Latino USA

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 colleagues at Latino Rebels Radio, where guest host and Latino Rebels senior editor Hector Luis Alamo speaks with Gustavo Arellano, featured contributor for the L.A. Times, to get a sense of what the scandal means for the people of Los Angeles and the future of the city.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 this episode we learn about some of the hardships Latinos and Latinas face when moving to a state like North Dakota and what it’s like to create a new Latino community from scratch. We also look at how this swift population growth is being addressed by the local government, and what efforts they’re making to get more people to stay for the long haul.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 States inspired a wave of political violence. To subscribe to Brazil on Fire, click here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 received? In this episode, we look at the politics of oil and gas, the types of jobs Latinos and Latinas are doing within this controversial industry and the impact that drilling is having on the environment and Indigenous communities in North Dakota.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 elusive at the border: justice. In the first episode of this new podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, a look at the tragic events on the night of Oct. 10, 2012, and how José Antonio’s family mobilized to press the U.S. government to take action as they seek for answers. To subscribe to Rediscovering: Killed Through The Border Fence, click here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 voters to the polls in the 2020 election. This movement was built from the ground up more than ten years ago, initially in response to Arizona’s racist anti-immigration law SB1070. But now, at a moment when the movement should be riding the high of their recent victory, its members are facing a challenging upcoming midterm election. On this episode of Latino USA, we travel to urban and rural parts of Arizona to follow three progressive organizers facing an increasingly popular far-right movement of Trump-endorsed candidates—and their fight to expand voting access in the state.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 Design will tell how the arrival of Haitian and Cuban migrants by boat in the 1970s and 1980s —and the crude experiments in small Florida jails that followed— shaped the immigration and detention system that we have in this country today. WLRN's Danny Rivero hosts. This second episode of Detention By Design follows the revealing story of Abel Jean-Simon Zephyr, a Haitian who arrived in Miami by boat in 1973. He asked for political asylum, but authorities —caught flat-footed— paid the sheriff's office at remote Immokalee, Florida, to hold him and others at its tiny jail. It marked the miserable, and at times tragic, beginning of the modern immigration detention system. Detention by Design is funded by The Shepard Broad Foundation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 to leave the city limits or face violent consequences. Over a hundred years later, the alarm still blares daily. Why? It depends on who you ask. In a town full of historic markers, there’s nothing about the Indigenous history; local officials now say the siren is a tribute to first responders. Marty Meeden, a descendent of the local Washoe Tribe, had fought to end this traumatic daily reminder to no avail—until he met a pair of unlikely allies: a passionate white bicyclist and a teenage all-star runner. Together, they are working to silence the sundown siren forever, and show how remembering our history can help us all heal. To subscribe to The Sum of Us podcast, click here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 performance. On this episode of Latino USA, Denice talks about her journey as a queer, Latinx artist, and how she finds poetry in her everyday life.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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/listener for privacy information.