Latino USA

Making Movies is a band based out of Kansas City, Missouri that mixes Afro-Latino rhythms and psychedelic rock’n'roll. The group members have roots in Panama and Mexico. It’s composed by two sets of brothers, lead singer and guitarist Enrique Chi and bassist Diego, and Juan-Carlos and Andres Chaurand on percussion and drums.

In this edition of our series “How I Made It," Latino USA sits down with Enrique and Juan-Carlos to discuss, "Locura Colectiva," one of the band’s most ambitious tracks. They discuss how the track came to be and why they felt the album at one point was cursed.

This episode originally aired in 2019.

Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage. 

Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this 2-part investigation, The Moving Border from Latino USA delves into the increasing pressure put on refugees seeking safety in the United States via its southern border. It reveals the surprising support the Trump administration has received to create an impenetrable policy wall that pushes asylum seekers south, away from the U.S. 

In episode one, The North, we visit Juarez and tell the story of a mother and daughter who are mired in a web of changing policy and subjected to ongoing violence. And we find evidence of how Mexican authorities are working hand-in-hand with the U.S. at the border.

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.

This episode originally aired in 2020.

Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage. 

Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 then, when he heard James Brown’s "I feel good," he realized that he was meant for a different path. 

In this segment of “How I Made It,” Erik takes us through his transformation into Afro-Cuban artist Cimafunk—a Billboard’s “Top 10 Latin Artists to Watch”—and explains how someone who had never studied music before found the confidence to listen to himself and be listened to by others.

This episode originally aired in 2020.

Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage. 

Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gun violence is a top voting issue for Latinos and Latinas this election cycle. So to explore how Latines are thinking about the topic, we traveled to Texas. The Lone Star State has more registered guns than any other state in the country, and it’s also home to some of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history — many of them directly targeting Latinos and Latinas.

On this episode of Latino USA, producer Reynaldo Leaños Jr. travels to El Paso, Texas to speak with Latinx activists and gun owners about gun reform and safety ahead of the November presidential election. Maria Hinojosa returns to Uvalde, Texas to catch up with a survivor of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary and see how the community has been mobilizing around gun reform.

This story is part of our ongoing political coverage “The Latino Factor: How We Vote."

You can read more about the episode here. 

Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage. 

Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Puerto Rican singer and songwriter Draco Rosa just released a new album, "Monte Sagrado," after several years without sharing a new collection of work, and after battling cancer. Born Robert Edward Rosa Suárez in New York, Rosa is a Grammy-winning artist, and a member of the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is behind hits including “Livin’ la Vida Loca.”

Draco Rosa talks about his career, his battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Hurricane María, and the creation of "Monte Sagrado."

This episode originally aired in 2018.

Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage. 

Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After Texas passed a six-week abortion ban and Roe v. Wade was overturned, many abortion clinics had to close in the Lone Star state. Some providers considered opening clinics in eastern New Mexico, so that they could keep providing services to women from Texas and other states where abortion is banned. But some neighbors in eastern New Mexico were not so welcoming to this idea. 

In this episode of our continuing series “The Latino Factor: How We Vote,” we travel to eastern New Mexico to meet Latinas and Latinos who have mobilized politically for and against abortion in the region. We also learn about how the anti-abortion movement is trying to revive an obscure law from the 19th Century, the Comstock Act, to stop clinics from opening by passing local ordinances.  

You can read more about the episode here. 

Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage. 

Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Latino USA shares an episode from the podcast "Imperfect Paradise: Return to Mexico," from LAist. 

In 2011, Daniel Zamora took a road trip that shattered the course of his life. Lulled to sleep by the drive, he awoke to find that his boyfriend had taken a detour, curious to look at the border wall, and that they were surrounded by Border Patrol. 

Imperfect Paradise: Return to Mexico tells the story of Daniel Zamora who remade his life after being deported from the U.S. to Mexico. Daniel’s friend and series reporter Lorena Ríos explores Daniel’s journey, from the time he spent as a young teenager without his parents in Río Blanco, to his coming-of-age in Los Angeles and Iowa, to his current life in Ciudad Juárez as a retornado, or returnee. 

Through an intimate conversation, the series interrogates narratives around deportation as failure, the porous reality of people with lives on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border and the alternate lives immigrants leave behind and construct anew. 

You can listen to the podcast here. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Mortgage Wall is a special episode by Futuro Investigates in collaboration with Latino USA. As housing has become one of the top five concerns for Latino voters for the first time ever this election cycle, we dive into the disparities that make it harder for Latinos and Latinas to overcome mortgage lending barriers and achieve homeownership.

You can read more about the episode here. 

Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage. 

Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Daymé Arocena is a Cuban singer, songwriter and composer who left the island looking for artistic freedom. Arocena has been described as one of the most explosive and dynamic voices today. In her latest album "Alkemi" she bridges her knowledge of jazz, Afro-Cuban percussion, and even a little 90s R&B. These last few years have been a time of intense transformation for Arocena, so on this episode of Latino USA, the 32-year-old tells us how her upbringing has helped her create music that doesn’t fit easily into a box.

Read more about the episode here.

Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage. 

Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Vicente Montalvo's grandparents grew up and fell in love in Palo Verde, one of the neighborhoods that make up a community known as Chavez Ravine. In the early 1950s, the city decided that Chavez Ravine was the perfect site to build public housing. So the residents were forced to sell their homes under the city's use of eminent domain. But the election of a new mayor, would end up canceling those plans, and instead the land would become what many know today as Dodger Stadium.

This segment was originally aired in 2017.

Subscribe to our newsletter by going to the top of our homepage. 

Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.