Jasmine Garsd

" I am a black man
Who was born café con leche
I sneaked into a party, to which I had not been invited.
And I got kicked out. They threw me out.
When I went back to have fun with the black girls
All together they said 'Maelo, ...

A few months ago, while in Puerto Rico for NPR's Morning Edition, I got a chance to sit down with one of my favorite Spanish-language rappers, Tego Calderón.

Calderón is one of today's most fascinating Puerto Rican musicians; he's responsible for some of the most danceable and sexy ...

"Oh! It is so good to fly, at 2 in the morning, at 2 in the morning, it's so good to fly, oh mama! To fly and let yourself fall, into the arms of a lady ... The witch grabs me, she takes me to her home, she sits ...

"When he woke up, the dinosaur was still there."

That sentence is one of my favorite stories, and one of the shortest works of fiction ever written, by Guatemalan author Augusto Monterroso. To some, the dinosaur represents life's everyday, unconquerable monsters: love, money, mortality. To others, the dinosaur is ...

We've had a crazy year so far here on Alt.Latino, with a lot of traveling, music festivals and exciting guest DJs. We're not complaining, but we're ready to take a break, kick back and do one of our favorite things: share new music. This week, Felix even brings a ...

A few weeks ago, I crossed the tense city of Caracas, Venezuela, to meet with La Vida Boheme singer Henry D'Arthenay. The country's presidential elections were a few days away, pitting Hugo Chavez's handpicked successor, socialist candidate Nicolas Maduro — who has since won — against conservative Henrique Capriles. ...

Coffee runs through the veins of Latin America. As economically and culturally ubiquitous as it is throughout the continent, it's only natural that it would also be a constant theme in Latin American music. But coffee, present throughout Latin song, is rarely just about a cup of joe: the drink ...

My godmother once gave me a solemn warning about boys: There is no such thing as "just a cup of coffee." She was right. Coffee is a cunning, baffling brew that has led political factions to battle; race is discussed through it; heartbreak has been stewed in it; and, much ...

One of the biggest losses in the translation of Latin American culture is Brazilian melancholy. It's more than a casualty of cultural misunderstanding; it's a product of the fetishizing of Brazil and its people, which strips them down to happy, over-sexed, party-hard alternatives to the grim denizens of "developed" nations. ...

On Sunday, voters in Venezuela will head to the polls, and in Caracas, the noise level is as high as voters' emotions. There is a background noise that accompanies everyday life in Latin America, a constant soundtrack: music blaring from food stands and cars, loud automobiles that are so run-down ...

For the next week, I'll be traveling throughout Venezuela along with NPR's Morning Edition. I leave our faithful audience in the good hands of beloved Alt.Latino co-host Felix Contreras.

I'll help out mostly with our news coverage. But, Venezuela being the musical powerhouse that it is, Felix and I just ...

Traveling for leisure is a modern concept. Before the mid-19th century, voyaging for fun (and sometimes for health reasons) was limited to the wealthy. For everyone else, traveling was either out of necessity (diaspora) or a vocation: sailors, explorers, the military. One of my favorite works of literature, The Odyssey, ...

Of all the music festivals I attend each year, Mexico City's Vive Latino is by far my favorite. While other festivals function as gathering places for the industry and marketers, Vive Latino feels like a genuine celebration of great music. For three days, you can lose yourself among hundreds of ...

I had to catch my breath when I first stepped onto the SXSW grounds. The Austin, Texas festival features tens of thousands of bands, films, speaking events and more. The sheer amount of activities can get overwhelming.

Our colleague Stephen Thompson accurately described SXSW as "several festivals within a festival" ...

My literature professor in high school once shared a memory of growing up in the Argentine dictatorship that stuck with me: She recalled buying an AC/DC album as a teenager in the '70s, going into her basement with her friends, unwrapping the album and rocking out to the record at ...

Earlier this year, when NPR Music told us we'd present our first Latin Alternative showcase at South by Southwest, we were asked to dream up the most fantastic, mind-blowing lineup we could possibly imagine. I jokingly told my co-host, Felix Contreras, that we should get the legendary Mexican rock band ...

Our look back at the year in music continues with Jasmine Garsd, co-host of NPR’s Alt.Latino program. She shares newsworthy moments and her favorite releases of 2011 -- including the single "Una Salida" from Mexican American singer Carla Morrison.