Writing Latinos

PUBLIC BOOKS
  • 5.0 (10)
  • HISTORY
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

"Writing Latinos" is a podcast brought to you by PUBLIC BOOKS, featuring interviews with Latino authors of all sorts—scholars, novelists, memoirists, journalists—discussing their books, and how their writing contributes to the ever-changing conversation about the meanings of latinidad.

  1. 2D AGO

    Xochitl Gonzalez: Last Night in Brooklyn

    In this week’s episode of Writing Latinos, we spoke with bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez about her new novel, Last Night in Brooklyn, a magnificent book about gentrification, attachment to place, upward social and economic mobility, and what Gonzalez describes as the “insuperiority complex” many nonwhite Americans experience in predominantly white spaces. She wrote a 21st-century Great Gatsby set in a majority Black and Brown community in Brooklyn. Last Night in Brooklyn is Gonzalez’s third novel, following the widely acclaimed Anita de Monte Laughs Last and Olga Dies Dreaming. We had a blast talking with Gonzalez, and we hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did. Thanks for listening!

    41 min

  2. APR 29

    Jaquira Díaz: This is the Only Kingdom

    Our guest this week on Writing Latinos is Jaquira Díaz, discussing her new novel This Is the Only Kingdom, published by Algonquin Books. This Is the Only Kingdom was named one of the best books of 2025 by The New York Times and was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. A professor of writing at Columbia University, Díaz is also the author of an award-winning memoir, Ordinary Girls. When we caught up with her, we talked about the intergenerational traumas caused by violence, displacement, racism, and homophobia. We also talked about salsa-fueled nights out-on-the-town and the many ways that music inspires her writing. You’ll want to listen to our episode, and then go read this fast-paced story that’s tough to put down.

    34 min

  3. APR 15

    Mirta Ojito: Deeper Than the Ocean

    The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mirta Ojito, who has written two non-fiction books, has now written her first novel. Deeper Than the Ocean (published by Union Square & Co.) is a family drama that moves between Spain, Cuba, and the United States. In this episode of Writing Latinos, we talk with Ojito about the meaning of “Spain” for Latinos and the desire to return. We also discuss mothers and daughters, the obligations of love, the sinking of the S.S. Valbanera, and our shared fear of swimming in open bodies of water. Thanks so much for listening!

    38 min
  4. Álvaro Enrigue: Now I Surrender

    MAR 25

    Álvaro Enrigue: Now I Surrender

    In this latest episode of Writing Latinos, we talk with Álvaro Enrigue about the first-ever English translation of his novel Now I Surrender, published by Riverhead Books. Enrigue is the author of many other books, including the widely acclaimed You Dreamed of Empires, set in the immediate aftermath of the Spanish Conquest. Now I Surrender is also set mainly in the past, during the Apache Wars in Arizona that led to Geronimo’s capture. It was great to hear Enrigue’s thoughts about Geronimo’s legacy in Mexico, desert borderlands, road trips through the Southwest, and how Latino identity gets shaped through the experience of diaspora. Thank you for tuning in!

    30 min

  5. MAR 11

    Jazmine Ulloa- El Paso: Five Families and One Hundred Years of Blood, Migration, Race, and Memory

    We’re back for season 4 of Writing Latinos! Our first guest is Jazmine Ulloa, a national political reporter for The New York Times who just published her first book. Titled El Paso: Five Families and One Hundred Years of Blood, Migration, Race, and Memory (from Dutton), it’s a moving portrayal of her hometown. The 2019 shooting by a self-described white supremacist at a Walmart in El Paso, which left more than 23 dead and 22 injured, haunts Ulloa’s narrative and is the point of departure for her exploration of the city’s history over the past 150 years. From the U.S.-Mexico War, to the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, to the charismatic healer Teresa Urrea—also known as La Santa de Cabóra—and to the anarchist Flores Magón brothers, Ulloa shows how El Paso has long been at the center of US and Mexican histories of immigration, race, capitalism, and empire. We talk about the tragedy at Walmart, how her family ended up in El Paso, and her views on the relationship between history and journalism.

    34 min
  6. Albert Camarillo: Compton in My Soul

    06/25/2025

    Albert Camarillo: Compton in My Soul

    Albert Camarillo is the Leon Sloss Jr. Memorial Professor, Emeritus, at Stanford University. He’s one of a small number of people who founded the academic field of Chicano/Latino history. He has also mentored so many of the historians who’ve written books that teach us much of what we know about the history of Latinos in the United States. Not least, he is the author of a new book himself, titled Compton In My Soul: A Life In Pursuit of Racial Equality, published by Stanford University Press, in which he recalls growing up in the Black and Brown suburb of Los Angeles, his experience as one of a very small number of Chicano students at UCLA, and his almost fifty years of teaching Chicano history at Stanford. In this episode of Writing Latinos—the season three finale!—we talk with him about the Trump administration’s attack on higher education, the recent trend in Latino history to focus on Black-Brown tension and the anti-blackness of Latinos, the writing of family history, and how our understanding of Latinos has changed since the beginning of his career.

    45 min

  7. 05/28/2025

    Jorell Meléndez Badillo, Puerto Rico: a National History

    In a new episode of Writing Latinos, we talk with Jorell Meléndez-Badillo about his most recent book, Puerto Rico: A National History—out next month in paperback from Princeton University Press. Meléndez-Badillo offers a sweeping history of the island since Spanish colonization. Most provocatively, he chronicles a long tradition of thinking about Puerto Rico as an independent nation, even though it has been a territorial possession for the better part of five hundred years. In addition to the book, we talk with him about his collaboration with Bad Bunny on the historical narrative accompanying San Benito’s new album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, which had him frantically writing dozens of history lessons, scrawled by hand, at the end of last year. Not exactly an everyday occurrence for a history professor! Puerto Rico: A National History is Meléndez-Badillo’s third book, following The Lettered Barriada: Workers, Archival Power, and the Politics of Knowledge in Puerto Rico (2021), and Voces libertarias: Los orígenes del anarquismo en Puerto Rico (2015).

    45 min
  8. Justin Torres Reads “Youth: The Palisades as a Backdrop”

    05/14/2025

    Justin Torres Reads “Youth: The Palisades as a Backdrop”

    In this special episode of Writing Latinos, with the writer Justin Torres, we tried something new. Torres reads a short vignette —“Youth: The Palisades as a Backdrop,” by the Afro-Puerto Rican writer, Jesús Colón—and then we discuss it together. We had so much to talk about! Historical references. Readings of imagery. His message about gender, class, and race. “Youth” in the context of Colón’s other writings. The vignette as a powerfully evocative genre that Torres uses in his own writing. And what a treat to do this with Torres, a professor at UCLA and the author of two stunning novels: We the Animals, which was made into a feature film, and Blackouts, the winner of the National Book Award for Fiction.

    48 min
See All (28)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
10 Ratings

About

"Writing Latinos" is a podcast brought to you by PUBLIC BOOKS, featuring interviews with Latino authors of all sorts—scholars, novelists, memoirists, journalists—discussing their books, and how their writing contributes to the ever-changing conversation about the meanings of latinidad.

Information

  • Creator
    PUBLIC BOOKS
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    28
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2023
  • Show Website
    Writing Latinos

You Might Also Like