Month: January 2013

PRE-INAUGURATION CONVERSATION

Posted on by Maria Hinojosa

President Barack Obama is about to begin his second term, and with the new administration comes a new cabinet and a new Congress. We speak about what Latino communities can expect in the new Obama term with Jordan Fabian, political editor for the English-language website for Univision News.

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Click here to download this week’s show.

Jordan Fabian is the political editor for Univision News’s English-language portal. Prior to joining Univision in 2011, he worked as a staff writer at The Hill newspaper in Washington, DC where he covered Congress and the 2012 presidential campaign. Jordan has appeared on MSNBC, Fox News and C-SPAN, and has contributed to a number of nationally-syndicated radio programs. He also freelanced for Hispanic Business magazine. Jordan hails from Olney, MD and is a lifelong resident of the Washington area. He graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor of arts in history.

DOCUMENTED DRIVING

Posted on by Maria Hinojosa

The Illinois legislature passed a law which will allow undocumented immigrants residing in the state to obtain driver’s licenses.  With this move, Illinois joins three other states — New Mexico, Washington and Utah that allow undocumented immigrants to drive legally. Dan Weissmann reports.

[audio:http://latinousa.org/audio/1302seg02.mp3]
Click here to download this week’s show.

Dan Weissmann is a Chicago-based radio producer and multimedia reporter. His work has appeared regularly on WBEZ (Chicago Public Media, 91.5 FM) and can be found at www.danweissmann.com.

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS IN THE HEIGHTS

Posted on by Maria Hinojosa

The Upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights has long been home to the country’s largest Dominican-American community. Now it’s also home to a new reality show produced by MTV. We speak with a group of young Washington Heights residents about how the show represents their ‘hood.

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Click here to download this week’s show

The following people graciously sat down with us to watch Washington Heights and give us their opinion:


Dr. Cyrus Boquín

 

 

 

 


Cynthia Carrion

 

 

 

 

 

 


John Paul Infante

NOTICIANDO: SUNDANCE, LATINO STYLE

Posted on by Maria Hinojosa

We take a closer look on what’s Latino in this year’s Sundance Film Festival, which takes place this month in Park City, Utah. We talk to Sundance Festival Senior Programmer Shari Frilot, and to blogger, film critic and Sundance programming associate Christine Davila.

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Click here to download this week’s show.

Christine Dávila is a first generation Mexican-American born and raised in Chicago. Her passion for discovering original and underrepresented voices led her to pursue a career in film festival programming.  She started to screen films for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival where she is currently a Programming Associate, and also evaluates projects for Sundance Institute’s International Screenwriters lab.  Davila has also been an Associate Programmer for The San Francisco International Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, and the Morelia International Film Festival.  She programs a monthly screening series in LA’s Downtown Independent theater.  A regular volunteer at Centro Del Pueblo, a non-profit community service center for at risk youth in Echo Park, she also writes, not as frequently as she’d like to, on her blog, http://chicanafromchicago.com a forum where she tracks, interviews and covers US Latino films and filmmakers.

 

 

An alumna of Harvard/Radcliffe University, and the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, Shari Frilot is a filmmaker who has produced television for the CBS affiliate in Boston and for WNYC and WNET in New York before creating her own independent award-winning films, including Strange & Charmed, A Cosmic Demonstration of Sexuality, What Is A Line? and the feature documentary, Black Nations/Queer Nations? She is the recipient of multiple grants, including the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Media Arts Foundation.

Shari is presently the Senior Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival. She is the curator and driving creative force behind New Frontier, an exhibition and commissioning initiative that focuses on cinematic work being created at the intersections of art, film and new media technology.

THE YEAR AHEAD IN POLITICS

Posted on by Maria Hinojosa

The influence of the Latino vote grabbed the headlines in this past election, and has brought comprehensive back into the political agenda. But how can Latinos take advantage of this political opening, and what other issues will they try to influence next? Host Maria Hinojosa speaks with Maria Teresa Kumar of Voto Latino and Jennifer Korn of Hispanic Leadership Network.

[audio:http://latinousa.org/audio/1301seg01.mp3]
Click here to download this week’s show.

Jennifer S. Korn is Executive Director of the Hispanic Leadership Network. Ms. Korn has 18 years of experience as a conservative strategist. Previously, Ms. Korn served in the George W. Bush Administration as Director of Hispanic and Women’s Affairs in the White House, as well as Senior Advisor to the Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Prior to her public service, Ms. Korn was National Hispanic Director and Southwest Coalitions Director on President Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign. As such, she developed and supervised the implementation of the strategy that resulted in President Bush receiving 44% of the Hispanic vote. Ms. Korn was born in East Los Angeles and is the first in her family to attend college. She is a military spouse.

 

Maria Teresa Kumar is the President/CEO of Voto Latino. Her strong record of accomplishment has earned her high profile recognitions, including being named as one of the 20 most notable Latinos under 40 by PODER Magazine, and numerous leadership awards including an Emmy nomination, the White House Project, Imagen Foundation and the New York legislature.

In addition to being a frequent commentator on MSNBC, Maria Teresa serves as an occasional blogger for national outlets. Maria Teresa started her career as a legislative aide. She received her Master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor’s in international relations from the University of California at Davis.

UPDATE ON “INSIDE WILLACY”

Posted on by Maria Hinojosa

Catherine Rentz, who produced Latino USA’s October 2012 report on sexual assault and other abuses within immigrant detention centers, gives us an update on changes to legislation to report, investigate and prosecute these crimes.

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Click here to download this week’s show.

Catherine Rentz is a reporter and documentary filmmaker in residence at the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University in Washington D.C. She’s produced several documentaries for PBS FRONTLINE about the airline industry, environmental resources, retirement finances, U.S. intelligence apparatus and immigration.

THREE KINGS DEMOCRACY

Posted on by Maria Hinojosa

Host Maria Hinojosa talks about her memories of how Los Reyes Magos — the Three Wise Men — are celebrated in Mexico and in New York City’s East Harlem, where she is marching as a Queen in this year’s Three Kings’ Parade down Fifth Avenue.

[audio:http://latinousa.org/audio/1301seg03.mp3]
Click here to download this week’s show.

HAITIAN IMMIGRANT SONG

Posted on by Maria Hinojosa

A young immigrant deported to Haiti finds new life as a musician back in his old home. Reporter Reese Erlich brings us this story.

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Click here to download this week’s show. Image courtesy of Facebook. 

Reese Erlich is a best-selling book author and freelance journalist who writes regularly for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Radio, Marketplace Radio and National Public Radio.

LOOKING TOWARDS “WASHINGTON HEIGHTS”

Posted on by Maria Hinojosa

“Washington Heights,” a new reality show featuring a group of young Latino friends who live in the New York City, is scheduled to premiere on January 9, 2012.  This week, we invited listeners to tweet out their thoughts on the show.

For next week, we’ve invited a few of our friends from the Washington Heights neighborhood to watch the first two episodes and share their reaction.

If you watch the premiere, let us know what you think.

NOTICIANDO: ARE THE KIDS ALL RIGHT?

Posted on by Maria Hinojosa

Mexican-American children are falling behind their white peers when it comes to language and cognitive skills, according to a new report by the University of California, Berkeley, and UCLA. We speak to Bruce Fuller, professor and sociologist at UC Berkeley and co-author of the study.

[audio:http://latinousa.org/audio/1301seg05.mp3]
Click here to download this week’s show.

Bruce Fuller is a Professor of Education and Public Policy at University of California, Berkeley. Working inside policy organizations and the academy over the past three decades, he has asked how public action best strengthens families and schools. Trained in political sociology, Professor Fuller’s recent projects center on small-scale organizations that sprout across diverse communities, such as charter schools and preschools, which often spread in response to the clumsy or gray character of central states.

His recent book, Standardized Childhood: The Political and Cultural Struggle over Early Education, examines how elite reformers often push for state incorporation of community programs, even eroding the authority and resources spread across diverse ethnic leaders. A college dropout, he eventually received his Ph.D. from Stanford University. Before Berkeley, Professor Fuller was a research sociologist at the World Bank and taught at Harvard’s School of Education.