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Speaker 1: This is Latino USA, the Radio Journal of News and

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Speaker 1: Kurturre Latino US. Latin Latino USA. I'm Maria Inojosa. We

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Speaker 1: bring you stories that are underreported but that mattered to you,

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Speaker 1: overlooked by the rest of the media, and while the

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Speaker 1: country is struggling to deal with these, we listen to

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Speaker 1: the stories of Black and Latino Studio United Latino Front,

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Speaker 1: a cultural renaissance organizing at the forefront of the movement.

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Speaker 1: I'm Maria Inojosa. No bayan, Hey, Latino USA listener, Here's

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Speaker 1: a show from Los Archivos from Pudu Media and PRX.

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Speaker 1: It's Latino USA. I'm Maria Inojosa Today. The all female

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Speaker 1: mariachi band Lortace flor to Lace is a Latin Grammy

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Speaker 1: winning all female mariachi band. The New York City based

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Speaker 1: group was founded in two thousand and eight when singer

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Speaker 1: midree Ge Ramos found herself subject to a lot of

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Speaker 1: scrutiny as a woman in the male dominated mariaci circles,

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Speaker 1: so she decided to do something about it. Their latest album,

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Speaker 1: Indiebre is a Testament to the Indestructibility of women. Nominated

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Speaker 1: for two Latin Grammys, the album is a powerhouse of

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Speaker 1: harmonies and collaborations from R and B sensation Miguel to

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Speaker 1: the icon John Legend, and it features surprising covers of

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Speaker 1: artists like Juan Luis Guerra, No Doubt and The Beaches.

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Speaker 1: Whether they're singing traditional Mexican brancheras or some of their

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Speaker 1: latest fusions, the group creates harmonies that will give you

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Speaker 1: the chills. Today we hear from core members of the

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Speaker 1: group as they tell us in their own words, how

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Speaker 1: they came to be, how they've pushed through criticisms, and

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Speaker 1: how the sisterhood they formed has made them in destructibles.

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Speaker 2: My name is Scheffiel and I play viuela and sing.

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Speaker 3: I'm Julie Acosta. I played trumpet and I sing backgrounds.

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Speaker 4: My name is Mireya Ramus and I play violin and

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Speaker 4: I sing a mevel.

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Speaker 5: Ota adgvo.

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Speaker 4: My dad he was a mariachi singer. He used to

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Speaker 4: perform in Puerto Rico and he used to take me

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Speaker 4: with him. So that was my first experience with mariachi,

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Speaker 4: and I just fell.

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Speaker 6: In love with the kasa.

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Speaker 4: Throughout my whole experience of performing mariachi New York, I

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Speaker 4: was one of the only female mariachi performers. I did

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Speaker 4: encounter some cultural clashes and also some machismo, and I

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Speaker 4: had to deal with that on my own. And because

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Speaker 4: of that, I was like, oh, you know, maybe I

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Speaker 4: should start an old female Mariacci. The first person I

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Speaker 4: thought of was Saifiel. I called her up and I

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Speaker 4: was like, Hey, do you want to form this project

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Speaker 4: on all female mariachi and she said yes, Sonny.

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Speaker 2: I had met Miday early on, and I really hadn't

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Speaker 2: been exposed to mariachi very much, so I had to

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Speaker 2: make myself a playlist. I started falling in love with mariachi.

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Speaker 3: I started playing mariachi when I joined flor Do Luace.

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Speaker 3: I had heard mariachi growing up. Then of course, once

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Speaker 3: I started playing the trumpet, it caught my attention even more.

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Speaker 3: A lot of us in New York of a Dominican background,

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Speaker 3: we weren't raised around the music because it's very much

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Speaker 3: a cultural thing. In our band, that's pretty much the situation,

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Speaker 3: except for Medea, who grew up around it with your dad.

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Speaker 4: Mariachi is Mexican, but it's also world music, so people

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Speaker 4: connect to it.

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Speaker 2: Mariachi is also a very important part and totally linked

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Speaker 2: to the culture, and that it's used in celebrations, in

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Speaker 2: birthdays and kintenneas and weddings, and you can't really have

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Speaker 2: a party without mariacci.

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Speaker 4: What's also a community it's passed on by a community

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Speaker 4: member or a family member. That's how the tradition is

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Speaker 4: passed on. Originally Cinoy.

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Speaker 2: Not yet on as you know.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, we named our band it's a very sacred and

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Speaker 4: ancient flower. The flower itself has magical properties and people

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Speaker 4: use it in Mexico for love potions. So we thought

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Speaker 4: it was perfect for us.

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Speaker 3: Lochi.

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Speaker 2: We're unique in what we do, not because we're not

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Speaker 2: femal mariacci necessarily, but we also do fusion paramosas we

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Speaker 2: pushed the boundaries of mariachi and do mariachi with our

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Speaker 2: own touch little and so it really opens the doors

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Speaker 2: for us to do a lot of cool cultural stuff.

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Speaker 6: No, se just set up again.

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Speaker 5: Find that game next week at Les Gateway.

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Speaker 7: Let's see.

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Speaker 2: Because we weren't all women group, we were under a microscope.

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Speaker 2: I think people were hyper critical of us and a

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Speaker 2: lot of times we show up at gigs and guys

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Speaker 2: with kind of treating us a certain way because they

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Speaker 2: didn't think we knew what we were doing, or we'd

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Speaker 2: get to a studio session and little do people know,

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Speaker 2: we had already been performing and recording for fifteen years.

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Speaker 2: Everywhere we walked in it was like we were there

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Speaker 2: for the first time. I just know for obviously in

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Speaker 2: years of experience, that that's not the way that men

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Speaker 2: are treated as musicians. They're treated like professionals. And that's

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Speaker 2: been hard now because some people know us and they

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Speaker 2: invite us to these performances in studios. They know that

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Speaker 2: we're professionals. But even still it happens. You know, we

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Speaker 2: walk into a place and I can tell already we're

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Speaker 2: not good enough. We're not we shouldn't be there. We're

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Speaker 2: not in our place. You know, there's a place for us,

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Speaker 2: It's not on stage.

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Speaker 4: And this album was special because we've got to work

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Speaker 4: really together as a band.

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Speaker 2: We just put everything out there, all the ways we

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Speaker 2: had wanted to express ourselves musically, but just now felt right.

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Speaker 4: This is a true, true sound.

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Speaker 2: One day I was listening to of the three of

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Speaker 2: us sitting here, I'm the only non Dominican, but I

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Speaker 2: was introduced to his music just like Mariachi. Later on

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Speaker 2: and I loved the lyrics. I was like, oh, I'm

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Speaker 2: simple sied and do it a reggae style.

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Speaker 3: Sierramo.

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Speaker 2: I did a garage band recording of it like eight

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Speaker 2: years ago and it's been sitting around. I think because

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Speaker 2: it was definitely kind of most out there in terms

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Speaker 2: of fusion, that maybe we had approached it and we

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Speaker 2: weren't quite ready for that. I don't think. We started

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Speaker 2: talking a little bit about adding a male vocalist and

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Speaker 2: some names came up, and John Legend was one of them.

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Speaker 4: We were like, oh, would he do it? Will he's

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Speaker 4: singing Spanish. We were like, let's just ask the worst

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Speaker 4: thing that can happen, And he says no. We all

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Speaker 4: are jumping up and down and crying and had chills

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Speaker 4: all over our bodies and came out so beautiful.

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Speaker 2: Joe remembering it was a long process recording the album

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Speaker 2: because we had babies in tow tour life and family

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Speaker 2: life is definitely a juggling act. Being a parent is hard.

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Speaker 2: It's it's just, you know, a different twist on it.

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Speaker 2: The first thing I thought of was just how cool

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Speaker 2: it was to have our babies there. It's probably more

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Speaker 2: likely than all women band that we would be this

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Speaker 2: welcome and exciting to be bringing your kid on the

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Speaker 2: road with.

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Speaker 3: You amongst each other. We formed such a strong sisterhood

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Speaker 3: to see how we all help each other. You know,

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Speaker 3: through it and through touring with our babies has been

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Speaker 3: quite special.

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Speaker 2: I never envisioned what that would look like. You just

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Speaker 2: don't do it until you have to. Don't try and

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Speaker 2: envision it, just do it. Having pushed along this path

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Speaker 2: as so many women do, it's not easy. There's always

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Speaker 2: met with resistance from the outside world, from within yourself,

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Speaker 2: from your confidence. It takes a lot of inner dialogue

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Speaker 2: to get you through.

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Speaker 7: Gervalie.

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Speaker 4: We all need to hear these positive things and remind

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Speaker 4: ourselves how powerful we are.

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Speaker 7: Love that trug.

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Speaker 2: Women are indestructible.

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Speaker 1: That was the women of flor the all female Mariacci group.

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Speaker 1: Their latest album, In This Truble is out now.

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Speaker 4: Here.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna leave you with a live performance from our

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Speaker 1: offices of Florida to La with It t posts written

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Speaker 1: by Sienue Padilla off of their new album.

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Speaker 7: La School.

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Speaker 5: Susan months one adreas takuado to suco.

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Speaker 7: Semi doc.

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Speaker 5: School one, don't be there, goa su and look back lusus.

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Speaker 7: Yes, Sunny.

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Speaker 5: Solo sa, LDM, Podesta, Consul cas ERDM.

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Speaker 7: For the words you, yes, the elf, lovelady, no, nummosa,

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Speaker 7: puerta Yeah, Rosbie already say see to Bela be live

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Speaker 7: to so called Laddia May like May.

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Speaker 3: L Emen.

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Speaker 1: This episode was produced by Gini Montalgo. It was edited

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Speaker 1: by Fernando Camrena. It was mixed by Stephanie Lebau. The

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Speaker 1: Latino USA team includes Victoria Estrada, Renaldo Leanos Junior, Andrea

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Speaker 1: Lopez Crusado, Rori, mar Marquez, Marta Martinez, Mike Sargent, Neer

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Speaker 1: Saudi and Nancy Trujillo. Panilee Ramirez is our co executive producer.

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Speaker 1: Our senior engineer is Julia Caruso. Our marketing manager is

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Speaker 1: we known Up. Our theme music was composed by Zane Rubinos.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host and executive producer Maria Jojosa. Join us

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Speaker 1: again on our next episode. In the meantime, look for

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Speaker 1: us on all of your social media. I'll see you there,

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Speaker 1: yees nonca.

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Speaker 6: Latino USA is made possible in part by the Heising

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Speaker 6: Simons Foundation, Unlocking knowledge, opportunity and possibilities. More at Hsfoundation

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Speaker 6: dot org, New York Women's Foundation, The New York Women's Foundation,

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Speaker 6: funding women leaders that build solutions in their communities and

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Speaker 6: celebrating thirty years of radical generosity.

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Speaker 5: And W. K.

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Speaker 6: Kellogg Foundation, a partner with communities where children Come First.