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Speaker 1: This is Latino USA, the radio journal of News and

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Speaker 1: courtur Latino US.

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Speaker 2: Latin Latino USA. I'm Maria Inojosa. We bring you stories

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Speaker 2: that are underreported but that mattered to you, overlooked by

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Speaker 2: the rest of the media, and while the country is

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Speaker 2: struggling to deal with these, we listen to the stories

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Speaker 2: of black and Latino Studio United Latino Front, a cultural

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Speaker 2: renaissance organizing at the forefront of the movement. I'm Maria Inojosa,

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Speaker 2: no bayan, welcome.

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Speaker 1: Well.

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Speaker 2: A couple of months ago I went to Austin, Texas.

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Speaker 3: Thank you very much.

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Speaker 2: If you've ever been to the campus at the University

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Speaker 2: of Texas at Austin, it's pretty well memorable. So you know,

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Speaker 2: the University of Texas is huge, Like everything in Texas,

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Speaker 2: it's a massive campus. And then we pulled up to

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Speaker 2: a building are Wow. Made it to the staff entrance

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Speaker 2: and there was a group of people actually staff from

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Speaker 2: the university and the library that we're waiting for us. Hi,

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Speaker 2: I'm Ryan.

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Speaker 3: I'm having special collections in nice.

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Speaker 2: And they brought things with them. This is a whole

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Speaker 2: card that's dedicated to Latino USA. Oh yes, oh my gosh. Okay,

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Speaker 2: get ready to see yourself younger. So here we are

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Speaker 2: to look back at our own history because today we're

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Speaker 2: starting our celebration of thirty years of Latino USA being

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Speaker 2: on the air, thirty years reporting in English about Latinos.

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Speaker 2: No other show in the United States has ever done that.

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Speaker 2: From Fudromedia and PRX, It's Latino USA. I'm Maria ino Josa.

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Speaker 2: Today a very special show. We're going to present to

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Speaker 2: you an oral history of Latino USA. How it all started,

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Speaker 2: what it took to keep the show going over three decades,

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Speaker 2: all of the drama along with thinking what the futuro

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Speaker 2: is going to bring. You know, what it's like to

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Speaker 2: have a weekly deadline, NonStop, week in week out for

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Speaker 2: thirty years. It's a lot of work. And when you

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Speaker 2: have a weekly deadline, there's not a lot of space

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Speaker 2: to kind of pull back and think of how it

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Speaker 2: all happened. So for us to tell you that story,

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Speaker 2: we had to go back to where it all started.

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Speaker 2: There is a place at the University of Texas at

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Speaker 2: Austin that actually holds this trove of information. It's all

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Speaker 2: being held at the Nettie Lee Benzon and Latin American Collection.

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Speaker 2: That's because the University of Texas at Austin was Latino

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Speaker 2: USA's very first home where we were based and created

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Speaker 2: out of the Center for Mexican American Studies. This archive

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Speaker 2: has recordings of all of the very first shows we produced.

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Speaker 2: Is it on CD or on cassette? It's on CD,

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Speaker 2: but it's on everything. We have all of the formats.

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Speaker 2: This is Ryan Lynch. He's the head of Special Collections

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Speaker 2: at the Archives and he's the one that was responsible

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Speaker 2: for preparing just a selection of all of the materials

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Speaker 2: that they have at this library. The story. So we

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Speaker 2: saw photographs. Look at that our original team host Madia

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Speaker 2: host has senior producer Madia Media, Martin Marketing, Vidal Luzmann,

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Speaker 2: may He rest in Peace, executive producer, took out of

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Speaker 2: the NUS. So there were old press packets. Oh my gosh,

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Speaker 2: Latino USA your ticket to build audience and create marketing opportunities.

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Speaker 2: There were lots of old documents. Logo. That was the

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Speaker 2: logo for so long, and of course, the very first

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Speaker 2: show that Latino USA aired on May fifth, nineteen ninety three.

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Speaker 1: This is Latino USA, a radio journal of news and culture.

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Speaker 1: I'm Maria Inojosa today on Latino USA, Latinos in South

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Speaker 1: central Losa.

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Speaker 2: Here, it's emotional because it's like, wow, we really like

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Speaker 2: on our first show. He was like, we're doing it

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Speaker 2: in a different way.

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Speaker 1: Una celebresti Sino de Mayo e Sesame Street.

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Speaker 2: Thirty years Oh yameh, that is a lifetime. There has

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Speaker 2: been so much laughter, so much joy, so many celebrations, recognitions, awards,

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Speaker 2: but there were also some really difficult time James. So

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Speaker 2: as we were planning on doing this episode, we were

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Speaker 2: confronted with this reality. There's no way we can tell

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Speaker 2: the full thirty year history of Latino USA in just

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Speaker 2: one hour, so we're not going to do that. Instead,

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Speaker 2: we're actually making our own oral history. And obviously there's

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Speaker 2: no way we could put everyone's voice who's worked for

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Speaker 2: Latino USA, and thank you to each and every one

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Speaker 2: of you. So you're gonna hear from three compagne si compagnros,

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Speaker 2: one for each decade, and they're going to help bring

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Speaker 2: back to life what our show and our country has

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Speaker 2: actually been through over the last thirty years. To start off,

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Speaker 2: I had a conversation with the person who put together

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Speaker 2: and led our show during that first decade. Hello Maria

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Speaker 2: Milia Martin.

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Speaker 4: Hello, how are you, miss Maria delues Hosa.

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Speaker 2: Maria Emilia Martin is a journalist who's been working in

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Speaker 2: public radio for over fifty years. She's done it all,

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Speaker 2: and in the early nineteen nineties, she had a vision

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Speaker 2: and a plan for what would become Latino USA. Maria.

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Speaker 2: I know it's not the first time that I've said,

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Speaker 2: Madia Amelia Martin, welcome to Latino USA. But I'm going

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Speaker 2: to say, Madia Amelia Martin, welcome back to Latino USA.

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Speaker 4: Thank you, Maria. It's been a long time and I'm

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Speaker 4: really excited to be here.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Maria. And of course people make the mistake

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Speaker 2: of thinking that I created Latino USA. I did not

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Speaker 2: create Latino USA. I am not responsible for the idea

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Speaker 2: behind this show. It was you. It was your idea.

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Speaker 2: And so before we start, I have to say thank

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Speaker 2: you because you were the one who just not only

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Speaker 2: to create the show, but then to name me as

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Speaker 2: the anchor of the show, which frankly changed my life.

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Speaker 2: So thank you, madiamuche Gras.

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Speaker 4: Yes, well, thank you for recognizing that Maria, you were.

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Speaker 2: The Latina in public media who really started it for

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Speaker 2: all of us.

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Speaker 4: There were so few of us.

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Speaker 2: Well, it was like you in terms of having a

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Speaker 2: kind of national presence. You had been working out in

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Speaker 2: California for about a decade. So, Maria, take us back

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Speaker 2: to the nineteen eighties. How did you see the state

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Speaker 2: of public radio in terms of Latinos and Latinas at

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Speaker 2: that time.

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Speaker 4: Well, I had started working in public radio in nineteen

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Speaker 4: seventy five as a volunteer at the first Latino owned

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Speaker 4: and operated public radio station in the country in Santa Crosa, California,

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Speaker 4: and going into the nineteen eighties, things had begun to change.

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Speaker 4: There had been openings for minority voices, for Latino voices,

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Speaker 4: for African American voices on public radio and the media

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Speaker 4: in general as the result of the civil rights movement.

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Speaker 4: But just a few years later there came this kind

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Speaker 4: of backlash against those programs.

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Speaker 2: There was a lot of politics that happened just to

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Speaker 2: get our voices on. It was because of you that

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Speaker 2: there is a Latino desk created at the National Desk

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Speaker 2: at NPR. You're the first editor there. I'm hired because

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Speaker 2: of your activism, and most of the times our stories

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Speaker 2: were getting rejected, we were told that they didn't have

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Speaker 2: enough national significance. We had to just be fighting for

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Speaker 2: our stories. And all of a sudden, I remember that

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Speaker 2: you said something like, look, I think I might be leaving.

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Speaker 2: There's this other project that's happening in Austin. So why

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Speaker 2: did you say I'm leaving the NPR mothership.

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Speaker 4: Well, there was a lot of potential. I knew at

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Speaker 4: this point that Latinos had ten fifteen years experience in

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Speaker 4: public radio that we could do a really good job.

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Speaker 4: But we had to be the ones in charge. We

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Speaker 4: had to have editorial control. I wanted to do adequate marketing,

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Speaker 4: to have it sound professional and just so compelling that

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Speaker 4: it would be an addition to public radio. It wouldn't

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Speaker 4: be something that there would be resistance to. It wouldn't

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Speaker 4: be something that people could say, oh, people don't listen

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Speaker 4: to this kind of programming, or Latinos only listen to

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Speaker 4: programming in Spanish. So out of that came the idea

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Speaker 4: that we needed to do something national. And what I

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Speaker 4: thought is, let's have this sound at first like NPR,

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Speaker 4: with an authentic Latino feel, and who is a voice

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Speaker 4: who is familiar to NPR audiences. That would be Maria

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Speaker 4: no Josa.

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Speaker 2: I don't actually remember a lot about the conversations about

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Speaker 2: choosing the name. Do you remember, like, was it always

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Speaker 2: going to be Latino USA?

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Speaker 4: What was the Oh no, it was originally supposed to

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Speaker 4: be at Tempo and I thought at the tempo, yes,

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Speaker 4: it could have a play on time, but it could

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Speaker 4: also mean lukewarm. And so we threw out a zillion names,

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Speaker 4: mosaic and Da da da, And I think you and

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Speaker 4: I were having a conversation and you had had a

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Speaker 4: conversation with Juan Gonzalez of Democracy Now and that he

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Speaker 4: had suggested Latino USA. And that's it. That says what

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Speaker 4: it is. That's we're going with that. We're going with that.

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Speaker 2: Oh wait a second, so we have to give credit

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Speaker 2: to Juan Gonzalez.

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Speaker 4: We might have to, Oh.

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Speaker 2: My god, but you know what, that is just such

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Speaker 2: a beautiful thing because Juang gon Salez is a pillar

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Speaker 2: of Latino journalism the United States. Again, I just was

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Speaker 2: watching you as you were doing this, or I was like,

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Speaker 2: is she really going to do this? And then I

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Speaker 2: remember you saying, look, make plans bring your husband down

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Speaker 2: because we are going to have a launch party on

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Speaker 2: Cinco de Mayo. Do you remember what it was like

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Speaker 2: on Zinco de Mayo in nineteen ninety three. I mean

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Speaker 2: it was a little bit chaotic.

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Speaker 4: We had announced that on Synco de Mayo we would

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Speaker 4: have the launch of Latino USA. We had asked all

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Speaker 4: of these people to come, and we were getting very

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Speaker 4: few RSVPs. But then somehow the word got to President Clinton,

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Speaker 4: who was being counseled to reach out to the Latino community.

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Speaker 4: So all of a sudden, Bill Clinton is coming, all

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Speaker 4: of a sudden, everybody wants to come, all all of

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Speaker 4: a sudden, all of the public radio big wigs who

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Speaker 4: want a ticket to be there.

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Speaker 5: As you can tell by my outfit, been somewhere else tonight.

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Speaker 5: But I'm awfully glad to be here.

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Speaker 4: That was the day I think the world changed.

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Speaker 5: Happy Senka DeMaio, Viva public radio, and thank you for

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Speaker 5: letting me be here tonight.

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Speaker 4: At least a little bit for Latinos in public radio.

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Speaker 5: I hope that Latino USI does for its audiences what

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Speaker 5: programs like All Things Considered and Morning Edition do for

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Speaker 5: audiences all across America. Today, perhaps twenty two Senko demiles

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Speaker 5: from today, you too will be able to look back

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Speaker 5: and remember what an important beginning. This really was.

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Speaker 2: I just remember thinking, like, boy, I am working with

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Speaker 2: Madia Martin, who has the capacity to put together a

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Speaker 2: launch party that includes the president. What can't she do?

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Speaker 2: She's doing everything.

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Speaker 4: Size Wede is what Latino journalists and broadcasters for the

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Speaker 4: last twenty years happily. It was just a wonderful day.

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Speaker 4: It was a wonderful validation of the vision that I

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Speaker 4: had had for a long time. And the first official

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Speaker 4: program of Latino USA had gone on the air that week,

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Speaker 4: and it sounded really good. And I remember the voices

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Speaker 4: of you, this is.

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Speaker 1: Latino USA, a radio journal of news and culture.

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Speaker 4: And mandalitel Barco.

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Speaker 2: For Latino USA, Mandalit del Barco.

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Speaker 4: And some young interns who had done a little piece

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Speaker 4: about what do Mexicans and Mexican Americans really know about

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Speaker 4: Singco de Mayo.

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Speaker 2: Do you know why we celebrating Guma?

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Speaker 6: I don't know that Sunday's birthday, you.

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Speaker 2: Know, Maria. Hearing this brings back so many memories. I

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Speaker 2: hardly recognized my own voice. I recognized the fear because

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Speaker 2: I didn't even trust that I could do this. You

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Speaker 2: trusted that I could do this, and I just wonder

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Speaker 2: what do you remember about those early shows of Latino USA.

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Speaker 4: I remember working hundreds of hours. I remember sleeping on

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Speaker 4: the floor of the office and the studio because we

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Speaker 4: wanted to make sure that it sounded great. And a

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Speaker 4: shout out to engineer Walter Morgan and Angelica Luevano who

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Speaker 4: worked much more than they're forty hours a week to

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Speaker 4: do the show. And it was a labor of love,

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Speaker 4: and it was a labor of bringing these stories that

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Speaker 4: were rarely heard on other media. That and I think

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Speaker 4: that all of us who were involved with the program

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Speaker 4: in those early years should be really, really proud of

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Speaker 4: the doors that we've opened for so many people.

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Speaker 2: Coming up on Latino USA. We continue our conversation with

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Speaker 2: Maria Emilia Martin, the visionary behind our show. Stay with us. Yes,

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Speaker 2: we are back, and we're going to continue sharing memories

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Speaker 2: of Latino USA's creation and our first decade with the

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Speaker 2: person who made it all happen, Maria Martin. I think

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Speaker 2: that you and I and the team, what we also

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Speaker 2: understood is that Latinos and Latinas in the United States

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Speaker 2: are not a monolith. We're incredibly complex, and this is

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Speaker 2: something that we have been saying for the entirety of

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Speaker 2: the existence of Latino USA. And I'm feeling like we're

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Speaker 2: still having to say in many ways and deal with

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Speaker 2: the same things today. What was your plan in terms

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Speaker 2: of saying, we are doing a show called Latino USA,

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Speaker 2: and we're going to have to be representative. So how

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Speaker 2: did you tackle that?

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Speaker 4: Well, that was the point of calling it Latino USSA,

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Speaker 4: to do something that would reflect the diversity of the

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Speaker 4: Latino community in all of its beauty and in all

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Speaker 4: of its pain. Imagine the sounds of Geocho and the

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Speaker 4: Bronx and the fields of Fresno. These stories were crying

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Speaker 4: to be told. But also the need was for Latinos

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Speaker 4: to perhaps have more solidarity with each other.

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Speaker 2: I see you as a visionary in so many ways,

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Speaker 2: just in being able to launch and create a show

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Speaker 2: like Latino USA, but also you were the one who

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Speaker 2: fought for us to do intensive AIDS coverage because Latinos

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Speaker 2: and Latinos were becoming infected. We went to Puerto Rico

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Speaker 2: because of you.

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Speaker 1: In a corner of a poor barrio in the small

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Speaker 1: town about Iscibo, a family despairs over their son, Narvoon

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Speaker 1: Salez Naibo is dying of aids, but nobody in.

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Speaker 2: This time we did so much political reporting. Yes, Bill Clinton,

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Speaker 2: the President, was at our launch party, but from day

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Speaker 2: one we were criticizing Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party

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Speaker 2: and the Republican Party. That kind of commitment to solid

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Speaker 2: journalism that is always influenced by hope and dreams, which

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Speaker 2: is really what we've been trying to say that the

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Speaker 2: Latino population in this country represents, if you'd only let us.

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Speaker 4: Yes, I think it's a great responsibility, but it's also

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Speaker 4: a great joy to be a journalist, to be in

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Speaker 4: a position to tell these stories. And that's what the

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Speaker 4: gift of Latino USA has been for so many people.

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Speaker 2: I remember that there were so many people who had

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Speaker 2: no expectation that Latino USA would make it. I mean

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Speaker 2: the people that in PR at the headquarters in Washington, DC.

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Speaker 2: They didn't listen to what we were doing. But then

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Speaker 2: in the first year that we were on the air,

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Speaker 2: we go from being on fifty stations across the country

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Speaker 2: to tripling that number. We were growing like crazy, and

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Speaker 2: at the same time we started winning all of these awards.

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Speaker 2: We won awards from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters,

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Speaker 2: from the Corporation of Public broadcasting the National Association of

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Speaker 2: Hispanic Journalists.

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Speaker 4: And that happened almost from the beginning of the program,

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Speaker 4: and I think that that is one of the reasons

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Speaker 4: for the programs long jevity, is that we were doing

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Speaker 4: award winning journalism almost from the get go.

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Speaker 2: You had a lot of dreams by Dyea. You were

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Speaker 2: frankly always raising the bar for all of us. And

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Speaker 2: there's a decision that you make that is really very powerful.

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Speaker 2: You're going to work on your own reporting. And September

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Speaker 2: eleventh happened. Well.

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Speaker 4: I remember that day. I was actually in Austin getting

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Speaker 4: ready for work. I had planned to take a sabbatical

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Speaker 4: to connect with Latin American journalists. I had the stream

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Speaker 4: for Latino USA to also report on Latin America. And

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Speaker 4: I heard the news and came in and we went

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Speaker 4: to the cathedral to pray, and then the work of

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Speaker 4: reporting about how all of this was impacting the Latinos.

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Speaker 1: In an old wooden building in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea,

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Speaker 1: more than a dozen men and women are trying.

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Speaker 2: To put their lives back together.

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Speaker 1: All are in document, All lost their jobs on September eleventh.

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Speaker 4: The waiters and the kitchen staff that worked in the

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Speaker 4: windows of the World restaurant, and all of the people

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Speaker 4: who were impacted by that terrible movement. For all of us,

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Speaker 4: that was a big wake up call, a big call

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Speaker 4: for the fact that we needed to create more understanding

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Speaker 4: of each other.

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Speaker 2: You know, you kind of held it together. You were like, man, yeah,

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Speaker 2: we have to do the show. I was reporting for

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Speaker 2: CNN at the same time you wrote a script. I

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Speaker 2: remember I recorded it on the street, and then I

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Speaker 2: know I went home at one point and I recorded

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Speaker 2: another part of the script in the stairwell of my home,

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Speaker 2: and of course that's when I actually end up developing PTSD.

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Speaker 2: It was a really very painful time for us all,

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Speaker 2: and I think you and I sensed right, this is

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Speaker 2: going to be a very complicated time for Latinos and

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Speaker 2: Latinas in the United States. And then it didn't get

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Speaker 2: any easier because in two thousand and three, you were

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Speaker 2: pushed to make a really difficult decision. You left Latino USA.

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Speaker 2: It was a big loss for the show, and I'm

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Speaker 2: wondering about your emotions leaving the show, and you were,

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Speaker 2: in fact leaving a baby that you had given birth

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Speaker 2: to and nurtured.

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Speaker 4: It wasn't my decision to leave Latino USA. I was

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Speaker 4: forced out, basically, and yes, it was very painful to

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Speaker 4: leave that baby. When I look back, I see that

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Speaker 4: what happened to me was quite symbolic of what was happening.

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Speaker 4: I was not the only Latina who was in power,

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Speaker 4: who was talented and had earned a place, in my case,

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Speaker 4: in public radio. But this happened to women of color

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Speaker 4: facing gender issues, facing racism, facing the kind of situations

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Speaker 4: that we now look back and say, this is really unjust,

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Speaker 4: you know, very much like what happened to women in

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Speaker 4: terms of being harassed. I think that in terms of

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Speaker 4: the racial and ethnic reckoning that we have started to

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Speaker 4: do with our past but haven't really done it yet,

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Speaker 4: that was part of what happened to me. It's much

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Speaker 4: more complicated than that, and certainly, as I said, painful,

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Speaker 4: But you know, life works in mysterious ways.

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Speaker 2: When we lost you, I know that I felt rudderless.

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Speaker 2: You know, what was Latino USA without Maria Martin? And

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Speaker 2: I think that the lesson there was that it did

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Speaker 2: push us to become fully independent. Latin USA is no

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Speaker 2: longer tied to any institution except for the small nonprofit

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Speaker 2: of Futuro Media. We're not in that situation where people

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Speaker 2: can push us out or around, And you are now

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Speaker 2: working in Watemala, really again, changing lives with your production

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Speaker 2: company get Us hasb that.

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Speaker 4: My being in Central America has put me in a

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Speaker 4: position to train a lot of journalists to do a

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Speaker 4: lot of good reporting. That that is an area that

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Speaker 4: is just crucial for US public radio audiences and other

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Speaker 4: audiences to know about and to understand why so many

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Speaker 4: human beings are making that terrible, risky, hard, tragic trek.

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Speaker 2: Up here, Madia, we're talking for the first time. We

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Speaker 2: have never done a kind of oral history of Latino USA.

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Speaker 2: But I'm wondering, how are you feeling about the legacy

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Speaker 2: of Latino USA, the show that you created.

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Speaker 4: I feel very proud that it's still on the air.

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Speaker 4: You know the memoirs that I've written about my time

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Speaker 4: at NPR and creating Latino and I go that young

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Speaker 4: Maria was really brave. She put up with a lot

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Speaker 4: because she had this vision. That it's still on the

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Speaker 4: air due to the efforts of so many people, yours

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Speaker 4: and your team. You know, my hope for Latino USA

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Speaker 4: is that it lasts another thirty years. It's a wonderful

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Speaker 4: thing to have been involved in. Thank you for the

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Speaker 4: efforts that keep it going day to day.

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Speaker 2: Maria Amelia Martin, thank you for everything you've done for

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Speaker 2: Latino USA. It has been so great to catch up

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Speaker 2: with you.

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Speaker 4: It's nice to be back on Latino USSA.

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Speaker 2: Those years after September eleventh, they were a blur to me.

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Speaker 2: I was deep in trauma. I didn't realize that I

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Speaker 2: had pts all of it tied to the attacks. I

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Speaker 2: was also a working mom and I was working NonStop.

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Speaker 2: I had a job at CNN, I was doing PBS

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Speaker 2: locally on the side, and I was hosting Latino USA.

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Speaker 2: So all of that took me away from the day

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Speaker 2: to day operations in Austin and Well, the truth is

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Speaker 2: that Madia Martin's departure left a huge vacuum at the show.

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Speaker 2: But still we had our audience clamoring for us, and

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Speaker 2: they were loyal and wanted more.

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Speaker 7: So.

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Speaker 2: September eleventh confirmed for us the fact that we couldn't

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Speaker 2: stop telling these stories, that the mainstream media was leaving

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Speaker 2: out stories about undocumented workers, about migrants, professionals, all of us.

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Speaker 2: And I was watching a whole new generation of young

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Speaker 2: producers and reporters stepping up and becoming a part of

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Speaker 2: Latino USA. And one of the people who came through

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Speaker 2: the doors of our Austin newsroom in search of a

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Speaker 2: work study program that would be Mencho Jacob. He was

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Speaker 2: a student at the University of Texas at Austin and

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Speaker 2: then it became his full time job. And well, Mencho,

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Speaker 2: he kind of saved Latino USA. What a mean job?

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Speaker 6: How's it go into temple?

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Speaker 2: Used to be in my ears all the time? What

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Speaker 2: would you say to me when I would like be

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Speaker 2: tracking to be like eight o'clock at nine o'clock at

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Speaker 2: night and you'd be like, un mas sip there.

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Speaker 6: I'm still saying that. I said it to my wife

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Speaker 6: this weekend.

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Speaker 2: The day when you actually go in for your job interview,

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Speaker 2: what happened that day?

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Speaker 8: I went in to apply for a work study and

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Speaker 8: I was really interested in it was like radio because

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Speaker 8: I've a musician and then my family is from Watemala,

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Speaker 8: so I was like, this is.

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Speaker 6: Perfect, It'll be great. And I walked in and they

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Speaker 6: made fun of me.

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Speaker 2: What were you wearing exactly.

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Speaker 8: At Kaki slacks and like a short sleeve button up

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Speaker 8: with this like dorky little tie and my goatee from

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Speaker 8: you know, the nineties that I was still rocking into

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Speaker 8: the early two thousands.

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Speaker 2: So for you Minscho, getting that interview at Latino USA

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Speaker 2: was a big deal. By then, Latino USA had a

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Speaker 2: level of recognition at the University of Texas. What did

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Speaker 2: you remember?

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Speaker 8: So I had been listening to it was really like

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Speaker 8: excited to be able to do this kind of work.

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Speaker 4: You know.

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Speaker 8: There was always reports from Watemala and from just like

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Speaker 8: Chicano culture, which was something that I had grown up

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Speaker 8: around and was really proud to be a part of,

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Speaker 8: and so like it was just a different viewpoint that

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Speaker 8: you didn't hear on MPR at all.

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Speaker 2: I think what you're saying is that the feeling that

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Speaker 2: Latino USA was that there was a community where you

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Speaker 2: could be Latino Latina and play in the sphere of

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Speaker 2: respected journalism or music journalism too, doing strong cultural reporting. Yeah.

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Speaker 8: I feel like especially our music pieces were some of

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Speaker 8: the best. PATCHA Massive I think was like one of

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Speaker 8: the bands we were using a lot further sound for

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Speaker 8: a long time.

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00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:18,520
Speaker 2: Joining me in the studio is patcha Massive Nova and

440
00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:21,959
Speaker 2: Maya welcome to Latino, USA. Thank you for having us.

441
00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:25,600
Speaker 2: Oh my god, patcha massive that was like the soundtrack

442
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:27,959
Speaker 2: of my life.

443
00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:30,639
Speaker 8: We have really beautiful audio pieces that we would do,

444
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:32,159
Speaker 8: not just like with music, but you know if we

445
00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:34,000
Speaker 8: did like spoken word with like Luis.

446
00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:38,000
Speaker 2: Gerra, Well, if your mouth isn't watering yet, commentator Luis

447
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:41,680
Speaker 2: Gerras tells us about the best tortillaz he's ever had.

448
00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:44,840
Speaker 9: As I came up the forest path, there were two

449
00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:48,720
Speaker 9: small and LoVa structures the aroma of tortillas. Let me

450
00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:53,080
Speaker 9: right to the kitchen. These tortillas were a revelation. I've

451
00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:56,000
Speaker 9: been needing tortillas for half a century and these were

452
00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:56,920
Speaker 9: the best by far.

453
00:28:57,520 --> 00:29:01,520
Speaker 8: I think that's the importance of having Latino produce and editors,

454
00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:05,040
Speaker 8: because there's that like are you stereotyping? You know, there's

455
00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:08,360
Speaker 8: always that danger or are you celebrating? There you doing

456
00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:10,320
Speaker 8: our own sound, our voice, And I think that was

457
00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:12,920
Speaker 8: where we wanted to be. It was like, this is

458
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:14,560
Speaker 8: the sound of our cultures.

459
00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:21,280
Speaker 2: Today we profile three influential jazz musicians. Sometimes bad luck

460
00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:24,680
Speaker 2: can turn out to be a good thing. Don't believe me, Well,

461
00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 2: just ask Martin Perner.

462
00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:33,400
Speaker 9: If there's one thing that defines Los Ensanteles is their

463
00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:37,120
Speaker 9: ability to absorb a Mexican musical style and make it

464
00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:39,080
Speaker 9: their own and their new record.

465
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:43,040
Speaker 2: Very soon into your job, you were basically doing everything

466
00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:46,880
Speaker 2: because you brought this energy of like I love the show,

467
00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:50,080
Speaker 2: and what I wasn't seeing because I was in New

468
00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:53,239
Speaker 2: York was that you were working around the clock. So

469
00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:56,720
Speaker 2: can you just tell us everything that you remember doing.

470
00:29:57,320 --> 00:29:59,239
Speaker 8: Can you say, went through a lot of ups and

471
00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:01,080
Speaker 8: downs as a p and we were part of kt

472
00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:04,000
Speaker 8: Radio and we were part of NPR back then, and

473
00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:06,480
Speaker 8: like you know, that was kind of in the area

474
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:09,760
Speaker 8: of flux. When I started to in that chaos, there

475
00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:12,120
Speaker 8: was also an opportunity and like that's why I would

476
00:30:12,120 --> 00:30:12,400
Speaker 8: talk to you.

477
00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:14,160
Speaker 6: It is like can I do this? And like sure,

478
00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:15,080
Speaker 6: you want to do this? Okay?

479
00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:15,280
Speaker 9: Cool?

480
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:17,280
Speaker 8: Or like Walter would be mixing and I'd be like, hey,

481
00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:19,240
Speaker 8: can I sit with you and just watch you learn?

482
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:22,160
Speaker 8: Basically I took that a lot because there wasn't a

483
00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:25,640
Speaker 8: lot of leadership in house on that. So we were writing,

484
00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:28,560
Speaker 8: we were editing, we were recording you and then we'd

485
00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:30,960
Speaker 8: mix it and like put it out and sometimes we'd

486
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:34,960
Speaker 8: change gears crazily and like get a breaking story. But yeah,

487
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:37,880
Speaker 8: it was both fun and then became incredibly stressful.

488
00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:41,000
Speaker 2: One of the things that you actually experienced, more so

489
00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:46,360
Speaker 2: than other producers, really intensely, was me having to juggle

490
00:30:46,720 --> 00:30:50,800
Speaker 2: the show every week, recording every week, traveling for CNN,

491
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:56,880
Speaker 2: and having kids like kids who by now could actually say, hey, mom,

492
00:30:57,880 --> 00:31:01,440
Speaker 2: don't leave, don't catch that plan. Let's just say it.

493
00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:02,560
Speaker 2: There was a lot of guilt.

494
00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:06,280
Speaker 8: It was always like a gamble. We were always playing

495
00:31:06,280 --> 00:31:08,360
Speaker 8: craps of like is it going to be noisy or

496
00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:08,720
Speaker 8: is it not?

497
00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:13,200
Speaker 6: Your kids were very gracious. I just got to say.

498
00:31:13,200 --> 00:31:15,560
Speaker 8: We were always recording late the night or early in

499
00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:18,520
Speaker 8: the morning, at all hours. We were elicited it on

500
00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:21,920
Speaker 8: your family life, which was a crazy thing, but also

501
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:24,160
Speaker 8: just a side of the dedication. And so your family,

502
00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:26,080
Speaker 8: I know, has always put it a lot to make

503
00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:28,400
Speaker 8: this happen, and they're much a part of Latino USA.

504
00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:31,520
Speaker 2: I remember that whenever we would get ready to record,

505
00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:35,000
Speaker 2: I'd say right on the set, and they hated that.

506
00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:37,720
Speaker 6: They hated that exactly.

507
00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:40,240
Speaker 8: It's tough, and I know as a woman too, especially

508
00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:42,800
Speaker 8: you know, like the sacrifices that entails, but that a

509
00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:46,120
Speaker 8: lot of time, society doesn't recognize. You know, it's okay

510
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:47,760
Speaker 8: for a man to do that, but if a woman

511
00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:50,720
Speaker 8: is doing that, it's not viewed as okay. You know,

512
00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:52,400
Speaker 8: I respect you a lot for that, and I hope

513
00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:54,400
Speaker 8: your kids also have reconciled it all.

514
00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:03,520
Speaker 2: So you actually we end up living through the post

515
00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:09,240
Speaker 2: nine to eleven era of Latino USA, and now we

516
00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:15,520
Speaker 2: start becoming a targeting in immigrants, refugees, brown people in general.

517
00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:19,440
Speaker 8: There's always been a hard line against immigration that existed

518
00:32:19,480 --> 00:32:22,360
Speaker 8: in the United States, but it's certainly like skyrocketed, and

519
00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:25,880
Speaker 8: that side of everything was very empowered post nine to

520
00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:28,520
Speaker 8: eleven because they're like, look, this is what happens when

521
00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:31,520
Speaker 8: you have open borders. In that rhetoric that we see today,

522
00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:33,760
Speaker 8: I mean very much has its roots back then, and

523
00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:37,040
Speaker 8: we were constantly reporting on it and what that meant,

524
00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:41,200
Speaker 8: from the Minutemen down in Arizona to just the policies

525
00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:44,719
Speaker 8: of the United States in general. Try to create a

526
00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:46,760
Speaker 8: certain debate about it too that didn't exist in a

527
00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:47,400
Speaker 8: lot of ways.

528
00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:50,720
Speaker 2: I'm joined now by one of those supporters, Jim Gilchrist,

529
00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:54,360
Speaker 2: a founder of the Minute Men Project. Welcome to Latino USA, Jim,

530
00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:57,800
Speaker 2: right where is this sliver of common ground that you

531
00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:00,400
Speaker 2: think you can have with people who say there's got

532
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:03,960
Speaker 2: to be another way except for massive deportations and building

533
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:04,320
Speaker 2: a wall.

534
00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:07,280
Speaker 10: I know people are coming here because of economic, social,

535
00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:11,520
Speaker 10: and political oppressions and their homelands, but we cannot realistically

536
00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:16,040
Speaker 10: continue ourselves as a world economic power with any global

537
00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:19,760
Speaker 10: influence if we are going to take in every person

538
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:22,560
Speaker 10: based on their willingness to come here, not on our

539
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:25,520
Speaker 10: willingness to invite them here. I want them to come

540
00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:28,479
Speaker 10: here legally, have respect for our nation's laws.

541
00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:31,640
Speaker 6: I want them to and I think that we did

542
00:33:31,640 --> 00:33:33,040
Speaker 6: a really good job of covering it.

543
00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:36,320
Speaker 8: But it gets hard, and Mike, we got all sorts

544
00:33:36,320 --> 00:33:39,320
Speaker 8: of emails and messages of y'all are just immigrants. Stops

545
00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:42,400
Speaker 8: shut up, and again that line of like who are

546
00:33:42,440 --> 00:33:43,960
Speaker 8: we and what are we about? And it was always

547
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:46,760
Speaker 8: a struggle too, you know, like when you and so

548
00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:49,400
Speaker 8: you went to to make it a republican innegating folks

549
00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:53,000
Speaker 8: that were like acting like mint men in Arizona, essentially

550
00:33:53,080 --> 00:33:57,320
Speaker 8: the exact same thing, trying to seek out undocumented haittions,

551
00:33:57,360 --> 00:33:59,080
Speaker 8: and like this idea of like we've got to get

552
00:33:59,160 --> 00:33:59,800
Speaker 8: rid of the Haitians.

553
00:33:59,800 --> 00:34:00,560
Speaker 6: There a problem.

554
00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:04,920
Speaker 11: It's a stunning Monday morning, the sky is a shocking

555
00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:10,320
Speaker 11: Caribbean blue, but this beautiful backdrop doesn't mask something terrible

556
00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:14,040
Speaker 11: taking place at the very same time from a white

557
00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:17,720
Speaker 11: bus with metal bars on the windows, I hear cries

558
00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:28,480
Speaker 11: of distress.

559
00:34:26,040 --> 00:34:31,840
Speaker 8: And so we would talk about those things to really

560
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:34,479
Speaker 8: like inform the discussion and the discourses that were happening

561
00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:36,719
Speaker 8: in the United States, because you know, when they were

562
00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:40,440
Speaker 8: talking about enhance interrogation, people weren't saying it torture, and

563
00:34:40,600 --> 00:34:43,080
Speaker 8: NPR even was telling us not to say torture. But

564
00:34:43,400 --> 00:34:45,960
Speaker 8: we did a series on torture in Chiba, and it

565
00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:49,600
Speaker 8: was very important to say, like, this is not enhanced interrogation,

566
00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:52,759
Speaker 8: this is a horrible crime against humanity, and we need

567
00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:53,839
Speaker 8: to call it torture for.

568
00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:54,279
Speaker 6: What it is.

569
00:34:55,040 --> 00:34:57,040
Speaker 8: I'm really proud of what we did, talking about no

570
00:34:57,120 --> 00:35:01,000
Speaker 8: human is illegal and trying to force the broader network

571
00:35:01,040 --> 00:35:05,080
Speaker 8: into using language that really did not dehumanize people.

572
00:35:05,800 --> 00:35:09,400
Speaker 2: In some ways, Latino USA took the Post nine to

573
00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:15,239
Speaker 2: eleven dynamic, and because we were in control editorially, we

574
00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:18,280
Speaker 2: did respond editorially in a different way.

575
00:35:18,719 --> 00:35:21,799
Speaker 8: We were relevant in a time that powers that be

576
00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:24,400
Speaker 8: didn't want to have Latino USA around. It would have

577
00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:26,799
Speaker 8: been really easy for us to fall by the wayside.

578
00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:29,680
Speaker 8: I think MPR would have been fine with us going

579
00:35:29,719 --> 00:35:32,120
Speaker 8: by the wayside. And not to discount that they did

580
00:35:32,120 --> 00:35:34,480
Speaker 8: support us over time, and there was a lot of support,

581
00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:37,000
Speaker 8: But we were a difficult thing for them too, and

582
00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:39,120
Speaker 8: a lot of levels, And that's partly because of their

583
00:35:39,160 --> 00:35:43,480
Speaker 8: own inability to see what's important about having diverse voices,

584
00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:46,800
Speaker 8: because we're often outside of the story of what is

585
00:35:46,840 --> 00:35:47,840
Speaker 8: the United States.

586
00:35:48,080 --> 00:35:50,680
Speaker 2: I mean, there were many years in that second decade

587
00:35:50,719 --> 00:35:55,160
Speaker 2: that began to feel really challenging to keep the team together.

588
00:35:55,600 --> 00:36:00,239
Speaker 2: And then this thing happens, this terrible thing regarding an

589
00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:05,160
Speaker 2: ISDN line. Back then, it was a very expensive thing,

590
00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:08,280
Speaker 2: and the fact that I had an ISDN line into

591
00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:11,000
Speaker 2: my home it was a great thing, but it also

592
00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:12,920
Speaker 2: was the thing that almost took us down.

593
00:36:13,480 --> 00:36:16,480
Speaker 8: Well, just so everybody knows about it, IDM line. Now

594
00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:19,000
Speaker 8: you have like very high speed internet connections in their home,

595
00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:21,000
Speaker 8: so you can do a lot digitally that you could

596
00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:24,000
Speaker 8: not do back then. And so that ISDM mine was

597
00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:27,080
Speaker 8: thirty dollars a minute or something like that. It was ridiculous.

598
00:36:27,080 --> 00:36:28,560
Speaker 8: I might be exaggerating a little bit, but it was.

599
00:36:28,640 --> 00:36:31,480
Speaker 8: It was pricey. You could record to where I sounded

600
00:36:31,520 --> 00:36:34,440
Speaker 8: like two people were in the same studio. You would connect,

601
00:36:34,520 --> 00:36:37,319
Speaker 8: you would record for a couple hours, and we would disconnect,

602
00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:39,160
Speaker 8: and you know, that would still cost us like five

603
00:36:39,239 --> 00:36:41,719
Speaker 8: or six hundred dollars, and that was part of our budget.

604
00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:44,680
Speaker 8: But occasionally it would get left on a little bit longer,

605
00:36:45,239 --> 00:36:47,080
Speaker 8: and that was a problem. We would talk about it.

606
00:36:47,120 --> 00:36:48,960
Speaker 8: But one time, I think you went to dominicate the

607
00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:51,840
Speaker 8: public for vacation that we left it connected for like

608
00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:55,200
Speaker 8: two weeks, and that is several thousand dollars, is like

609
00:36:55,200 --> 00:36:59,400
Speaker 8: fifteen or twenty thousand dollars of a connection, which again

610
00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:03,680
Speaker 8: went to the internal mismanagement that was happening in the office. Basically,

611
00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:06,239
Speaker 8: by that point, Katt was like, we're done. We don't

612
00:37:06,239 --> 00:37:07,959
Speaker 8: want to do this anymore. This show is not really

613
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:10,919
Speaker 8: getting any traction. It's losing audience. It's a half hour show,

614
00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:13,239
Speaker 8: which is a really hard thing to place. So the

615
00:37:13,320 --> 00:37:16,000
Speaker 8: idea to cancel the show, which there were some legitimate

616
00:37:16,040 --> 00:37:19,560
Speaker 8: mistakes that should have had consequences, but instead of like, hey,

617
00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:22,719
Speaker 8: let's take this thing and make it better, because there

618
00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:25,080
Speaker 8: is an audience. Basically, it was like, this is a

619
00:37:25,160 --> 00:37:27,080
Speaker 8: golden opportunity. Let's end the show.

620
00:37:27,440 --> 00:37:30,239
Speaker 2: Can you take me to that moment where you are

621
00:37:30,239 --> 00:37:32,640
Speaker 2: in the office in Austin and you're like, Jesus, it's

622
00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:33,440
Speaker 2: really gonna happen.

623
00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:37,000
Speaker 8: That was just really hard to hear and understand and

624
00:37:37,080 --> 00:37:38,880
Speaker 8: like know what we're going to do in the future.

625
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:42,080
Speaker 8: You know, some people had contingency plans, some of us didn't.

626
00:37:42,200 --> 00:37:45,200
Speaker 8: That was my first foray into journalism, and like here.

627
00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:48,520
Speaker 6: It was ending. So it was just really devastating.

628
00:37:48,560 --> 00:37:51,439
Speaker 8: And those like seven or eight months, Kat said, don't

629
00:37:51,440 --> 00:37:53,719
Speaker 8: do anything like repackage the show and put it on,

630
00:37:53,880 --> 00:37:55,760
Speaker 8: So we would just sit around. Walter would watch Hulu

631
00:37:56,360 --> 00:37:58,680
Speaker 8: and I would like tittle my thumbs to just read

632
00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:01,160
Speaker 8: Wikipedia all day. And it was out of odd and uncomfortable.

633
00:38:01,239 --> 00:38:04,160
Speaker 8: It was incredibly difficult for us in Austin. And I

634
00:38:04,200 --> 00:38:07,239
Speaker 8: know that you were also dealing with what to do.

635
00:38:07,280 --> 00:38:09,319
Speaker 8: And I know you could have easily also walked away

636
00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:11,920
Speaker 8: and left this thing to just go away and not.

637
00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:12,520
Speaker 6: Be a problem.

638
00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:15,560
Speaker 8: But what were you thinking about whenever Latini say, yeah, canceled,

639
00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:17,600
Speaker 8: and like, why not just walk away from it?

640
00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:23,760
Speaker 2: The way I've understood Latino Ussay is confronting all of these, frankly,

641
00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:26,560
Speaker 2: the attacks and now you know, the actual like let's

642
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:29,960
Speaker 2: just cancel the show is because of this deep sense

643
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:34,720
Speaker 2: of really serving our audience. Maybe the people that NPR

644
00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:37,719
Speaker 2: or KUT did not listen to our show, but we

645
00:38:37,800 --> 00:38:43,360
Speaker 2: knew that people were listening to it. When I suddenly

646
00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:47,160
Speaker 2: find myself without work in the year twenty ten, and

647
00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:49,320
Speaker 2: I was like, there's no way I can call my dad,

648
00:38:49,520 --> 00:38:52,400
Speaker 2: doctor Raoulino Hossain say, buppy, I'm going to have to

649
00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:56,200
Speaker 2: go on unemployment. And so Latino USA, which had kind

650
00:38:56,239 --> 00:38:59,560
Speaker 2: of always been in some ways a side gig, very

651
00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:02,920
Speaker 2: important in terms of my journalistic identity, but in fact

652
00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:10,000
Speaker 2: a side gig with a side side salary, suddenly it

653
00:39:10,120 --> 00:39:13,200
Speaker 2: was going to become the thing. And one of the

654
00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:17,359
Speaker 2: key things that I knew now because the census had

655
00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:21,040
Speaker 2: come out, was that the Latino population had grown by

656
00:39:21,200 --> 00:39:25,000
Speaker 2: forty three percent from two thousand to the year twenty ten,

657
00:39:25,600 --> 00:39:30,760
Speaker 2: almost doubling. And I was like, oh, this is why

658
00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:35,480
Speaker 2: I need to stay with Latino USA. This is why

659
00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:38,000
Speaker 2: I need to form Futuro Media and make it a

660
00:39:38,040 --> 00:39:41,560
Speaker 2: company that has a bilingual name. The hard data is

661
00:39:41,600 --> 00:39:46,799
Speaker 2: going to save Latinos and Latinas because we are a

662
00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:52,000
Speaker 2: growth engine for this country. That was my first major production,

663
00:39:52,280 --> 00:39:54,080
Speaker 2: and of course me and Joy you were the one

664
00:39:54,080 --> 00:39:56,960
Speaker 2: who actually did the nuts and bolts of bringing the

665
00:39:57,040 --> 00:40:00,759
Speaker 2: show to New York. And I'm wondering what was that

666
00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:03,279
Speaker 2: like for you to kind of be like, Okay, I'm

667
00:40:03,280 --> 00:40:06,840
Speaker 2: a Texas guy, been here my whole life mostly, and

668
00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:09,000
Speaker 2: now I'm moving to New York. I mean, we didn't

669
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:11,520
Speaker 2: even have an office. I think we were at DCTV.

670
00:40:11,920 --> 00:40:14,000
Speaker 8: That was actually really cool to go to who was

671
00:40:14,040 --> 00:40:16,600
Speaker 8: a Chinatown and the old firehouse down there.

672
00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:19,440
Speaker 6: It was really crazy. It was traumatic to me in

673
00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:20,120
Speaker 6: my cold.

674
00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:22,200
Speaker 2: That's funny that the thing that you remember the most

675
00:40:22,280 --> 00:40:24,080
Speaker 2: trauma was because of the cold, not the fact that

676
00:40:24,120 --> 00:40:26,200
Speaker 2: we didn't have an office or the fact that you

677
00:40:26,239 --> 00:40:28,719
Speaker 2: didn't have any equipment. I mean, I don't even know

678
00:40:28,760 --> 00:40:30,280
Speaker 2: how you did it, Mincho.

679
00:40:30,800 --> 00:40:31,840
Speaker 6: It was a little crazy.

680
00:40:31,880 --> 00:40:34,600
Speaker 8: It was definitely we had been flying by the seat

681
00:40:34,600 --> 00:40:36,239
Speaker 8: of our pants for a while, so it was like, well,

682
00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:37,360
Speaker 8: let's just keep on doing that.

683
00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:43,360
Speaker 6: Yeah, look at PASA. But it was also just like reinvitegrating.

684
00:40:43,040 --> 00:40:46,880
Speaker 2: The first, you know, year of creating futuro and a

685
00:40:46,960 --> 00:40:51,400
Speaker 2: sense of robustness and kind of possibility, and you, Mincho,

686
00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:56,719
Speaker 2: carrying the entire show on your back. I was now

687
00:40:56,840 --> 00:40:59,640
Speaker 2: making my first frontline documentary, so I was out of

688
00:40:59,680 --> 00:41:04,560
Speaker 2: the office and I could see that it was beginning

689
00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:08,760
Speaker 2: to wear on you, and so you did say, Okay,

690
00:41:09,040 --> 00:41:12,960
Speaker 2: I gotta basically take care of min Jo. So can

691
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:14,680
Speaker 2: you tell me what it was like and why you

692
00:41:14,760 --> 00:41:18,000
Speaker 2: decided to leave Latino USA and what that meant for you.

693
00:41:17,600 --> 00:41:20,000
Speaker 8: You know, it's always like be careful what you wish for.

694
00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:23,759
Speaker 8: It was fun, It was a really exhilarating to do.

695
00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:24,359
Speaker 6: I like that.

696
00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:26,520
Speaker 8: That's why I like my other career in life has

697
00:41:26,560 --> 00:41:29,160
Speaker 8: always like been working in restaurants. I'd like that feeling

698
00:41:29,200 --> 00:41:32,879
Speaker 8: of working under stress, producing something that somebody is going

699
00:41:32,960 --> 00:41:36,080
Speaker 8: to and enjoy, be it a brisket or a radio piece.

700
00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:39,040
Speaker 8: But you know the reality too, yeah, like it just

701
00:41:39,160 --> 00:41:41,960
Speaker 8: gets really hard. You had to have a work life

702
00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:45,719
Speaker 8: balance and everything, and I was on the wrong side

703
00:41:45,719 --> 00:41:49,560
Speaker 8: of that balance. When you're in a nation organization, it's

704
00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:53,239
Speaker 8: just it's hard. And so it took its toll on

705
00:41:53,280 --> 00:41:53,640
Speaker 8: me on that.

706
00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:59,280
Speaker 2: When you look back at your time at Latino USA,

707
00:42:00,480 --> 00:42:01,879
Speaker 2: what is the takeaway for you.

708
00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:05,600
Speaker 8: I really appreciated the work that we did even under

709
00:42:05,600 --> 00:42:08,399
Speaker 8: that pressure, even under the limited resources, Like we were

710
00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:10,360
Speaker 8: able to do things that I'm really proud of.

711
00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:13,759
Speaker 2: Michel. Thank you so much for speaking with me. It's

712
00:42:13,800 --> 00:42:15,719
Speaker 2: really been great to go down memory lane with you.

713
00:42:16,440 --> 00:42:18,960
Speaker 8: Yes, definitely, thank you for having me on, and it's

714
00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:21,320
Speaker 8: great to reminisce and like, I'm really proud of the

715
00:42:21,360 --> 00:42:28,040
Speaker 8: stuff that y'all have done.

716
00:42:27,200 --> 00:42:31,200
Speaker 2: Coming up on Latino USA. So we saved the show

717
00:42:31,200 --> 00:42:35,319
Speaker 2: from getting canceled. But then Fuduu Media has to take

718
00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:40,120
Speaker 2: on the challenge of reinventing Latino USA after twenty years

719
00:42:40,120 --> 00:42:43,160
Speaker 2: of being on the air, while also learning how to

720
00:42:43,200 --> 00:42:48,000
Speaker 2: manage a new startup media company. It got real interesting.

721
00:42:48,400 --> 00:43:46,960
Speaker 2: Stay with us, dear listener, We are back. So in

722
00:43:47,040 --> 00:43:50,040
Speaker 2: twenty ten, I made one of the scariest but really

723
00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:52,480
Speaker 2: one of the most exciting decisions that I've ever made

724
00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:56,520
Speaker 2: in my life, and it was to found Futuro Media.

725
00:43:57,440 --> 00:44:00,319
Speaker 2: I mean scary because come on, I had never run

726
00:44:00,360 --> 00:44:04,080
Speaker 2: anything in my life, and the truth is that those

727
00:44:04,120 --> 00:44:08,359
Speaker 2: first years were pretty chaotic, even by Latino USA standards.

728
00:44:08,680 --> 00:44:11,160
Speaker 2: I was learning how to manage a company while still

729
00:44:11,239 --> 00:44:14,799
Speaker 2: having to produce a weekly show, which means we never

730
00:44:15,120 --> 00:44:20,040
Speaker 2: took a break. I also made another decision. I wanted

731
00:44:20,080 --> 00:44:23,879
Speaker 2: for Duromedia to be based in Harlem. I wanted our

732
00:44:23,920 --> 00:44:27,520
Speaker 2: company to be in a historically black community, and in

733
00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:31,640
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen, we finally convinced NPR to let us turn

734
00:44:31,719 --> 00:44:36,439
Speaker 2: Latino USA into a full hour weekly show. That did

735
00:44:36,520 --> 00:44:39,200
Speaker 2: double the production load on the team, but it also

736
00:44:39,400 --> 00:44:44,040
Speaker 2: opened up so many possibilities for us. We were independent,

737
00:44:44,440 --> 00:44:48,400
Speaker 2: we could do essentially what we wanted. But after twenty

738
00:44:48,480 --> 00:44:51,760
Speaker 2: years on the air and thousands of stories reported and produced,

739
00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:56,840
Speaker 2: what was next for us. Luckily we had a brilliant

740
00:44:56,880 --> 00:45:00,840
Speaker 2: team of young producers full of great ideas. Is that

741
00:45:00,920 --> 00:45:04,520
Speaker 2: we're ready to take this challenge head on. People like

742
00:45:04,800 --> 00:45:06,800
Speaker 2: Antonia seehiro.

743
00:45:08,480 --> 00:45:08,800
Speaker 7: Oh Le.

744
00:45:08,960 --> 00:45:14,239
Speaker 2: Maria Antonia was a journalism student from Northwestern University. In

745
00:45:14,320 --> 00:45:17,719
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen, she became one of the first interns at

746
00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:21,280
Speaker 2: Futuro Media, and she, along with so many other talented

747
00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:24,719
Speaker 2: producers and editors, helped to shape the voice of a

748
00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:26,480
Speaker 2: renewed Latino USA.

749
00:45:27,400 --> 00:45:30,560
Speaker 7: I remember being super excited about doing my journalism residency

750
00:45:30,600 --> 00:45:32,319
Speaker 7: at Latino USA, and then I don't know if you

751
00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:34,879
Speaker 7: know this part of the story. But I will say

752
00:45:34,920 --> 00:45:37,480
Speaker 7: at the time it was a ragtag group of people,

753
00:45:37,680 --> 00:45:40,719
Speaker 7: I think it's fair to say. And nobody actually gave

754
00:45:40,800 --> 00:45:44,040
Speaker 7: me the address of where I was supposed to go,

755
00:45:44,600 --> 00:45:46,840
Speaker 7: so I had to find it on the Facebook page

756
00:45:47,000 --> 00:45:48,799
Speaker 7: of like where the office was, and then just like

757
00:45:48,920 --> 00:45:50,719
Speaker 7: showed up at the time that I thought would be

758
00:45:50,760 --> 00:45:51,799
Speaker 7: appropriate to show up.

759
00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:53,000
Speaker 2: Oh my god, it was.

760
00:45:53,239 --> 00:45:54,040
Speaker 9: Yeah, it was.

761
00:45:54,200 --> 00:45:57,799
Speaker 7: The middle of winter, and you walked in with a

762
00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:02,120
Speaker 7: zebra print mini skirt and like thigh high like leather

763
00:46:02,239 --> 00:46:04,719
Speaker 7: boots and giant hoop earrings.

764
00:46:04,840 --> 00:46:07,880
Speaker 12: And I was like, yes, I have arrived. Is where

765
00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:09,080
Speaker 12: I have to be.

766
00:46:09,840 --> 00:46:11,440
Speaker 2: I can't believe you remember the skirt.

767
00:46:11,560 --> 00:46:14,839
Speaker 7: I mean that was a I mean, how often does

768
00:46:14,880 --> 00:46:17,440
Speaker 7: your boss come in with a zebra mini skirt?

769
00:46:18,120 --> 00:46:21,319
Speaker 2: And it's true, they were over the knee boots. Heck, yes, no,

770
00:46:21,400 --> 00:46:22,000
Speaker 2: you look hot.

771
00:46:22,120 --> 00:46:23,000
Speaker 12: I was like, she's hot.

772
00:46:24,719 --> 00:46:26,759
Speaker 7: And then also, I mean, I just remember falling in

773
00:46:26,800 --> 00:46:30,279
Speaker 7: love with the office immediately. It's painted this like color

774
00:46:30,360 --> 00:46:34,160
Speaker 7: orange that's very like warm and inviting, and you know,

775
00:46:34,239 --> 00:46:38,880
Speaker 7: Northwestern is an extremely white and Anglo environment, and it

776
00:46:38,960 --> 00:46:40,319
Speaker 7: was fun to be in an office where we were

777
00:46:40,360 --> 00:46:43,520
Speaker 7: speaking in English and in Spanish, there was an understanding

778
00:46:43,560 --> 00:46:46,399
Speaker 7: of like Latin America, you know, like it just felt

779
00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:49,040
Speaker 7: like there was a lot of like shorthands already in place.

780
00:46:49,360 --> 00:46:52,279
Speaker 7: I mean I personally grew up just surrounded by not

781
00:46:52,400 --> 00:46:54,120
Speaker 7: many Datinos, and so for me, it was like the

782
00:46:54,120 --> 00:46:57,399
Speaker 7: most liberating feeling. It was the most understood I had

783
00:46:57,400 --> 00:47:04,240
Speaker 7: felt by like an environment. We were a really young team.

784
00:47:04,400 --> 00:47:06,760
Speaker 7: I mean I was the youngest, but it was mostly

785
00:47:06,760 --> 00:47:09,799
Speaker 7: people in their late twenties. How did it feel for

786
00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:11,440
Speaker 7: you to have such a young team.

787
00:47:12,280 --> 00:47:14,400
Speaker 2: I think one of the things that is the salvation

788
00:47:14,480 --> 00:47:17,120
Speaker 2: of Latino USA is that I have never felt like

789
00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:20,239
Speaker 2: it's my property. Even though people hear my voice and

790
00:47:20,280 --> 00:47:22,720
Speaker 2: my name and they immediately tie me to Latin USA.

791
00:47:23,120 --> 00:47:26,160
Speaker 2: I have never felt like it's my show and it's

792
00:47:26,160 --> 00:47:28,839
Speaker 2: got to be done my way. This show has had

793
00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:33,120
Speaker 2: this kind of editorial fluidity, and I think, yeah, there

794
00:47:33,200 --> 00:47:36,680
Speaker 2: was a definite sound to the first decade, a definite

795
00:47:36,719 --> 00:47:39,640
Speaker 2: sound to the second decade, and a definite sound to

796
00:47:39,680 --> 00:47:43,680
Speaker 2: the third decade, which is when I'm in charge and

797
00:47:43,719 --> 00:47:47,000
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh my god, look at all of these smart, young,

798
00:47:48,000 --> 00:47:51,480
Speaker 2: super creative producers. I want them to feel like they

799
00:47:51,520 --> 00:47:54,520
Speaker 2: can take risks and they're meeting the task.

800
00:47:55,239 --> 00:47:57,640
Speaker 7: What was really cool is that it was a time where,

801
00:47:57,920 --> 00:48:00,360
Speaker 7: I think industrywide, there was a lot of ambition in

802
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:03,520
Speaker 7: terms of what audio could bring. You know, the other

803
00:48:03,600 --> 00:48:06,440
Speaker 7: big shows at the time were This American Life, were

804
00:48:06,520 --> 00:48:08,520
Speaker 7: Radio Lab and I think you can see in the

805
00:48:08,520 --> 00:48:10,719
Speaker 7: difference of having a Latina woman at the head, who's

806
00:48:10,840 --> 00:48:13,319
Speaker 7: encouraging these young people to pursue what they want, Like,

807
00:48:13,920 --> 00:48:15,960
Speaker 7: we had the ambition to do things that were at

808
00:48:15,960 --> 00:48:20,839
Speaker 7: the journalistic level, that were creatively interesting, but also that

809
00:48:20,920 --> 00:48:23,480
Speaker 7: spoke to our own reality. And I think that you

810
00:48:23,520 --> 00:48:25,880
Speaker 7: gave us that opportunity, which I think was rare in

811
00:48:25,920 --> 00:48:28,400
Speaker 7: the industry then and still rare now, and a lot

812
00:48:28,440 --> 00:48:30,880
Speaker 7: of us producers were able to figure out our own voice.

813
00:48:31,280 --> 00:48:35,239
Speaker 2: I think I was very intentional about understanding how I

814
00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:38,479
Speaker 2: was being seen in the industry. At the same time,

815
00:48:38,560 --> 00:48:40,839
Speaker 2: you know, I was facing all kinds of challenges, whether

816
00:48:40,880 --> 00:48:44,239
Speaker 2: it was personal or financial. I remember I was in debt,

817
00:48:44,280 --> 00:48:47,520
Speaker 2: I had kids in college. You know, there were always worries.

818
00:48:47,719 --> 00:48:50,920
Speaker 2: There were behind the scene worries. There was are we

819
00:48:50,920 --> 00:48:53,080
Speaker 2: going to be able to make payroll kind of worries.

820
00:48:53,560 --> 00:48:56,439
Speaker 2: But I remember that. I was like, you're walking into

821
00:48:56,440 --> 00:48:58,360
Speaker 2: this office and you are trying to set a tone,

822
00:48:58,920 --> 00:49:01,600
Speaker 2: you know, and the tone is is upbeat, try to

823
00:49:01,600 --> 00:49:03,960
Speaker 2: be happy. Although at the same time, Antonia, I think

824
00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:05,759
Speaker 2: you would say yeah, but also you could never really

825
00:49:05,840 --> 00:49:08,359
Speaker 2: hide your emotions. And I bet you saw me in

826
00:49:08,440 --> 00:49:10,320
Speaker 2: like some emotional up and downs.

827
00:49:10,840 --> 00:49:13,080
Speaker 12: You used to send me voice notes of you crying.

828
00:49:14,040 --> 00:49:18,319
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Oh my god. I told you, oh

829
00:49:18,360 --> 00:49:18,759
Speaker 2: my god.

830
00:49:18,800 --> 00:49:21,560
Speaker 7: I can't believe it, but I was, Oh God, the

831
00:49:21,680 --> 00:49:23,880
Speaker 7: real Diehard. Let you know, USA fans will know what

832
00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:24,600
Speaker 7: I'm referring to.

833
00:49:24,960 --> 00:49:26,760
Speaker 12: You know that we're doing this episode about crying.

834
00:49:27,320 --> 00:49:30,120
Speaker 2: I know that we're doing an episode about crying. Oh

835
00:49:30,160 --> 00:49:33,120
Speaker 2: my god, Antonia. That was So it doesn't get more

836
00:49:33,160 --> 00:49:34,400
Speaker 2: intimate than that, does it.

837
00:49:34,520 --> 00:49:36,480
Speaker 7: Yeah, the personal stuff you were dealing with was insane

838
00:49:36,480 --> 00:49:37,920
Speaker 7: at the time because you were dealing with a lot

839
00:49:37,960 --> 00:49:38,839
Speaker 7: of death.

840
00:49:39,080 --> 00:49:41,600
Speaker 2: Not to I mean, yeah, not to bring it down,

841
00:49:41,640 --> 00:49:44,520
Speaker 2: but it was like my father was dying, Briman Mexico

842
00:49:44,640 --> 00:49:45,040
Speaker 2: was dying.

843
00:49:46,880 --> 00:49:50,160
Speaker 13: So this is one of the times when after just

844
00:49:50,200 --> 00:49:54,000
Speaker 13: getting off the phone with my mom walking to work

845
00:49:55,239 --> 00:49:56,920
Speaker 13: and she's telling me about my debt.

846
00:49:59,400 --> 00:50:01,600
Speaker 2: The thing is that you talked about wanting to do

847
00:50:01,640 --> 00:50:04,560
Speaker 2: something about crying, and I just remember saying, well, I'm

848
00:50:04,560 --> 00:50:08,239
Speaker 2: crying all the time, so I want to work with

849
00:50:08,320 --> 00:50:11,640
Speaker 2: you on this. But I also felt safe with you

850
00:50:12,040 --> 00:50:13,960
Speaker 2: as a producer, And I think that that was the

851
00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:18,480
Speaker 2: other thing, was that your curiosity about what was possible,

852
00:50:18,560 --> 00:50:22,040
Speaker 2: what we could do, made me just see things differently.

853
00:50:22,920 --> 00:50:25,240
Speaker 14: So what I did is I went on the Wikipedia page,

854
00:50:25,400 --> 00:50:28,600
Speaker 14: and according to them, women cry between thirty and sixty

855
00:50:28,600 --> 00:50:32,000
Speaker 14: four times a year and men cry between six and

856
00:50:32,160 --> 00:50:35,280
Speaker 14: seventeen times a year. So there are two million Latinos

857
00:50:35,320 --> 00:50:37,560
Speaker 14: living in New York. And I did some kind of

858
00:50:37,680 --> 00:50:41,560
Speaker 14: multiplication and division, and I reached a number for what

859
00:50:41,680 --> 00:50:44,319
Speaker 14: I thought the number of other Latinos crying in New

860
00:50:44,400 --> 00:50:46,400
Speaker 14: York City at the same time as me was, And

861
00:50:46,440 --> 00:50:49,480
Speaker 14: the number I got was six hundred and forty six.

862
00:50:50,080 --> 00:50:52,040
Speaker 7: I think the thing that you have always challenged in

863
00:50:52,080 --> 00:50:54,640
Speaker 7: your own journalism, and something that I've really taken to heart,

864
00:50:54,719 --> 00:50:57,879
Speaker 7: is that a journalist is not like a robot automaton

865
00:50:57,920 --> 00:51:00,480
Speaker 7: that goes out in the world and records things, and

866
00:51:00,640 --> 00:51:04,120
Speaker 7: objectivity is a farce, and also as a goal is

867
00:51:04,120 --> 00:51:07,319
Speaker 7: only useful to an extent, and you always bring your

868
00:51:07,400 --> 00:51:10,120
Speaker 7: full humanity to your reporting, and I think that comes

869
00:51:10,120 --> 00:51:12,480
Speaker 7: through in the stories, and I think you bring your

870
00:51:12,480 --> 00:51:15,080
Speaker 7: full humanity to your management too. Could we have had

871
00:51:15,160 --> 00:51:19,120
Speaker 7: like a more robust HR system at FUTUA, probably, but

872
00:51:19,200 --> 00:51:21,279
Speaker 7: it felt really real, you know, and it felt like

873
00:51:21,320 --> 00:51:24,760
Speaker 7: we were able to process emotions and issues in an open,

874
00:51:24,840 --> 00:51:27,000
Speaker 7: sort of like community way.

875
00:51:27,800 --> 00:51:32,239
Speaker 2: When I think back, there is one episode in particular

876
00:51:32,280 --> 00:51:35,600
Speaker 2: Antonia that kind of captures what we were trying to do.

877
00:51:36,080 --> 00:51:39,319
Speaker 2: It's called a Day at the Bovega, And I don't know,

878
00:51:39,360 --> 00:51:42,000
Speaker 2: I think we really showed that we had the capacity

879
00:51:42,040 --> 00:51:45,160
Speaker 2: to do very special work at Latino USA.

880
00:51:44,640 --> 00:51:48,239
Speaker 7: In my journalism career. I consider that episode like a

881
00:51:48,239 --> 00:51:53,080
Speaker 7: really important milestone. Basically, we were inspired by like this

882
00:51:53,160 --> 00:51:56,399
Speaker 7: American life and the bodega that we all went to

883
00:51:56,440 --> 00:51:58,880
Speaker 7: get lunch at down the street burned down, and so

884
00:51:58,960 --> 00:52:01,600
Speaker 7: I think we were all really missing the bodega, and

885
00:52:01,640 --> 00:52:04,520
Speaker 7: we were like, oh, what if we did twenty four hours.

886
00:52:04,239 --> 00:52:06,840
Speaker 10: From opening to closing like a whole you know, nineteen

887
00:52:06,880 --> 00:52:10,120
Speaker 10: hours in a single bodega, this place that you normally

888
00:52:10,160 --> 00:52:12,839
Speaker 10: don't spend more than ten minutes in or maybe you do, right,

889
00:52:12,920 --> 00:52:13,440
Speaker 10: maybe you do.

890
00:52:13,960 --> 00:52:16,440
Speaker 7: It's a place we were so hyped on the idea

891
00:52:16,560 --> 00:52:18,560
Speaker 7: that we met up on a Sunday. It was me

892
00:52:19,040 --> 00:52:23,200
Speaker 7: got Mitogas, Marlon Bishop, and Michael Simon Johnson. We met

893
00:52:23,280 --> 00:52:25,759
Speaker 7: up at a diner and we were like, Okay, how

894
00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:28,240
Speaker 7: are we going to do this? And so we did shifts.

895
00:52:28,280 --> 00:52:30,400
Speaker 7: We did ships, were like, Okay, Michael's going to do opening,

896
00:52:30,480 --> 00:52:32,680
Speaker 7: like I was going to do the evening, Marlon did

897
00:52:32,680 --> 00:52:34,960
Speaker 7: the middle. Like we kind of had the whole thing planned.

898
00:52:35,440 --> 00:52:37,279
Speaker 7: We heard from people after that episode that it was

899
00:52:37,280 --> 00:52:39,040
Speaker 7: like the first time they heard a voice that sounded

900
00:52:39,080 --> 00:52:39,920
Speaker 7: like their own voice on.

901
00:52:39,880 --> 00:52:42,719
Speaker 8: Air and be like, Yo, that's Jose you know, that's

902
00:52:42,719 --> 00:52:44,320
Speaker 8: a little poppy, that's this one that you know what

903
00:52:44,360 --> 00:52:44,600
Speaker 8: I mean.

904
00:52:44,600 --> 00:52:46,600
Speaker 6: So it's like it's a community thing as well.

905
00:52:47,040 --> 00:52:49,839
Speaker 7: They were real people talking about their everyday stuff, and

906
00:52:49,880 --> 00:52:53,600
Speaker 7: that the pleasure and excitement of hearing somebody who sounds

907
00:52:53,600 --> 00:52:55,120
Speaker 7: like someone who lives down the block from you with

908
00:52:55,120 --> 00:52:57,600
Speaker 7: in the Latino community was like the excitement that we

909
00:52:57,600 --> 00:52:58,680
Speaker 7: were bringing to the table.

910
00:52:59,000 --> 00:53:00,879
Speaker 2: You know, I think you're right. There was a lot

911
00:53:00,880 --> 00:53:03,879
Speaker 2: of consciousness in terms of the audience, and I think

912
00:53:03,960 --> 00:53:06,560
Speaker 2: we were just trying to push the envelope editorially all

913
00:53:06,600 --> 00:53:11,440
Speaker 2: the time. Which Antonia brings me to the Chewey story. So,

914
00:53:11,640 --> 00:53:15,200
Speaker 2: in twenty fifteen, a man named Chui Garcia was running

915
00:53:15,239 --> 00:53:17,920
Speaker 2: in the Democratic primary for mayor of the city of Chicago.

916
00:53:18,280 --> 00:53:21,040
Speaker 2: This was a first and I figured that we could

917
00:53:21,080 --> 00:53:23,600
Speaker 2: get i don't know, some interesting access because I had

918
00:53:23,600 --> 00:53:25,440
Speaker 2: known him since I was a kid. And so the

919
00:53:25,520 --> 00:53:29,440
Speaker 2: idea was, all right, let's do twenty four hours in

920
00:53:29,480 --> 00:53:33,759
Speaker 2: the campaign. Not because we were supporting Chewi against his

921
00:53:33,800 --> 00:53:38,279
Speaker 2: opponent Ram Emanuel, but because we wanted to explore this

922
00:53:38,400 --> 00:53:41,080
Speaker 2: question of what it looks like to be a Latino

923
00:53:41,200 --> 00:53:44,240
Speaker 2: leader in a place like Chicago, a very political city.

924
00:53:44,760 --> 00:53:50,319
Speaker 2: But it got very controversial. NPR decided to pull the

925
00:53:50,400 --> 00:53:54,799
Speaker 2: branding from this episode. Honestly, this was probably like the

926
00:53:54,800 --> 00:53:58,920
Speaker 2: lowest point in my career, and also my dad was dying,

927
00:53:59,440 --> 00:54:03,120
Speaker 2: so oh, it was pretty terrible. And I'm wondering, Antonia,

928
00:54:03,440 --> 00:54:06,360
Speaker 2: what do you remember about the Chewy episode?

929
00:54:06,600 --> 00:54:08,600
Speaker 7: Okay, I was not on the team that produced Chewy,

930
00:54:08,960 --> 00:54:12,440
Speaker 7: but it was really a hard time. I remember really

931
00:54:12,480 --> 00:54:17,520
Speaker 7: liking that episode. Editorially, first, WBEZ said that they weren't

932
00:54:17,520 --> 00:54:21,040
Speaker 7: going to release it because we were going to run

933
00:54:21,040 --> 00:54:23,560
Speaker 7: it before the election, and so they felt that it

934
00:54:23,560 --> 00:54:26,279
Speaker 7: was going to be unfair coverage to give a whole

935
00:54:26,320 --> 00:54:28,399
Speaker 7: hour to Chewy and not do the same for Rama

936
00:54:28,480 --> 00:54:32,799
Speaker 7: Manuel's camp. And then after aired, NPR said that it

937
00:54:32,840 --> 00:54:35,680
Speaker 7: was stripping its branding, which they'd never done, or something

938
00:54:35,680 --> 00:54:38,880
Speaker 7: insane like that to an episode. And I remember we

939
00:54:38,880 --> 00:54:42,359
Speaker 7: were all really devastated because it was humiliating.

940
00:54:42,440 --> 00:54:48,040
Speaker 2: Really that moment with NPR felt like we could die here.

941
00:54:48,760 --> 00:54:51,360
Speaker 2: This could be it, you know, because the foretelling of

942
00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:54,760
Speaker 2: Latino USA's demise has always been there, and certainly NPR

943
00:54:55,160 --> 00:54:57,319
Speaker 2: that was always part of the narrative. Right, eventually, it's

944
00:54:57,360 --> 00:55:01,759
Speaker 2: going to die without knowing this whole other commitment of

945
00:55:01,800 --> 00:55:04,880
Speaker 2: this audience that we had that just loved us. But

946
00:55:05,239 --> 00:55:07,279
Speaker 2: I was like, we're gonna die. I don't know how

947
00:55:07,320 --> 00:55:11,120
Speaker 2: to salvage this, and it was horrible. But in that

948
00:55:11,280 --> 00:55:15,080
Speaker 2: moment as a journalist, I also thought Futuro was gonna die.

949
00:55:15,320 --> 00:55:17,200
Speaker 12: I didn't realize it was at that level for you.

950
00:55:17,400 --> 00:55:21,320
Speaker 2: Oh little Glado. You know, would we lose funders because

951
00:55:21,440 --> 00:55:24,880
Speaker 2: NPR wrote about us, the Umbuts men wrote about us.

952
00:55:25,239 --> 00:55:29,080
Speaker 7: But I have a very clear memory of the Chruy

953
00:55:29,520 --> 00:55:33,239
Speaker 7: fiasco happening. And then the next week we won the Peabody.

954
00:55:34,719 --> 00:55:38,600
Speaker 7: You know that was like the thing it was, It was.

955
00:55:38,600 --> 00:55:41,760
Speaker 2: Not to me. It kind of symbolizes the way Futuro

956
00:55:41,880 --> 00:55:43,719
Speaker 2: has felt in a lot of ways, and the way

957
00:55:43,840 --> 00:55:48,200
Speaker 2: Latino USA has felt, which is like incredibly dramatic Depotelenoe

958
00:55:48,280 --> 00:55:48,799
Speaker 2: lakom ok.

959
00:55:49,080 --> 00:55:52,680
Speaker 1: What accepting the Peabody is Maria Hinojosa.

960
00:55:53,000 --> 00:55:56,400
Speaker 3: With this award, the committee is paying tribute to the

961
00:55:56,480 --> 00:56:00,520
Speaker 3: stories of thousands of young immigrants like Johann and Godless

962
00:56:00,560 --> 00:56:04,839
Speaker 3: who were profiled in Gang's murder and migration in Ondudahs.

963
00:56:04,480 --> 00:56:09,520
Speaker 2: Which was the affirmation of Marlon Bishop's work, our investigative work,

964
00:56:10,160 --> 00:56:13,640
Speaker 2: our decision to do a story about Ondudas when nobody

965
00:56:13,640 --> 00:56:18,440
Speaker 2: else could care less. Thank you Peabody Committee for like us,

966
00:56:18,960 --> 00:56:23,000
Speaker 2: wanting to make the invisible visible, which I thind ask yes,

967
00:56:23,040 --> 00:56:28,800
Speaker 2: thank you. We did live through a lot of change

968
00:56:28,920 --> 00:56:32,560
Speaker 2: while we were together. Antonia the company kind of grew up.

969
00:56:32,719 --> 00:56:37,040
Speaker 2: We started getting these pretty fabulous awards and recognition, and

970
00:56:37,480 --> 00:56:39,880
Speaker 2: then there was election night twenty sixteen.

971
00:56:40,080 --> 00:56:43,799
Speaker 7: Do you remember from an office perspective, I remember that

972
00:56:44,280 --> 00:56:48,640
Speaker 7: our entire plan for post election had to be scrapped,

973
00:56:48,960 --> 00:56:50,960
Speaker 7: Like we didn't even plan for what would happen if

974
00:56:50,960 --> 00:56:53,520
Speaker 7: Trump want because we just seemed like such an impossibility.

975
00:56:53,960 --> 00:56:56,000
Speaker 7: And I remember it being kind of stressful because we

976
00:56:56,000 --> 00:56:59,920
Speaker 7: were both sort of mentally emotionally processing what was happening

977
00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:02,440
Speaker 7: and then also had to essentially create a show from scratch.

978
00:57:02,840 --> 00:57:06,040
Speaker 2: We connected with the Kaninovaskiz family and they have a

979
00:57:06,080 --> 00:57:09,719
Speaker 2: wide range of political views, so we decided to check

980
00:57:09,800 --> 00:57:12,680
Speaker 2: back with them after election Day. I always thought that

981
00:57:12,719 --> 00:57:13,239
Speaker 2: he could win.

982
00:57:13,400 --> 00:57:15,080
Speaker 12: Yeah, actually you did. I remember that.

983
00:57:15,360 --> 00:57:19,040
Speaker 2: I think we didn't understand how intense the support was

984
00:57:19,080 --> 00:57:21,640
Speaker 2: going to be for him, in particular from the Latino

985
00:57:21,680 --> 00:57:24,800
Speaker 2: and Latin that population, and I think that was part

986
00:57:24,840 --> 00:57:26,680
Speaker 2: of the story. Can you tell us what you did

987
00:57:26,680 --> 00:57:30,000
Speaker 2: on Tuesday? Who you voted for, and essentially why I

988
00:57:30,080 --> 00:57:31,480
Speaker 2: voted for Donald Trump?

989
00:57:31,560 --> 00:57:33,680
Speaker 6: And that was a very decisive move for me. I

990
00:57:33,720 --> 00:57:36,479
Speaker 6: felt his message was resonated very.

991
00:57:36,360 --> 00:57:38,680
Speaker 7: Well with me as a journalist. It felt almost like

992
00:57:38,760 --> 00:57:42,600
Speaker 7: going on the defense. It was weird because I remember

993
00:57:42,600 --> 00:57:44,480
Speaker 7: we were getting a lot more donations. It was a

994
00:57:44,520 --> 00:57:47,440
Speaker 7: time where people seemed to really like be valuing that

995
00:57:47,520 --> 00:57:50,400
Speaker 7: Latino USA existed in a way that we hadn't seen before,

996
00:57:51,040 --> 00:57:53,439
Speaker 7: and I thought that was very powerful. But I also

997
00:57:53,480 --> 00:57:56,160
Speaker 7: remember being a little bit angry that that is what

998
00:57:56,240 --> 00:57:59,720
Speaker 7: it took. And I also remember feeling really angry that

999
00:58:00,240 --> 00:58:03,280
Speaker 7: I felt that what people really wanted from us were

1000
00:58:03,360 --> 00:58:06,959
Speaker 7: these stories of how Trump was demonizing that, you knows,

1001
00:58:07,120 --> 00:58:09,320
Speaker 7: which really derailed a lot of the work that we

1002
00:58:09,320 --> 00:58:10,040
Speaker 7: were doing.

1003
00:58:10,000 --> 00:58:13,040
Speaker 2: And the trajectory of the existence of Latino USA. We

1004
00:58:13,080 --> 00:58:17,600
Speaker 2: went from being invisible to then being hyper visible, and

1005
00:58:17,640 --> 00:58:22,040
Speaker 2: in that hypervisibility over a false narrative, we go back

1006
00:58:22,040 --> 00:58:25,400
Speaker 2: to invisibility because actually, then our work has to be

1007
00:58:25,480 --> 00:58:28,400
Speaker 2: to dismantle now a narrative that you've created in this

1008
00:58:28,480 --> 00:58:32,960
Speaker 2: hypervisibility that for example, Trump laid on us, and it's like,

1009
00:58:33,000 --> 00:58:34,840
Speaker 2: oh great, now we have to go back and kind

1010
00:58:34,880 --> 00:58:37,280
Speaker 2: of undo this and teach. And it's like it's exhausting.

1011
00:58:37,640 --> 00:58:40,240
Speaker 12: Yeah.

1012
00:58:40,960 --> 00:58:45,560
Speaker 2: One thing in the world of journalism is that sometimes

1013
00:58:45,600 --> 00:58:47,920
Speaker 2: it's very lonely work and you do it all by yourself,

1014
00:58:47,960 --> 00:58:51,600
Speaker 2: the way I started my career. But then as things progressed,

1015
00:58:51,640 --> 00:58:52,960
Speaker 2: you work as a collective.

1016
00:58:53,360 --> 00:58:53,560
Speaker 4: You know.

1017
00:58:53,640 --> 00:58:55,560
Speaker 7: I think part of the reason why you had such

1018
00:58:55,600 --> 00:58:59,480
Speaker 7: a good time with this third generation. I'm saying like

1019
00:58:59,520 --> 00:59:01,360
Speaker 7: you had the best with us, right, But I think

1020
00:59:01,440 --> 00:59:03,240
Speaker 7: part of it was that a lot of us were

1021
00:59:03,280 --> 00:59:05,240
Speaker 7: starting out, and you by that point were really an

1022
00:59:05,320 --> 00:59:08,240
Speaker 7: established journalist who had thought a lot about your career,

1023
00:59:08,360 --> 00:59:10,720
Speaker 7: had a lot of points of view, and like for me,

1024
00:59:10,960 --> 00:59:13,960
Speaker 7: was seeing a lesson up close. I saw how hard

1025
00:59:14,000 --> 00:59:16,680
Speaker 7: you pushed to make Swabi's the story of reality, and

1026
00:59:16,760 --> 00:59:19,920
Speaker 7: so it was like extremely rewarding to see how it

1027
00:59:20,000 --> 00:59:20,600
Speaker 7: all paid off.

1028
00:59:20,680 --> 00:59:23,680
Speaker 2: Okay, p U see Antonia. You know when the phone

1029
00:59:23,680 --> 00:59:25,120
Speaker 2: would ring and we would be in the middle of

1030
00:59:25,120 --> 00:59:27,240
Speaker 2: a major editorial meeting and I would run out because

1031
00:59:27,280 --> 00:59:29,680
Speaker 2: Swabi was calling me from prison. I mean, what did

1032
00:59:29,760 --> 00:59:30,720
Speaker 2: you really.

1033
00:59:30,440 --> 00:59:32,840
Speaker 7: Think, Oh, I bet you're loving this. Madia gets to

1034
00:59:32,920 --> 00:59:34,600
Speaker 7: rub this in everyone's face.

1035
00:59:34,800 --> 00:59:37,200
Speaker 2: I do that people are loving this, so go ahead.

1036
00:59:37,400 --> 00:59:40,280
Speaker 7: People were so annoyed. We would be like, Madia, We're

1037
00:59:40,320 --> 00:59:42,000
Speaker 7: like in the middle of a meeting. We were like,

1038
00:59:42,000 --> 00:59:43,720
Speaker 7: what is she doing? She's always like running off to

1039
00:59:43,720 --> 00:59:47,080
Speaker 7: take these phone calls and you drop everything. So yeah,

1040
00:59:47,080 --> 00:59:50,080
Speaker 7: it was frustrating, But at the end of this decade,

1041
00:59:50,760 --> 00:59:51,800
Speaker 7: you won the Pulletzer.

1042
00:59:57,840 --> 01:00:00,960
Speaker 2: After you've been with a show like you know, USA

1043
01:00:01,040 --> 01:00:02,920
Speaker 2: for thirty years, you know, I mean part of what

1044
01:00:02,960 --> 01:00:04,800
Speaker 2: you learn is that, yeah, there are going to be

1045
01:00:04,800 --> 01:00:07,560
Speaker 2: some people who come and go it gets a little

1046
01:00:07,560 --> 01:00:10,160
Speaker 2: bit easier. But for me, the fact that you have

1047
01:00:10,240 --> 01:00:15,480
Speaker 2: that title of executive producer, that you are producing podcasts

1048
01:00:15,560 --> 01:00:18,720
Speaker 2: that I listened to over there at last, I mean,

1049
01:00:18,760 --> 01:00:21,840
Speaker 2: I miss you, but also I'm so proud of you.

1050
01:00:22,600 --> 01:00:25,760
Speaker 2: How do you see Futuro now from this kind of

1051
01:00:25,840 --> 01:00:28,600
Speaker 2: distance that you have as an executive producer in your

1052
01:00:28,600 --> 01:00:29,000
Speaker 2: own right?

1053
01:00:29,600 --> 01:00:32,280
Speaker 12: I mean, Futuro is like such a bright spot.

1054
01:00:32,440 --> 01:00:34,680
Speaker 7: It's like, I don't know, like, did you expect that

1055
01:00:34,720 --> 01:00:37,960
Speaker 7: you would like have a company with multiple hit podcasts,

1056
01:00:38,000 --> 01:00:43,120
Speaker 7: Win the Pulletzer. It's this huge success story and I'm

1057
01:00:43,280 --> 01:00:46,200
Speaker 7: so proud of having been a part of it. And

1058
01:00:46,280 --> 01:00:49,960
Speaker 7: I also feel like the central message that you always bring,

1059
01:00:50,160 --> 01:00:52,160
Speaker 7: which is to bring your humanity and your sense of

1060
01:00:52,200 --> 01:00:54,480
Speaker 7: self into what you do and into your reporting, is

1061
01:00:54,480 --> 01:00:58,040
Speaker 7: something that other places are just now kind of grasping.

1062
01:00:58,920 --> 01:01:01,760
Speaker 7: So I feel really grateful as being a producer, but

1063
01:01:01,800 --> 01:01:04,040
Speaker 7: also as being part of the audience that gets to

1064
01:01:04,320 --> 01:01:06,680
Speaker 7: hear and consume all of this incredible work.

1065
01:01:07,080 --> 01:01:10,080
Speaker 2: Antonia much yes for everything you did for lett You

1066
01:01:10,120 --> 01:01:11,480
Speaker 2: know us say I love you.

1067
01:01:11,600 --> 01:01:13,360
Speaker 12: I love you, Madia. Thanks for having me.

1068
01:01:16,560 --> 01:01:20,080
Speaker 2: Dear listener, our story is coming to an end. Well,

1069
01:01:20,360 --> 01:01:23,680
Speaker 2: I mean for now, because you know we're not going anywhere.

1070
01:01:23,880 --> 01:01:26,120
Speaker 2: All I can say is thank you to each and

1071
01:01:26,200 --> 01:01:29,360
Speaker 2: every one of you for listening, not only today but

1072
01:01:29,840 --> 01:01:33,520
Speaker 2: for thirty years. You know that our future is going

1073
01:01:33,560 --> 01:01:37,600
Speaker 2: to bring us more incredible and challenging stories. So as

1074
01:01:37,640 --> 01:01:39,960
Speaker 2: we say, the only thing that is left for me

1075
01:01:40,080 --> 01:01:46,200
Speaker 2: to say is because let you know, usay no for mass.

1076
01:01:58,200 --> 01:02:01,960
Speaker 2: This episode was produced by Victoria Streda and Monica Moreles

1077
01:02:02,000 --> 01:02:05,400
Speaker 2: Garcia and edited by Marta Martinez, who was mixed by

1078
01:02:05,440 --> 01:02:08,960
Speaker 2: Julia Caruso and gabriel Le Bayez. Thank you to Renaldo

1079
01:02:09,040 --> 01:02:13,600
Speaker 2: Leanos Junior and Sophia Sanchez for their production assistants. Special

1080
01:02:13,640 --> 01:02:16,360
Speaker 2: thanks this week to the staff of the Neddie Lee

1081
01:02:16,400 --> 01:02:21,440
Speaker 2: Benson Latin American Collection and the University of Texas Libraries

1082
01:02:21,440 --> 01:02:26,560
Speaker 2: for retrieving historical content from the Latino USA Archive, including

1083
01:02:26,880 --> 01:02:32,400
Speaker 2: Cadla Alvarez, Grace Bonilla, Elizabeth Garza, Ryan Lynch, Teresa Polk,

1084
01:02:32,720 --> 01:02:38,000
Speaker 2: Carla breug Blei, Ryan Sullivan, Jeremy Thompson, and Catherine Thornton.

1085
01:02:38,400 --> 01:02:43,040
Speaker 2: The Latino USA team includes Andrea Lopez Crusado, Mike Sargent,

1086
01:02:43,160 --> 01:02:47,400
Speaker 2: Daisy Contreras, and Patricia Suberan without from Raoul Berez. Our

1087
01:02:47,520 --> 01:02:51,280
Speaker 2: editorial director is Fernanda Santos. Our director of engineering is

1088
01:02:51,320 --> 01:02:55,160
Speaker 2: Stephanie lebou. Our associate engineer is jj Carubin. Our marketing

1089
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Speaker 2: manager is Luis Luna. Our New York Women's Foundation fellow

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Speaker 2: is Elizabeth Lowe Torres. Our theme music was composed by

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Speaker 2: Zeger Rubinos. I'm your host and executive producer. Join us

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Speaker 2: again on our next episode. In the meantime, look for

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Speaker 2: us on social media and for the next thirty years.

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Speaker 2: Los proximos trendain jos Remember Loma Yes Tao.

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Speaker 15: Latino USA thirtieth anniversary episodes are made possible with support

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Speaker 15: from our legacy sustainers, the Brett Family Foundation, Alonso Contu,

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Speaker 15: Carmen Rito Wong Vamos Enterprises, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists,

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Speaker 15: April Gessler, doctor Elmo Randolph, Belinda de la Libertad, Angela

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Speaker 15: Garcia Simms, and Priscilla Rojas. Latino USA is made possible

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Speaker 15: in part by the Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on

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Speaker 15: the front lines of social change worldwide, and the John D.

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Speaker 15: And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

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Speaker 7: I remember you'd always bring snacks back from all of

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Speaker 7: your trips. One time you threw tortillas at all of us.

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Speaker 7: We were like laughing. We were like, this is what

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Speaker 7: people think we do, and it's what's happening. Is like

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Speaker 7: you were throwing fresh with theias that you had brought

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Speaker 7: with you from Chicago.