Rossy Lima is a writer, scholar, translator, and community leader whose work has been published in multiple languages across several countries. She began her career in literature as an undocumented writer, and she is the Executive Director of Latino Book Review. Her poetry has been nationally acclaimed and has won a myriad of awards. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/latino-book-review/support ..read more

Carmen Tafolla is an educator, storyteller, artist, and scholar with a Ph.D. in bilingual education. She has written over 40 books and has presented her work in several continents. She was the first poet laureate of the city of San Antonio, the first Latina to be named president of the Texas Institute of Letters and she has been recognized with multiple awards. In this episode with Héctor Rendón, Carmen shares her experience of being bilingual and bicultural in the United States at a time when her language, culture, and history were forbidden by Texas law. She talks about growing up in the bar ..read more

Diana Lopez is a graduate of the MFA program at Texas State University. She was a middle school teacher and a university professor. Her middle-grade books are read in schools across the United States. In this interview with Héctor Rendón, Diana talks about the state of children's literature within the Latinx community, the origin of her relationship with literature, her latest book Los Monstruos: Felice and the Wailing Woman, and much more. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/latino-book-review/support ..read more

Erika Denise Edwards is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Texas at El Paso. She has conducted research about race and gender in Argentina and has been instrumental in reigniting the conversation of colorism and blackness in Latin America. She is the author of the book Hiding in Plain Sight: Black Women, the Law, and the Making of a White Argentine Republic published by the University of Alabama Press. In this interview with Héctor Rendón, Erika talks about the history of blackness in Argentina and some of the misleading myths about why there is a lack of ..read more

At a time when the U.S. society is reckoning with systemic racism, Natalia Molina from USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences sheds light on how the concept of race is made in America. Dr. Molina is one of the top scholars working on race, history and Latinx studies. She is also an award-winning author who was recently named a MacArthur Fellow. Her book titled How Race Is Made in America has become an essential source to understand this topic. In this interview with Héctor Rendón, Dr. Molina discusses the role of storytelling and the policies that create ideas of race, racial scrip ..read more

Julia Alvarez is one of the most recognizable faces in Latinx literature. She has won the Hispanic Heritage Award, the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award, and in 2013 she was awarded the National Medal of Arts from the President of the United States. In this interview with Héctor "Vale" Rendón, Julia Alvarez talks about her identity and the role it has in her writing, her time in the Dominican Republic, the impact of her family's stories, her writing process, and much more.  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/latino-book-review/support ..read more

Carlos Aguasaco is a poet, a storyteller and an associate professor of Latin American Cultural Studies at The City University of New York. In this interview with Vale Rendón, he speaks about his origins in Colombia, his trajectory as a poet, El Chapulín Colorado, his poetry book The New York City Subway Poems/ Poemas del metro de Nueva York, and more. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/latino-book-review/support ..read more

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo is a professor of creative writing at St. Mary's University in California. He is one of the founders of Undocupoets, an organization that helped remove the requirement of U.S. citizenship in several major first-book poetry awards. He is regarded as one of the most promising Latinx writers, and his work has been praised by multiple national outlets. In this interview with Hector Rendón, Marcelo shares how literature has become a passport in his life that has allowed him to navigate various worlds. He also talks about his current projects, and much more. --- Support th ..read more

Isabel Allende is an international, award-winning, and best-selling author. She is the author of 23 books that have been translated into 42 languages and have sold over 74 million copies worldwide. She is the recipient of numerous recognitions including 15 international honorary doctorates and more than 60 awards in over 15 countries. In 2019, Isabel Allende spoke with Rossy Lima about her literary legacy and inspiration. In this interview, they talk about politics in the U.S. and abroad, her books, her non-profit organization, and more. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com ..read more

Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa is a Puerto Rican author who has lived in the Bronx for most of her life. Before becoming a recognized writer, she spent decades working as a teacher and as a librarian in the New York City public school system. She has received multiple awards, and she is recognized for telling stories from the perspective of Afro-Latinas in Puerto Rico. In this interview with Héctor Rendón, Dahlma shares about her life, influences, and upbringing in the Bronx and Puerto Rico. She also talks about her novel 'A Woman of Endurance', and much more. --- Support this podcast: https://podcast ..read more