-part special, we continue our investigation into the death of a man in a U.S. immigration detention center in 2015. José de Jesús turned himself into Border Patrol saying somebody was after him. Three days later, he died by suicide after stuffing a sock down his throat. In part two of this story, surveillance video reveals clues about what happened inside his cell, and an in...

Colombian-Canadian singer-songwriter Lido Pimienta tells us how her experience of migration led to her love of Afro-Colombian music, how a beauty pageant and its underlying anti-blackness inspired her new album, and how she came to collaborate with the legendary Afro-Colombian ensemble, Sexteto Tabalá, in her track "Pelo Cucú.” This episode originally aired in 2020. See omnystudio.com/listener for...

A man dies in a U.S. immigration detention center, under unusual circumstances. He is found unresponsive in his cell, with a sock stuffed down his throat. His death is ruled a suicide, but little information is put out about what happened, and the family wants answers. In this first part of a special two-part series, Latino USA investigates why José de Jesús died in the custody of the U.S. governm...

When Angela Guzman started her internship at Apple back in 2008 she had no idea her first project would have such an impact on how we communicate. Guzman co-designed the first set of Apple Emojis and our keyboards haven't been the same since. This episode originally aired in 2019.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This election year, a question roams in many voters' minds: Is there an “invasion” on our southern border? The answer from plenty of the people who live and work there is no. To understand what is really going on at the border, we travel to Sasabe, a tiny community in a remote area of the Arizona border with Mexico, to find out how human-smuggling battles within the Sinaloa cartel turned it into a...

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...