AN INSECURE FREAKY LATINA WRITER

For our Season 6 finale, Anna Salinas shares growing up in the conservative retirement town of Sarasota, how teaching art gave her the confidence to pursue improv at UCB, building Latino community with her team Menudo and the show Feliz Hour, breaking into TV on Human Resources, Mo, and Loot, and how her webcomic Bad Comix by Anna and short films helped her break out as a filmmaker!

Season 7 of the pod starts back up March 2026!

Instagram - @lalistapodcast

Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks

A LATINO WRITER WHO WRITES ABOUT JOY & GRIEF

Yosimar Reyes (Ep. 113) is back to talk about bringing his solo show Prieto to its LA premiere (Nov 20–23), navigating the loss of his grandmother with the help of therapy, reflecting on undocumented life in a shifting political landscape, and creating theater rooted in joy, grief, and humor!

Instagram - @lalistapodcast

Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks

AN AWKWARD DOMINICAN YORK WRITER

Stephanie Rodriguez shares growing up between the Bronx and Tampa, hustling her way into art school, creating her graphic novel Doodles from the Boogie Down, transitioning from comics to screenwriting, moving to LA with a New York hustle, and breaking into children's media through the Fred Rogers Productions Writers' Neighborhood program!

Instagram - @lalistapodcast

Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks

AN ANIMATED GAY LATINX WRITER/PRODUCER

James Eason-Garcia shares growing up Mexican-American in Colorado, coming out as the first openly gay student at his high school, rising from a PA for Elena of Avalor to co-executive producer for "Marvel's Iron Man and His Awesome Friends," and diving into preschool animation through visual storytelling and lessons in kindness!

Instagram - @lalistapodcast

Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks

A BUBBLY & COLORFUL SPOOKY LATINA WRITER

Montserrat Luna-Ballantyne shares growing up between Monterrey and Ventura County, leaving the Mexican Consulate to break into TV with Mayans MC, surviving Zoom rooms and the strike, and finding new creative joy through Film Independent's Project Involve with her horror/psychological thriller short In Sickness and in Health!

Instagram - @lalistapodcast

Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks

A SMART-ASS TEJANA WRITER

Marcelina Chavira shares growing up in Texas with Mexican and white roots, moving from anthropology into sketch and voiceover, writing for Amazon's Upload in the thick of our AI anxieties, bringing her Texas upbringing to the King of the Hill continuation, and shaping a voice grounded in magical realism and postcolonial identity in our current climate!

Instagram - @lalistapodcast

Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks

A PROUDLY FORMULAIC IMMIGRANT WRITER

Jorge Molina shares growing up gay in Cuernavaca, Mexico and dreaming of Hollywood from afar, skipping the traditional assistant path after USC due to visa constraints, building a career curating shorts at top queer and Latino film festivals and demystifying the submission process for filmmakers, and channeling his whodunit obsession into the Gina Torres-led audio drama A Murder in Montecito!

Instagram - @lalistapodcast

Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks

A PROUD LATE-BLOOMER, DAUGHTER TO IMMIGRANTS, NOW TRAUMATIZED & SEARCHING FOR A HYPNOTIST

Helen Fernandez shares her upbringing between Phoenix, San Antonio, and Mexico, navigating toxic assistant gigs and breaking through via the NBC TV Writers Program, how getting staffed on Happy's Place and not being asked back taught her the highs and heartbreaks of working in TV, and creating the live comedy show Single Riders Only to explore the absurdity of modern dating!

Instagram - @lalistapodcast

Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks

A QUEER LATINO-INDIGENOUS DRAG QUEEN TURNED FILMMAKER

Reuben Bernardo Qhapaq shares his journey from Ecuador to San Francisco, surviving chronic illness and a rigid adoptive home, finding community as a teenage runaway in the city's underground Latino drag scene, going from high school dropout to AFI graduate, and why his upcoming short Esta Noche honors the queer elders who helped him survive.

Instagram - @lalistapodcast

Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks

A PROUD QUEER, AFRO-NUYORICAN WRITER, ACTOR, & PRODUCER

Ronald Hinton shares growing up with his grandmother in NYC's Upper West Side, reclaiming pride in his roots through writing, launching his Queerty-nominated web series Natives to spotlight queer life in public housing, and building community through the Queer Voices: NYC Film Festival.

Instagram - @lalistapodcast

Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks