La Vuelta Podcast: East Los High

Let’s just get this out of the way from the get-go: East Los High is addictive.  The Hulu-based series has enough sex, drama, intrigue and double-dealing to make it a worthy heir to the rich tradition of Latin American telenovelas.  But to see the show simply as a U.S. Latino version of the nightly fare on Univision or Telemundo is to miss the its larger point of highlighting the very real health issues facing many Latino teens in the United States.  East Los High, which is a project of the Population Media Center, is the latest successful example of the Sabido Method, an entertainment-education strategy that uses television and radio serials to raise awareness of issues related to health, especially reproductive health.  The program has enjoyed wide success in the developing world but East Los High is the first  attempt to reach Latinos in the United States.  As Kathleen Bedoya, the show’s co-creator and co-Executive Producer, tells us in this interview, the show, which launched its second season on Hulu in July, has not only attracted a large audience because of its story-lines but has been able to change young Latinos’ attitudes about sex, health, and nutrition.  In short, East Los High isn’t your abuela’s telenovela.  (Although she’d probably watch it anyway).   

La Vuelta Podcast: Newark's Puerto Rican Riots

The riots that shook Newark, New Jersey in the summer of 1967 have long since defined the city.  All of the key issues in the difficult 20^th century history of America’s urban centers seemed to be at play in New Jersey’s largest city that July: corruption, police brutality, poverty, white flight and black political ascendancy.  Perhaps no other city in the country—save perhaps for the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, which had its own riots in 1965—has been as identified with a riot as has Newark. 

For years, however, the events of 1967 overshadowed other aspects of Newark’s history.  As deeply connected as Newark has been to the urban history of the United States and especially to African-American history, the city is also home to significant numbers of Latinos.  Today, Latinos account for one third of the city’s population and, after years of population decline, it is they who have helped the city’s population grow from 273,671 in 2000 to just over 277,000 residents in 2010.

The emergence of Latinos as an important part of Newark’s population has led to reexamination of the city’s history and especially its Latino history.  Thousands of Puerto Ricans migrated to Newark starting in the 1950s and while their numbers never reached those of the Puerto Rican communities in neighboring New York City, their impact on the city was obvious, especially in places such as the city’s North Ward.  One example of this search for Newark’s Latino history is a recent exhibition, organized by Prof. Michelle Chase and her students at Bloomfield College, which highlights a long-forgotten violent confrontation between Newark’s Puerto Ricans and the police in 1974.  The Newark Puerto Rican Riots were less deadly and costly than the riots of 1967.  But as Professor Chase points out in a recent interview, they are an important chapter in the political development of Newark’s Latino community.

The exhibition is on view at the Bloomfield College library until August 29^th.

La Vuelta Podcast: Alfredo Corchado's Mexico

In the weeks after I finished reading Alfredo Corchado's Midnight in Mexico: A Reporter's Journey Through A Country's Descent into Darkness, I couldn't help recommending it to friends and colleagues. By masterfully mixing both his own family's recent history and that of his native country, Corchado has managed to create a chronicle of Mexico's unraveling that is as personal as it is political.

At great risk to himself, he presents us with a story where corruption and impunity (and the voracious appetite for drugs from the United States) have managed to undermine the integrity of the Mexican state.  Yet, as we discuss in this new episode of La Vuelta, he also conveys how deeply connected the United States and Mexico are not just by the "war on drugs" but by ties of trade, family and history.  In his telling, Mexico is no faraway place, it is instead a dysfunctional neighbor whose well-being should matter to all Americans greatly.  

The Tiananmen Massacre as seen from Havana

With all of the coverage today about the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre in China, it's useful to highlight the way one of the Chinese government's allies--Cuba--reported the events that took place a quarter century ago.  Enrique del Risco, who is one of the keenest (and funniest) observers of the "cosa cubana" posted an article from Granma on his blog five years ago that highlights the lengths to which the Cuban government went to defend the brutality unleashed against student protesters in Beijing.  It's worth reading again.  Something about "birds of a feather" comes to mind.

"Tank Man" (1989) (Photo courtesy of Resourcemagonline.com)

La Vuelta Podcast: Ilan Stavans on the life and legacy of Octavio Paz

When the Nobel Prize-winner Octavio Paz died in 1998, he was one of the most prominent public intellectuals in all of Latin America and certainly the most famous and celebrated one in Mexico.  His work as a poet, essayist, critic, publisher and diplomat gave him remarkable access and freedom to chronicle the changes that took place in Mexico during the 20th Century.  But his career was also marked by streaks of imperiousness and self-regard that alienated many fellow writers and intimidated a generation or more of Mexican writers who labored in his enormous shadow.  

Octavio Paz (Photo courtesy of El Universal)

As we mark the centennial of Paz's birth and in order to better understand his legacy in Mexico and throughout Latin America, we spoke to Ilan Stavans, whose book, Octavio Paz: A Meditation, (University of Arizona Press, 2002) examined not only Paz's contributions to Latin American literature but the ways in which Paz served as a bridge between Latin America and the world of letters in Europe and the United States.  

La Vuelta Podcast: Cuba, Castro and Reform: An Interview with New York Times reporter Damien Cave

I first began reading Damien Cave's reporting when he covered Cory Booker's second and successful run for mayor of Newark, New Jersey.  The New York Times often ignored my hometown and Cave's coverage of the 2006 election helped to place the city's heated debates about poverty, crime, race, and authenticity in a national spotlight.  In the intervening years, Cave has gone on to cover everything from Miami to the war in Iraq.  He is now based in Mexico City from where he has written extensively about Cuba and, in recent years, the see-saw of reaction and reform that is Cuba under Raúl Castro.  Earlier this year, during a visit to Cuba that coincided with the CELAC Summit, Cave published a number of pieces that gave readers some insights on a regime that is struggling to hold on to power in the face of growing popular discontent and economic challenges.  Those articles served as the basis for my wide-ranging conversation earlier this month with Cave about what he has called, the "Cuban Evolution."    

La Vuelta Podcast: "When Mexicans Played Ball," An Interview with Prof. Ignacio García

One of the many benefits of hosting La Vuelta is that I get a chance to interview historians whose work I admire greatly.  Anyone familiar with 20th Century Mexican-American historiography knows Ignacio García's groundbreaking work in books such as "White but not Equal" and "Viva Kennedy: Mexican-Americans in Search of Camelot."  García's most recent book, however, is a break with these political histories.  "When Mexicans Played Ball: Basketball, Race and Identity in San Antonio, 1928-1945," (University of Texas Press, 2014) is a history of the young Mexican-American boys who played basketball at Sidney Lanier High School in San Antonio and the ways in which the teams coached by the legendary Nemo Herrera, challenged deeply-held stereotypes about Mexican-Americans in Texas.  For García, a graduate of Lanier High School, writing about the Lanier basketball squad was a labor of love; a love that comes across in both his writing and in the interview I conducted with him a couple of weeks ago.

To download or stream my interview with Ignacio García, visit:

https://soundcloud.com/lavueltablog/la-vuelta-episode-5-april-17-2014