Latino USA

The Moving Border: Part Two, The South

03 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Part 2 of “The Moving Border,” our award-winning series from 2020, we visit Tapachula, Mexico in search of a young man whose life is in danger....

How I Made It: From Med School Student To Cimafunk

31 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It was only a few years ago that Erik Rodriguez was attending medical school in his native Cuba, following his family of careerists’ footsteps. But ...

The Moving Border: Part One, The North

27 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this award-winning two-part investigation from 2020, "The Moving Border" from Latino USA, we delve into the increasing pressure put on refugees see...

Mezcal: From Farms To Bars

24 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For some years now, mezcal, Mexico’s other national spirit, has been in a cultural spotlight outside of the country, but its unseen devastating cons...

Inside The Writers' Room Of 'Pose' And 'Gentefied'

20 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Steven Canals of 'Pose' and Linda Yvette Chavez of 'Gentefied' are making waves in Hollywood, an industry in which Latinos are disproportionately abse...

Biden's Broken Promise?

17 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Latino USA visits one family in south Texas who is dreading something that President Joe Biden said they should no longer fear: border wall constructi...

No Choice But To Fight

13 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This October marks 15 years since the Secure Fence Act of 2006 was passed. This act paved the way for hundreds of miles of border wall to be built alo...

The Vaccine Inequity Pandemic

10 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

While the United States and other wealthy countries have secured enough COVID-19 vaccines for their citizens, other nations haven't been so fortunate....

The History Of Reggaeton

09 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This is the true story of the young people from Jamaica, Panama, Puerto Rico and beyond who beat the odds, refused to be quiet and created an irresist...

Trapped In Diplomatic Limbo

06 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When diplomats, ambassadors, and other international officials take a post in the United States, they often bring along personal staff and domestic wo...

How I Made It: Ada Limón

03 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ada Limón spent almost her whole life dreaming about poetry. Today, she has five successful poetry titles under her belt, including “Bright Dead Th...

A Million More Immigrant Voters

30 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode of Latino USA, we look at the attacks against voting rights taking place throughout the country and how New York City is trying to mov...

Portrait Of: Carmen Maria Machado

27 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Carmen Maria Machado is a modern-day literary phenomenon. From horror to speculative fiction to comic books, her writing defies genre. She’s a bests...

On The Other Side

23 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

President Joe Biden made a lot of promises on the campaign trail related to immigration. He even promised to reverse several Trump-era policies. Biden...

How I Made It: El Peso Hero

20 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 bor...

Unsafe In Foster Care, Part 2

16 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We continue our investigation into the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). While looking into what happened the night Josep...

How I Made It: Francisca Valenzuela

13 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Chilean-American singer-songwriter Francisca Valenzuela has always forged her own path in music. Born and raised in California, Francisca began her ca...

Unsafe In Foster Care, Part 1

09 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

After a domestic violence incident, Leah Garcia called the police looking for safety for her and her two children. But her calls triggered the involve...

How I Made It: Kichwa Hatari

06 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this segment of our “How I Made It” series, Charlie Uruchima shares his journey with his ancestral language and tells us how he created "Kichwa...

Puerto Crypto

02 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In 2018, just months after Hurricane Maria, an eccentric group of cryptocurrency enthusiasts arrived in Puerto Rico. They came with big plans for the ...

The Fight For Abortion Rights In The Dominican Republic

29 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Dominican Republic has one of the harshest anti-abortion laws in the Americas, but a legal reform might be closer than ever before. In recent mont...

You Want To Talk About Hot Cheetos?

25 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We tackle the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos controversy and dive into why this story is so much more than just about a processed snack food but a story about ...

How I Made It: Fluxus Foto

22 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

After a historic clash between Ecuadorians and their national government in 2019, one photo of an Andean woman mid-protest became an iconic symbol of ...

Jon M. Chu On Film And Belonging

18 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As “In the Heights” hits theaters one year after its original release date, we talk to director Jon M. Chu about why he thinks immigrant narrative...

A Family Conversation On Race And Latinidad

15 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Two Afrolatinx cousins have an intimate conversation about race and Latinidad a year after George Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a white cop. Um...

I'm A Cholo

11 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the United States, the word “cholo” invokes images of gang members, lowriders, and tattoos. But in South America, cholo or “cholito” can ei...

How I Made It: Maná

08 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The rock en español group, Maná, is one of the most successful Spanish-language rock bands of this generation. They've sold over 40 million records ...

Shrimp Who Falls Asleep

04 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Yesica Balderrama immigrated from Morelos, Mexico to New York City with her family over two decades ago. Since then, they’ve been living in Q...

Crossing The Border For More Affordable Insulin

01 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From KPBS and PRX, “Port of Entry” tells personal stories, stories of love, hope, struggle and survival, from fronterizas and fronterizos and othe...

Lorena's 'Alcance'

28 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When pioneering trans activist Lorena Borjas first arrived in the U.S. in late May of 1981, she found both community and an epidemic. Through her expe...

How I Made It: Kali Uchis

25 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Artist and singer Kali Uchis is known for genre-defying music inspired by the wide range of songs she loved as a child, from doo-wop and soul to latin...

Masks Off With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

21 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

After a year with historic implications, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sits for an intimate, in-person interview with Maria Hinojosa...

Latinos Persevering

18 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

On today’s episode of Latino USA, we meet some of the Latinas and Latinos involved with the recent and historic mission to Mars. The Perseverance ro...

Alex Padilla, From California To Capitol Hill

14 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It was an anti-immigrant initiative in his home state of California that pushed Alex Padilla into politics, now he is making history as the first Lati...

Not Always About The Money

11 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From KPBS and PRX, “Port of Entry” tells personal stories, stories of love, hope, struggle and survival, from border crossers and other people who...

The Wrongful Conviction Of Joseph Webster: Episode 2

07 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We continue the story of Joseph Webster, a Black man who was serving a life sentence for murder in Tennessee – a murder he says he didn’t commit. ...

How I Made It: No Te Va Gustar

04 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For over 25 years, Uruguayan band No Te Va Gustar has been filling concert venues across Latin America. With their mix of pop, rock, reggae, ska, and ...

The Wrongful Conviction Of Joseph Webster: Episode 1

30 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Nearly 2,800 people have been exonerated — or legally cleared — after being convicted and going to prison for crimes they didn’t commit over the...

Ornella & Violeta

27 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For seventeen years, Ornella Pedrozo thought of her mom's detainment by ICE as her deepest, darkest secret. When she was four years old, her mother Vi...

La Reina Del Rock: Alejandra Guzmán

23 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Known by many as “La Reina del Rock,” the queen of Latin American rock, Alejandra Guzmán has built a legacy for herself through her soulful perfo...

Cross-Border Misinformation

20 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

On today’s episode of Latino USA investigative journalist Jean Guerrero speaks with Maria Hinojosa about her recent reporting on Latino social media...

Your COVID-19 Vaccine Questions, Answered

16 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Can undocumented people get the vaccine? How much is it going to cost? And how well do the COVID-19 vaccines work around children? Or with pregnant wo...

Rita Indiana's Pan-Caribbean Rebirth

13 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ten years ago, when she was at the peak of her career, Dominican writer and musician Rita Indiana announced she was leaving music. But “La Montra”...

Birth Control In Times Of Crisis

09 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For women, losing access to contraceptives and getting pregnant without planning has long-term consequences – on their education, professional devel...

How I Made It: Unforgivable

06 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Until recently, San Francisco Gotera prison in El Salvador was a gang prison, dedicated to holding members of the notorious MS-13 and 18th Street gang...

La Brega: The Bankruptcy Letters

02 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Luis J. Valentín Ortiz from the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo tells a hidden story from Puerto Rico’s debt crisis, that of the micro-creditors...

How I Made It: Rodrigo y Gabriela

30 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the late 90's, Rodrigo Sánchez and Gabriela Quintero embarked on a one-way trip to Dublin, Ireland. While they were originally heavy metal musicia...

The Breakdown: Heavy Metal Edition

26 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The stereotype goes that Latinos only listen to salsa or reggaeton. But one of the biggest genres of music across Latin America is actually heavy meta...

La Brega: The End Of The Promises

23 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Puerto Rico’s relationship with the United States has long been a subject of intense debate. In 1952, Puerto Rico adopted a new status that was mean...

La Brega: Basketball Warriors

19 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Despite being a U.S. colony, Puerto Rico competes in sports as its own country on the world stage. Since the 70s, Puerto Rico’s national basketball ...

La Brega: An Encyclopedia Of Betrayal

16 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Photographer Chris Gregory-Rivera examines the legacy of the surveillance files known in Puerto Rico as las carpetas — produced from a decades-long ...

A Year Like No Other

12 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A year after COVID-19 first shut down the United States, Latino USA looks at how the pandemic has changed the lives of Latinos across the country. We’...

Texas In The Dark: A Reporter’s Notebook

09 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A winter storm in Texas left millions with no power and water issues in February. Latino USA producer Reynaldo Leaños Jr. documented his family’s e...

La Brega: Vieques And The Promise To Build Back Better

05 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Weeks after Hurricane María, the Government of Puerto Rico accepted an emphatic suggestion from officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency ...

How I Made It: Futuro Conjunto

02 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 sc...

Gustavo Dudamel’s Harmony In Times Of Crisis

26 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 Philha...

La Brega, Episode 2: Levittown, Where The Good Life Begins

24 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Alana Casanova-Burgess traces the history and development of Levittown, a massive suburb that was founded on the idea of bringing the American middle-...

La Brega, Episode 1: What Is La Brega?

24 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this kick off episode, host Alana Casanova-Burgess sets out to define la brega and examine what its ubiquity among boricuas really means. A brega i...

Yesika Salgado On Love, Lust, And Being A Hopeless Romantic

23 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Yesika Salgado grew up in Los Angeles in a Salvadoran family, and she calls herself a fat, fly poet—her most recent book of poems is titled "Hermosa...

Portrait Of: José Feliciano

19 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Every holiday season, you can't help but sing along to the infectious melody of José Feliciano's 1970 mega single, "Feliz Navidad." But aside from th...

Suave: Episode 2 'The Hustle'

16 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this second episode of our new podcast series, Suave, Maria Hinojosa learns more about Suave’s early life in the South Bronx and the crime Suave ...

Suave: Episode 1 'The Sentence'

12 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Suave has been serving a life sentence at a Pennsylvania maximum-security prison since he was a teenager. In 1993, he meets Maria Hinojosa when she's ...

Selena And Abraham

09 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist Maria Garcia tells her story as she began to report on the lasting legacy of Selena Quintanilla. Maria's reporting begins not with Selena h...

Dr. Fauci: One Year Into The Pandemic

05 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Anthony Fauci has served as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under seven presidents stemming back to the 1980...

How I Made It: Omar Apollo

02 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Omar Apollo, a rising star in the indie R&B scene, began making music on his own by teaching himself chords from YouTube videos and honing his sou...

Decriminalizing The War On Drugs

29 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the summer of 1971, President Nixon declared a “War on Drugs.” Today, with over 2 million people behind bars, the U.S. is the world's most carc...

In The Mouth Of The Wolf

26 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Since January 2019, nearly 68,000 asylum seekers have been ordered to wait in Mexico as their cases make their way through the U.S. courts system. The...

Goya In Three Boycotts

22 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Goya Foods was has been on the spotlight after its CEO Robert Unanue expressed his support for former president Donald Trump. Calls for boycotts flood...

President Biden Has Promises To Keep

19 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This past November, Latino voters helped Joe Biden win the Presidency. He had made a long list of commitments to Latinx communities, from investing in...

Selena And Me

15 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Maria Garcia can still remember the first time she saw Selena Quintanilla on TV: red lips, brown skin, big hoops. Maria was just 7 years old, new to t...

Portrait Of: Gabby Rivera

12 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 p...

City Of Oil

08 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Los Angeles, you might be surprised to learn, sits on top of the largest urban oil field in the country and has been the site of oil extraction for al...

How I Made It: Jessie Reyez

05 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jessie Reyez sings sad songs, but it's those songs along with her soulful voice and brutally honest lyrics that have garnered her fans around the worl...

Portrait Of: Residente

01 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In 2005, a duo of Puerto Rican artists released their eponymously titled debut album "Calle 13." Their mix of reggaeton and rap took the Latinx music ...

Unjust And Unsolved: JJ Velazquez

29 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 1998, JJ Velazquez was sentenced to life for the murder of a police officer in Harlem, New York. The twenty-one-year-old father had an alibi that d...

A Socially Distant Christmas Special

25 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Christmas and the holiday season are usually a time for Latinos and Latinas to gather together and celebrate, but COVID-19 has turned those holiday ce...

From Cop To Progressive Prosecutor: George Gascón

22 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

George Gascón was recently elected as Los Angeles County’s District Attorney, and his victory was hailed as a big win for a movement of progressive...

Equations For Liberation, A Conversation With Kelly Lytle Hernandez

18 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When historian Kelly Lytle Hernandez was denied access to Los Angeles Police Department’s arrest records for her research on mass incarceration, she...

How I Made It: From Med School Student To Cimafunk

15 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It was only a few years ago that Erik Rodriguez was attending medical school in his native Cuba, following his family of careerists’ footsteps. But ...

The Amazon's Burning Libraries

11 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The arrival of the novel coronavirus in Munduruku territory, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, has threatened the lives of the group, and its enti...

Getting Real About Pregnancy

08 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Pregnancy comes with all kinds of questions, but the journey to pregnancy and the mishaps along the way are often overlooked or taboo in the Latino co...

Ilia Calderón: My Skin Color Doesn't Define Me

04 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Ilia Calderón was still a little girl when she first experienced racism. But being rejected by part of her native Colombia's society would not deter ...

How I Made It: La Doña

01 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Cecilia Peña-Govea who calls herself La Doña, grew up in the Mission District in San Francisco. She started playing music in her family's band at ju...

By Right Of Discovery

27 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On Thanksgiving Day, hundreds of people gather on Alcatraz Island, the famous former prison and one of the largest tourist attractions in San Francisc...

Kate's Summer

24 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The summer of 2020 was filled with uncertainty as more than 20 million people in the U.S. were left unemployed — including Kate Bustamante’s paren...

Portrait Of: Gloria Estefan

20 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Gloria Maria Milagrosa Fajardo Garcia was a shy, quiet young woman who joined a band named the Miami Latin Boys. Although she had no plans of internat...

How I Made It: From Foster Kid to Judge

17 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When she was nine years-old, Xiomara Torres fled the civil war in her home country of El Salvador and came to the U.S. As a child she adjusted to her ...

The Myth Of The 'Latino Vote'

13 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A major lesson from the 2020 election is one that Latinos already know: The idea of a single “Latino vote” is a myth. Latinos and Latinas througho...

How I Made It: Las Cafeteras

10 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Reclaiming Our Homes

06 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On March 14th of 2020, Martha Escudero and her two daughters became the first of a dozen unhoused families to occupy one of over a hundred vacant hous...

The American Dream Daughter: A Conversation With Author Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

03 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On paper, author Karla Cornejo Villavicencio is the poster child for the American Dream. She’s a Harvard graduate, a Yale Ph.D. candidate, and, now,...

A Third Of The Latino Vote

30 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Why do Latinos support Trump? Many people have asked this question since 2016, when, after launching his campaign by calling Mexican immigrants rapist...

Breaking Down The U.S. Deportation Machine

27 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The United States runs on migrant labor. That’s been the case for most of this country’s history, and the demand for cheap workers over the past t...

Why Campaigns Fail To Get Latinos To Vote

23 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Thirty two million Latinos are eligible to vote this election – a record. But research suggests that, in battleground states, 57% of them are not go...

Portrait Of: Danny Trejo

20 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Latino USA host Maria Hinojosa sits down with actor and entrepreneur Danny Trejo. Trejo has starred in over 300 films, often playing villains and toug...

The Rehab Empire Built On Cakes

16 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It's a common sight in Puerto Rico—men in bright yellow T-shirts going door-to door-selling cakes. They're residents at Hogares CREA, Puerto Rico's ...

How I Made It: Buscabulla

13 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Buscabulla is a Puerto Rican indie duo formed by wife and husband Raquel Berrios and Luis Alfredo del Valle. Around 2018, Buscabulla was one of the mo...

The Matter Of Castro Tum

09 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 2018, a young Guatemalan man named Reynaldo Castro Tum was ordered deported even though no one in the U.S. government knew where he was, or how to ...

The Parents Are Not Alright

06 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When cities across the country began going on lockdown in March, parents all over the U.S. had to scramble to balance taking care of their children, h...

From Chicago To Oaxaca

02 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Back in March, Lili Ruiz moved out of New York City to reunite with her family in Chicago. As the first months of quarantine passed by, Lili’s famil...