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Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, hey, get us So Latino USA is

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Speaker 1: celebrating thirty years. Toda ain't that amos and we would

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Speaker 1: love to hear from you. Dear listener, do you want

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Speaker 1: to share with us exactly what Latino USA has meant

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Speaker 1: to you? Do you have a birthday wish for us?

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Speaker 1: Leave us a voicemail at six four six five seven

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Speaker 1: to one one two two four. That's six four six

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Speaker 1: five seven to one one two two four, and we

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Speaker 1: might feature your message in an upcoming show grass Yas.

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Speaker 2: This is Sarah Austin Jenness and everyone over here at

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Speaker 2: the Moth Radio Hour is wishing Maria Inajosa and everyone

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Speaker 2: on the Latino USA team a very happy thirty year anniversary.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you, Thank you for the important, the critical,

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Speaker 2: the groundbreaking stories you've shared over the years, and cheers

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Speaker 2: to the next thirty plus.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: I'm Maria Inojosa, no bayan.

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Speaker 3: The Latino USA experience is from so many different places.

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Speaker 3: There's so much music, there's so many sounds. The famous

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Speaker 3: quote like we're not a monolith. It brings true if

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Speaker 3: you listen to the show and all the stories, all

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Speaker 3: the voices that are represented. We are so many things.

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Speaker 1: From Pudua Media and BrX, It's Latino USA. I'm Maria

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Speaker 1: Nohosa today. The history of this song, the Latino USA

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Speaker 1: theme music from musical artists and creator Zenya Rubinos. When

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Speaker 1: Latino USA debuted thirty years ago, it sounded like nothing

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Speaker 1: else on public radio. And I mean that literally. This

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

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Speaker 1: Yes that's me. I know time flies, but right now

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Speaker 1: I'm not talking about who you hear on the mic.

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about what's behind it, our theme music. I'm

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Speaker 1: Maria Inojosa today on Latino USA. Latino USA has cycled

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Speaker 1: through a few theme songs throughout our three decades. This

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

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Speaker 1: As the years passed, we wanted to make a statement,

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Speaker 1: something that told the world we're here and we're not

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Speaker 1: going anywhere. And in twenty seventeen, Latino USA decided to

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Speaker 1: shake things up one more time. Marlon Bishop, Latino USA's

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Speaker 1: senior producer at the time and now our vice president

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Speaker 1: at Futuro Studios, asked musician Zenie Ruinos to create a

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Speaker 1: brand new Latino USA theme song. With two albums already

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Speaker 1: under her belt, Zenya took on the challenge, and in December,

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Speaker 1: right before the twenty eighteen New Year, Latino USA unveiled

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Speaker 1: Zenya's new theme song, It's the same one you hear today.

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Speaker 1: Zenya has been back in the studio in the years

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Speaker 1: since she released her latest album, Unarosa in twenty twenty one,

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Speaker 1: an intricate collage of genre history and literature along with

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Speaker 1: a personal reflection on grief and cultural identity. Zanya says

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Speaker 1: she's grown with her music just like we've grown along

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Speaker 1: with the theme song she created.

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Speaker 3: That's been an evolution of my music in this last phase,

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Speaker 3: and just continuing to follow my curiosity, just remembering why

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Speaker 3: I make music, you know, It's like I'm searching, I'm

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Speaker 3: trying to find things out.

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Speaker 1: So here's Zangia Ruinos talking about her journey to creating

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Speaker 1: the Latino USA theme song and her evolution as an

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Speaker 1: artist over the past five years.

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Speaker 4: Oof.

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Speaker 3: You know, hold on to I don't want to misspeak

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Speaker 3: one second because I'm like, my gu has it only

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Speaker 3: been five years? It feels like it's been so much

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Speaker 3: longer than that, but maybe it is. Yeah, two thousand

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Speaker 3: and seventeen, So it was that eighteen nineteen twenty. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: like five or six years. Okay, Wow, I think I

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Speaker 3: found Latino USA probably just listening to NPR and I

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Speaker 3: heard Mariainojosa's voice and was like, who is that? And

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Speaker 3: then I went down a rabbit hole looking up MADIAA.

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Speaker 3: Hoosa's work as a journalist, and I was just so

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Speaker 3: inspired by her and inspired by the stories that I

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Speaker 3: was hearing. She just became kind of this personal hero

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Speaker 3: for me, and she inspired me in writing a song. Actually,

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Speaker 3: I wrote a song called Diosa thinking about like waking

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Speaker 3: up early and doing her crazy exercise routine in the park.

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Speaker 4: You are that only one Laki.

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Speaker 3: I was like, Okay, I'm going to write an ant

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Speaker 3: like a workout anthem for Madiana Hosa Rena Tula very

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Speaker 3: Yah Viosa. I had never really heard a show that

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Speaker 3: before like Latino focused stories about history, about current events, news,

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Speaker 3: and that's the kind of journalism that got me hooked

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Speaker 3: more on the political sphere, which is outside of the

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Speaker 3: realm of music. And it was just the kind of

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Speaker 3: stories that I was looking for. And I felt that

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Speaker 3: the work that was being done on the show was

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Speaker 3: so important. I was learning so much from listening to

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Speaker 3: the episodes and then just became a total fan of

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Speaker 3: the show. Really dorky would like favorite the tweets and

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Speaker 3: reply to the tweets. And I was journaling as I do,

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Speaker 3: and was writing things down, like dreams down. And one

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Speaker 3: of the things was to collaborate with Latino USA in

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Speaker 3: some way, and so I wrote that down in my

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Speaker 3: notebook a couple times, and little did I know that

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Speaker 3: I was going to end up writing a theme song

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Speaker 3: for it. I feel like that was an exercise and

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Speaker 3: manifestation for sure. One of my sheiros eric A Badu

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Speaker 3: says spelling is a spell well, and I believe that too.

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Speaker 3: If we write something down, it's like a magical act.

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Speaker 3: So write things down in your notebook. I think at

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Speaker 3: some point I met one of the team members of

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Speaker 3: Latino USA, Marlin, and we met in New York somehow,

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Speaker 3: probably at a show I can't really remember. And then

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Speaker 3: a couple months later I got an email in my

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Speaker 3: inbox from Marlin asking if I might be interested in

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Speaker 3: writing a theme song. And so that was a moment

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Speaker 3: where I just I got goosebumps. I was like, what

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Speaker 3: this is wild? But I was honored to be asked,

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Speaker 3: and it was my first time writing a theme song. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: I was battling my imposter syndrome hardcore all throughout this process.

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Speaker 3: I read the sentence that Latino USA was the longest

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Speaker 3: running show of its kind on US media. Yea, I

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Speaker 3: might be misquoting that, but so that kind of just

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Speaker 3: added that extra bit of pressure where I was like, Okay,

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Speaker 3: this is a really important show, Like this is legacy,

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Speaker 3: this is like someone's life's work, you know.

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Speaker 4: So I took it very seriously.

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Speaker 3: I remember it was the summertime, and I think I

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Speaker 3: started it probably Midsummer maybe July, and wrapped it up

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Speaker 3: in the fall. So it was actually a couple months

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Speaker 3: of like back and forth, and I was really open

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Speaker 3: for feedback. It was a collaborative process at the beginning,

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Speaker 3: and I was asking for what folks were looking for.

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Speaker 3: They wanted something with energy and with a snappiness to it,

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Speaker 3: but something that was versatile. I was also thinking about

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Speaker 3: the fact that this is a journalistic show, so I

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Speaker 3: was trying to think of what that sounds like to me.

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Speaker 3: I started thinking about myself and radio and my life.

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Speaker 3: I grew up in Hartford, Connecticut, and there was this

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Speaker 3: Latin jazz show that would come on and they had

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Speaker 3: this theme song that I remember was like this flute piece,

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Speaker 3: like jazzy flute thing, and I got really into that song.

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Speaker 3: And I was playing flute at the time, and I

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Speaker 3: actually would listen to that show and try to catch

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Speaker 3: the intro and the outro so that I could learn

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Speaker 3: the flute melody. Super dorky music stuff, you know, And

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Speaker 3: I did it, and I actually learned it. So every

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Speaker 3: time the show would come on, I would like run

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Speaker 3: and grab my flue and like play along with this

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Speaker 3: intro and this outro. And one day I asked my

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Speaker 3: mom to help me call into the radio show and

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Speaker 3: I was like, hey, I'm a huge fan of the

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Speaker 3: program and I've been learning the theme song on flute.

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Speaker 3: Can you please play it for a little bit longer

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Speaker 3: today because I want to hear the rest of it,

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Speaker 3: you know, And they gave me a shout out on

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Speaker 3: the air.

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Speaker 4: I felt so cool.

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Speaker 3: So I started thinking about that, and I was like, Yo,

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Speaker 3: I think this main melody or this main riff of

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Speaker 3: this theme song is to have a flute sound on it.

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Speaker 4: So that's.

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Speaker 3: So that's kind of how I made my own little

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Speaker 3: personal ode to my relationship to radio audio storytelling. And

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Speaker 3: I guess kind of the fantasy of falling in love

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Speaker 3: with someone telling you a story through the airwaves, which

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Speaker 3: is what happened to me with Latino USA, you know,

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Speaker 3: and what happens to me with music. Right. It's just

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Speaker 3: something that you hear that creates a dream in your

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Speaker 3: mind that you connect to on another level. I also

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Speaker 3: wanted it to feel a little newsy, you know. I

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Speaker 3: kind of wanted to give it like a little newsy

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Speaker 3: kind of serious vibes. I was thinking about that, and

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Speaker 3: and was thinking about like telegraph sound, like.

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Speaker 4: Like that is a very.

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Speaker 3: Not that that's in the music, but there are these

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Speaker 3: synths that I use that were kind of just like

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Speaker 3: I'm totally singing this out of key, but I was

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Speaker 3: kind of like giving a nod to that telegraph sound,

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Speaker 3: which is a newsy sound to me. You know, it's

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Speaker 3: like the sound of like we're about to learn about

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Speaker 3: some stuff and we're about to find out something. And

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Speaker 3: then I also wanted it to be joyful. The show

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Speaker 3: also delves into some really heavy, difficult topics, but I

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Speaker 3: wanted to have kind of this affirming and positive tone.

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Speaker 3: There are these main synths that I used, just kind

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Speaker 3: of like techie sounding keyboard that kind of has this

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Speaker 3: slidey sound that I thought was fun and kind of

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Speaker 3: like upbeat, and it's like Weo Wei was doing this

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Speaker 3: kind of thing, and I like layered a bunch of

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Speaker 3: synths to make that sound essentially.

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Speaker 4: And then if I remember.

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Speaker 3: Kart, there's electric base on this track, like that eye

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Speaker 3: tracked to kind of like give it a live feel,

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Speaker 3: like a little live bounce to it. And at the

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Speaker 3: very beginning of the show, I wanted to include like

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Speaker 3: the sound of coffee being brewed. There's kind of like

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Speaker 3: a like this kind of fluttery kind of sound, which

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Speaker 3: isn't literally coffee coming out, but that's what I had imagined.

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Speaker 4: It was like you're about to get all the tea.

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Speaker 3: You're about to find out, Uh, we're brewing, We're brewing something.

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Speaker 3: Oh and then my vocals. Marlon had asked me to

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Speaker 3: include some vocals, which I found really difficult. He was like, yeah,

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Speaker 3: I'm really feeling the clip vocals. It really sounds like

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Speaker 3: your signature. And I was like, oh, okay, Like I

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Speaker 3: just didn't want to get in the way of, you know,

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Speaker 3: what was being said on the show, So I was

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Speaker 3: really hesitant to add vocals in there. But in the

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Speaker 3: end I added a vocal stack with some like really

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Speaker 3: simple harmonies, I think in thirds, and it's kind of

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Speaker 3: like a ah like at the end of like, yeah,

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Speaker 3: we've arrived. The main thing that I took the longest

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Speaker 3: on was to decide what beat I was going for.

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Speaker 3: It definitely has like some kind of hip hop Knwjack

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Speaker 3: swing influence to it. It's made with very low fi

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Speaker 3: drum machine sounds.

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Speaker 4: You know.

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Speaker 3: When it kind of gets into I guess Thereaton inspired

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Speaker 3: or them Bo inspired section, it has like these snappy,

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Speaker 3: crackly snare sounds that come in. It's a many many

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Speaker 3: hands and many voices and many stories type of sound.

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Speaker 3: But ultimately I decided to go for a beat that

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Speaker 3: was a little Caribbean influence, which is where I come from,

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Speaker 3: Puerto Rican and Cuban, but knowing that I am not

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Speaker 3: representing this totality of this experience. So that's where it's like, Okay,

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Speaker 3: I need to trust that what I'm putting forward here

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Speaker 3: in this sound is just, you know, my sound, and

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Speaker 3: I am a representative of this experience in the US

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Speaker 3: and in the diaspora, and my voice is valid as well,

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Speaker 3: So it's just my little spin on it. But I

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Speaker 3: think I had to take some of that pressure off

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Speaker 3: of like I'm going to represent all of the Latino

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Speaker 3: voices of this show, because it's just impossible in like

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Speaker 3: one piece of music, or it's going to sound like

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Speaker 3: very collage crazy, like a tonal mess, which I don't

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Speaker 3: think was the vibe, which was not the vibe. My

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Speaker 3: goal recently is to continue growing as an artist. I've

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Speaker 3: been trying to make that a central goal for me

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Speaker 3: and let go of some of the other expectations around

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Speaker 3: what I can achieve or what I can do and

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Speaker 3: just make it more about growing and making this last

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Speaker 3: record on Arosa, I had gone through a really difficult

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Speaker 3: time in my personal life, and I think I was

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Speaker 3: coming at it just kind of in a surrender zone

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Speaker 3: of like, Okay, I came with an archive, a hard

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Speaker 3: drive of ideas, this is the stuff, but I really

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Speaker 3: kind of just let it take shape in the studio

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Speaker 3: and was really surrendering to the process and just having

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Speaker 3: things unfold live right then and there. And it was

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Speaker 3: also my first time kind of giving myself permission to

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Speaker 3: explore some of this music like rumba bolero music that

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Speaker 3: was in my ear. But I think I spent so

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Speaker 3: long carving out my little space for myself and my

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Speaker 3: music and saying, like, just because I'm Latina, it doesn't

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Speaker 3: mean I make Latin music, and like, listen to me

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Speaker 3: and put me on and put me on the show

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Speaker 3: that everybody else is going to be on. You know,

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Speaker 3: I deserve the same opportunities as all of my peers,

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Speaker 3: not just to be put in this little chiquita banana

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Speaker 3: latina corner. So I had spent so long saying those

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Speaker 3: things and being that and personifying that every moment that

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Speaker 3: I almost felt like I wasn't allowed to turn around

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Speaker 3: and then make my most Latin record in a way,

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Speaker 3: and it really took me years grappling with that question

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Speaker 3: of like who am I and what is this? And

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Speaker 3: you know, also the industry itself has changed in the

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Speaker 3: last year. You know, Coachella just happened, and Bad Bunny

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Speaker 3: got an artist from Puerto Rico, like headline Coachella that

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Speaker 3: was very much not the landscape more than a decade ago.

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Speaker 4: When I started putting out my records.

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Speaker 3: In this moment, in this cultural moment the last five years,

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Speaker 3: I felt like that Spider Man meme where I'm just like, wait,

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Speaker 3: what it's like we're posting to guetone at this point,

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Speaker 3: but like everybody makes regaeton and like it's a very

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Speaker 3: Twilight Zone scenario for sure. It also felt very wild

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Speaker 3: to see that happening in such a short amount of time.

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Speaker 3: I was happy for it, but I also felt tokenized

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Speaker 3: as well, you know, and it's tricky not to feel

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Speaker 3: that way of like hmm, not to be suspicious and

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Speaker 3: be like hmm, because I am, I am going to

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Speaker 3: be suspicious. I think that a lot of the same

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Speaker 3: racism and patriarchy and systems of oppression are very much

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Speaker 3: present in our world and in our industry anyway. We

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Speaker 3: still have a lot of growing to do. But in

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Speaker 3: terms of kind of like the LATINX music scene, it

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Speaker 3: has evolved and it has changed, so many more voices represented,

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Speaker 3: and it's such a different space to be in now.

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Speaker 3: And I feel like that has also helped me in

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Speaker 3: my work in growing and being able to give myself

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Speaker 3: the permission to do whatever. Look at me that agana.

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Speaker 3: I've just been telling my story and the story of

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Speaker 3: my family, where I come from, things that I see

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Speaker 3: around me, Like my first record, the story of my

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Speaker 3: Tia Rosa, who came to the US from Puerto Rico

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Speaker 3: with her six sons and lived under a bridge, and

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Speaker 3: he was a healer.

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Speaker 1: Name is so Sad.

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Speaker 4: She lives under the.

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Speaker 2: Sun, she.

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Speaker 4: And the.

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Speaker 3: Man that Or stories from my second record, like Mexican Chef,

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Speaker 3: which was like just walking around Brooklyn and seeing kitchen

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Speaker 3: setting up for the night and hearing bachata blasting in

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Speaker 3: the back and in the front hearing like Bonnie Bear

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Speaker 3: or something you know.

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Speaker 5: To be so Dominican ship, a tenuous question, Chinese sake,

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Speaker 5: gumisk ship, now you go on.

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Speaker 3: To be I've been in a fight with lyrics like

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Speaker 3: my whole life, but I also really love writing. You know,

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Speaker 3: at some point I thought I could be a journalist,

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Speaker 3: or I wanted to be a journalist, or I wanted

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Speaker 3: to be a writer. But I think I got stuck

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Speaker 3: on the revision. I would write a short story and

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Speaker 3: then I would edit it like crazy, and maybe the

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Speaker 3: mistake was I'd.

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Speaker 4: Needed an editor.

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Speaker 3: It's what I'm realizing now, like, wait, maybe I needed

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Speaker 3: to collaborate with somebody because I just turned it into

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Speaker 3: something that I hated. And maybe that's why I givee

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Speaker 3: Like that's why I connect so much with Latino USA

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Speaker 3: or journalism. You know, it's not something that I do,

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Speaker 3: but I feel like it resonates with me a lot.

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Speaker 3: To tell a story and to find something out. That

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Speaker 3: process of uncovering truth or shining a spotlight in a

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Speaker 3: corner that's dark, or giving voice to someone who maybe

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Speaker 3: hasn't been heard that much. I really resonate with that

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Speaker 3: in my journey as an artist and a music maker.

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Speaker 3: I've been working on a remix for Latino Ussay's thirtieth anniversary,

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Speaker 3: and I'm really excited to dig back into this theme

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Speaker 3: song that I wrote a couple of years ago and

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Speaker 3: bring a new spin to it. A lot has changed

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Speaker 3: for me, and a lot has stayed the same. I've

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Speaker 3: learned a lot in the last years. We've been through

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Speaker 3: a lot. Also, all of us have been through a lot.

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Speaker 3: It's been really interesting to come in and see how

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Speaker 3: I was thinking about something five years ago and how

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Speaker 3: I'm thinking about it now. So, yeah, I wanted to

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Speaker 3: retain some of that same character, but I think my

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Speaker 3: mantra is like spaciousness of adding space. I'm very, very

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Speaker 3: humbled that I was asked to be a part of

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Speaker 3: the legacy of the show that I love so much,

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Speaker 3: that I think is so important in the story telling

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Speaker 3: of our experiences. I didn't have any lofty expectations and

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Speaker 3: I still don't of my impact on the show. I

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Speaker 3: just think I made it with a lot of love,

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Speaker 3: and if anything, it's the journalism and it's the work

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Speaker 3: that the team does every day on these stories that

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Speaker 3: makes the impact on the show.

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Speaker 4: My thing was just umbsito.

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Speaker 3: It was a little kiss to the team of saying hey,

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Speaker 3: I love y'all, like that's all it is.

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Speaker 1: That was Zeger Rubino's talking about her journey to creating

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Speaker 1: the Latino USA theme song. This episode was produced by

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Speaker 1: Alejandra Salasad and edited by Daisy Gondredrez. It was mixed

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Speaker 1: by Rosanna Gavan. The Latino USA team includes Andrea Lopez Cruzsado,

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Speaker 1: Marta Martinez, Mike Sargent, Victoria Estrada, Rinaldo, Leanos Junior, Patricia Subaran,

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Speaker 1: and Elizabeth Lowenthal Torres. Our editorial director is Fernandes Santos.

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Speaker 1: Our director of engineering is Stephaniel Lapau. Our senior engineer

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Speaker 1: is Julia Caruso. Our associate engineers are Gabriel La Bayez

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Speaker 1: and jj Carubin. Our marketing manager is Luis Luna. Our

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Speaker 1: theme music was composed by Zenia Rubinos. I'm your host

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Speaker 1: and executive producer Mariano Josa. Join us again on our

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Speaker 1: next episode. In the meantime, look for us on social

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Speaker 1: media and remember not teva, Yes, yeste la proxima ainos

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Speaker 1: memos cao.

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Speaker 5: Latino USA is made possible in part by the Heising

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Speaker 5: Simons Foundation, unlocking knowledge, opportunity and possibilities more at HS Foundation,

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Speaker 5: the Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines

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Speaker 5: of social change worldwide, and Latino USA thirtieth anniversary episodes

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Speaker 5: are made possible with support from our legacy sustainers, the

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Speaker 5: Brett Family Foundation Alonso Comtu, Carmen Rito Wong Vamos Enterprises,

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Speaker 5: the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, April Gaessler, doctor Elmo Randolph,

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Speaker 5: Belinda de la Libertad, Angela Garcia Simms, and Priscilla Rojas.

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Speaker 5: Additional donors include Raquel Aldana, Joanne Banks, and Sarah Berman.

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Speaker 3: And are you still there? Am I recording? Oh okay,

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Speaker 3: something changed in my headphones. But now it's like I

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Speaker 3: couldn't hear your ambient sound all of a sudden. Oh okay, okay,

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Speaker 3: No worries. I thought I lost you.

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Speaker 4: Okay, No, no you can okay, No, no, no worries, No worries. Sorry,

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Speaker 4: I got distracted.

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Speaker 3: Something popped up on my computer, and then I didn't

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Speaker 3: hear you anymore, and I was like, uh, oh okay,