Latino USA

Four years ago, Senator Bernie Sanders began a long-shot campaign for the presidency. Until then, Sanders was a relatively unknown independent senator from Vermont, with some very progressive ideas. His campaign turned out to be much stronger than predicted, and this election cycle Bernie Sanders is one of the front-runners in the Democratic primary. Maria Hinojosa sits down with Sanders to talk about how his upbringing in a working class family shaped him, his views on immigration, and why Latinos should vote for him.

Tomas Ayuso is a photographer who decided to challenge the way mainstream media was documenting violence and trauma in Central America. Through his project, "The Right to Grow Old," Ayuso humanizes stories of individuals across Honduras. In this segment of "How I Made It," Tomas shares how he met Moises and Meya, two of the people he documented for his project, and how he followed them from Honduras as they made their way to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Beto O'Rourke became an overnight sensation in Texas in 2018, when he ran against one of the most well-known Republican incumbents in the U.S. Senate: Ted Cruz. Beto's campaign was known for its focus on social media and grassroots organizing, but ultimately he lost the election. However, he set a record for most votes ever cast for a Democrat in Texas history. On March 14th of 2019, he announced his candidacy for the presidency, but his campaign hasn't made the same waves as his run for the U.S. Senate. Latino USA's Maria Hinojosa sits down with Beto for a conversation about what's happening in El Paso in the wake of the recent tragic shooting, and why he is running for the presidency.

Julia Alvarez is a renowned Dominican-American author whose work finds its power in intersections: like that between the personal and political, or those present in the Dominican-American diaspora. Alvarez's first major novel "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" is based on her family's immigration experience. Her next book was a work of historical fiction based on the Mirabal sisters, real-life Dominican activists who tried to overthrow the dictator Rafael Trujillo titled "In the Time of the Butterflies." "In the Time of the Butterflies" turns 25 years-old this year and in honor of its anniversary, Alvarez sat down with Maria Hinojosa to talk about the legacy of her work.

Actor Selenis Leyva makes the most out of small moments. She plays the character Gloria Mendoza on the Netflix series, "Orange Is The New Black." Gloria is a strong Latina, trying to survive in prison. And in real life, Leyva is just as passionate. It took her twenty years of struggling as an actress before her big break on "Orange Is The New Black"—which recently ended in the summer of 2019 after seven seasons. For Leyva, those early years have informed her role on the show and her view of what it means to be a celebrity. In this conversation, she opens up to Maria Hinojosa about her long winding road to fame.