This summer, after serving a nine-year sentence in a notorious Texas men’s prison, Estrella was released but wasn’t free. First she was put in immigration detention facilities and then deported. She’s an undocumented trans woman from Mexico caught up in the United States’ criminal and immigration systems. In this episode –reported over a decade–we go to Mexico to document her release, look back on her story, her evolving relationship with host Maria Hinojosa, and what it means to finish serving a criminal sentence when you’re an undocumented immigrant whose freedom is tenuous and bittersweet

Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.

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Este verano, después de terminar una sentencia de 9 años en una prisión de hombres en Texas, Estrella salió, pero no encontró libertad. Fue transferida a las manos de ICE, a un centro de detención para migrantes para después ser deportada. 

Esta es la historia de una mujer trans, migrante de Mexico, sin papeles, regresando a su país como mujer. Es también la historia de una relación inusual entre periodista y fuente.

En este episodio exploramos lo que significa terminar una sentencia penal cuando se es indocumentado en EEUU, y lo que significa la libertad cuando se siente tenue y catartica.

Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.

Follow the show to get every episode.

Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for ad-free listening, early-access and exclusive bonus episodes with the chisme behind Latino USA and all our podcasts: www.futuromediagroup.org/joinplus.

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This spooky season we get an extra treat from one of the masters of horror. On October 9th, Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro’s seminal fantasy horror classic, Pan’s Labyrinth, returns for a 20th-anniversary theatrical re-release. Running until October 15th, the anniversary release includes a 3D conversion and the 4K restoration. In a conversation with Guillermo del Toro anticipating the re-release, we dive into the film's themes of fascism, machismo, and violence against women and girls – themes which unfortunately still speak to our current times two decades later.

Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.

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Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for ad-free listening, early-access and exclusive bonus episodes with the chisme behind Latino USA and all our podcasts: www.futuromediagroup.org/joinplus.

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What identified Nixon as a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua? Was it a confidential informant's testimony? Was it the rose tattoo on his arm? Was the fact that he was skinny, young, living without parents in a housing complex? After seeking answers from local and federal law enforcement, we travel to Perú to search for Nixon and to find out whether he was a member of Tren de Aragua.

Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.

Follow the show to get every episode.

Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for ad-free listening, early-access and exclusive bonus episodes with the chisme behind Latino USA and all our podcasts: www.futuromediagroup.org/joinplus.

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Before the Venezuelan migrant Nixon Azuaje-Pérez was arrested, a PR firm reached out to national media outlets and told them that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua was taking over apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado. A local politician said the organization was also taking over entire swaths of the city. After that shocking claim, the politician got a call from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. He was coming to town. The game of telephone that started with spent bullet casings ends with Nixon on a plane headed to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.

Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.

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Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for ad-free listening, early-access and exclusive bonus episodes with the chisme behind Latino USA and all our podcasts: www.futuromediagroup.org/joinplus.

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In July 2024, then nineteen-year-old Nixon Azuaje-Pérez picked up spent bullet casings after a shooting outside his apartment in Aurora, Colorado. It was a decision that would thrust the Venezuelan migrant into the middle of Trump’s presidential campaign and eventually land him in a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Local police suspected Nixon was part of a Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua. But was he a member? And how would anybody know?

Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.

Follow the show to get every episode.

Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for ad-free listening, early-access and exclusive bonus episodes with the chisme behind Latino USA and all our podcasts: www.futuromediagroup.org/joinplus.

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Before 86-year-old Luis Valdez directed the play Zoot Suit and the film La Bamba, he was staging theater in the back of a flatbed truck in the fields of California for farmworkers  on strike. His work in teatro campesino  would eventually make its way to Broadway and then Hollywood, paving the way for Chicano stories to be told with dignity and nuance in American culture. Now, he’s the subject of a new documentary: “American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez.”  On this episode, host Maria Hinojosa talks with Luis Valdez and director David Alvarado, the documentary’s director. They talk about making history, the importance of sharing archival footage from the past, and about artistic inspiration. 

Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.

Follow the show to get every episode.

Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for ad-free listening, early-access and exclusive bonus episodes with the chisme behind Latino USA and all our podcasts: www.futuromediagroup.org/joinplus.

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We bring you a sneak peek of a recent Futuro+ bonus episode. Our co-CEO Peniley Ramírez remembers the devastating 2017 Mexico City earthquake that occured on the 32nd anniversary of the strongest earthquake ever recorded in Mexico, and shares what it takes to tell the stories that are important. Listen to the full episode by subscribing to Futuro+ at futuromediagroup.org/joinplus

The Futuro Plus Team includes associate producer Liliana Ruiz, production manager Victoria Estrada, and development manager Danetsy Len. Mixing by Multitude Productions. 

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Last year, reporter Jack Herrera traveled the length of the Rio Grande basin – from its source in Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico. He found that the water crisis in the region is worse than anyone imagines.  ”It's not a metaphor, it's not a hyperbole, we're in a water war,” he tells Maria Hinojosa. In today's episode, we explore the consequences of that crisis for the region and its people. As well as the bitter dispute for control of that water between citizens and their governments, and even between the United States and Mexico.

Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.

Follow the show to get every episode.

Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for ad-free listening, early-access and exclusive bonus episodes with the chisme behind Latino USA and all our podcasts: www.futuromediagroup.org/joinplus.

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YEИDRY is a Dominican-Italian artist whose newly released debut full-length album, Como Agua, takes a deep dive into Afro-Dominican rhythms. The album includes palos, bachata, merengue and boleros. Like many Dominicans, YEИDRY did not grow up with Afro-Dominican rhythms. As an adult, she discovered it was because of a dark, racist past in her country. In this Dominican takeover of Latino USA, Producer Jeanne Montalvo takes YEИDRY and Yasser Tejeda, another Dominican artist, to the oldest Dominican restaurant in Brooklyn, NY. Over a Dominican breakfast, the three of them will take you on a journey to learn about their country's difficult past, their quest to find their roots, and the reasons why Afro-Dominican music has been hidden in plain sight.

Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.

Follow the show to get every episode.

Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for ad-free listening, early-access and exclusive bonus episodes with the chisme behind Latino USA and all our podcasts: www.futuromediagroup.org/joinplus.

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Guadalupe Rosales is an artist and the creator of the popular Instagram accounts “Veteranas and Rucas” and “Map Pointz,” which focus on the fashion, the music, and certain latino subculture of the ‘80s and '90s in Los Angeles. She was part of the so-called party crews of the time and has kept the moment alive in history on social media and now in her new memoir East of the River: A Memoir of Los Angeles Girlhood. She writes about her adolescence living in this unique moment: the parties, the vibrancy, as well as the dangers of the time, and how sisterhood played a role in her survival.

Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.

Follow the show to get every episode.

Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for ad-free listening, early-access and exclusive bonus episodes with the chisme behind Latino USA and all our podcasts: www.futuromediagroup.org/joinplus.

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.