Latino USA

Armando Christian Pérez —better known as Pitbull— is a rapper, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, brand ambassador and has a whole host of other job titles. As his nearly two-decade-long career has diversified, his image and brand have solidified. He rose to prominence off bilingual records hits like "Culo" and "Toma" in the early 2000s and became a household name thanks to wedding and quinceañera classics like "Give Me Everything" and "Time of Our Lives." Today, the Latino demographic that helped catapult Pitbull to the top music charts is facing greater open discrimination than at any other point during Pitbull's career. During a day with Pitbull, the Cuban-American entertainer opens up about his thoughts on the state of immigration, why he won't stop making music with Chris Brown, and how country music is not just for white folk. This podcast episode originally aired on October 11, 2019.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The musical genres most people associate with the Dominican Republic are merengue and bachata. Yet, there's another set of rhythms that are essential to the spirit of the country, and that's Afro-Dominican roots music. That's where the band Yasser Tejeda & Palotré come in. They blend some of the country's black roots rhythms like palo, salve and sarandunga, with jazz and rock to bring a new spin to local sounds—and to reimagine what it means to be Dominican. In this segment of "How I Made It," the band's frontman Yasser Tejeda walks us through the inspiration behind their latest album "Kijombo," and the making of the single "Amor Arrayano," which is all about love across the Dominican-Haitian border. This podcast episode originally aired on February 25, 2020See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Latino USA and Black Public Media bring you Alzheimer’s in Color, a 2021 Gracie Awards winner. It’s the story of Ramona Latty, a Dominican immigrant, told by her daughter Yvonne, and it mirrors countless other families of color navigating a disease that is ravaging the Latino community. It’s been four years now since Ramona was diagnosed. Four years of the lonely journey, which in the end her daughter walks alone, because her mom has no idea what day it is, how old she is or where she is. Ramona lives in a nursing home and COVID-19, and months of separation have accelerated the disease, and Yvonne’s despair. This podcast episode originally aired on September 11, 2020.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When vocalist, composer and multi-media performance artist Stefa Marin Alarcon — also known as STEFA — takes the stage, it feels like walking through a portal into somewhere that is both past and future. Born and raised in Queens, NY to Colombian immigrant parents, STEFA’s music explores themes such as reconnecting with their ancestors and falling in love under capitalism. On this How I Made It segment, Stefa talks about their journey as a multifaceted artist creating their own origin stories as a non-binary, indigenous person trying to find home in their body.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mexico is the most dangerous place for journalists in the world. And Lydia Cacho —a Mexican investigative journalist who worked in the country for over 30 years— knows this first hand: in 2005, she was kidnapped and tortured after uncovering an international child trafficking network. But that didn’t stop Lydia; she continued working, denouncing violence against women and children. Those after her didn’t stop either. In 2019, after they struck yet again, Lydia was forced to flee Mexico. In this episode of Latino USA, Lydia opens up about this latest attack, what it’s like to live and work in exile, and how she takes care of her mental health as a journalist.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For this special Latino USA presentation of In The Thick, Maria and Julio are joined by Al Letson, host of Reveal and the new podcast series, “Mississippi Goddamn: The Ballad of Billey Joe.” Billey Joe Johnson Jr. was a Black high school football star who was found dead in Lucedale, Mississippi in 2008 after being pulled over by a white cop. They get into his story, the problematic history of investigations when it comes to suspicious deaths of Black people in Mississippi, and journalists’ responsibility when covering these tragic stories.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lupe Salazar is a grandmother in Chimayó, northern New Mexico on a mission to disrupt the cycle of opioid addiction and the trauma caused by it in her rural community. The region has long been an epicenter of drug overdose deaths – long before the national opioid epidemic was declared a national emergency. After her son began using heroin in jail when he was 18, Lupe realized the systems in place were doing a better job keeping him incarcerated than helping him access treatment for addiction. So, Lupe went back to college to learn for herself about addiction and how integrating holistic healing, like curanderismo, could help her community heal. In this episode of Latino USA we follow Lupe’s mission to help heal a community fractured by generations of opioid use and overdose, dismantle the stigma shrouding addiction and treatment and reintegrate the with traditional and indigenous healing practices – all while trying to address her son’s ongoing opioid use and keep him alive.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the late 2010s, dreamy, nostalgic music produced from the homes of young, independent artists became hugely popular, especially online. This style of music would be called bedroom pop, and today, a quick search on streaming sites comes up with hundreds of hits. Even bedroom pop is a new term for you, chances are you might recognize songs or artists in this genre—including a lot of the young Latinx artists who are pioneering the bedroom pop sound. Among them is Victor Internet. Victor has been outspoken about their career and insists that there’s more behind bedroom pop than meets the eye: making music from home is a real struggle, especially as a young person of color with limited access to money and resources. And as bedroom pop blows up, they want to make sure the reality for so many musicians like him doesn’t get lost. On this episode of Latino USA, we dive into the making of Victor’s bedroom pop stardom and break down the challenges of making it as a young independent artist today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For Dr. Miguel Cardona, growing up in a Puerto Rican household in Meriden, Connecticut —straddling two languages and two cultures— uniquely prepared him for his role as Secretary of Education. He comes to the department at a moment when education in the country has both new and long-lasting challenges: systemic inequities that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this conversation, Secretary Cardona shares what it was like to grow up in a Latino home in Connecticut, the possibility of bilingual education for all students, and what the Department of Education is doing to meet the challenges of returning to school amidst a continuing global pandemic.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Las Cafeteras are a band out of East LA that met while doing community organizing. They began playing at the Eastside Cafe, where they discovered Son Jarocho, traditional Afro-Mexican music from Veracruz. They quickly began to adapt the music to their realities fusing it with hip hop, rock, ska, and spoken word. They are known for their politically charged lyrics, speaking out against injustices within the immigrant community and their experiences as Chicanos in East LA. For this “How I Made It” segment, we sat down with members of the group to discuss how they got started, and their work to tell and preserve brown stories. This story originally aired on November 10, 2020.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.