Latino USA

Inside one of the country’s largest contemporary art exhibitions, the Whitney Biennial, slimy green sculptures stare back at you, the scent of lemongrass fills the air, and the hum of insects surrounds you. This year, for the first time in the museum’s history, the exhibition is co-curated by a Latina. Marcela Guerrero brings a new perspective to the prestigious show. Of the 56 total artists displaying work this year, 16 are Latino, with different things to say. We take you inside the exhibition that is re-shaping the narrative around who and what kind of art gets to be considered “American.” Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In February 2026, The Mariachi Brothers, a musical group of 3 teenage boys, were detained by ICE during a scheduled court check-in. After their release, the brothers were invited by Country music star Kacey Musgraves to open her shows in New Braunfels, Texas. Continuing the legacy of Tejano Music, that in many ways is the story of Texas, migration, and the tension of assimilation. In this episode, two years after the death of icon Johnny Canales, we look back at the origins of Tejano music. And how Canales, the man known as the Oprah of Tejano music, changed the genre forever. Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s been a time of growth at Futuro – we’ve been breaking news and bringing rigorous in-depth journalism at Latino USA, creating ambitious podcasts at Futuro Studios, and sharing some awesome behind the scenes moments and stories at Futuro+ with our subscribers. In this week's special episode, Futuro Studios Executive Editor and host Maria Garcia is joined by Managing Editor of Latino USA Fernanda Echavarri, and Grammy-nominated Senior Producer Jeanne Montalvo to bring you a sneak peak of some of the incredible projects we have in the works! The Futuro Plus Team includes associate producer Liliana Ruiz, production managers Victoria Estrada and Jessica Ellis, marketing manager Luis Luna, and development manager Danetsy Len. Mixing by Multitude Productions. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we’re presenting the first episode of “The Network,” a series that Latino USA co-produced with NPR’s Embedded. In the mid-1980s, an OBGYN in Brazil noticed that far fewer pregnant women at his hospital were dying from abortion complications. It wasn’t a coincidence. Brazilian women had made a discovery that allowed them to safely have abortions at home, despite the country’s abortion restrictions. That discovery eventually spread across the globe and transformed access to abortion for millions of women, including women now in the United States. Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Caitlin Dickerson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at The Atlantic. She has become one of the leading voices on immigration coverage for more than a decade. In this episode, Caitlin talks about her recent reporting exploring why some mixed-status families are choosing to “self deport,” what that actually looks like and why we should all consider the impact of what gets left behind. Later, she breaks down the latest on what children and their parents are experiencing in the troubled Dilley family detention facility in Texas. Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two years after her untimely death, Cecilia Gentili remains a legendary trans icon. As International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia approaches, we celebrate it by revisiting our conversation with Gentili. In 2022 she spoke to Latino USA about her memoir, “Faltas,” written as a series of letters to people in her hometown in Argentina. Cecilia goes back to her youth, growing up in the 1970s and 80s, a time when few people in her community understood her gender expression. She also recalls the people who healed her, like her grandmother, and others who hurt her. Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Grammy award-winning Mexican artist Julieta Venegas just released an album and a memoir all about being a Norteña. But like many growing up in the north of Mexico, near the U.S. border, she was also heavily influenced by music and pop culture in English. She loved The Cure as much as she loved Juan Gabriel. Listen to Julieta Venegas talk about her iconic sound, strict Mexican dads who get softer with time, the unusual choice to pick up the accordion while writing angsty 90s songs, and how her roots are always at the border despite not living there. Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Governments worldwide are restricting press freedom, with the U.S. experiencing a drastic decline under the second Trump administration. Funding cuts to public media, lawsuits, federal censorship, and confrontations with ICE have become the norm. Journalists of color, Latino and immigrant journalists are disproportionately impacted. In this episode, we are joined by Maritza Félix, the founder and director of Conecta Arizona, and José Zamora, the regional director for the Americas at the Committee to Protect Journalists to discuss the state of press freedom and what it means for our democracy. This story is part of our democracy and election coverage: The Latino Factor: How We Vote. Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Estefany Rodríguez, a Nashville-based journalist from Colombia, was arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement this past March. In this episode, Estefany gave Latino USA a shocking account about her detention and the inhuman conditions she experienced and witnessed. Estefany’s lawyers argue that her detention was retaliation for her reporting on immigration enforcement and ICE operations. We discuss what Estefany’s case shows about the conditions of immigration detention, and what it means that immigrant journalists could be targeted for their reporting in the United States. This story is part of our democracy and election coverage: The Latino Factor: How We Vote. Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this intimate reflection, Colombian-American producer Tasha Sandoval takes listeners with her as she returns to her native Colombia, after a lifetime of living in the United States. For a few years, Tasha has had a growing desire: to find out what life would be like if she relocated to the country her parents left, to go back to her homeland. And she’s not the only one– Latin American diasporas in the U.S., including many U.S.-born Latinos, are seeking connections to their ancestral homes Tune in as Tasha tries to answer a question: What happens when you are willing to return home? Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After World War II, Puerto Ricans began settling in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, drawn by economic opportunities among Mennonite farming communities. Several generations later, they’re honoring their history and reclaiming their identity as “Dutchiricans” within the Mennonite church—and beyond. Tune in to listen to the story of a Dutchirican matriarch —from her family’s migration from Puerto Rico to their adoption of the Mennonite faith— and how spirituality, work, and resilience forged a new cultural identity. Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“If Hamilton is an Obama-era hope musical, we are a Trump-era protest musical," said Nygel D. Robinson, co-creator of “Mexodus.” “Mexodus,” a high-energy Off-Broadway show that explores a lesser-known part of U.S. history: the Underground Railroad, south into Mexico. In the 1800s, thousands of enslaved Black people fled to Mexico, where slavery had been abolished decades before the United States. Maria Hinojosa speaks with “Mexodus” co-creators and stars, Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson, about what they hope their hit show can teach audiences today about cross-racial and cross-border solidarity. Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shortages of food, fuel, and basic goods are deepening the crisis in Cuba. For many families living on the island, survival now depends on an outside connection. In Miami, an entire economy has sprung up, with people sending packages of food, medicine, and even motorcycles, trying to fill the gap, while Trump keeps saying that “Cuba is next.” Latino USA’s Peniley Ramirez takes us to South Florida to understand how this economy of survival works, why this moment feels worse than anything Cubans have dealt with in recent decades, and, with the U.S. midterms approaching, what is up next for the island and the people living there. Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Leguizamo is back on our screens—though he never really left. For decades he has played characters that have become comedy cult classics: Chi Chi Rodriguez in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, to Benny Blanco in Carlitos Way, and Tybalt in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. He’s the voice of Bruno in Encanto and Sid the Sloth in Ice Age. Roles that he argues would have skyrocketed any white actor to stardom. In this episode we break down his roles, why he thinks entertainers have a responsibility to speak up and get a peek into his new Hulu show where he plays Pablo Escobar. Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Petrona Martínez is one of the most important Black singers in Colombia's modern history—and she didn't get her big break until she was 60! She’s known as “the queen of bullerengue,” an ancestral music tradition that goes back to times of slavery in the Colombian Caribbean Coast. For much of her life, Petrona dealt with isolation, poverty and invisibility as a Black woman from rural Colombia. In 1998, she became internationally known and in 2021 she won a Latin Grammy. Press play and join us in her journey. Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Real Estate duo Miss Jamie Zapata and Kassandra Alicea went viral on social media in 2025 after showcasing luxurious homes as themselves: “Big ass trans women from South Texas.” Their content has raked in millions of views and people especially connected with them because they called themselves “The Real Estate Dolls.” The two are using their newfound virality to fight transphobia. "A lot of people wonder: 'Why do you always have to say you're trans?,'” Miss Jaime told Latino USA. “Because it matters to the people who are underrepresented.” Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Once a protected group of immigrants, people with DACA are now being detained and deported under the Trump administration. More than half a million people brought to the U.S. as children have gone through the rigorous process to get this protected status over the last 14 years, so what’s happening to their status now? We bring you the latest from NBC News’ Nicole Acevedo and take a look back at the program’s history with organizer Neidi Dominguez, who helped make DACA a reality under the Obama administration. Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1989, Maria Hinojosa gave up her Mexican citizenship when she became a naturalized U.S. Citizen. She didn’t know it at the time, but she’d spend years of her life trying to get that legal status. And Maria is amongst the thousands looking for belonging and political power outside of the United States. And even though Maria’s journey is very personal, it asks inherently political questions, like: what does it mean to be the citizen of a country, and who gets to decide if and where you belong? Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1916, a Mexican composer named Maria Grever moved to New York City with her two kids. She went on to write about 1,000 songs until her death in 1951. She composed numerous top charting hits, scored for the big movie houses, wrote operas and Broadway musicals. One of her biggest hits from 1934 received a Grammy and yet many have never heard her name. Maria Grever the person is a mystery, making her one of the most famous unknowns in music history. Join us on a quest to find out everything we can about this prolific composer and why it’s important to remember the women who came before us. Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1902, Isabel González arrived in Ellis Island, pregnant, alone and with only $11.00 in her pocket. She —like others before her— was detained for being an "alien" and at risk of becoming a "burden" on the state. But Isabel took her fight to the courts, defending her right to stay in the country that had invaded her homeland just four years earlier. She fought all the way to the Supreme Court where she argued for citizenship. In this excerpt from Futuro Studios’ series “La Brega” we learn about her legacy, and about a more recent similar challenge. Original episode art by Elizabeth Barreto. You can find her Instagram page here: https://www.instagram.com/cookingood/ Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.