Jasmine Garsd

This week on Alt.Latino, we feature an eclectic mix of music that spans the Spanish-speaking world. One of our favorite Chilean bands gets a remix from a Guatemalan DJ, a young Colombian singer makes musical magic happen with a New York producer, a son of salsa royalty churns out a ...

When I first transitioned from hard news to music and culture journalism, I worried that I was no longer a "serious" reporter. But a colleague told me that, when done right, cultural journalism can provide similarly profound insight into society, politics and race relations. At Alt.Latino, we're never just oohing ...

This week on Alt.Latino, we've got some unexpected reinterpretations, led by the Colombian band Ondatropica as it pays homage to Nigerian legend Fela Kuti.

Later in the show, Las Cafeteras will play us a beautiful love ballad; the group is part of Southern California's growing Chicano movement, which is embracing ...

There's a time to ponder deep, heavy issues, and there's a time to just kick back, relax and listen to some great music. Here on Alt.Latino, we pride ourselves on finding the balance between both: Sometimes we get serious, wax poetic or philosophize, but we can also rock ...

For three consecutive weeks this summer, the Spanish-language TV network Univision has won the prime-time ratings among young adult viewers. Latin drama series called telenovelas — similar to but not the same as soap operas — are no small part of that equation.

"This time of year, Univision runs ...

The other day, a friend living in the milder climes of Mexico City — where it's been raining every day — had the nerve to moan about the lack of summer there. As an East Coaster in the midst of another wave of heat and humidity, I promptly informed her ...

The annual Latin Alternative Music Conference is the single biggest event of its kind in the U.S. Once a year, Felix Contreras and I head up to New York City in order to soak up the live music, meet up with industry folks and, most importantly, see up-and-coming artists.

This ...

"Nos tienen miedo porque no tenemos miedo" ("They are scared of us because we are not scared"), sings Argentina's folk icon Liliana Felipe. I heard that chorus a lot when I was a kid in Buenos Aires in the late '90's. I remember the first time I realized my mother ...

Join us for a new episode of Alt.Latino, as we kick back with amazing new music from across the Latin world. We've been waiting eagerly for Spanish rapper Mala Rodriguez to release her new album, Bruja, and even though it hasn't premiered on this side of the world, we did ...

To understand why Bosnian Rainbows' music stands out, you have to go back to 2007 in Guadalajara, Mexico. A singer named Teresa Suarez has taken the stage name Teri Gender Bender — adopted as a feminist statement while at the head of a band called Le Butcherettes.

With a ...

In Pedro Almodovar's iconic film All About My Mother, a transgender woman named La Agrado takes the stage and begins a monologue about authenticity by listing the surgeries she's undergone:

"Almond-shaped eyes, 80 thousand; silicone in lips, forehead, cheeks, hips and ass — the liter costs 60 thousand pesetas; ...

Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's new film, which opens next weekend, is about a group of passengers stuck on an airplane. It's a comedy: In between panicking, the passengers find time to fall in love, make love — and come out of the closet.

I'm So Excited is also a return ...

A Brazilian colleague once told me a wry joke: "We are forever the country of the future." He was referring to the fact that, for decades, the South American giant has been held up as a model of economic and social progress — but for so many Brazilians, that growth ...

Listening to Bosnian Rainbows' first album made me think of the paradox about unstoppable forces and immovable objects — as in, "What happens when Omar Rodriguez Lopez (At The Drive In, The Mars Volta) leads a band alongside Teri Gender Bender (Le Butcherettes)?" Both powerful and ...

This week on Alt.Latino, we have a tremendous amount of great new music to share with you; the playlist spans genres, countries and even generations. Chilean rockers channel David Byrne. A Mexican cumbia classic gets reworked. A Colombian electro-tropical tune has us dancing in our seats. Join us, and as ...

If there is a musical lesson history has taught us, it's that you cannot stop a beat. People can be imprisoned, movements can be disbanded, but music — and the ideas embedded in it — will always find a way.

The Afro-Caribbean style known as calypso is a great example. ...

On Alt.Latino, we pride ourselves on being a Latin culture show with a strong musical focus. While we always listen to amazing songs, we also like to delve into a wide range of topics that affect Latinos, from the Caribbean diaspora to immigration to race relations within ...

On Alt.Latino, we pride ourselves on being a Latin culture show with a strong musical focus. While we always listen to amazing songs, we also like to delve into a wide range of topics that affect Latinos, from the Caribbean diaspora to immigration to race relations within ...

We cover even more bases than usual on this week's show, with new songs from across the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world. This episode also spans generations of musical history: We've got new releases by legendary bands like Brazil's Os Mutantes, but also pay close attention to artists we consider legends ...

A naked person walks into a fancy gala. In a world of overproduced, painstakingly packaged and perfectly polished music, that's what it's like to hear Canto Cardenche — a completely a cappella style of Mexican music — for the first time. It's one of the most stunning, honest and unpretentious ...