You don’t need to be an artist to be a Radical Woman. Check in each week as our friends and colleagues share their take on what it means to be radical and nominate inspiring women in their lives.
Maria Hinojosa—journalist, anchor and executive producer of @npr’s Latino USA—nominates fellow radical woman and writer Sandra Cisneros for being a chingona and owning it.
Who is a radical woman in your life?
Micaela Honorato is looking from the sidelines as boys from her after-school program take turns racing their hand-made hovercraft on a dirt field in a city park.
These remote-controlled cardboard devices are less "hover" and more "skid-along," as the teacher Abraham Orozco puts it. Today, the middle-school kids are contending for the fastest spin around four traffic cones.
Michaela is a tall 12-year-old with a serious and focused gaze. She quietly awaits her turn, then concentrates on the controls. At 16.36 seconds, she takes the lead in the competition.
This after-school program is called HOLA — which stands for "Heart of Los Angeles" — and it serves the city's Rampart District, where nearly all residents live in poverty. Vast majority of HOLA's participants are Latino.
Over nearly 30 years, the program has helped hundreds go to college. A handful of students from Orozco's scientific arts program at HOLA have pursued successful technical careers.
But Orozco says a lot of his students shy away from the tech industry, despite technical talents: They don't want jobs with any economic risk — something quite common for work at a startup or in computer science in general.
Illustration: Chelsea Beck/NPR
Editor’s Note: This story was reported by Latino USA in collaboration with All Tech Considered.
I loved this episode of Latino USA!!! The music in it was so good too. @ariminak I immediately thought of you while listening to this. They talk about Ladino.
I’m Maria Hinojosa... No te vayas!
PLease listen to the Latino USA podcast!
NPR Books recently reported on Award-winning Cuban-American author Margarita Engle, winner of ALA's 2016 Pura Belpré medal.
That got us wondering about Pura Belpré. Who is she? What is her story? Pura Belpré is NYPL’s first Latina librarian. She created, preserved and shared Puerto Rican stories for children.
We found this remembrance of Pura Belpré from the archives of NPR’s Latino USA.
Photo: Pura Belpré puppet theater via Wikipedia
For the first part of a two-part series on how Latinos have influenced hip-hop Latino USA producers Daisy Rosario and Marlon Bishop learn about the early years by talking to legends like Devastating Tito, Lee Quiñones, and Charlie Chase. They break down the four elements of hip-hop: MCing, DJing, graffiti, and break dancing and explore how New York City made it all possible.
