Jasmine Garsd

Throughout Black History Month, Alt.Latino has been bringing you episodes that focus on different aspects of being black and Latino. This week's show is about one island and two countries: Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Race has played an enormous role in the island's history. Haiti is often described as ...

This week on Alt.Latino, we kick off Black History Month with a mix of smart guests and amazing music. Felix Contreras and I take pride in the fact that Alt.Latino frequently celebrates the African heritage of Latinos, so our challenge this month was to go above and beyond what we ...

Felix Contreras always jokes that every time we do a show full of new music, one song in the mix has become my obsession. This week is different: I'm infatuated with single song we play. Our eclectic mix includes Brazilian beats, Latin metal and Uruguayan hip-hop, and we close the ...

"His guitar strums, they sounded like his machete whacks." That's how musician Fredi Vega describes his grandfather's guitar work in this week's Alt.Latino, which is all about the Mexican music style known as Son Jarocho.

When Vega told me this, I remembered the book Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked ...

Excerpted from a conversation via IM:

Jasmine: Bro, why didn't you tell me about your side project?

Felix: Busted. Sometimes a man has to wear stretchy pants to be a man.

Jasmine: Dude I loved this week's show. It was so much fun. You know I would do ...

Here at Alt.Latino, we're so excited about 2014. We've already started lining up great new music, amazing guest DJs, heavy-hitting interviews and wild events. I'm not going to give it all away here, but you'll want to stay tuned in.

But for now, we're joining you in the struggle to ...

Here on Alt.Latino, we weren't really sure what to do for the holidays this year: Felix Contreras' Santa Claus costume was lost in a tragic maritime accident, while my elf disguise no longer fits due to a rare condition known as ECOT (excessive consumption of tamales). It's been a difficult ...

A Cuban icon known as the Queen of Latin Soul, La Lupe has been a massively influential figure across Latin culture. We'd give anything to talk to her today, but she's long-gone; La Lupe died in 1992. So we turned to her biographer.

Juan A. Moreno-Velázquez has written extensively about ...

Last week on Alt.Latino, we shared our favorite albums and songs of 2013. This week, it's your turn.

One of the best things about doing the show — the engine that keeps it going week in and week out — is the way listeners engage us in an ongoing, ...

Puerto Rican rap duo Calle 13 are probably the feistiest major artists to hit Latin America since music legend Ruben Blades. In recent weeks they've made headlines across Latin America when they released the politically charged song "Multi Viral," an unlikely collaboration with Julian Assange (he has a ...

As we combed through this year, Felix Contreras and I both marveled at the sheer amount of adventures that filled our 2013. It feels as if we've crammed several years into one.

We got to hang out with Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar, Oscar-winning producer Gustavo Santaolalla and ...

As we combed through this year, Felix Contreras and I both marveled at the sheer amount of adventures that filled our 2013. It feels as if we've crammed several years into one.

We got to hang out with Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar, Oscar-winning producer Gustavo Santaolalla and ...

Anyone who listens to Alt.Latino regularly knows that in addition to being music geeks, history buffs and dance doofuses, we're big language nerds. We open this week's show with a discussion about the widely used word cabron (seriously, how did calling someone a 'big goat' get so popular?). We also ...

The Puerto Rican rap duo Calle 13 is one of the most outspoken major music acts to emerge from Latin America since the legendary Ruben Blades. Last week, the band made headlines across the Spanish-speaking world when it released "Multi_Viral," an unlikely collaboration with Julian Assange from WikiLeaks.

The ...

Recently on Alt.Latino, we've been engaging in some heavy-hitting discussions on topics such as Central American immigration, a Sonic Altar celebrating the Day of the Dead, and some fantastic Guest DJs.

Sometimes, though, we just like to joke around and listen to some brand-new music with ...

Particularly in Mexico, it's tradition among those who celebrate the Day Of The Dead (Dia De Los Muertos) to build an altar to those who who have passed, with offerings and remembrances. This week, we've decided to build a sonic altar: a list of songs by and for people we ...

When Juana Molina decided to abandon a successful career on Argentine television, there were plenty of naysayers. Her brilliant 1996 debut album, Rara (Strange), produced by Argentine music producer Gustavo Santaolalla (composer of the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack), proved them wrong. It reflected her sense of humor (she was ...

Growing up in Argentina in the '90s, I was exposed as a very young child to the wonderful artistry of Juana Molina. She was on TV as a brilliant comedian, one of the few women in Argentine pop culture who refused to be objectified. She was intelligent, funny ...

On this week's show, we are really nerding out. We are going in deep. We are leaving no stone unturned. In addition to listening to great music from across the Spanish-speaking world, we discuss the following: the 40th anniversary of the Chilean coup; the legend of the passiflora ...

Professional wrestling, known as lucha libre — literally, freestyle wrestling — is a big deal in Mexico. It's a sport that's generally associated with machismo: buff fighters with names like Nemesis and Aguila Imperial (Imperial Eagle) strut around in a rope-bound ring, wearing shiny spandex outfits and colorful masks. They ...