Isabella Gomez-Sarmiento
Appearances
NPR News Now
NPR News: 02-18-2025 5AM EST
Paquita La Del Barrio, which informally translates to Paquita from the Block, became a star in Mexico in the 1980s. She was beloved for the disdain with which she sang about the men who broke her heart. Paquita said her music was inspired by her real relationships. For decades, her lyrics channeled her pain into feminist rage. In the hit Una Rata de Dos Patas, she famously compared an ex-lover
NPR News Now
NPR News: 02-18-2025 5AM EST
to a cursed leech and a poisonous snake. Paquita La del Barrio's team announced her passing. No cause of death was given. Mexico City's Department of Culture issued a statement celebrating her, quote, unmistakable voice and unique style. Isabella Gomez-Sarmiento, NPR News. I'm Dave Mattingly in Washington.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 04-01-2025 7PM EDT
Like in real life, the musical behind Buena Vista Social Club is about a music producer trying to assemble a group of older musicians to record an album. ¶¶ Artists like pianist Rubén González, guitarist Compay Segundo, and singer Ibrahim Ferrer were all performers in 1950s Havana. But after the Cuban Revolution, many musicians had to look for other jobs to make a living.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 04-01-2025 7PM EDT
It wasn't until the 1990s, when they formed Buena Vista Social Club and released an album with the same name, that they achieved international success. The Broadway musical takes creative liberties with the characters, but the music remains at the heart of their story. Isabella Gomez-Tarmiento, NPR News.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-15-2025 4PM EDT
Federal prosecutors filed a superseding indictment against Sean Combs on March 6th. It does not contain new charges against Combs, but it does describe a pattern of coercion and control, alleging that Combs forced his employees to work long hours and threaten them so they would do what he asked.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-15-2025 4PM EDT
Combs, who has been in custody since his arrest last September, pleaded not guilty to the new indictment. The rapper and businessman still faces federal charges that include sex trafficking by force, racketeering conspiracy, and transporting for prostitution. Jury selection for Combs' trial will begin in New York City on May 5th. Isabella Gomez-Sarmiento, NPR News.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-31-2025 5PM EDT
There are only a couple dozen surviving manuscripts of the Suite Vulgate du Merlin. It's the sequel to the original story of King Arthur. All of the copies were scribed by hand, and one written between 1275 and 1315 has just been unveiled at Cambridge. The story is written in Old French and had been stitched into the binding of a property record from the 16th century.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-31-2025 5PM EDT
It includes the tale of a battle between the Saxons and Christians. Researchers at Cambridge had to use special technology to capture high-resolution images and X-ray scans of the manuscript. They say this discovery is paving the way for how to digitize other medieval documents. Isabella Gomez-Sarmiento, NPR News.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 04-04-2025 5PM EDT
Bruce Springsteen has announced that tracks to The Lost Albums will include dozens of previously unheard songs, including this one, Rain in the River. That's a song from an unreleased 2018 album. But the entire collection will span as far back as four decades. And it will connect the dots between some of Springsteen's most notable projects, like Nebraska and Born in the USA.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 04-04-2025 5PM EDT
Lauren Anki is a professor of music at George Washington University.
Up First from NPR
President Trump Third Term, Smithsonian Executive Order, Myanmar Earthquake
A lot of this is about the people and stories that are highlighted at these museums and sites and the language used to describe American history. The order directs Vice President J.D. Vance, who is on the Smithsonian's Board of Regents, to oversee the removal of, quote, "'improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology' from the Smithsonian's museums and research centers."
Up First from NPR
President Trump Third Term, Smithsonian Executive Order, Myanmar Earthquake
Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch sent an email on Friday telling staff that the Smithsonian will continue to employ internal review processes and that, quote, And we should note here, Lonnie Bunch was previously the founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, one of the museums Trump singled out in the executive order.
Up First from NPR
President Trump Third Term, Smithsonian Executive Order, Myanmar Earthquake
That's right. I mean, if we can rewind a little bit, there's been a growing movement in recent years to reflect on what history we honor in the U.S. and what may have been left out. But there was a turning point when a white police officer killed George Floyd, who was black, in 2020. His death sparked wide protests, and for a lot of people, it was a reexamining of this country's racial history.
Up First from NPR
President Trump Third Term, Smithsonian Executive Order, Myanmar Earthquake
Within a year and a half, 200 public Confederate symbols had been taken down, relocated, or renamed. That included things like monuments, school names, even road names. Those are numbers provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is a legal and advocacy group which tracks Confederate iconography in the US.
Up First from NPR
President Trump Third Term, Smithsonian Executive Order, Myanmar Earthquake
I should say, the executive order isn't specifically about Confederate symbols, but it instructs the interior secretary to review monuments, markers, and statues that may have been taken down or changed since January 2020, more than a year before Trump left office in his first term, and restore them.
Up First from NPR
President Trump Third Term, Smithsonian Executive Order, Myanmar Earthquake
It calls for a wholesale review to make sure that memorials under interior department jurisdiction, quote, do not contain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living, including persons living in colonial times.
Up First from NPR
President Trump Third Term, Smithsonian Executive Order, Myanmar Earthquake
That's the big question, and it's pretty unclear right now. Seth Levy of the Southern Poverty Law Center says many of the sites that did see changes were on land controlled by municipalities and state governments, not land controlled by the Department of the Interior or any of the bureaus it oversees, like the National Park Service.
Up First from NPR
President Trump Third Term, Smithsonian Executive Order, Myanmar Earthquake
We reached out to the Department of the Interior and didn't hear back.
Up First from NPR
President Trump Third Term, Smithsonian Executive Order, Myanmar Earthquake
That's right. I spoke with art historian Erin Thompson. She's the author of a book called Smashing Statues, the Rise and Fall of America's Public Monuments. And she says that Trump's executive order is trying to gloss over some of the darker aspects of American history.
Up First from NPR
President Trump Third Term, Smithsonian Executive Order, Myanmar Earthquake
Thompson says it's important to grapple with mistakes from the past so we don't make them again. But ultimately, you can't control historical memory by controlling monuments.