Culture/ Cultura

Listen to the history of Reggaetón straight  from the mouth of the real Queen of Reggaetón "Ivy Queen". The Diva's 'LOUD' Podcast, available for streaming on Spotify is a personal narrative of the evolution of the genre from the streets of Panama to Puerto Rico to New York and how it changed music across the world.

On VICE- Take a look into a delicious dish that dates back to Columbia over 3,000 years. The Arepa is a staple in most Columbian, Venezuelan and Panamanian households. The difference in how the Arepa is made is in the sweetness, serving and the type of Masa used to make them. The best flour to use is Masarepa (a.k.a masa al instante, and harina precocida) a refined, pre-cooked corn flour (known in Colombia as “harina de maiz refinada, precocida”.)  

Most recommended product name is P.A.N. cornmeal. You can find it on Amazon for approximately $10.

Watch Luis Herrera show you how Arepas are made. 

Music By Lin- Manuel Miranda, with voice overs done by John Lequizamo, Diane Guerreo from "Orange is a New Black" and many more Latino/a/x cast members, Encanto highlights a young Columbian girl Mirabel who lives in a magical house with her family, hidden in the mountains of Columbia. An enchanted place believed to have given each child who lives in it a special gift. When Maribel learns she doesn't have a gift, her journey begins to find one and to be the hero that saves the family home. This movie is a perfect film to watch with every little child that has dreams of being anything they want to be just by searching deep within and finding that gift.

If you haven't watched "Madres" on Amazon Video, warm up some popcorn, grab some tissues and make sure you have an arm to hold on to just in case you too, grew up believing in the cucuy and brujeria.  When a Mexican American couple, expecting their first child, move to a migrant farm in California during the 1970's, they are confident they can build a better life for their newborn until the pregnant mother is stricken by an evil curse. A curse that has taken the babies of many pregnant mothers in the migrant community. In effort to protect her newborn, the young mother goes to every length in trying to stop the curse from hurting her family and taking more babies. This gruesome depiction of babies being taken relates to the true stories of forced sterilizations in Latino women that happened in California in the 70's and in current day detention centers in many ways. A tragedy no mother could imagine enduring.