Latinx Visions

Bonus: Consider a Major or Minor in BLS: A Conversation with Baruch BLS Students

As we gear up for fall registration, we wanted to highlight some of the many reasons that students at Baruch College choose to study Black and Latinx Studies. This episode is divided in two conversations: the first with BLS major Kaitlyn Moran and LTS minor Isai Ajpacaja, and the second with BLS minor Derek Fernandez. The students share what led them to taking classes in the BLS Department, some stand out moments from their favorite courses, and why they believe that other students should take a course or two (or ten!). 

 

Follow the podcast:

Bluesky and Instagram: @LatinxVisions

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Hosts: Rojo Robles and Rebecca L. Salois

Logo Design: Marcos Toledo

Music: Shawn P. Russell

Sound Consultant and Mixing: Shawn P. Russell

Recording and Editing: Rebecca L. Salois

Social Media and Transcripts: Ashanti Charon

Puertorriqueñas: Estudios Afro-Feministas con Bárbara Abadía Rexach

En este episodio entrevistamos a la académica e investigadora cultural, Bárbara Abadía-Rexach. Abadía-Rexach es una mujer negra puertorriqueña, antropóloga activista, afrofeminista y líder antirracista. Recibió un bachillerato en Comunicación Pública, una maestría en Teoría e Investigación de la Comunicación de la Universidad de Puerto Rico y un doctorado en Antropología de la Universidad de Texas en Austin. 

Es profesora en el Departamento de Estudios Latinos/as de la Universidad Estatal de San Francisco donde sus clases se enfocan en las afrolatinidades. Sus investigaciones académicas exploran los procesos de racialización en diferentes movimientos culturales en Puerto Rico y sus diásporas. También es autora del libro Musicalizando la raza: Racialización en Puerto Rico a través de la música (2012) y Afro Feminista: Raza y Mujer en Puerto Rico (2025). Es miembro de los colectivos Ilé y Black Latinas Know. Abadía-Rexach co-produce y co-modera el programa radial NEGRAS en la Cadena Radio Universidad de Puerto Rico.

 

Sigue el podcast:

Bluesky y Instagram: @LatinxVisions

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hosts: Rojo Robles and Rebecca L. Salois

Logo Design: Marcos Toledo

Music: Shawn P. Russell

Sound Consultant and Mixing: Shawn P. Russell

Recording and Editing: Rebecca L. Salois

Social Media and Transcripts: Ashanti Charon

 

 

Puertorriqueñas: Teatro y Performance con Kairiana Nuñez Santaliz

Bienvenidas, bienvenidos, bienvenides. Welcome back everyone!

 

Esta temporada 10 nace de la recepción positiva que han tenido nuestros episodios de entrevistas, espacios que se han convertido en un eje central del podcast. Conversaciones que documentan trayectorias y nos permiten pensar colectivamente el presente. Desde ahí reafirmamos una de nuestras apuestas principales: amplificar voces y proyectos más allá del nuestro. Crear un espacio de diálogo y resonancia. Un espacio para escuchar cómo se está pensando y produciendo cultura hoy. En esta ocasión, decidimos articular esas entrevistas bajo una rúbrica común: la puertorriqueñidad. No como una categoría fija ni esencialista, sino como un campo en disputa, móvil y diverso. A través de estas conversaciones, buscamos mostrar la variedad de posturas, lenguajes y proyectos contemporáneos que se están gestando tanto en el archipiélago como en la diáspora. Desde prácticas artísticas y culturales hasta intervenciones comunitarias, académicas, y políticas.

“Puertorriqueñas” nombra, entonces, una pluralidad: maneras distintas de habitar la isla y el afuera; de imaginar pertenencias; de resistir, crear y sostener vida en contextos marcados por el colonialismo estadounidense, el desplazamiento, la precariedad y también por una enorme potencia creativa.

 

Siga el podcast:

Bluesky y Instagram: @LatinxVisions

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hosts: Rojo Robles and Rebecca L. Salois

Logo Design: Marcos Toledo

Music: Shawn P. Russell

Sound Consultant and Mixing: Shawn P. Russell

Recording and Editing: Rebecca L. Salois

Social Media and Transcripts: Ashanti Charon

Latinx Borders: Graphic Novels w/Julio Anta and Jacoby Salcedo

Today we bring you a conversation with Julio Anta and Jacoby Salcedo, the duo behind the fantastic YA graphic novel, Frontera. This interview took place on October 15, 2025, via Zoom. Before we begin the interview, we share a bit of background on both Anta and Salcedo as well as about the graphic novel we are focusing on today. After the conversation with the author and artist, we share our thoughts on the conversation, the book as a whole, and our season’s broader focus on border stories.

Julio's Information:

• Website: https://www.julioanta.com/
• Instagram: @julioanta

Jacoby's Information:

• Website: https://www.jacobysalcedoart.com/
• Instagram: @jacobysalcedo

Transcript

Follow the podcast:

Bluesky and Instagram: @LatinxVisions

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hosts: Rojo Robles and Rebecca L. Salois

Logo Design: Marcos Toledo

Music: Shawn P. Russell

Sound Consultant and Mixing: Shawn P. Russell

Recording and Editing: Rebecca L. Salois

Social Media and Transcripts: Ashanti Charon

Bonus: Why Study BLS at Baruch, a Conversation with BLS Students

This month we wanted to shine a spotlight on the Black and Latino Studies Department at Baruch College! In this conversation with BLS minors Ashanti Charon and Michelle Estrada and BLS major Sam Quervalu, the students share their reasons for choosing to study in our department and encourage students who might be curious to sign up for a class and learn for themselves what it's all about!

 

Follow the podcast:

Bluesky and Instagram: @LatinxVisions

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hosts: Rojo Robles and Rebecca L. Salois

Logo Design: Marcos Toledo

Music: Shawn P. Russell

Sound Consultant and Mixing: Shawn P. Russell

Recording and Editing: Rebecca L. Salois

Social Media and Transcripts: Ashanti Charon

 

Transcript

 

Latinx Borders through Picture Books

In this episode, we look at at children’s picture books and discuss the importance of border stories for children (and adults) of all ages. In the main section we explore two specific titles, Mama’s Nightingale, by Edwidge Danticat and Bright Star by Yuyi Morales. Both of these children’s picture books approach telling border stories in distinct ways that are age appropriate without erasing the importance of teaching children about the borderlands. And in the final section, we briefly discuss the ways in which the authors utilize intertextuality and "multi-texture-ality" to tell these stories. Then we wrap up with some additional recommendations.

Transcript

Follow the podcast:

Bluesky and Instagram: @LatinxVisions

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hosts: Rojo Robles and Rebecca L. Salois

Logo Design: Marcos Toledo

Music: Shawn P. Russell

Sound Consultant and Mixing: Shawn P. Russell

Recording and Editing: Rebecca L. Salois

Social Media and Transcripts: Ashanti Charon

 

Latinx Borders: Documentary Film

Welcome to season NINE of Latinx Visions. This season the “hilo” connecting our episodes will be The Border (or Borders, plural).  We’re centering Latinx voices—artists, researchers, storytellers—who are offering counter-narratives. Perspectives that resist the flat, racist tropes dominating headlines. We’ll highlight works that humanize migrants, that complicate the story, that insist on dignity over dehumanization.

Above all, our goal this season is to remind listeners that the border is not a “problem” to be solved. It’s a human reality to be reckoned with, one shaped by histories of colonialism and one still infused with possibility—stories of survival, resistance, and creativity that deserve to be heard.

In our first episode, we provide you with some background information on the film Who’s Dayani Cristal?  including who made it, what the goal of the film is, and how it approaches telling the story of one man who can no longer speak for himself. 

Then we dive into our main topics: Rojo starts off by exploring the parallels between the film and Francisco Cantú’s memoir The Line Becomes a River and Rebecca discusses whose story gets told and how it gets told. In our connections segment, Rojo considers the music in the film and Rebecca talks about other migration narratives and how they approach telling these border stories.

In this episode we mentioned a number of books, songs, and videos. If you're interested in learning more check out any of the sources listed below:

 Books

• The Line Becomes a River, Francisco Cantú  
• A People’s History of Latin America, Hernan Horna
• Solito, Javier Zamora
• Unaccompanied, by Javier Zamora
• The Devil’s Highway, by Luis Alberto Urrea
• Harvest of Empire, by Juan Gonzalez (also a documentary film)

Songs

• Calle 13’s “Latinoamérica
• Yasiin Bey—Mos Def—with “No hay nada más
• Leonard Cohen’s “The Partisan"

Videos on YouTube

• “Who Is Dayani Cristal?: Gael Garcia Bernal Traces Path of Migrant Worker Who Died in Arizona Desert,” - Democracy Now
• “Gael Garcia Bernal on 'Who is Dayani Cristal?': Sundance Film Festival” - Los Angeles Times

 

Transcript

 

Follow the podcast:

Bluesky and Instagram: @LatinxVisions

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Hosts: Rojo Robles and Rebecca L. Salois

Logo Design: Marcos Toledo

Music: Shawn P. Russell

Sound Consultant and Mixing: Shawn P. Russell

Recording and Editing: Rebecca L. Salois

Social Media and Transcripts: Ashanti Charon 

 

Latinx Cultural Politics: Graphic Memoir

In this episode, we wrap up our season on Latinx Cultural Politics with a conversation by, and interview with, Cuban-American Graphic Artist, Edel Rodriguez. We are also joined by our colleague and professor of English, Dr. Jennifer Caroccio-Maldonado.

To start the episode, we provide a bit of background on Rodriguez and his career along with an overview of his graphic memoir, Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey. Then we turn to a presentation made by Rodriguez on March 27th, 2025, at Baruch College during the Harman Writer-in-Residence spring semester event. This talk was recorded in front of a live audience and was originally accompanied by a visual presentation that Rodriguez references multiple times. We highly recommend following along with this presentation if you are able, as he shares images of his work not only from his memoir, but from magazine covers, social media, and more. He also shows the audience family photos he was able to recover as part of the research process for writing his memoir. 

Next, we include a brief interview with Rodriguez conducted by Jennifer and Rebecca about the process of creating a graphic memoir and the approaches he took to telling his story in a way that was meaningful to him. And in the final segment from March 27th, we have included a selection of audience questions along with Rodriguez’s answers that we found insightful. 

To wrap up the episode, we will share our reflections on the presentation and interview.

Presentation Slides

(Note: Google may tell you this file is too large to scan for viruses, but we have opened it on our own computers and it is safe, it's just very large and must be downloaded first!)

 

Transcirpts 

Follow the podcast:

Bluesky and Instagram: @LatinxVisions

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hosts: Rojo Robles and Rebecca L. Salois

Logo Design: Marcos Toledo

Music: Shawn P. Russell

Sound Consultant and Mixing: Shawn P. Russell

Recording and Editing: Rebecca L. Salois

Social Media and Transcripts: Jasmine Mojica

Latinx Cultural Politics and Community Theater w/Miguel Trelles

In this episode, we continue our focus on Latinx Cultural Politics by conversing with artist and teatrero Miguel Trelles from Teatro LATEA. This episode includes background on LATEA and Miguel as well as an interview that was recorded in front of a live audience at El Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center on March 7, 2025. After the interview, we return to share our reflections on the conversation with Miguel and his engagement with the audience who also asked him questions.

This conversation was part of "Speaking Volumes: A Symposium on Sound & Listening," hosted by two of our colleagues from Baruch College, Victor Sierra Matute and Camila Torres Castro, and sponsored by LATEA and El Clemente and we appreciate the invitation to join in the conversation and contribute with our interview of Miguel.

Transcript

Follow the podcast:

Bluesky and Instagram: @LatinxVisions

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hosts: Rojo Robles and Rebecca L. Salois

Logo Design: Marcos Toledo

Music: Shawn P. Russell

Sound Consultant and Mixing: Shawn P. Russell

Recording: Jacob Garces Marques

Editing: Rebecca L. Salois

Social Media and Transcripts: Jasmine Mojica

 

 

Latinx Cultural Politics: Visual Arts

Bienvenidas, bienvenidos, bienvenides! Welcome to season 8 of Latinx Visions. Our theme for this semester is Latinx Cultural Politics and we will be bringing you three episodes in which we will be in conversation with academics, visual artists, and authors to discuss the many ways in which they engage in cultural politics.

Cultural politics examines how power, identity, and social struggles are negotiated through cultural expressions, including art, media, language, and everyday practices. It explores how representation shapes social realities, how dominant ideologies maintain hegemony, and how marginalized communities resist through alternative narratives and artistic forms. Cultural politics intersects with race, class, gender, and sexuality. It reveals how cultural production both upholds and challenges systems of oppression. It also considers the role of aesthetic and political practices in shaping social movements and how globalization and transnationalism influence cultural exchanges and diasporic identities.  

In this episode,  interview Arlene Davila and Yasmin Ramirez, editors of the recently published book, Nuyorican and Diasporican Visual Art. This interview was recorded via Zoom on Friday, February 28th, 2025. After the interview, we share our reflections on the conversation with Arlene and Yasmin.

Latinx Visions in conversation with Joseph Caceres

Buy Nuyorican and Diasporican Visual Art

Book and Artist Conversation at the Latinx Project

Latinx Project Auction

Transcript 

Follow the podcast:

Bluesky and Instagram: @LatinxVisions

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hosts: Rojo Robles and Rebecca L. Salois

Logo Design: Marcos Toledo

Music: Shawn P. Russell

Sound Consultant and Mixing: Shawn P. Russell

Recording and Editing: Rebecca L. Salois

Social Media and Transcripts: Jasmine Mojica