Latino USA

In a rural town in south Georgia, sits “El Refugio,” a charming white home with green shutters. For 15 years, thousands have walked through its doors during the hardest moments of their lives. The house serves as a refuge for families of immigrants detained just two miles away at one of the largest immigration detention centers in the U.S..  In recent months, the visits to El Refugio have skyrocketed. We spent 48 hours inside El Refugio, the only hospitality house of its kind in the nation. We meet volunteers who visit with detainees and the families of those held at Stewa...

It’s been quite the year, for the United States and for Futuro Media. At Latino USA, we’re bringing you in-depth reporting from the front lines. At Futuro Studios, we’re developing ground-breaking shows like La Brega Season 3, which is set to premiere early next year.

In this special Giving Tuesday episode, Futuro Media founder Maria Hinojosa reflects on the year behind and the year ahead. She’s joined in conversation by Latino USA Managing Editor Fernanda Echavarri and Futuro Studios Executive Editor Maria Garcia.

The Futuro Plus Team includes producer Tasha Sandoval, production managers...

For some years now, mezcal, Mexico’s other national spirit, has been in a cultural spotlight in and out of Mexico—especially here in the U.S. But the unseen devastating consequences of that demand have had a profound impact on the people making it. In this episode of Latino USA, we take a journey to Oaxaca to understand the ancestral connections to mezcal, how the spirit is made, and how to become a better consumer. Because there's “so much tradition, every time you sip, every time you smell, and every time you taste it.”

This episode first ai...

Adelita Grijalva, the first Latina –and first Chicana– to represent Arizona in Congress was sworn into office… finally. She was the deciding vote pushing for the release of the Epstein files. The Tucson native was an outspoken leader on a school board and longtime civil servant before winning a special election to fill her late father’s seat, Raul Grijalva. She says her progressive values align with his. Congresswoman Grijalva spoke to us about her upbringing and her future in a party where “Democrats being a watered down version of Republicans is not gonna cut it for the American people. No...

In this episode, Latino USA’s “Selena expert” Maria Garcia sits down with Selena Quintanilla’s sister, Suzette and filmmaker Isabel Castro, to talk about the new Netflix documentary, Selena y Los Dinos: A Family’s Legacy. Suzette opens up about choosing to share the intimate home videos that shaped the film, while Isabel reflects on her artistic vision that brought the documentary to life. Listen in on this behind the scenes look at the life of a woman who defined a generation.

Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering...

Nathy Peluso is an Argentinean-born singer, rapper and poet and she’s looking to chart new territory on who gets to choose how women behave.

She grew up in Spain where she learned to express herself through poetry. The rhythm of the language quickly gave way to rap and her debut album, ‘Calambre.’ Most recently she worked with Tokischa and with the one-and-only Gloria Estefan. Her new EP “Malportada”  is packed with old school salsa vibes. Latino USA’s Maria Hinojosa speaks with Nathy about her new album and taking risks con amor y respeto.

Latino USA is...

Actor Raúl Castillo joins us at the kitchen table. Literally. He goes to Latino USA host Maria Hinojosa’s home to share chips and homemade guacamole. Since his last visit on the show five years ago, a lot has changed for Raúl. He’s  gotten married, filmed one of the darkest scenes of his career on HBO’s Task, and will soon join the cast of The Walking Dead. But there are things that remain the same: Raúl’s respect for matriarchs, his rootedness in community and his moral compass.  

Latino USA is the longest-runnin...

It’s been a year since Donald Trump won the elections. And last week, voters elected candidates that are far from what Trump represents. Democrats made history in New York City, and they won big in places like Virginia, California, and New Jersey—and Latinos and Latinas, as usual, played a big role. But these victories don’t necessarily mean Democrats are poised to sweep in future elections, including the 2026 midterms. A panel of journalists discuss how the elusive so-called Latino vote influenced the most recent elections, and what lessons the Democratic Party should learn. 

Latino USA is the...

There is a mysticism that covers Latin America. Stories of monsters, spirits, and tales of dark family secrets. Sure, it sounds like a telenovela, but literature calls it Gothic: tales that frighten and force us to confront our fears.   

Now, Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has reimagined the classic gothic story “Frankenstein.” But this time with a Latin American twist. 

Del Toro’s adaptation features  catholic imagery, long stares into the camera, and Guatemalan-born Hollywood superstar Oscar Isaac. Oscar gets into the film, the state of the country, and why he dropped Hernandez from his stage name...

Orgullosa and her daughter, Estrella, began to rebuild their lives after they were separated in the U.S.-Mexico border under the first Trump administration in 2018. Seven years later, Trump was re-elected, and their story took a downward spiral.

They were “unlawfully deported” back to Honduras, despite having legal protection to be in the U.S.

In this episode, we hear from Orgullosa about the months leading up to her deportation, the harassment she experienced from ICE, and how she’s part of a broader court filing trying to bring families like hers back to the U...

“The hunting of Latinos.” That’s how the mayor of Los Angeles described the last few months of increasingly violent immigration raids. They’re the brainchild of a Border Patrol chief who went rogue.

In response, these tactics have created a swell of anti-ICE pushback, including from the highest levels of government, and support for the communities affected. With politicians running up against the full force of the federal government – with the backing of the Supreme Court – community is what protects you.

This is a special collaboration with CalMatters. (Hay una versión en español en este fee...

This is a special version of our English episode dropping on Sunday, November 2nd.

Este año, en Los Ángeles, comenzaron las redadas violentas de inmigración. Te llevamos a un recorrido que comienza allí, pasa por Chicago, donde ocurrió la primera muerte de un migrante durante estos operativos, y termina en Ciudad de México, donde hablamos con la presidenta.

Queremos entender el trauma que provoca esta nueva política migratoria y cómo los migrantes y sus familias lidian con él. Porque, en este momento, los migrantes nos dicen que quienes los protegen, en verdad...

Thousands of immigrant children were separated from their parents at the border during the first Trump administration. And while a court ruled the government should reunite these families, hundreds still remain apart. 

In this episode, we travel to Guatemala to meet a father who was deported from the U.S. without his 14-year-old son. In theory the families should be able to reunify on U.S. soil. Lawyers and advocates are working tirelessly to track down missing families. But in practice, the new Trump administration is making these reunifications even more complicated.

Latino USA is t...

Jorge Ramos and his daughter, Paola Ramos, didn’t spend much time together while she was growing up in Madrid and he was anchoring Univision’s newscast in Miami. Now, this power duo is making up for lost time as a family. They are collaborating for the first time as co-hosts of The Moment, a new podcast. Maria Hinojosa sits with them to discuss their relationship, their concept of press neutrality and what it means to stand against the free speech and human rights attacks of the Trump Administration, while documenting how Latinos who voted for Trump are feeling remo...

Jorge and Paola Ramos sit down with renowned author, social activist, and feminist icon Isabel Allende to discuss the state of democracy in the U.S. today, why women’s rights must constantly be defended, and how looking back at our history is crucial in times like these.

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A collage of girlhood and grit.

Born and raised in Stockton, California, 15-year-old Faith Gomez is starting to make a name for herself in the amateur boxing world. A Latina with no big sponsors or fancy gym, Faith trains out of her garage with her father. Her battles don't just take place inside of the ring, as this teenager is fighting stereotypes and the pressures of growing up. Producer Adreanna Rodriguez —who was born and raised in Stockton— brings this coming of age story about a teen juggling school and the grind of becoming a boxing champion… all wh...

Latina actress Judy Reyes has been gracing our screens for two decades with a wide range of roles. And today, as Lieutenant Selena Soto in “High Potential” and as nurse Carla in the upcoming reboot of “Scrubs,” Judy is really having a moment. Host Maria Hinojosa, Judy’s longtime friend and fan, sits down with the Dominican-American actress to discuss her rising career, key moments in her Hollywood journey and her relationship with her family. They also talk about current politics, including government censorship, ICE raids, and immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles, Judy’s home. 

Latino USA is the longes...

Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler knows what it's like to live different lives within one. An ENT doctor until his early 30’s, he then decided to leave medicine behind, as well as his life in Uruguay, to pursue a music career in Spain. He became the first Uruguayan to win an Oscar with his song “Al otro lado del río.”  In this episode of Latino USA, the multiple award-winning musician walks us through key moments in his career, including the creative process behind his latest album “Tinta y tiempo”—and drops a few gems about his personal life on the way.

Tango usually evokes images of a very regal couple: a man in a suit and a woman in a tight red dress, embraced in sensual moves. But the reality of the quintessential Argentinian music genre is strikingly different. Tango, in fact, was born in the brothels and dance halls of Buenos Aires’ lower cast and is rooted in Argentina’s African and queer subcultures. In this episode we’ll take you on a journey through tango’s history. It was first condemned by the elites and the Catholic church, threatened by the worldwide phenomenon of rock n’ roll, and buried by...

Hello Latino USA Listeners! We’re excited to share a special episode from our friend, Honey German from Gracias, Come Again.

Honey sits down with the legendary Maria Hinojosa - an award-winning journalist whose career began in 1993 with one clear mission: to make Latinos visible. From her early days in radio to founding Futuro Media and leading Latino USA, Maria has spent decades amplifying our stories and holding power accountable.

Maria opens up about her fight to ensure the current administration doesn’t silence her voice or her initiatives, why she and Futuro Media reject terms...

A farmworker opened fire at two farms in Half Moon Bay, California, in January 2023. He killed seven men, six co-workers and a supervisor, all immigrants. He also shot an eighth man —five times— but he survived.

The physical recovery for Pedro Romero Pérez has been a long one, but his emotional healing has been even longer. José, Pedro’s older brother and only family in the U.S., didn’t survive the shooting. In this episode, we go to Half Moon Bay, where an unconventional music program is helping Pedro and others heal from their deepest wounds thr...

Reggaeton is full of myths and legends, but this story is true: El General arrived in Brooklyn in the mid-80s and began performing in the dancehall scene, which was booming. He began working with Jamaican producers who were recording and promoting Panamanian artists. Around the same time, a Spanish-language hip-hop revolution was also taking place, as mixtapes flew back and forth between NYC and Puerto Rico.

New York became the crossroad that made Reggaeton possible. 

Listen to a special episode from our own Futuro Studios hit show LOUD: The History of Reggaeton hosted by I...

She was in labor, fainted, and woke up in handcuffs.

In El Salvador, nearly 200 women have been incarcerated in the last 26 years after having obstetric emergencies, like miscarriages and stillbirths. Maria Hinojosa and producer Monica Morales-Garcia travel to the country to speak with women who have been incarcerated under El Salvador's anti-abortion laws, some of the strictest in the world.

Through interviews, documents, and archival materials, this investigation paints a clear and disturbing picture of the women who suffer most when a country stretches the definition of abortion beyond its meaning and then bans them...

When Texas passed its six-week abortion ban in 2021 and Roe v. Wade was overturned, some local abortion clinics considered moving to the neighboring state of New Mexico to grant abortion and female care access to women from both states. However, some residents in New Mexico opposed it. Now, Texas has passed a law further restricting access to abortion by targeting abortion pills, and its measures are also affecting eastern New Mexico.

In this episode, we travel to New Mexico to meet Latinas and Latinos who have mobilized to protect abortion access there, while others are trying to...

Bad Bunny’s residency in Puerto Rico reveals grown-up Benito, an evolved artist whose love for his homeland shines through in everything he does. So let’s talk about his shows!

Together in San Juan (a 6 millas de la casita de Benito) Alana Casanova-Burgess, Ezequiel Rodríguez Andino, Laura Pérez, and Maria Garcia share their reflections on the residency and Bad Bunny’s evolution from trapero to joyous salsero. 

You have to listen to this conversation from the team behind La Brega’s new season which will be all about Puerto Rico campeones, and Bad Bunny...

This is the tale of the young people from Jamaica, Panama, Puerto Rico and beyond who beat the odds, refused to be quiet and created an irresistible musical culture that has kept the world dancing.

We bring you a special episode from our own Futuro Studios hit show “LOUD: The History of Reggaeton.” We meet three Afro-Panamanian friends —all descendants of West Indian canal workers— who start translating Jamaican dancehall songs into Spanish, and performing them at neighborhood soundsystem parties. Did we mention it’s hosted by the queen of reggaeton herself Ivy Queen? Give it a listen.  <...

Bienvenidos a The Moment. Each week, journalists Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos — a father-daughter duo- bring the Latino perspective to the center of today’s conversation with guests who are redefining politics, power, and identity in America.

In our first episode, New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani joins us to talk about what it takes to win the Latino vote, how to make the world’s wealthiest city affordable, and what it would mean to become the first Muslim mayor in New York’s history.

You can listen now on the free iHeartRadio app. New epis...

There are more than 4 million American kids with at least one undocumented parent, and their summer break this year was unlike any other. They told us things like: “My family's worried when they go outside because of ICE,” or “I dreamed about the police coming to our house and they got our parents.”

As increasingly aggressive ICE raids sweep the country, Latino USA follows the stories of young Latinos with undocumented parents navigating the quiet hopes, joys and challenges of summer vacation. They do this in a stark new immigration reality in which fear, uncertainty and the looming...

Activist and organizer Cristina Jiménez, co-founder of United We Dream, joins Maria Hinojosa on Latino USA. Listen in on the conversation, as Cristina reflects on growing up undocumented in Queens, the experience of finding her voice among other undocumented people, and how she transformed her fear into power. For Cristina, migration is not just a story about borders and legislation, it's also a story about love. Her story is a true testament of resilience, community, and hope, as she shares insights from her new memoir, Dreaming of Home: How We Turn Fear into Pride, Power, and Real Change.

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, first as a Latina immigrant and then as a US citizen. 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, 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 homelands. Tasha takes us on her...

The 9/11 terrorist attacks left nearly 3,000 people dead and it traumatized the nation. It also reshaped U.S. immigration policy forever. Today, as the Trump administration targets non-citizens in unprecedented ways, we revisit some of the major changes and events that over the past 20 years altered the U.S. stance towards immigrants through the lens of this one catastrophic day.

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.

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Is the Addams family Latino?

Maria Hinojosa embarks on a quest to unravel this mystery. She interviews actor Luis Guzmán, who plays Gomez Addams in the hit Netflix show “Wednesday,” to discuss his character, the family values in the show and to get answers about the true origin of this iconic family.

They also discuss Luis’ upbringing in New York City, why Latino men shifted toward the right in the 2024 US elections, Guzmán’s relationship with Bad Bunny and how the Addams family and their weirdness is also our own.

Latino USA is the...

Chisme is the Spanish word for gossip. It happens when you speak about someone in their absence, sharing information that’s supposed to be private and not necessarily factual. But foremost, it is an ancestral tongue that has connected and bonded Latinos for generations.

In this episode of Latino USA, producers Monica Morales-Garcia and Elisa Baena travel deep into a chismosa’s universe with the help of chisme experts from reality TV, entertainment news and academia. Follow them on this journey to understand why chisme is so central in the lives of Latinas and Latinos.

This...

Eddie Palmieri’s genius couldn’t be categorized. His music was a mix of salsa, rumba, guaguanco, and jazz, and made anyone who listened to it get on the dance floor. Eddie was the first Latino artist to win a Grammy award and is credited with being a major force behind the Latin jazz boom that hit New York in the 1970s.

Eddie passed away earlier this month at the age of 88. To celebrate his brilliant life and the endless creativity of this salsa legend, we want to share with you the last interview he had with Mari...

Light your candles and schedule your limpia because today's episode is all about the power of intuition. First, we talk to scientist Galang Lufityanto about his research into intuitive decision-making. Then, we head to the Brooklyn Brujería festival and learn about how intuition has been part of a growing Latina feminist movement. Finally, we learn about Reporter Cindy Rodriguez’s journey to embracing her intuition through her relationship with her mother.

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.

Latinas took over the latest season of "Love Island USA" and one won the hearts of millions: “Amaya Papaya.” The massively popular show had many Latina contestants, some found love, and others found themselves in hot water after resurfaced problematic social media posts went viral for the wrong reasons. The cast just finished taping the reunion, which drops Aug. 25, so for this episode we bring three Latina culture thinkers and writers for a reality TV must-listen. We’ll talk about gender roles, representation, and get political about the racial politics of the dating show. 

Latino USA is the lon...

The musical adaptation of "Real Women Have Curves" was praised by the Tony Awards and across the country for its timeliness as it leaned heavily on one major topic: immigration. Still, the show closed after just two months on Broadway. In this episode, host Maria Hinojosa speaks with two of the lead actresses —Florencia Cuenca and Tatianna Córdoba— about what it takes to keep up with the pace on Broadway, the realities of performing while ICE attacks Latinos, and our relationship with our bodies. 

Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S...

After experiencing the complexity of migrating to the U.S. “the right way,” comedian Felipe Torres Medina set out to write a book that was informative but also fun. His goal: to help “remove the weight around the subject of immigration.” The writer for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert published "America Let Me In," which breaks down the serpentine world of visas and legal migration—with a lot of laughs along the way. “Out of respect” for the horrors and challenges of being undocumented, Torres Medina doesn’t touch on those stories in his book. Listen to his conversation wit...

Professional men’s soccer or “futbol” has always had great Latino players, but only 7% of female professional soccer players are Latinas. That’s not how things look at the Downtown LA Soccer Club. Most of the girls playing for this non-profit are Latinas and that’s intentional. The club is trying to overcome the barriers young Latinas often face: like financial burdens and gender stereotypes. In this episode, we meet their star player and her coach, as they fight for their club to remain a safe space. Their rent is up nearly four times, and some of the club’s families h...

As the planet hits record-breaking carbon emissions, the race is on to slash CO2 levels. A controversial technology —called carbon capture and storage— is getting pushed as a solution by politicians and private companies. But critics say it’s just another way to keep fossil fuels alive, and for taxpayers to foot the bill 

We traveled to California’s Central Valley —ground zero for new carbon capture projects— where locals have questions. Will this save the planet? What are the health risks, and who pays the price? 

Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program...