Latino Usa

It's a common sight in Puerto Rico—men in bright yellow T-shirts going door-to-door- selling cakes. They're residents at Hogar CREA, Puerto Rico's biggest drug treatment program. Since CREA’s founding 1968, they've grown to a sprawling network of about 150 centers in Puerto Rico, the U.S. mainland, and elsewhere in Latin America. But since the 1990s, the organization has been under fire for its methods. Latino USA takes a look at how this rehab empire built by a former heroin addict continues to be funded by millions of tax dollars, despite dozens of reported cases of physical and sexual abuse. This episode originally aired in December of 2018.

By day, Héctor Rodríguez III is a school teacher; by night, he’s creating the world of “El Peso Hero”, a comic book superhero based on the border that is celebrating its 10th anniversary. In this episode of our "How I Made It" series, Héctor talks about growing up loving superheroes, but not feeling represented by them. Something he’d eventually deal with by building his own comic world centered on the border. This episode originally aired in July of 2021.

We continue our investigation into the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). While looking into what happened the night Joseph Chacón died, reporter Deepa Fernandes finds out that another baby, Draco Ford, had passed away in the same foster home two months earlier. Why weren’t the foster children, including Joseph, immediately removed after Draco died? We also delve into the difficult decisions social workers have to make and the systemic problems of the foster care system in the U.S. as a whole. This episode originally aired in July of 2021.

Chilean-American singer-songwriter Francisca Valenzuela has always forged her own path in music. Born and raised in California, Francisca began her career after moving to Chile with her family. Even when major labels and venues wouldn’t open their doors for her, Francisca recorded and performed on her own terms until she became one of Chile’s biggest stars. Francisca went on to release four studio albums, start her own music label, and create Ruidosa, a Latinx feminist collective for women and non-binary voices in music. In this episode of our "How I Made It" series, Francisca Valenzuela revisits her early days as a young woman building a music career in Latin America, and takes us down the road that led to her latest album, La Fortaleza. This episode originally aired in July of 2021.

After a domestic violence incident, Leah Garcia called the police looking for safety for her and her two children. But her calls triggered the involvement of LA’s Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), the largest child welfare agency in the country. Leah’s 5-month-old baby, Joseph, the son she had with her abusive partner, was placed with a foster care family. What happened after became a mother’s worst nightmare: the same system that was supposed to keep her child safe proved to be the biggest threat to his well-being. This episode originally aired in July of 2021.

This week Latino USA shares an episode of the podcast, Imperfect Paradise: Nury & The Secret Tapes, from LAist Studios. Imperfect Paradise: Nury & The Secret Tapes tells the story of the biggest political scandal in recent Los Angeles history. A secret recording leaked online in 2022 exposed then-LA City Council President Nury Martinez making racist and derogatory remarks. A year after the scandal, host Antonia Cereijido challenges Nury on her racist comments and the deeper systemic issues of race and politics in an exclusive interview. From LAist Studios, Imperfect Paradise: Nury & The Secret Tapes, available wherever you get your podcasts. You can subscribe to Imperfect Paradise: Nury & The Secret Tapes here.

Latino USA continues to mark its 30th anniversary and look back at its reporting throughout the last three decades. On today’s show we look at immigration, then and now. Maria Hinojosa is joined by Camilo Montoya-Galvez, immigration and politics reporter for CBS; Natalia Aristizabal, Deputy Director of Make the Road New York; and Lee Gelernt, Deputy Director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project. Together, they discuss immigration policies from the last 30 years.

The Gun Machine is a new podcast from WBUR in partnership with The Trace, exploring the 250-year history of one of the most tragic and confounding forms of addiction in America: guns. Listen to all eight episodes wherever you get your podcasts. You can subscribe to The Gun Machine here.

Today on Latino USA, we want to pay tribute to María Emilia Martin, public radio pioneer, and our founder, by replaying the first special episode marking our show’s 30 years on the air. The episode, first aired in May 2023, is an oral history of Latino USA and features a conversation between Martin and our current co-executive producer Maria Hinojosa, whom Martin chose to be the host of Latino USA back in 1993. “María knew that by launching Latino USA, she would be impacting history in this country forever. What we could never have imagined was that just months after our first sitdown interview, to go over 30 years of Latino USA, I would be having to say goodbye to her on the air,” said Hinojosa. Martin passed away peacefully on Dec. 2 in Austin, Texas, surrounded by her family. We are forever grateful to her for her vision and look forward to continuing to honor her legacy week after week at Latino USA.

As part of our 30th anniversary celebrations, we bring you a taste of a very special evening with the Colombian band Monsieur Periné—hosted at the Greene Space at WNYC and WQXR. Catalina García and Santiago Prieto play songs from their latest award-winning album, “Bolero Apocalíptico”, and chat with Latino USA’s senior producer Marta Martinez about how they mix classic and modern influences, their love for their Colombian roots and how they found inspiration in the pandemic.

After months of working closely with the archivists and librarians of the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas in Austin, the Latino USA team wanted to dig deeper into the history and treasures in the library. The Benson has been around for more than a hundred years, and it’s one of the most important institutions in the world collecting the history and stories of Latin America and U.S Latinas and Latinos. But, that history comes with some baggage. In this episode of Latino USA, we look at some of the objects that connect the Benson to the past, and we explore its complicated history, along with possibilities for how the library can move into the future.

This week Latino USA brings you an episode of the United Stateless Podcast. United Stateless Podcast documents the stories of "returnees", people who immigrated to the US, largely as children, and have since returned to their home country. In the first season, we focus on Mexico. It's a story of life, love, Spanglish, culture shock, missing bagels, and figuring out where home really is. In this episode, what, exactly, is Mexico? And what's it like to actually grow up there? And why is Alexandra so interested in all of this? Subscribe to the United Stateless Podcast here.

On Thanksgiving Day, hundreds of people gather on Alcatraz Island, the famous former prison and one of the largest tourist attractions in San Francisco, for a sunrise ceremony to honor Indigenous culture and history. Fifty years ago, an intertribal group of students and activists took over the island for over 16 months in an act of political resistance. Richard Oakes, a young Mohawk from New York, was one of the leaders in this movement dubbed the "Red Power Movement." Latino USA tells the story of Richard Oakes' life, from his first involvement in activism to his untimely death at the age of 30. This episode originally aired in November 2018.

At the turn of the 20th century, revolution was starting to brew in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. A group of Mexican revolutionaries had fled to the United States and were working to overthrow a dictator in their home country. They were called Los Magonistas, and both the U.S. and Mexican governments put all of their efforts to spy on them and suppress their revolution. In this episode, historian Kelly Lytle Hernandez tells the story of this cross-border insurgency that has been left out of most U.S. history books and shares how it continues to shape border enforcement as we know it today.

Latino USA continues to celebrate 30 years of being on the air, as well as bringing you important conversations as part of our ongoing political coverage. For this episode, Maria Hinojosa sits down with legendary labor leader and civil rights activist, Dolores Huerta. They speak about politics, the current state of organizing, sex and passion, and much more. Editorial note: This interview was recorded in September of 2023 before the current crisis in Gaza began.

What will the music of Texas’ Rio Grande Valley sound like 100 years from now? That’s the premise at the heart of Futuro Conjunto, a multimedia sci-fi project by artists Charlie Vela and Jonathan Leal. Futuro Conjunto is an expansive work of speculative fiction, but it also revolves around urgent issues of our present, such as climate change, technology, war, and class disparity. The multimedia project also draws from the Rio Grande Valley’s history and musical traditions, and Vela and Leal collaborated with more than 30 local artists to make this project happen. Futuro Conjunto is, first and foremost, a musical album. But it’s complemented by animated clips, an interactive website, and a detailed history that imagines the events that came to pass between today and several generations into the future. In this “How I Made It” segment, Vela and Leal explain the inspiration behind Futuro Conjunto and break down how they captured the sounds of the Rio Grande Valley’s future. This episode originally aired in Fe

Gustavo Dudamel is one of the most famous and acclaimed conductors in the world. He’s been the Music and Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 2009, when he was just 27 years old. El maestro is the best-known graduate of El Sistema, Venezuela’s national youth music education program. In the years since, Dudamel made a name for himself conducting world-famous orchestras, running his own arts charity — The Gustavo Dudamel Foundation — and founding the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles. Even amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Dudamel has been living up to his personal passion of finding creative ways to play and expand access to music, all while stressing the importance of staying in touch with his Venezuelan roots. In this episode of Latino USA, Dudamel talks about staying indoors, calling family home, and his belief that music will inspire a stronger future for all. This episode originally aired in February of 2021.

This week Latino USA brings you an episode of the podcast, Classy with Jonathan Menjivar. In this episode, we can’t talk about class without talking about race. Through eye-opening conversations with two people of color in the fashion industry, Jonathan realizes some hard truths about the ways he’s adapted in order to blend in. And he reveals how one small, but bold act is helping him to reclaim his cultural identity. You can subscribe to Classy with Jonathan Menjivar here.

Maria Hinojosa and Latino USA producer Reynaldo Leaños Jr. join Vice President Kamala Harris aboard Air Force Two as the vice president makes her way to Miami, Florida, as part of her “Fight For Our Freedoms” college tour. Later, Maria sits down with Vice President Harris for a one-on-one interview where they discuss young Latino voters’ participation, reproductive rights, immigration, and more.

When Gabby Rivera wrote her coming-of-age novel “Juliet Takes a Breath” in 2016, she didn't know that it would get her attention from an unusual place: Marvel Comics. They asked her to write for America Chavez, their first queer Latina superhero. Gabby said yes. But as she was writing for their superhero, she found herself swept up in #comicsgate, an online harassment campaign against the comic book industry’s efforts to include more women, people of color, and LGBTQ characters. In this "Portrait Of," Maria talks to Gabby about her beginnings as a writer, her difficult experience with #comicsgate, and about returning to comic book writing. This episode originally aired in June of 2019.