Latino USA

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.

Bianca Graulau is an independent journalist who's been using TikTok and YouTube to tell you what’s going on in Puerto Rico—whether you live there or not. By explaining Puerto Rico’s colonial relationship with the United States in English to an audience outside of the island, she’s also gathered a huge following there as well. Her own top video has 11 million views. Continuing our 5th anniversary Hurricane Maria coverage on Latino USA, La Brega host Alana Casanova-Burgess visits Graulau in Camuy, Puerto Rico, to talk about her journalism and what it means in a post-Maria society.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September of 2017, there was a complete lack of government response, highlighting the stark reality of austerity politics and colonialism. On this episode of Latino USA, we travel to the city of Caguas and follow the story of the Comedores Sociales de Puerto Rico, one of the many community-led groups that would occupy an abandoned space after the storm and mobilize to meet their own needs. Five years after Hurricane Maria, they are now fighting to remain in the building they occupied.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Latino USA is featuring the first episode of the Rubirosa podcast, a Witness Docs production. Imagine instead of James Bond it was… Jaime Bond, Javi Bond, Bondissimo. Well, guess what, y’all? The white, British character at the center of Ian Fleming’s super-successful franchise was actually based on a Dominican man. Porfirio Rubirosa was a diplomat, a playboy who spoke five languages, an international polo champion, a race-car driver, a pilot, and he became the richest man in the world⁠—twice. This podcast is the true story of Rubirosa’s life, told by me, Christopher Rivas. Who am I? I’m a Dominican-American, author and storyteller… and a lifelong fan of James Bond. Ever since I learned about Rubirosa and the heritage we share… I’ve wondered: how different might my life have been if my hero growing up looked like me? And what does Rubi’s incredible and complicated life have to teach me about love, success, family, Hollywood, code-switching, white-washing, and the roller coaster of finding my true self in a world not made for Brown folks like me? To subscribe to Rubirosa, click here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This summer, Latino USA took a trip to the West Coast for a live show in Los Angeles — and now, we’re bringing that special evening to you! On this edited version of our live show, host Maria Hinojosa is joined by actor Danny Trejo and comedian Marcella Arguello to talk about what makes Los Angeles so special — and to celebrate L.A.’s vibrant Latino community.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For the past decade, Armando Perez has worked as a wildland firefighter with the Eldorado, California, Hotshot crew—an elite group that works in the hottest portions of wildfires. For Armando that has meant weeks away from his family, dealing with some of the worst fires in U.S. history. Still, there’s nothing else he would rather be doing. In this episode of Latino USA, Armando recreates what a typical day is like for him and his crew to understand why, along with thousands of other wildland firefighters, they continue to risk their lives under increasingly difficult and record-breaking fires.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What and who do you include in a national Latino museum? That’s a question that many have been asking since late 2020, when Congress green-lit the creation of The National Museum of the American Latino. It’s a new addition to the Smithsonian Institution’s roster of national museums, many of which intend to preserve the history and culture of the United States. The fight to create The National Museum of the American Latino spans across decades. The idea was sparked by a damning 1994 report, commissioned by the Smithsonian itself, which concluded that the institution had a pattern of systematically excluding Latinos and Latinas from its programming and its staff. One of its top recommendations? To create a museum highlighting Latinos and Latinas in this country. Now, in 2022, the museum is making moves. Even though there’s no building to house it yet, the National Museum of the American Latino has appointed a board, hired an inaugural director, and has even debuted its first show in the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. In the midst of all this, many are beginning to wonder what the vision of this museum will be, and how it plans to capture the wide diversity of Latino history and culture in the United States.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're still on summer break so we are sharing an interview from our archives with poet Yesika Salgado. She heads with Maria Hinojosa to the Hunts Point Produce Market, the largest wholesale produce market in the world, to try to identify the sexiest, most romantic fruit. Then they sit down to talk about relationships, lust, and Salgado’s book, “Hermosa.” This episode first aired on February 14, 2020.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.