Latino USA

This Valentine's Day, Maria Hinojosa and Yesika Salgado talk about love, lust, and being a hopeless romantic. Yesika grew up in Los Angeles in a Salvadoran family, and she calls herself a fat, fly poet—her most recent book of poems "Hermosa" came out last fall. Yesika and Maria start this episode with a trip to the world's largest wholesale produce market, where they go on a quest to find the sexiest fruit. Then, they sit down to talk about how love has changed Yesika's relationship with her body and how her literary success has shaped what she wants out of love.

Every holiday season, you can't help but sing along to the infectious melody of José Feliciano's 1970 mega single, "Feliz Navidad." But aside from the holiday hit, the Puerto Rican singer boasts an almost 60-year musical career and one of his specialties is recording covers like "California Dreamin'" and "La Copa Rota"—blending them with his own sound of blues, folk, soul and Latin. In this conversation with Maria Hinojosa, José Feliciano opens up about why he keeps the 70s alive and about one of his favorite relationships: the one he has with his guitar.

For seventeen years, Ornella Pedrozo thought of her mom's detainment by ICE as her deepest, darkest secret. When she was four years old, her mother Violeta, who had fled the armed conflict in Peru, was abruptly detained by ICE. That separation, which lasted seven months, was something that Ornella didn't really talk about, until recently. In this episode, you'll hear fragments of a letter Ornella wrote about her complicated feelings back then, and she also sits down with Violeta to talk — at length for the first time — about how those seven months left a permanent mark.

Known by many as "La Reina del Rock," the queen of Latin American rock, Alejandra Guzmán has built a legacy for herself through her soulful performances and scandalous lyrics. Her famous Mexican parents, rocker Enrique Guzmán and actress Silvia Pinal, introduced her to the industry, but it's Alejandra's fierce stage presence and ambition that have sold over 12 million records over three decades. In this episode, Alejandra talks to Maria Hinojosa about her rebellious roots and what the rock 'n' roll lifestyle looks like with hip replacements.

Recently, a local blogger broadcast his discovery of a warehouse full of aid supplies in Ponce, Puerto Rico, through Facebook Live — reportedly from disaster relief after Hurricane María in 2017. The public outrage was immediate. Thousands of people in the south of the island have been displaced by an earthquake swarm that's been going on for weeks, and government response has been slow. As protests break out to denounce corruption and ineptitude in the Puerto Rican government, there's also a pernicious narrative from the federal government: that the island is too corrupt to trust, and cannot manage federal aid.