It’s a bittersweet moment in San Juan this summer as the pressure mounts on the island to pay a debt that was near impossible to avoid, on the backs of the poor and working class, since the middle-class mirage of the ’60s and ’70s has all but ended. There is a depopulation and disinvestment syndrome […]
Read moreIt’s a beautiful day. Supreme Court decisions that grant humanity to the LGBT, affirming the idea of a “living Constitution” ; the taking down of Confederate flags around the South. Obama singing “Amazing Grace“; and earlier this week, Obamacare also upheld by the Supremes. But let’s keep it in perspective. It was Justice Kennedy, who […]
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Puerto Rico, a de facto colony of the US, is usually not in the news outside of the travel and style sections. But as it stumbles towards a September default deadline that threatens to shut down government operations, the island territory has been a fixture in the business press, with headlines like: “Puerto Rico Faces […]
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Tato Torres, Monxo López and the charter members of the Loisaida Center’s Plenatorium Project came to the WBAI studios in swingin’ Boerum Hill Brooklyn to play us a few songs about life and the labors of love. Using a new configuration that included accordion and guitar, the pleneros filled the studio with a wall of […]
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Chilean singer Francisca Valenzuela was a live guest on Thursday’s “Living in Spanglish” show on WBAI. She talked about her new single “Insulto” from her album Tajo Abierto. She explained the song was a response to a tendency in many Latin American societies to respond negatively to difference. At times the way a person performs […]
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This week I had the chance to talk with Simón Mejía, bassist, keyboardist and founder of Bomba Estereo, a band from Bogotá that puts an electronic spin on folkloric Colombian rhythms as well as a diverse palette of beats and grooves. We went back to his first cumbia-beat construction, the band’s signature song “Fuego”; ruminated […]
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This morning on WBAI’s Morning Show I interviewed Jessica Torres, a researcher who has been posting on the Media Matters site. We discussed the controversy over the reaction to the cover of the new issue of The Economist, which grossly stereotypes all Latin@s by using the image of chili peppers standing in for the stripes in […]
Read moreThe Economist’s cover image for its current issue, “Firing Up America: A Special Report on America’s Latinos” has already stirred up some controversy, for obvious reasons. It’s another form of the horrendous stereotyping that affects not only Latin@s but any other non-majority group. It’s a fancy reductio ad absurdum: Latin@s are essentially red hot chili […]
Read moreAt first glance I was intrigued by Matthew Yglesias’s recent post “American Democracy Is Doomed,” since it seemed to critically address the U.S.’s partisan gridlock problem. But a few paragraphs in, anyone with their head not in the sand will have one of those early 21st century WTF moments, when Yglesias quotes an apparent hero […]
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Leonard Nimoy’s death reminded me of the many hours I spent watching the original Star Trek series (whose production company, Desilu, had a little bit to do with Desi Arnaz, Jr.), and a poem I used to read at the Nuyorican Poets Café: Star Trek #6 So, what’s it like to be Latino? Well it’s just like […]
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ED MORALES 