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“It Was Time”: Dolores Huerta’s First Interview After “Devastating” Cesar Chavez Expose by latinousa

Mexican by Choice: Maria Hinojosa on Reclaiming Her Mexican Citizenship by latinousa

Suave Ep6 NAHJ by latinousa

El Refugio NAHJ by latinousa

From Pregnancy to Murder Charge NAHJ by latinousa

The Network NAHJ by latinousa

Taken NAHJ by latinousa

August 7, 2019 forever changed the lives of many immigrants in Mississippi. Almost 700 people were taken by ICE that day in the largest single state immigration raid in the country. Latino USA continues its reporting in Mississippi and heads back to the state to follow-up with some of the people we met in last year’s episode, After the Mississippi Raids, to see what’s changed and what hasn’t in their lives and their communities. We also dive into the racial history behind the chicken processing business in the South and the vicious cycle of an industry that continues to exploit the most vulnerable.

In this two-part investigation, we look into Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), the largest child welfare agency in the U.S., and what happens when the system that is meant to protect these children falls short—and even puts their lives at risk.

In this two-part investigation, we look into Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), the largest child welfare agency in the U.S., and what happens when the system that is meant to protect these children falls short—and even puts their lives at risk.

Latino USA and Black Public Media bring you Alzheimer’s In Color. 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.

August 7th, 2019 was the day that tore apart an unlikely community of Guatemalan immigrants in central Mississippi. A year ago, hundreds of ICE agents arrived at seven chicken processing plants and arrested 680 workers. Many of them were fathers and mothers whose kids were left behind for days, weeks, or even months. Today, many families are still dealing with the consequences of those arrests, many remain unable to work, as they grapple with the traumatic psychological repercussions. Latino USA traveled to the heart of Mississippi to hear about the long term effects of the largest single-state immigration raid in U.S. history.

On March 14th of 2020, just as the governor of California issued a state-wide mandate for Californians to shelter in place, Martha Escudero and her two daughters became the first of a dozen unhoused families to occupy one of over a hundred vacant houses in El Sereno, Los Angeles. Some call them squatters, but they call themselves the Reclaimers because the houses they’re occupying actually belong to a state agency.

Produced by Julieta Martinelli and Maria Hinojosa, and edited by Marlon Bishop. Field production by Fernanda Camarena and Benjamin Alfaro. Additional help by Isabella Cota, Janice Llamoca, Jeanne Montalvo, and Miguel Macias. Featured illustrations by Alexander Charner. The executive producer for this series is Diane Sylvester. The series was made possible by a partnership with the Pulitzer Center, with additional support provided by the Ford Foundation.

“The Moving Border” series was produced by Julieta Martinelli, Fernanda Camarena, and Maria Hinojosa, and edited by Marlon Bishop. The executive producer is Diane Sylvester. It was made possible by a partnership with the Pulitzer Center, with additional support provided by the Ford Foundation. Featured illustration by Alexander Charner.

At The Mercy Of The Courts, Latino USA by latinousa

There’s a long and extensive pattern of sexual abuse and harassment in privately-run detention facilities for immigrants. Over a ten-month period, Latino USA partnered with Rewire.News and dug into the sexual abuse allegations of Laura Monterrosa at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center. What we learned raised troubling questions about The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) audits and investigations at immigrant detention facilities nationwide and the safety of thousands of people detained in them.

On May 3, 2017, a young woman named Lesvy Berlín Rivera Osorio was found dead on the campus of UNAM, the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The death was shocking for a few reasons: she had been found strangled with a payphone cord wound around her neck, and the campus of UNAM, a prestigious university with hundreds of thousands of students, is considered to be generally safe. After her mother, Araceli Osorio, identified her body, the Mexico City Attorney General’s office sent out a series of tweets. They tweeted that the dead woman had been identified, but they also did much more than give just the facts of Lesvy’s death: they said she had stopped attending high school in 2014 and did not finish her course work, that she lived with her boyfriend, and had been drinking and using drugs with friends on campus. Mexican media outlets ran reports with similar negatively-tinged details. Many women saw the tweets and the media reports of Lesvy’s death characterizing her as a dropout and an alcoholic as an attempt to distance her from the university, and discredit her as a victim. The day after Lesvy’s body had been found, thousands of women started to tweet. They used the hashtag #SiMeMatan or “if they kill me.” It was short for: “If they kill me, what will they say to blame me for my own death?” Latin America has some of the highest rates of femicide in the world. In the last decade, over 24,000 women have been killed across Mexico alone, and when a woman is killed it barely makes a blip in the press. But because thousands of women created a movement online, while her mother Araceli Osorio hasn’t given up, that’s not the case in the death of Lesvy Berlín Rivera Osorio. By: Andalusia Knoll Soloff

This story was done in partnership with Rewire.News. There’s a long and extensive pattern of sexual abuse and harassment in immigration detention facilities, even though the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) was introduced in DHS facilities in 2014. Over a ten-month period, Latino USA partnered with Rewire.News and dug into one specific case: that of Laura Monterrosa’s sexual abuse allegations at the T. Don Hutto Detention Center. What we learned after reviewing documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request raised questions about the efficacy of internal investigations at immigration facilities across the country and the safety of thousands of people detained there.

There’s a long and extensive pattern of sexual abuse and harassment in immigration detention facilities, even though the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) was introduced in 2014. Over a ten-month period, Latino USA partnered with Rewire.News and dug into one specific case: that of Laura Monterrosa’s sexual abuse allegations at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center. What we learned after reviewing documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request raised questions about internal PREA investigations at immigrant detention facilities across the country and the safety of thousands of people detained there. The reporting was presented as a 37 minute audio documentary on NPR’s Latino USA as well as a two part investigative web series on Rewire.News.

Journalist Paula Moura gives an update on Venezuela. She discusses some of the suppression against dissidents in the country, and explains how activists have organized protests in New York City.

Rakata vs Rakitic LATINO USA MASH UP by latinousa

After a fiery plane crash in 1948, all 32 people on-board died—but they weren't all treated the same same after death. Twenty-eight of the passengers were migrant Mexican workers and were buried in a mass grave. The other four were Americans and had their bodies returned to their families for proper burial. It took the work of a determined Mexican-American author to find out who the Mexican passengers were and tell their stories. Latino USA follows Tim Hernandez on his 7-year journey to give names to the dead. Produced by Fernanda Echavarri and Maggie Freleng

Castulo Estrada grew up in Oasis, a mobile home community on the east side of Coachella. The way he describes it, Coachella is divided into two parts: the west side and the east side. On the west side, there are beautiful homes with large front and backyards. Fifteen percent of all golf courses in California are there, and it tends to be predominantly white. On the east side, you find the mobile homes of the mostly immigrant Mexican and Mexican American communities who go to the west side to do landscaping and house cleaning, or they work in agriculture. The differences between the two sides are stark but there is one difference that has a particularly harsh health impact: access to clean water.

Un poema.

Castulo Estrada grew up in Oasis, a mobile home community on the east side of Coachella. The way he describes it, Coachella is divided into two parts: the west side and the east side. On the west side, there are beautiful homes with large front and backyards. Fifteen percent of all golf courses in California are there, and it tends to be predominantly white. On the east side, you find the mobile homes of the mostly immigrant Mexican and Mexican American communities who go to the west side to do landscaping and house cleaning, or they work in agriculture. The differences between the two sides are stark but there is one difference that has a particularly harsh health impact: access to clean water.

Today, Atlanta is a cultural hub—a center for music, movies and TV shows. But that wasn’t always the case. Almost three decades ago, the mayor of Atlanta, Andrew Young, wanted to give his city a rebranding. After coming into the national spotlight during the Civil Rights Movement, the image of tense race relations in Atlanta was hard to shake. But for Mayor Young, nothing represented racial equality and harmony like the Olympics.

Vicente Montalvo grew up in Echo Park, minutes away from Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Little did he know, his family had history that was buried underneath the stadium that opened its doors in 1962. His grandparents told him their story: how they grew up in the ’30s and ’40s in a community named Palo Verde, how they owned a home, and how happy they were among their neighbors in Palo Verde, La Loma and Bishop—three neighborhoods that made up a community called Chavez Ravine. In the 1950s, the Chavez Ravine neighborhoods were cleared out—through the use of eminent domain—to make space for public housing. But those plans were soon canceled when Norris Poulson, a conservative Republican, entered the mayoral race in Los Angeles, ran on an anti-public housing campaign using Red Scare tactics, and won.

In 2016, 260 residents were killed from vehicle collisions in Los Angeles. That includes drivers, bikers and people walking. What’s more, car crashes are the No. 1  killer of children in all of L.A. The city is aware that its streets are dangerous and is currently looking to a policy from Sweden that was developed in the 1990s to help make their roads safer. It’s called "Vision Zero" and now the City of Angels is looking to reduce their traffic deaths down to zero by 2025.

Erlin Mena habla de su vida.

Devotion to The Holy Death, a folk saint with the face of a skull, is a religious movement growing in Mexico and Central America that is also represented in New York City.

Part of our conversation with Chilean actor Pedro Pascal, who plays one of the Netflix series' main characters; Spanish actor Miguel Angel Silvestre, who plays a money launderer for the drug cartel; and Guatemala native Arturo Castro, who goes from playing the sweet gay best-friend in Broad City, to playing the son of a cartel bossman in this season. Image courtesy of Netflix.

You Are Cordially Invited to Hailey’s Quinceañera by latinousa

The USA v. Oscar López Rivera by latinousa

Part 1 and 2

The following segment is from Latino USA's "Unheard but Unafraid: The Story of the San Antonio 4" story, which first aired on August 12, 2016. To listen to the entire story, visit http://latinousa.org/2016/08/12/san-antonio-4/

The following segment is from Latino USA's one-hour episode, "The USA v. Oscar López Rivera," which aired in January, 2017. Who is a freedom fighter, who is a terrorist, and who gets to decide? For the complete episode, go to http://latinousa.org/episode/usa-v-oscar-lopez-rivera/

The following segment is from a special two-part radio series which broadcast in July, 2016. NPR’s Latino USA investigates the unusual death of a man in an U.S. immigrant detention center, and what his death tells us about conditions —especially mental health services— inside the immigrant detention system. This investigation was reported with assistance from The Marshall Project. For the complete two-part series, go to http://latinousa.org/josedejesus/

A 2016 segment from our sister podcast, In The Thick (inthethick.org) In this conversation, Maria Hinojosa leads a discussion about the almost unbelievably complex relationship between Puerto Rico and the US with guests Sandra Lilley, Managing Editor of NBC Latino, Natascha Otero, a leader of South Florida’s chapter of the National Puerto Rican Agenda, and Julio Ricardo Varela, Political Editor for the Futuro Media Group.

This month Puerto Ricans commemorated the centennial of the Jones Act, the first piece of legislation that gave Puerto Ricans a pathway to U.S. citizenship. Starting in 1917, people born in Puerto Rico, a territory of the U.S, were able to become American citizens through naturalization, and they did so for about 20 years. "It's a complicated identity struggle with our people," said Adrián Viajero Roman, co-founder of Defend Puerto Rico. Viajero Roman curated a show called “CitiCien: 100 Artists 100 Years of the Jones Act,” an exhibition that gathers the work Puerto Rican artists to shine a light on how this law impacted Puerto Rican history. Latino USA intern Nicole Acevedo visited the show and brings us the voices of some of those artists. Click here for the full story: http://latinousa.org/2017/03/09/puerto-rican-artists-show-jones-acts-complicated-identity-struggle-art/

'Julieta' is out in theaters now, and to hear how Almodóvar feels about its place relative to the rest of his films, listen to a snippet of Latino USA’s interview with the director. http://latinousa.org/2017/01/12/almodovar-julieta-us-politics/

Twenty-one years after her death, Tejano singer and pop culture icon Selena Quintanilla Perez once again became immortalized. It all started when Patty Rodriguez launched an online petition over a year ago with a single mission: to get MAC Cosmetics to release a “Selena Quintanilla for MAC” limited edition collection. A few months and 38,000 signatures later, MAC said the magic words, “It’s happening! We are excited to announce the MAC Selena Quintanilla collection, available in 2016.” Fans of the Tejano singer would soon have the chance to hold Selena-inspired products made by a global beauty brand. The company went on to say, “Like the legend herself, Selena Quintanilla’s fans are an inspiration to us all for their love and enthusiasm.” Her fans clamored and someone finally listened. Thanks to the efforts of those thousands of fans, that day has arrived. Full story: http://latinousa.org/2016/10/06/selena-mac-collection/

On August 1, KERA's Think show talked with with Latino USA executive producer and anchor Maria Hinojosa about the two-part audio series, THE STRANGE DEATH OF JOSÉ DE JESÚS.

In part two of our two-part special, we continue our investigation into the death of a man in a U.S. immigration detention center, examining surveillance video and other clues about what happened. More info: latinousa.org/josedejesus/

A man dies in a U.S. immigration detention center, under unusual circumstances. He is found unresponsive in his cell, with a sock stuffed down his throat. His death is ruled a suicide, but little information is put out about what happened, and the family wants answers. In this first part of a special two-part series, Latino USA investigates why José de Jesús died in the custody of the U.S. government, and what his death tells us about conditions—especially mental health services—inside the immigration detention system. More info: http://latinousa.org/josedejesus/

Tarik Davis writes and performs comedy and also teaches improv to children and adults. He's performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York and The Second City in Chicago.

Jenny Yang is a comedian and one of the founders of Disoriented, a (mostly) female Asian-American standup tour. She's based in Los Angeles.

Jes Tom is a standup comedian who's performed at Caroline's on Broadway, New York Comedy Club, Gotham, and many other venues. They're from San Francisco but currently based in New York.

In New Mexico during the 1960s, Reies López Tijerina transformed the issue of land rights into an issue of civil rights. He led a movement of Hispanos —people with Spanish, Mexican and Native American ancestry— who had lost their communal land to private landowners or government agencies and demanded it back. López Tijerina’s activism reached its peak with a shootout at a local courthouse in 1967. Though he was controversial, López Tijerina put the fight for land ownership on a national stage in a way that challenged the basic power structure in New Mexico and the rest of the Southwest.

The Southwest was once a part of Mexico, but that doesn’t mean that Mexicans have always felt welcome there. Land disputes led to segregation, discrimination and even state-sanctioned violence. Latino USA looks into the history of resistance leaders like Juan Cortina and Reies López Tijerina, the dark side of the Texas Rangers and school segregation in an episode dedicated to the often untold history of blood and betrayal in the Southwest. Featured image: Texas Rangers mounted on horses in 1915. (PHOTO by Robert Ruynon from the Robert Runyon Photograph Collection, courtesy of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History)