Radio

With Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis launching his presidential campaign this week after passing a slew of anti-immigrant measures, Latino Rebels Radio host Julio Ricardo Varela welcomes freelance writer and LR contributor Arturo Domínguez to discuss how some Latino truckers are pushing back with a proposed boycott of the Sunshine State.

On May 5, 1993, the first episode of Latino USA aired on more than 50 public radio stations across the country. Today, we are celebrating 30 years of Latino USA with something we’ve never done before: an oral history of the show.

Latino Rebels Radio host Julio Ricardo Varela welcomes investigative journalist Jonah Owen Lamb from the San Francisco Standard to discuss a wild story out of San Jose, California, where the head of the police union was charged with smuggling fentanyl into the country.

In the second and last episode of “Head Down,” a two-part special from Futuro Investigates and Latino USA, in collaboration with Prism, we shift the focus to look at the systems put in place by the U.S. government and why they’re constantly failing workers in the H-2A visa program, even when they speak up.

Entertainment correspondent Cristina Escobar steps into the host seat for a conversation with actor and comedian John Leguizamo to discuss his passion and activism in Hollywood as well as his new show on MSNBC, ‘Leguizamo Does America.’

On a special episode of Latino Rebels Radio, sports correspondent Bryan Fonseca turns the tables on host Julio Ricardo Varela as they discuss the impact of this year’s World Baseball Classic, the controversy around Twitter Blue, and more.

Host Julio Ricardo Varela welcomes Roosevelt High School teacher Jason Torres-Rangel to explain the plight of service workers in L.A. schools that led them to strike last month and why educators followed their lead.

Julio welcomes Oscar Juarez-Luna, the communications manager for Movimiento Poder in Denver —where earlier this year a high school experienced two shootings in two months— to discuss preventative measures and the importance of protecting kids, not guns.

In this episode of Latino USA, playwright and author Quiara Alegría Hudes talks about her memoir ‘My Broken Language,’ adapting it for the stage, and how joy and grief intertwine in the stories she tells.

Antonia Cereijido interviews former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo about his real-life experience that inspired the Oscar-nominated film ‘Argentina, 1985.’

Following a series of reports on migrant children being exploited in the meatpacking industry, Latino Rebels Radio host Julio Ricardo Varela welcomes Rose Godinez, legal and policy counsel for the Nebraska chapter of the ACLU and the child of meatpacking workers herself, to break down an industry rife with exploitation and retaliation under unsafe conditions.

Reporter Ezequiel Rodríguez Andino tells the story of merengue’s rise in Puerto Rico, the ripple effects of this “musical war,” and what it all tells us about the relationship between Puerto Rico and the people from its sister island, the Dominican Republic.

Now that Haiti’s national women’s soccer team has qualified for the Women’s World Cup, Latino Rebels Radio host Julio Ricardo Varela welcomes Brenda Elsey, a professor at Hofstra University, to discuss and celebrate this exciting moment in Haitian sports history.

On this episode of Latino Rebels Radio, host Julio Ricardo Varela welcomes Keylin Perez, the first Latina to be named Miss Coppin State at the historically Black university in Baltimore, Maryland, to discuss the backlash she has received online versus the supportive and inclusive environment at the school itself.

Latino Rebels’ senior editor Hector Luis Alamo steps in as guest host this week to break down the George Lopez-Ralph Barbosa controversy with entertainment correspondent Cristina Escobar and L.A. Times columnist Fidel Martinez.

On this episode of Latino USA, Mexican chef and cookbook author Margarita Carrillo Arronte talks with host Maria Hinojosa about the rich history of her home country’s cuisine, debunking misconceptions about it, and spending a lifetime cooking, eating, and loving Mexican food. 

Shortly before his huge success at the Latin Grammy last November, Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler stopped by Latino USA’s studios in Harlem to talk about some key moments in his life and career—and the unexpected turns that have come along with it.

In this episode of Latino USA, we present a conversation between Nadine Córdova and Tim Hernández, two teachers who —almost three decades and more than 400 miles apart— faced the same consequences for teaching Chicano history.

On this episode of Latino USA, trans activist, actress, and author Cecilia Gentili talks about the process of writing her memoir ‘Faltas’ and why she feels telling her story is a revolutionary cry to support trans youth.

In this episode, recorded just days before her Carnegie Hall performance, Latino USA host Maria Hinojosa sits down with Mexican singer-songwriter Natalia Lafourcade to talk about her inspirations and evolution as an artist, and reflect on the value of tending to one’s inner garden.

As Peru faces another political crisis following the impeachment of former president Pedro Castillo last month, Latino Rebels Radio host Julio Ricardo Varela welcomes Peruvian professor Roger Merino to discuss how the right wing is playing a dangerous democratic game that has led to the deaths of several protesters.