LatinXperts

In this episode, Dr. Karma Chávez interviews Professor Rogelio Saenz about his research documenting the impact of COVID-19 on Latinx communities in the US. Dr. Karma Chávez and Professor Rogelio Saenz discuss the reasons why COVID-19 has hit Latinx communities so hard and why that impact has been disproportionate. They also consider what can be […]

In this episode, Drs. Vanessa Errisuriz, Marisol McDaniel, and Alice Villatoro discuss how COVID-19 drastically impacted Texas Latinx college students’ educational experiences, including ability and motivation to learn, academic outcomes, and financial stability. Changes in the structure of higher education from in-person learning to virtual learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic may have created a...

In this episode, Dr. Rachel González-Martin and Dr. Belem López discuss the intersections of gender, respectability, and mothers in how Latinx communities use words and terms related to madres. Resources / Related Links: Un Desmadre Positivo: How Jenni Rivera Played Music ( D. Vargas in Contemporary Latina/o Media: Production, Circulation, Politics edited by Arlene M. […]

In this episode of LatinXperts, Dr. María Cotera has a wide-ranging conversation about the past, present, and future of Latina/o Digital Humanities with Dr. Gabriela Baeza Ventura and Dr. Carolina A. Villarroel of the University of Houston and Arte Público Press. In this podcast, we discuss the importance of recovering, preserving, and sharing Latina/o cultural heritage through emer...

p1nkstar is, without a doubt, Austin’s Queer Pop Princess, and the tiara that she beautifully wears is a symbol of a lineage of diva pop stars that we have been grown up and danced along with. Yet her presence on the club scene is expansive in its ability to not only dismantle the gender binary […]

Not all language is created equal! In this episode, Dr. Rachel González-Martin and Dr. Belem López discuss how Latinx communities use expletives to show love and care to their closest friends.  Additional Resources:  History of Swear Words | Official Trailer | Netflix  9 Insults Only Latinos Use As Compliments  Dr. Rachel González-Martin is a...

In the summer of 2019, Puerto Ricans rebelled and ousted their governor in what became known as the Verano Boricua. Dr. Marisol LeBrón explains the lessons learned. In this episode, Dr. Marisol LeBrón discusses her new book, Against Muerto Rico: Lessons From the Verano Boricua, which will be out in February 2021 from the Puerto […]

Following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, protests swept the U.S. and countries around the world. While people were taking to the streets and social media to say that Black Lives Matter, many reggaeton artists, particularly the genre’s biggest stars, were curiously silent. How do we explain this? Why does […]

Join Danielle Clealand and Victoria DeFrancesco Soto as they discuss how Latinos across the country voted in the 2020 election. They discuss turnout, state differences, political ground games and how a diverse set of voters helped to elect President-elect Biden. Our LatinXperts discuss how Latinos in different states voted this November and why we see […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted daily life for Texas college students, increasing feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression and reducing opportunities to engage in healthy behaviors. College campuses provide students regular access to mental health, food, and recreational services, but the reach of these services is currently limited. Strategic public health plans are necessary [&#823...

In early November of each year, people of Latin American descent create ofrendas for their dearly departed loved ones. Dr. Rachel González-Martin helps us to learn about where this celebration comes from and where it might be headed in the future. In this episode, Dr. Rachel González-Martin discusses the origins of Day of the Dead […]

Over the past several weeks, leftist organizing and academic communities in places like New York, Madison, and Indianapolis have been dealing with the aftermath of revelations that some of the loudest and ‘wokest’ members of their communities, Jessica Krug, CV Vitolo, and Satchuel Cole were actually white people masquerading as black. This type of racial […]

Public opinion polls consistently report data by the categories of white, black, and Latino. This approach erases the experiences of Afro-Latinos, who reportedly make up nearly ¼ of the US Latino population. How do such polls miss the mark on Latino public opinion? What would it look like if Afro-Latinos were centered in Latino politics? […]

Many Latinxs, especially from younger generations, have come out strongly in support of the movement for Black Lives. For many, they’ve approached this activism from a model of Black-Brown solidarity. But where does this model leave Afro-Latinxs? In this episode we interrogate the question: what is wrong with those signs that say Latinxs for Black […]

The history of Latinx people in the United States is one marked by criminalization and police violence, yet efforts to address police brutality and repression are seldom understood as “Latinx issues.” How does anti-black racism and assimilationist tendencies within mainstream Latinx politics and media downplay the problem of police violence? How can a focus on […]

Dr. Belem López and Dr. Rachel González-Martin discuss how racist language can go unnoticed in Latinx families. Drawing on their own lives, they will share experiences of colorism and racist dichos (traditional sayings) from their childhoods spent in Texas and California. Belem LópezDr. López received her Ph. D. in Cognitive Psychology from Texas A&M University in […]

The mass consumption of particular kinds of Latinx popular culture can play a role in the erasure of blackness and perpetuate a sentiment of anti-blackness in Latinx communities. How can we reverse the top-down movement of culture, which begins with cultural industries and trickles down to the consumers, and instead create cultural flow from below […]