March 19, 2025 • 58 mins
In this first episode of Season 10, Diosa and Mala introduce a new segment, Climax and Cry, answer a listener question during Oye Locas. For the second half of this episode, tune into Totally Nostalgic, a mini-series about the Latinos who shaped pop culture in the early 2000s. Journalist Maria Garcia joins Locatora Radio, to help us understand the "Latin boom" and the undeniable path Selena Quintanilla paved.
Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/locatora_productions
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Are your ears bored? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Are you looking for a new podcast that will make
you laugh, learn, and say get Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Then tune in to Look At Though Our Radio Season ten.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Today, Okay, look at Our Radio is a radiophonic novella,
which is just an extra way of saying a podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Season ten of Look At Thought Our Radio is totally nostalgic.
We're diving in with a four part series about the
Latinos who shaped pop culture in the early two thousands.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
But that's not all.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Season ten is also launching in the wake of LA
wildfires and a new Trump presidency. As always, we're leaning
into community by conducting critical interviews with people leading the
efforts to rebuild LA and fight back against oppression.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Tune in to Look at Our Radio Season ten. Now
that's what I call a podcast. Love with every listen.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Right at your fingertips.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Loga Olao la Loka Modes. Welcome to season ten of
Loka Tora Radio. I'm Viosa and I'm mala. Loka Tora
Radio is a podcast dedicated to archiving our present and
shifting the culture forward. You're tuning in to Capitro Docentositres
(01:24):
two twenty three and.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
This is the first episode of season ten, and oh
my god, we have missed every single one of you,
all of our dear listeners out there. Thank you for
rocking with us and for tuning in for another season.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Last time we spoke to you, our dearest listeners are
Locomotives was November and it feels like we've all lived
a million years since then. The last episode came out
right after the election, so we couldn't actually unpack and
debrief and talk about everything that's transpired. And this season,
(02:01):
of course, how can we not cover the impact of
the Trump administration, because hello, look at everything going on.
And also around the same time, the wildfires in Los
Angeles broke out and there's been ongoing recovery efforts, so
you can expect us to cover all of that this season,
in addition to our regular analysis of current events, pop culture,
(02:24):
and of course, killer interviews.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
We already have some killer interviews lined up this season
before the season has even launched. This season is going
to be a little nostalgic, totally nostalgic, if you will,
but we're also going to be doing what we do
best is talking to members of our community who are
making a difference in rebuilding LA after the recent wave
of tragedy that we've been experiencing here.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Before we launch into our formal episode, we want to
take some time to celebrate this big milestone because it's
the tenth season, nine years of LOK, ten seasons later,
and we're still here, and this is our fourth season
with iHeartRadio's Mike Utura podcast Network.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I still remember when we signed and what it meant
to us, and to be here four seasons later, still
with Michael Duras, still with iHeart, still putting out beautiful
podcasts for our listeners out there, for our community. I mean,
it's huge. There's not a whole lot of LATINX hosted
podcasts that have been around for this long. Raduo Ambulante
(03:31):
has been around for a very very long time, and
they've been doing an incredible work Latino USA, of course,
But as we've talked about over the years and over
the seasons, you know, there have been some indie shows
that we love and whose hosts we love, and we're
just happy that we're still kind of like carrying the torch.
You know, we're not quite so India anymore, but I
(03:52):
think we still have that spirit within us.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
We're really not indie anymore, or I guess technically we're
not indie, but we're still a very small team of three.
If you look at other network shows, they have multiple
dozens of people on their team. All you have to
do is listen to their show credits and you can
hear all of the people that make an incredible show possible.
And I think, like to your point that the indie spirit.
(04:17):
We're making a great show with a team of three,
with support of the network, of course, but who's handling
the daily operations, what goes into the show the post
production is a team of three.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yeah, well, and mostly a team of two. It's mostly
you and Stefani Franco. Shout out to Stephanie Franco, are producer, editor,
who makes all of this possible for us. It's true,
it's a small team, small but mighty, and I think
that that's what's helped also to keep the integrity of
the show and our energy, like our core.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, there's not too many cooks. You know, we're cooking,
we're chopping it up. We're doing what we need to
do week after week. And I think you're right. There
have been some think a lot of positive improvements and
changes over the years, really refining what we do. And
I think this year we also on the theme with nostalgia.
We kind of want to bring back some of the
(05:11):
energy from the early seasons pre network, maybe when our
frontal lobe head and fully developed. You know, we're trying
to bring some of that energy back, but in a
more refined way. But when we were reflecting on producing
season ten and what we were going to talk about,
we realized we're not really sharing a lot about ourselves anymore. No,
because the heart of the show is the community, the
(05:34):
folks we interview, the women and fems, we interview, the archive.
I think, even now under the context of the new administration,
the wildfires, archival work, audio archival work is so so important,
and I think what we're going to try to do
this season is sprinkle a little bit more of ourselves
in the ways that we did in the early days.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
You know. Yeah, no host stories though, no, those are
out of those, we just don't have them any higher.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
You're fresh out of those, I've been out of those.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I'm fresh. I'm fresh on the other side. But yeah,
you know, it was a different time, literally and not
only in our lives. But I feel like in the
social media space and in the podcasting space, and so
it made a lot of sense back then to like
share our personal stories. We were going out so much,
(06:28):
we were so active, there was always something going on
with us. So there was something personal that we just
like had to share on the show. A lot of ranting,
a lot of raving. It was like it was. It
was chaotic good. It was chaotic good, I would say
those early episodes. And I appreciate that space and I
feel like we needed it, which is why we did it,
(06:50):
and I think why it resonated with so many people now.
The stories are stories outside of ourselves that we connect to,
that we relate to somehow now that touch back on
our communities. But we're not necessarily making our personal lives
the center of the show. No, And I'm okay with that.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I'm okay with that too, And I think this season
we do want to sprinkle a little bit of that
in there, but it won't be the central focus of
the show like it wasn't the early days. And yeah,
I think we're both okay with that very much.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
So. I also, just as I see like this kind
of general community feedback about the latine voices that are
out there that are sometimes getting the most attention or
that are the loudest. There seems to be a desire
for more, more depth, you know, things that are more complicated,
(07:42):
things that are bigger. And I think that sometimes it's
just really easy to sort of peddle your own story
and make that your content and make that your brand.
But I think that as we've developed as artists, as
we've developed by going back to school and launching new shows,
like what I sex said, I feel like we want
(08:02):
that too, Like we want depth, we want nuance more,
I get less and less interested in myself, you know, Like, yes,
as time goes on, I want to know what else
is out there that we can bring to the listeners.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I think we've always treated the podcast, of course as
an audio archive, but also audio art.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
And something our producer Stephanie and I were talking about
today is that because there's so many podcasts and kind
of the ones that pop off aren't necessarily creating audio art. No,
they're just talking into a mic and they're saying what
they got to say, which is cool, but that's not
what we do here. And so in some way there's
like almost like a devaluing of like what podcasts can
(08:45):
do and the links that they can go. And it's
kind of like this, Oh, everybody has a podcast, which
is true, lots of people have a podcast, but I
don't think a lot of artists or a lot of
host and producers treat it like the art that it is,
at least the ones that have like popped off in
in multiple ways, right, And so I think that's what
we continue to try to do here is make it
(09:06):
the audio art, make it accessible, make it fun, do analysis,
and tell a good story.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Don't go anywhere, lokomotives.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
We'll be right back, and we're back with more of
our episode. And on that note, we are going to
bring in a little bit of ourselves this week, and
we're going to introduce a new segment instead of rosen Thorn.
This is Climax or Cry. What was your climax of
(09:38):
this week and what made you cry this week? This
is our check in. This is our segment. I'll get
us started this week. My climax. I'm taking a trip
for spring break. I'm going to apply it all. Carmen
with the love of my Life. Also flash update, news flash, I.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Should say yeah, can you like tell I mean, I know,
but can you tell the listener a little bit about
your kind of new relationship, at least new to the audience.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yes, my whirlwind romance. So I'm madly in love y'all.
As I've told Yosa multiple times. My my goose is cooked.
It's double deep fried, laid to the side. I'm stuffed.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Can I interject and say that this is not the
tortilla chip air, which I think people have kind of
still assumed is a thing, But I just want to
clarify that it's not.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yes, yes, yes, not the tortilla chip air. The tortilla
chip air doesn't exist. That was a fable.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
It was a really good fable that got the people going.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Thank you, thank you. It caused quite a stir. No,
this is a real person, a real man. He's a
living man.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
That's a real man.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
He's a real man. He has his uh, his fingerprints
and a social Security number.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yes, he's like a real person who contributes to society.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
I love all of that's You're like your barometer for
a real person. He has a social and a fingerprint.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yes, fingerprints, they have not been burned off yet. He's
not like fleeing the law.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
That's good to know.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
He's not a sovereign citizen. He's he's a real boy
and he has a job, and so we love him.
We're we've been like taking trips and stuff, and so
we're going to be going to Mexico for spring break.
We also got a secret pet together, and I'm not
at liberty to say more, so we'll just leave it
at that. And at school, I'm producing a documentary which
(11:24):
has been going really well. We wrapped our five weeks
of principal photography. Producing a documentary has been very interesting,
very eye opening. I have learned a lot about the
differences between documentary and scripted, very different. And here at
look at Thought. We've been talking about making a look
at Thought I documentary for a long time, so I
(11:44):
feel like more equipped now more than ever, to like
start talking about that again.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
So that those have been my my climaxes of the week.
And then my cry. The thing that made me cry
this week is that my cute pink washer dryer combo
isn't working and I need to replace a part. It's
such a to do, it's such a conundrum, it's so annoying.
I have to like use the community washer dryer in
(12:12):
my building, and it's horrible. There's someone in my building
with like a big white dog who does a lot
of shedding and this particular tenant, and I know who
they are because I've seen this dog, this particular tenant.
I'm also noticing that they have used all of the
washing machines because the white dog hair is in all
of the washing machines. It's horrible, it's a tragedy. It
does make me cry. But luckily I'm climaxing a lot
(12:36):
more than crying this week, so it all evens out.
How about you, THEOSSA. What's your climax? What's your cry?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I'm so glad you get to climax.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Good for you, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Okay. My climax of the past month, and I guess
a couple of months, is that I've been training for
the LA Marathon. And that is a climax for me
because I love it. It gives me endorphin, it gives me
a rush, it gives me a purpose, it gives me
all the things the community, and this is my second
time that I'm running the LA Marathon, so I finally
(13:08):
feel like a marathon or because the first one. I
was like, let's see if we can do it, and
let's see if we actually like it. I may not
do it again, but I'm doing it again. And I
actually am scheduled to do another marathon over the summer,
so I'm like, really in this right now. So that's
definitely a climax for me. Second is that I launched
a sub stack, and that's kind of exciting. It's very fresh.
(13:32):
I kind of just ideated over the last couple of
the last month and was like, I'm just gonna do it.
Because I have a tendency to sit on things, especially
if it's my own project or personal I'm like, h
I just put it to the side a lot most
of the time, and so I just thought, let me
put it out there and work with it and see
what happens. And I have seventy five subscribers already, which
(13:55):
is exciting because I only have one post amazing, so
I'm like, cool, let's let's see, let's see where this goes.
It's really for me. I'm using it as a creative
exercise to just write and put it out there and
just maybe get feedback, maybe not, but really just exercise
that creative muscle, writing, muscle without the pressure of pitching.
(14:16):
That's a big thing for me.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Yes, it's just your craft. Yeah, just working at your.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Cracking out my craft writing. That's it.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
And what is the name of your substack.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
It's called an Ahna all of my life by my family.
This is a little known fact if you do not
know me in real life, and most, I would say
a lot of my friends don't actually know this. Mala
knows this. But my kind of nickname in my family
is like in a Hona. I'm like a little angry
girl basically, and I've been called that because I'm you know,
(14:50):
I'm like no secret, I'm like sensitive, I get irritated,
I get mad, you know. And as an adult, I've
realized how my anxiety manif fest as youried ability. So
it wasn't that I was angry or in an Ohona.
I was just anxious, you know. Yeah, And so I
think I'm just using that space to kind of explore
(15:11):
that and just another way to reclaim something that's you know,
kind of meant to make you feel bad or meant
to like make you feel like you're being too sensitive
or you're too much, and just play with it and
have fun with it.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
So like growing up where people like, oh, we're not
going to talk about this because she's gonna get mad. Yes, yes,
I hate that.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yes, And it's definitely more of like a immediate family thing,
like even my I don't think my extended family knows
this about me. I'm sure they can say, oh, yeah,
she has those characteristics, but I wouldn't say that even
my broader extended family kind of knows that this was
like my household thing, my name, and it was more
so my mom. Because moms can do that to you.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
They're allowed. They're allowed because they they're the ones who
tend to get the brunt of it.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
They do, they do. I will say, my mom has
gotten the brunt of my like my meanest self, you know,
and I'm not trying to be mean, but it comes
out and then also the best side of myself, you know.
I think that our moms kind of they have they
have that because they're the moms. They get that card.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yes, my mom definitely gets that from me too, unfortunately,
but because she's my safe person.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Yeah, yeah, you know that that love is really unconditional,
I mean, at least from our moms, right, like they
they will tolerate our shit sometimes.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know about your mom's out there,
but our moms, moms are great.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
We can't speak for all the moms we know relations
with the moms can be complicated, but definitely from our
moms we get some some good unconditional love with them,
with the side of critique and criticism and some meanness
and eating disorders yea, all that Latina daughter stuff. But yeah,
there's some good stuff in there too.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Mostly good stuff, mostly good. It's like when you go
to Ross.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Being a mom is like going around Yeah, yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Like having a mom is like going to Ross. It's like,
there's a lot of good stuff here. Sometimes it might
be a little messy, sometimes you have to do a
little digging. But it's a lot of good stuff, and
it's very reasonably prized. It's very accessible.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Yes I can, I can, Yes, I can agree with that.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
I My mom would be so offended if she heard
me say that.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
But you know what I mean, I get what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
The quality is there. You're gonna find stuff that's gonna
get you through the year. You're gonna find school shoes.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Your mom would definitely be mad at this analogy.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
But it's okay because she loves me in condition it's fine. Yeah,
fun so climax A cry, this will this will continue episode.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
And my cry for the week. I've decided to not
share that one. It's too much. It's too much and
I will cry, So I'm gonna keep that one close.
But we'll be bringing this back week after week. I think. Yeah,
let us know what you think.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah, just yeah, sometimes the cry is just too sad,
too sad, can't share it. We go through things to
you guys.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Yeah, yeah, we struggle, and normally, once I've worked through them,
I'm more likely to share them. But right now it's
just too fresh, fair fresh. And I'm actually writing something
about it for the substack because it just feels like
I can write this, I can't say it real. It's
because I will cry if I say it, so maybe
i'll link it if I end up putting it, putting
(18:22):
it out. But yeah, TVD love it.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Thank you for not sharing.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Don't go anywhere loco motives.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
We'll be right back, and we're back with more of
our episode.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
So if you're a longtime listener, you know that we
have an OG segment.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Called yeah so we are continuing that segment this season.
We loveas sometimes our listeners provide us with questions that like, wow,
amazing question. I would have never thought of this. You
are now listening to. Oh yeah, the.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Question is any advice on how to get your spark back? Don't?
I don't know if I even know who I am anymore.
And when I read that, I wanted to hug this person.
So I'm sending you a really, really big hug, and
let's talk about this.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Well, I guess there's a couple different things. So one
the idea of having a spark is like, oh, like
your spark and it's what makes you, I don't know,
like joyful and energetic, and it's the thing that makes
you bright and shiny. And I don't I think sometimes though,
I think about myself and like my sparkiest self in
(19:44):
my life, in my time, and sometimes I'm like that
spark actually needed to set a wildfire and burn everything down,
Like that spark needed almost to be destructive in order
for me to like rise like a phoenix from the
like that spark. I don't actually need that specific spark
(20:05):
back anymore, because that spark was was meant to ignite
and like clear a path for something new and better
and doper to emerge. So for me, just from my
own personal experience, I don't think that I've ever necessarily
wanted to like get back to an old version of me. Rather,
(20:28):
I've like appreciated her, loved her, and took my lessons
and I'm like moving on, you know, and building something stronger.
That's how I think about a question like this, And
what do you think, Yosa, how would you answer this question?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Well, I am a little crazy, so and I say
that to myself with love. I am someone that will
start a project, whether that's creative, physical. There's a reason
I'm always fucking moving like either tennis, gym, running, like
(21:11):
I'm always doing something physical, and for me, that is
how I stay grounded. And I think for me, what
I've learned that the physical stuff is really just about
being in your body and being in my body and
feeling connected to my body, and it can help with
when you're having like a rough mental health time a
(21:32):
season where you're feeling low or you're not feeling like yourself.
For me, movement has really been healing for that reason.
And I agree, I don't think that sometimes we do
want to get back to these versions of ourselves that
don't exist anymore. And I think about that now as
a woman in her thirties, where I look at photos
of myself from my twenties and I look at that person,
(21:54):
that version of myself, and I think like, wow, this
version was so beautiful and so insecure, felt like there
was so much to change about herself, and was always
trying to be skinny, Like I've really been thinking about body,
my own body, and like chasing skinny, this idea of
thinness for most of my life, practically all my life.
(22:17):
And I think this is the first season of my
life where I'm not chasing that anymore. And it's kind
of scary because as our bodies change, we know that
people can be mean to us, right because they expect
us to be this like small version of ourselves. And
tie that with social media, tie that with the current climate,
(22:38):
and how like the ozembic body and the early two
thousands are back in terms of skinniness and thinness, and
so it can feel like so much pressure. But I
look back at that version of myself and I think, like, wow,
you were so sad, you were so happy in so
many ways, but there was a lot of sadness there,
and you had so much growing to do. I feel
like ten years from now, I'm going to look back
at this version of myself and think something similar like, Wow,
(23:01):
you were chasing something that you didn't need to be chasing,
or while like look at how happy you were, or
look at how beautiful you were, and you were feeling
so insecure. I feel like we're always we're doing that
because like society has made women be hard on ourselves.
And so just going back to this idea of a spark,
I think that, like there's so much that we learn
(23:24):
in darkness, and there's so much that we learn in light,
and sometimes we're in like a dark season and sometimes
we're in our light and just like letting ourselves be
in that moment and know that like those seasons don't last,
you know at all?
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Yeah, they come and go. There's seasons, there are seasons.
There are seasons. It's seasonal, and that's so true. Beauty
is truly lost on the young. I mean I go
through the same experience looking back at old photos of
myself and like, what was I so worried about? Yeah,
what was I being so critical of? Like I looked
a maze. Yes, I looked amazing. Yes, And you just
(24:04):
cannot appreciate it while you're in it.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Something that I tell myself now, like when i'm feeling
you know that that that inner critic of like while
you're aging, like you're looking older. But I'm saying it
to myself in a mean way, I remind myself, like, oh,
the older I get, the more I look like my mom.
Am I going to be mean to my mom? To
my own mother. No, I tell my mother she's beautiful.
(24:27):
I tell her she looks amazing. I tell her she's
like that outfit is so cute, you know, Like I'm
not mean to her, I'm not her inner critic. And
so I've kind of been rephrasing it that way for
myself and just thinking of how it is such a
beautiful thing to get older, and we're made to feel
bad about it, women specifically, And so yeah, I know,
(24:49):
I know I'm only in my thirty so on the
grand scheme of things, I'm still very young. But I
think as I've been in entering this decade, I've really
seen like how much like the twel and the youth
are like the main character. Oh yeah, for society, for life,
for culture in the US at least. Yeah, and I'm like, oh,
(25:09):
we're not. That's not us anymore. For better or for worse,
depending how you look at it.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
It's a lot less pressure. Yeah, it's a lot less pressure.
And even just thinking about so I like went shopping
for my vacation and just even thinking about like the
sheer number of outfits we were constantly buying, yeah, for
every weekend, something new, every week and something new.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
We didn't realize we were participating in fast fashion at
the time.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
And we were wheeling. We were fast fashion.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
We were doing it. We didn't realize. We're like, oh,
we're shopping at these little boutiques. It was fast fashion.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Yeah. I mean we looked cute.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, we served lugs.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Always a new look, always a new look out on
the town. I mean it was fun. And that that
I can say so proud of myself for allowing myself
in my twenties. I allowed myself to be wild and
to be free. I mean I was free, honey, I
was free. And I'm so happy that I gave that
(26:07):
to myself and that I had that, because once it's over,
it's over. Yeah, you know, And then after it becomes
like a midlife crisis stuff. Right, if you do it
when you're in your forties and fifties, it's a crisis.
You're supposed to behave those ways when you're in your twenties.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
You know, you can do it at any age, I think.
But I get what you're saying. So it's like, culturally,
it's like, oh, if you if a woman starts partying
in her forties, it's because she's having a midlife crisis.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yes, she's in a state of crisis. And that doesn't
have to be the case. I mean, you know, everybody,
you do what you do, and who knows what the
future holds for for for any of us or for me.
But yeah, I will say that is beauty was completely
lost on me in my twenties. I don't think I
appreciated it for the right reasons. I think I was
more appreciative of like what it could do for me, Yeah,
(26:53):
like what it could get me. But I don't think
that I truly like embodied, Like I don't think that
I was comfortable in it, you know, But I am
grateful that I gave myself like that decade, Yeah, to
be a mess, Yes, and to learn.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Same. Yeah, same, And I think for this person too,
like lean on your friends, like let your friends know
that you are feeling like not yourself right now. And
I think that your friends will remind you who you
are lovingly right, and they will tell you who you are.
And I think that's really important to have, whether that
(27:30):
be family or friends. Have people in your life that
are going to remind you who you are, why you're
so important, why you're important in their life, and that
you're not alone.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Yeah, and embrace what's new, Embrace what's ahead. Yes, it
might be way better.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
When I left my residential care job, my boss who
was like my thea you know, and we still talk
here and there, but she was very much like a
maternal figure in my life. On my last day, she
gave me a sign that she had in her office
and it said, don't look back, You're not going that way. Yeah.
So sometimes I just look at that and I remember
who I was in that moment when I left that job,
(28:04):
and how everything felt so hard and then things got
so good. Yeah, you know, I made space for new things.
So I hope that that can be the case for
this listener.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
So thank you, Thank you for that question. This has
been Ail and Lochaz and if.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
You want to submit a question and get an answered
on the next episode, you can email us, send us
a DM or leave a voice memo on our website
on our little speak pipe on the side.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Don't go anywhere, lokomotives.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
We'll be right back and we're back with more of
our episode. And now for our brand new series. This
is a limited series for season ten and it's called
Totally Nostalgic. It's a four part series about the Latinos
who shaped pop culture in the early two thousands.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
When thinking about this season, well, for some time, mol
and I have been in talking about some of the
artists that we remember growing up with and just really
wanted to pay them homage and talk about them and
talk about what the US Latinos specifically we're doing to
shape pop culture and of course Latin Americans. There was
(29:17):
the Latin boom of the two thousands. There were so
much that was happening, and we wanted to just dedicate
some time and create a series to talk about that,
to talk to experts, to talk to some of the
artists that shaped pop culture at that time.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
I know, for me and for you like, especially on Instagram,
Like somebody that we looked at that were dying to
have on the show is like Apollodianda. You know, part
of this series is our own curiosity about where are
they now? Because we were listening to these artists, the
paladiandas the Prima Jays, you know, Cattaluna, et cetera, et cetera.
(29:54):
We were watching TV. We were watching Mundos and MTV
thres and you know, Keto Miskin says, so there are
these folks who were really creating culture and art for
us back in the day that we were loving and
some of them are not as active as they once were.
Maybe they've made a shift in their careers, but personally
I want to know what they're up to and what
(30:15):
are they doing. I'm also curious as far as this series,
like what parts of the two thousands are really are
like really being brought back. You know, I think that
there's a nostalgia wave for the two thousands right now.
Like when we were kids. I think, like, I don't know,
I feel like hippie stuff was like was like our
(30:37):
throwback stuff that we would wear.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
There was like a bohemian nostalgia for like the fringe,
and I also kind of see the fringe coming back.
But yeah, I hear what you're saying. There was like
this bohemian like quote hippie aesthetic resurgence that we all wanted.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Yeah, at that time it was very boho.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Yes, and so Oh Ho Sheikh was a part of
the two thousands.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Bok was a big part of the two thousands. So
now the youth, they're like nostalgia and the ways that
they're dressing up from the past. They're wearing ed hardy,
you know, I'm seeing like tiktoks where they're talking about
what we were really wearing back then, like the big
owl pendants and those like flared what were those pants,
(31:21):
those like gaucho pants, and like the little Chinese slippers
and like it's interesting to see what gets popular and
then what were we actually doing, right.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yeah, so we're going to be exploring the fashion, the music,
the artists, the TV, the nostalgia of it all with
this series called Totally Nostalgic. To kick us off, we're
joined by Maria Garcia and we were so excited to
bring Maria on to have this conversation because you can
talk about the early two thousands and the wave of
(31:53):
Latino artists without recognizing the impact of Selina Quintania and
Maria Gotta. Sia now is the creator and host of
Anything for Selena, a podcast by W B U R
and Futuro Studios that examines the life and legacy of
Selena Quintania. She's also the host of the podcast My Vivo,
(32:13):
which is about the life of Juan Gabriel and how
it relates to her own personal story. Maria is also
a queer Chicana who listens to Selena like all of us,
when she needs some motivation. So joining us today is
Maria Garcia. We hope you enjoyed this interview your pretty
(32:36):
MUD's favorite podcast.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
My name is Maria Garcia, and I'm the executive editor
of Futuro Studios and the creator and host of Anything
for Selena and My Divo Amazing.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
So let's just get started by talking about some early
memories you may have from the early two thousands and
if you feel that they influenced you in any way.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
Oh my god. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
So.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
First of all, I was born in nineteen eighty five,
so I'm I'm like a I'm a millennial, you know,
and sort of like hitting the geriatric millennial. So in
like two thousand, I was fifteen years old, and so
it was like a very formative time in my adolescence,
(33:32):
in my development. And so this is sort of like
what's happening in my life and in the greater culture
at this time. So the Selena biopic is released in
nineteen ninety seven, and so you know what happens when
the Selena biopic is released. Jennifer Lopez comes into the scene,
and you know, she'd been an artist before, but this
(33:53):
is her big, big break. She goes from you know,
a sort of like emerging niche artist to like a
kid almost to like a household name. And you know,
Abraham Pythenia, Selena's father, likes to tell this story about
how when she got on stage and they were like
doing the astrodome scene, Selena's mother, Marcella, looked at Jennifer
(34:19):
and said, oh my god, it looks like just like her.
She even has Selena's bombies. And then Jennifer Abraham says
that Jennifer like heard that, and then she's like, He's
like and ever since then she never stopped talking about
what So I do remember like the shift in the
early two thousands, So the biopic comes out in ninety seven,
(34:44):
Jlo blows up. She's on magazine covers. Latina Magazine launches
with Jlo as their cover girl. People in Espanol launches
after they released the Selena Commemorative issue after her death,
and they're like, whoa Latino's are interested in media that's
about them, So suddenly you have like media that is
(35:05):
specifically catered to Latinos first through fourth generation Latinos. And
then Jlo comes into the scene and she revolutionizes from
Selena's legacy, like body politics in the United States and
voluptuous bodies, particularly like big Darrires go from being really
(35:27):
like derided to really like coveted and celebrated via Jlo
in the early two thousands. And then this is the time,
right in the eve of the early two thousands, you
have the Latin boom from Jlo. Then comes Ricky Martin.
You know, there's like Shakira starts starts emerging, and so
(35:48):
you have what like media critics called the so called
Latin boom and essentially like the birth of modern Latinida
with all of its like fantasy and myth and problems
and yeah, that's what I remember from like the early
two thousands is I remember like the Latin boom being
(36:08):
in full place. I remember j Lo, I remember juicy sweatpants.
I remember like the big sunglasses. I remember like nude,
glossy lips. I remember like thin eyebrows. Yeah, that's the landscape.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
If you had to pinpoint maybe one factor that really
describes those Latin artists and that Latin boom at that time,
was there something like a through line, a commonality, something
distinct about that music that work those figures in that
time period that really stands out to you, that makes
(36:49):
it gives it its personality.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Hmm. That's a great question. You know, this was at
a time when this idea of the crossover was very
prominent in music media, like can these Latin artists crossover
into English markets? And so it was about it was
(37:14):
a sort of like latinid that that was like be
fiery and Latin but also palatable you know to uh
sort of like mainstream audiences. So it was I don't
want to say that it was just a white gaizy
performance of Latinida, because I think there was some authenticity
(37:36):
to some of the art coming out around this time.
I don't think these artists were just like only motivated
by how to crossover, Like I think they were also
interested in creating their art that was in some way
authentic to them. But there was there was a difference
(37:57):
between like what we now think of Bad Bunny, who's
you know, The New York Times interview him and he's like,
what do you think of audiences that can't understand you?
And He's like, I don't care. You know, that was
not the thinking in the early two thousands. The early
two thousands was like crossover be Latino, and it was
(38:18):
sort of like a little like fiery, a little stereotypical
performance of Latinida, but.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Also be.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
Like palatable and desirable to a wider i e. Audience,
white audience.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Do you think that could have influenced the way everyday
people then embodied Latini?
Speaker 4 (38:40):
Dave, Yeah, I mean I do think look like there
was sort of like a collective identity forming, you know,
and this was like pre two thousands, Like even with Selena,
for example, Like I do genuinely believe that Selena was
(39:00):
sort of like the the beta, like the first sort
of like proto artist that birthed what would be later,
what would evolve into like what we now know as
modern Latini da And I do think that Selena's art
was authentic and not performative, Like Selena was never trying
(39:24):
to be palatable to a white audience. Even in her
like crossover she was she was singing like you know,
R and B infused music that she grew up with,
you know, like that was authentic to her, Like it wasn't.
She wasn't like contorting herself to a gaze. And so
I do think, you know, I can speak for myself,
(39:46):
Like I remember the switch, for example, Shakira in early
two thousands, she goes from you know, I remember late
ninety there was like Biazscalzos and it was like black
hair Shakira, and then in the early two thousands she
transitioned to blonde hair. And I remember thinking like, oh,
(40:08):
this is a phase. And then it was a phase
that like never ended, like we never got black hair
Shakira back. And I think that's I think that's an
example of like the kind of formation that happened in
the early two thousands, you know what I mean, Like
it was she was still Shakira, but she was like
(40:31):
blonde hair Shakira singing in English, and yeah, like I
do think it it formed. It was identity forming for
so many of us, you know, because like what we saw,
what we see in the media often gives us permission
to like exercise a part of our identity. And so yeah,
(40:53):
I think it would be naive to say, like, oh,
that sort of like Latini Dad myth making didn't penetrate
into us at an individual level, like I think it
absolutely did.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
I'm also thinking, like naming all these different artists, They're
all coming from such different places. Ricky Martin is Puerto
Rican and Selena is was it the Hannah, And then
you have even like elehnadl right at that time, from Panama,
and then even all the way up to like Christina
Aguilera who came from the Mickey mouse Club. I mean
she wasn't raised at the Mickey mouse Club, but practically
(41:25):
right so, with Ecuadorian roots. And I'm just wondering, like
all these different artists from different places, Shakira being Colombian,
how did that then form kind of like this umbrella
of like a blanket Latini Dad, but very different influences
and cultures and coming from very different backgrounds. Each of
(41:45):
these artists, but contributing to one like Latin Boom and
what did that kind of do to our idea of
who we are as a people.
Speaker 4 (41:54):
Well, I do genuinely believe that, like, uh so much
of it started with Selena, like after Selena passed well,
first of all, like so you know, when we think
of Selena, for example, she was singing Mexican American roots music.
You know that's essentially like what the Henno is. It's
(42:14):
like centuries old Mexican American roots music. And then Selena
comes and makes this regional roots music go global and
suddenly like people all over Latin America are listening to
this this music this is was just like Mexican American
folk music, and so that like opened the pathways for
(42:43):
sort of like a like cross cultural exchange around like
different Latino ethnicities. But you know, it's always I think
like there are two truths here. Like one is that
there's like an authentic sharing of culture for sure, Like
(43:05):
I am a Mexican American who only went to Puerto
Rico for the first time in my adulthood, and yet
I grew up with such an appreciation and love of
Puerto Rican culture and music because like the export from
Puerto Rico to the world is so vast and beautiful
(43:26):
and rich, you know what I mean. Like, and I
grew up like loving in Canada when I was a kid,
you know, and like in every family party, like in
Canada was you know, playing every cousin of mine had
a crush on Cheyan, you know, Ricky Martin was so
(43:47):
beloved too. And you know, I know so many people
from the Caribbean who tell me, like I grew up
loving Selena, you know, and lots of bookis and so
like there's always been like authentically like pre the modern
notion of Latini that there's always been like an authentic
(44:07):
like solidarity among Latinos through our music and our art
like that that has nothing to do I feel like
with the the structure of like Latinia and the media.
But I do think that like once that sort of
like Latin boom became a thing that was like that
(44:29):
was turbocharged and and look like it's not people people
like to I don't think Latinia is like a it
is what it is like, it's not a villain and
it's not a hero. It's not like all like oh solidarity,
you we're all Latinos. But it's also not like, oh
my god, it's the root of all our evil, like
(44:50):
it's it's it's you have to like recognize it for
what it is.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
You know.
Speaker 4 (44:53):
It was like it was this this concentrated aim to
capture the Latino market. It's born out of capitalism, like
and sometimes it it it makes it sound like a monolith.
But at the same time, like so many of us
also like benefit from the cultural exports of Latin Like
it's fun, you know what I mean. Like sometimes it's
(45:14):
just like it's it's sure Shakida went blond after the
Latino boom, but also like she's had some bangers, Like
it's not like, oh my god, it ended. It's such
a tragedy she fell into the Latini that trap. It's
like we also we love Shakira, like I'm going to
a concert this year, Like you know, it's it's just it. Yeah,
(45:40):
I don't think it's like a negative or a positive,
Like it's just it's a nuance sort of. Yeah, the relationship.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Shakida also and I don't know if she gets this credit,
but she would produce albums or create albums in English
and Spanish, you know, and each the lyrics weren't like
translated word for word, they had their own meaning in
each language, which I think is something really profound and
unique about the artistry that Shakida does. I do want
to ask you, because we've talked about all these like
(46:12):
household big names, Ricky, Martin, Shakira, do you think there
are any Latinos Latina's LATINX artists from the early two
thousands that maybe don't get the shine that they deserve
and were influential at that time.
Speaker 4 (46:26):
I do think, for example, that Christina Aguilera was painted
as a sort of like empty pop princess with the
big voice, and sometimes I feel like we don't give
her the credit for like advancing pop the way she did,
(46:47):
like the way you know. So I'm I'm a Cristina
Aguilera stan And yeah, I agree with you about Shakida,
Like I there's no songwriter like her, like she's a poet,
she's a lyricist, like we we love her artistry. But yeah,
(47:07):
I think I'd have to give it more thought on
like the unappreciated early ATS artists.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
I'm sure that, like like us, you're probably online, you
see you see what the kids are posting and things
that are are in style and are popular right now.
And something that's been very popular to our surprise, I think,
is the way that some of the aesthetics of the
early two thousands have like come back into vogue, but
(47:33):
like things that I wouldn't expect, like ed hardy.
Speaker 3 (47:36):
Like I pants, cook.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
Pre pants, you know, like things that we wore, things
that were cute. And the way that things get remixed
and brought back into to the current moment and integrated
into modern fashion trends is really interesting to me. And
I'm wondering why you think that this time period right
now is like a throwback that's coming back. Why is
(47:59):
this like standing out to folks, this particular aesthetic and
time period.
Speaker 4 (48:05):
Yeah, I think there's a few reasons. I think one,
it's like the natural cycle of fashion, right like we
do see the sort of tried and true like twenty
year cycle, you know, like when I was young, the
eighties were a thing, you know, in like the two thousands,
because it's like twenty years ago, and so I do
think like it's just naturally like that time it's due.
(48:27):
But I also think there's like a nostalgia for a
sort of like the simplicity of the two thousands. So
it was like right in the eve of like the
proliferation of social media, you know, so like people weren't
like chronically online the way they are now. And I
do think, like, as a nineteen eighty five baby, like
(48:51):
you know, this generation, the sort of millennial generation was
akin to like the generations that experience it's like pre
industrial revolution and post industrial revolution, or like pre agriculture
and post agriculture, like something that like revolutionized civilizations as
(49:11):
a whole. And I do think that like this was
this was the information revolution, you know, and we were
never the same, like not just as a society, but
like as a civilization, as human beings after the information revolution,
like the proliferation of the internet, social media, like the
connectedness that we feel now. And so I think there's
(49:36):
like a nostalgia for that, you know, for like the
simplicity of that.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
Yeah, I think we are the last generation, at least millennials,
that remembers a time before the internet. Right, we still
had dial up, Our phones were flip phones. You know,
there was a time where we weren't that plugged in
the way that the generations after us are and there
I agree with you that there's this almost simplicity that
I think folks are craving.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
Now.
Speaker 2 (50:03):
I've seen a couple different writeups of folks saying they
are they have a quote dumb phone now, you know,
so they like ditch their smartphone and they're using like
a phone, like a flip phone, like a regular phone
that has no Internet, no social media like capabilities. And
so I do think that there is this like yearning
(50:23):
and nostalgia for a time before the Internet.
Speaker 4 (50:26):
Yeah, for we all want our analog era.
Speaker 2 (50:30):
You know.
Speaker 4 (50:30):
It makes me sad that like the younger generations like
they'll never have an analog era, you know, unless obviously,
like you're very proactive with giving your children that. But yeah,
it's it's it's I think it's craving that that nostalgia.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
Something that we talked about last season was why did
j Low hate now? Right at this juncture to kind
of shift a little bit, but also take it back
to something you were talking about earlier. You know, Jaylo
had a huge moment when the Selena movie came out,
and it just launched her into the stratosphere and so
(51:10):
much happened, like in her career over the course of
these past twenty years or more. And I'm wondering from
your perspective, what you think about that cycle from blowing up,
being beloved, making her mark on music, on entertainment, on
Latinidad to now this era that we're in where she's
still going super strong. I mean, she has not stopped performing,
(51:32):
she has has not stopped making headlines. But I think
that some of the attitudes maybe I don't remember if
there was like negativity, you know, towards her when she
was first coming out, but the attitude seemed to have
shifted dramatically around Jlo. And I wonder why you think
that is and if you've observed that.
Speaker 4 (51:50):
Oh totally. Well, first of all, like Jlo is a diva,
right like, and some people just will never stand a diva,
you know what I mean, Like it's just it's yeah,
And so I think there's just naturally that And also
(52:11):
like there are you know, there are moments like interviews,
you know, like in the historical record that Jlo has
given where she doesn't come across as like super charismatic.
You know, there was that like interview I think it
was for was it for vibe or interview magazine, and
(52:32):
it was in the early odds where she gave this
gathing interview where she talks shit about everybody in Hollywood.
She said Gwyneth Paltrow was not a good actress. She said,
like she was like but she the thing is, she
was like, I take my craft super seriously, like has
that one? And I don't understand why people, you know,
(52:52):
like like actresses who don't. So I think there's a
little bit of that, like some people, like, you know,
it's just gonna be hard when a woman is like
not super humble, and that's just like a part of
the patriarchy and society, Like people have a hard time
accepting women who are confident and a little bit of
(53:16):
shit talkers, and like j lo Is has talked her shit.
Speaker 1 (53:21):
From the years.
Speaker 4 (53:23):
I think there's that. I also think there's like very
legitimate critiques of her engagement with black artists and black songwriters,
and you know, the sort of concerns that she has
like really overstepped the ethical lines in terms of like
(53:44):
taking some some of the singing in recordings and passing
it off as her own and like not giving credit
to black women, and like that's that's very real, and
so I think she just has like a naturally sort
of like very checkered legacy. You know I was I
(54:06):
was never like a hardcore j Loo fan. I was
never like super into her for all of those reasons.
But I have to tell you this, this last project
she did, the like video film like steampunk, like super meta,
let me talk about my life and all my weddings.
(54:26):
And I loved it. So I ate it up. I
did yes Eva, like give it to us, like. I
loved how self referential it is. I loved how indulgent
it is. I love how seriously she takes herself as
an artist, the way she's like, I'm creating art and
Ben knows it. I'm like, yes, baby, like you are
(54:48):
an artist and we're better for it. Like I I
love this era of Jlo like and so yeah, I
think she just has like a really sort of like
complex legacy. But ultimately, like I stand a diva and
you know, I really enjoy her. I do think, you know,
(55:10):
like I always love when like Mariah Carey is like
I don't know her, like one diva like beeping with
the other diva, like who's more diva? But yeah, overall
I've really come around.
Speaker 2 (55:22):
To j LO. It's really good lore, the diva lore.
So you know, we're in the series, we're talking about
the early two thousands, and of course we have to
look at current day and Latinos LATINX artists have clearly
continue to be influential in American culture and continue to
make their market media and entertainment. Do you see positive
(55:44):
changes from the early two thousands to now or how
do you view this current moment of Latinos and media
and entertainment.
Speaker 4 (55:53):
Yeah, I mean I think it's a mixed bag.
Speaker 1 (55:55):
Right.
Speaker 4 (55:56):
On one hand, Absolutely, there's so much progress, like the
fact that we can have somebody like Bad Bunny who's
like not trying to make himself translatable and not trying
to make himself palatable, not trying to make himself even
legible to a sort of like white mainstream audience, and
(56:16):
he can still become like the most powerful, like global
pop icon in the world without contorting himself to like
a white gaze. My like little nineteen eighty five brain
is still like blown away from that, you know what
I mean, because that was the opposite When I was
growing up, it was all about like assimilation, making yourself legible,
(56:39):
So in that sense, like I love it amazing. I
think in film and TV we still have a little
bit of a ways to go, Like there is it's
sort of checkered, you know, Like I saw the study
that like, you know, Latinos are just like overall overwhelmingly
miss underrepresented and like film and TV and we've known
(57:00):
that for a while, and then sometimes the portrayals we
do have or like a little cringe, you know, like
the the the contrived spanglish, you know, and that's become
like a meme like you know, are you gonna come
and eat my awilitas? You know, like and to me,
like I'm craving stuff about Latinos that doesn't cent her
(57:24):
Latini that that's not about love. Look how Latino we are? Mmmm,
that's not about like performing our cultural identity, but that's
just about like exploring our humanity and like, oh and
we happen to be Latino and like not to say that,
like our identity isn't always like informing us in some way.
But I want something like more subtle and universal, that's
(57:47):
not super heavy handed, that doesn't feel like, oh, this
is the Latino show about love. You know, I'm craving
a little bit of that, but you know, I do
think there's progress and there's more.
Speaker 2 (57:59):
To be made. Amazing love. Thank you so much, this
was such a fun conversation.
Speaker 1 (58:04):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (58:07):
Of course, Thank you again to Maria Garcia for joining
us today. We'll catch you next time. Loka Mories Bessitos.
Loka to A Radio is executive produced by viosa Fem
and Mala Munios.
Speaker 1 (58:20):
Stephanie Franco is our producer, story editing by Me diosa
creative direction by Me Mala.
Speaker 2 (58:27):
Look At Radio is a part of iHeartRadio's Michael Dura
podcast Network.
Speaker 1 (58:31):
You can listen to lok A Radio on the iHeartRadio
app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (58:36):
Leave us a review and share with your Prima or
share with your homegirl.
Speaker 1 (58:39):
And thank you to our locomotives, to our listeners for
tuning in each and every week.
Speaker 2 (58:43):
Besitos
Are your ears bored? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Are you looking for a new podcast that will make
you laugh, learn, and say get Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Then tune in to Look At Though Our Radio Season ten.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Today, Okay, look at Our Radio is a radiophonic novella,
which is just an extra way of saying a podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Season ten of Look At Thought Our Radio is totally nostalgic.
We're diving in with a four part series about the
Latinos who shaped pop culture in the early two thousands.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
But that's not all.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Season ten is also launching in the wake of LA
wildfires and a new Trump presidency. As always, we're leaning
into community by conducting critical interviews with people leading the
efforts to rebuild LA and fight back against oppression.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Tune in to Look at Our Radio Season ten. Now
that's what I call a podcast. Love with every listen.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Right at your fingertips.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Loga Olao la Loka Modes. Welcome to season ten of
Loka Tora Radio. I'm Viosa and I'm mala. Loka Tora
Radio is a podcast dedicated to archiving our present and
shifting the culture forward. You're tuning in to Capitro Docentositres
(01:24):
two twenty three and.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
This is the first episode of season ten, and oh
my god, we have missed every single one of you,
all of our dear listeners out there. Thank you for
rocking with us and for tuning in for another season.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Last time we spoke to you, our dearest listeners are
Locomotives was November and it feels like we've all lived
a million years since then. The last episode came out
right after the election, so we couldn't actually unpack and
debrief and talk about everything that's transpired. And this season,
(02:01):
of course, how can we not cover the impact of
the Trump administration, because hello, look at everything going on.
And also around the same time, the wildfires in Los
Angeles broke out and there's been ongoing recovery efforts, so
you can expect us to cover all of that this season,
in addition to our regular analysis of current events, pop culture,
(02:24):
and of course, killer interviews.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
We already have some killer interviews lined up this season
before the season has even launched. This season is going
to be a little nostalgic, totally nostalgic, if you will,
but we're also going to be doing what we do
best is talking to members of our community who are
making a difference in rebuilding LA after the recent wave
of tragedy that we've been experiencing here.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Before we launch into our formal episode, we want to
take some time to celebrate this big milestone because it's
the tenth season, nine years of LOK, ten seasons later,
and we're still here, and this is our fourth season
with iHeartRadio's Mike Utura podcast Network.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I still remember when we signed and what it meant
to us, and to be here four seasons later, still
with Michael Duras, still with iHeart, still putting out beautiful
podcasts for our listeners out there, for our community. I mean,
it's huge. There's not a whole lot of LATINX hosted
podcasts that have been around for this long. Raduo Ambulante
(03:31):
has been around for a very very long time, and
they've been doing an incredible work Latino USA, of course,
But as we've talked about over the years and over
the seasons, you know, there have been some indie shows
that we love and whose hosts we love, and we're
just happy that we're still kind of like carrying the torch.
You know, we're not quite so India anymore, but I
(03:52):
think we still have that spirit within us.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
We're really not indie anymore, or I guess technically we're
not indie, but we're still a very small team of three.
If you look at other network shows, they have multiple
dozens of people on their team. All you have to
do is listen to their show credits and you can
hear all of the people that make an incredible show possible.
And I think, like to your point that the indie spirit.
(04:17):
We're making a great show with a team of three,
with support of the network, of course, but who's handling
the daily operations, what goes into the show the post
production is a team of three.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yeah, well, and mostly a team of two. It's mostly
you and Stefani Franco. Shout out to Stephanie Franco, are producer, editor,
who makes all of this possible for us. It's true,
it's a small team, small but mighty, and I think
that that's what's helped also to keep the integrity of
the show and our energy, like our core.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, there's not too many cooks. You know, we're cooking,
we're chopping it up. We're doing what we need to
do week after week. And I think you're right. There
have been some think a lot of positive improvements and
changes over the years, really refining what we do. And
I think this year we also on the theme with nostalgia.
We kind of want to bring back some of the
(05:11):
energy from the early seasons pre network, maybe when our
frontal lobe head and fully developed. You know, we're trying
to bring some of that energy back, but in a
more refined way. But when we were reflecting on producing
season ten and what we were going to talk about,
we realized we're not really sharing a lot about ourselves anymore. No,
because the heart of the show is the community, the
(05:34):
folks we interview, the women and fems, we interview, the archive.
I think, even now under the context of the new administration,
the wildfires, archival work, audio archival work is so so important,
and I think what we're going to try to do
this season is sprinkle a little bit more of ourselves
in the ways that we did in the early days.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
You know. Yeah, no host stories though, no, those are
out of those, we just don't have them any higher.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
You're fresh out of those, I've been out of those.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I'm fresh. I'm fresh on the other side. But yeah,
you know, it was a different time, literally and not
only in our lives. But I feel like in the
social media space and in the podcasting space, and so
it made a lot of sense back then to like
share our personal stories. We were going out so much,
(06:28):
we were so active, there was always something going on
with us. So there was something personal that we just
like had to share on the show. A lot of ranting,
a lot of raving. It was like it was. It
was chaotic good. It was chaotic good, I would say
those early episodes. And I appreciate that space and I
feel like we needed it, which is why we did it,
(06:50):
and I think why it resonated with so many people now.
The stories are stories outside of ourselves that we connect to,
that we relate to somehow now that touch back on
our communities. But we're not necessarily making our personal lives
the center of the show. No, And I'm okay with that.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I'm okay with that too, And I think this season
we do want to sprinkle a little bit of that
in there, but it won't be the central focus of
the show like it wasn't the early days. And yeah,
I think we're both okay with that very much.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
So. I also, just as I see like this kind
of general community feedback about the latine voices that are
out there that are sometimes getting the most attention or
that are the loudest. There seems to be a desire
for more, more depth, you know, things that are more complicated,
(07:42):
things that are bigger. And I think that sometimes it's
just really easy to sort of peddle your own story
and make that your content and make that your brand.
But I think that as we've developed as artists, as
we've developed by going back to school and launching new shows,
like what I sex said, I feel like we want
(08:02):
that too, Like we want depth, we want nuance more,
I get less and less interested in myself, you know, Like, yes,
as time goes on, I want to know what else
is out there that we can bring to the listeners.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I think we've always treated the podcast, of course as
an audio archive, but also audio art.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
And something our producer Stephanie and I were talking about
today is that because there's so many podcasts and kind
of the ones that pop off aren't necessarily creating audio art. No,
they're just talking into a mic and they're saying what
they got to say, which is cool, but that's not
what we do here. And so in some way there's
like almost like a devaluing of like what podcasts can
(08:45):
do and the links that they can go. And it's
kind of like this, Oh, everybody has a podcast, which
is true, lots of people have a podcast, but I
don't think a lot of artists or a lot of
host and producers treat it like the art that it is,
at least the ones that have like popped off in
in multiple ways, right, And so I think that's what
we continue to try to do here is make it
(09:06):
the audio art, make it accessible, make it fun, do analysis,
and tell a good story.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Don't go anywhere, lokomotives.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
We'll be right back, and we're back with more of
our episode. And on that note, we are going to
bring in a little bit of ourselves this week, and
we're going to introduce a new segment instead of rosen Thorn.
This is Climax or Cry. What was your climax of
(09:38):
this week and what made you cry this week? This
is our check in. This is our segment. I'll get
us started this week. My climax. I'm taking a trip
for spring break. I'm going to apply it all. Carmen
with the love of my Life. Also flash update, news flash, I.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Should say yeah, can you like tell I mean, I know,
but can you tell the listener a little bit about
your kind of new relationship, at least new to the audience.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yes, my whirlwind romance. So I'm madly in love y'all.
As I've told Yosa multiple times. My my goose is cooked.
It's double deep fried, laid to the side. I'm stuffed.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Can I interject and say that this is not the
tortilla chip air, which I think people have kind of
still assumed is a thing, But I just want to
clarify that it's not.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yes, yes, yes, not the tortilla chip air. The tortilla
chip air doesn't exist. That was a fable.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
It was a really good fable that got the people going.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Thank you, thank you. It caused quite a stir. No,
this is a real person, a real man. He's a
living man.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
That's a real man.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
He's a real man. He has his uh, his fingerprints
and a social Security number.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yes, he's like a real person who contributes to society.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
I love all of that's You're like your barometer for
a real person. He has a social and a fingerprint.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yes, fingerprints, they have not been burned off yet. He's
not like fleeing the law.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
That's good to know.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
He's not a sovereign citizen. He's he's a real boy
and he has a job, and so we love him.
We're we've been like taking trips and stuff, and so
we're going to be going to Mexico for spring break.
We also got a secret pet together, and I'm not
at liberty to say more, so we'll just leave it
at that. And at school, I'm producing a documentary which
(11:24):
has been going really well. We wrapped our five weeks
of principal photography. Producing a documentary has been very interesting,
very eye opening. I have learned a lot about the
differences between documentary and scripted, very different. And here at
look at Thought. We've been talking about making a look
at Thought I documentary for a long time, so I
(11:44):
feel like more equipped now more than ever, to like
start talking about that again.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
So that those have been my my climaxes of the week.
And then my cry. The thing that made me cry
this week is that my cute pink washer dryer combo
isn't working and I need to replace a part. It's
such a to do, it's such a conundrum, it's so annoying.
I have to like use the community washer dryer in
(12:12):
my building, and it's horrible. There's someone in my building
with like a big white dog who does a lot
of shedding and this particular tenant, and I know who
they are because I've seen this dog, this particular tenant.
I'm also noticing that they have used all of the
washing machines because the white dog hair is in all
of the washing machines. It's horrible, it's a tragedy. It
does make me cry. But luckily I'm climaxing a lot
(12:36):
more than crying this week, so it all evens out.
How about you, THEOSSA. What's your climax? What's your cry?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I'm so glad you get to climax.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Good for you, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Okay. My climax of the past month, and I guess
a couple of months, is that I've been training for
the LA Marathon. And that is a climax for me
because I love it. It gives me endorphin, it gives me
a rush, it gives me a purpose, it gives me
all the things the community, and this is my second
time that I'm running the LA Marathon, so I finally
(13:08):
feel like a marathon or because the first one. I
was like, let's see if we can do it, and
let's see if we actually like it. I may not
do it again, but I'm doing it again. And I
actually am scheduled to do another marathon over the summer,
so I'm like, really in this right now. So that's
definitely a climax for me. Second is that I launched
a sub stack, and that's kind of exciting. It's very fresh.
(13:32):
I kind of just ideated over the last couple of
the last month and was like, I'm just gonna do it.
Because I have a tendency to sit on things, especially
if it's my own project or personal I'm like, h
I just put it to the side a lot most
of the time, and so I just thought, let me
put it out there and work with it and see
what happens. And I have seventy five subscribers already, which
(13:55):
is exciting because I only have one post amazing, so
I'm like, cool, let's let's see, let's see where this goes.
It's really for me. I'm using it as a creative
exercise to just write and put it out there and
just maybe get feedback, maybe not, but really just exercise
that creative muscle, writing, muscle without the pressure of pitching.
(14:16):
That's a big thing for me.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Yes, it's just your craft. Yeah, just working at your.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Cracking out my craft writing. That's it.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
And what is the name of your substack.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
It's called an Ahna all of my life by my family.
This is a little known fact if you do not
know me in real life, and most, I would say
a lot of my friends don't actually know this. Mala
knows this. But my kind of nickname in my family
is like in a Hona. I'm like a little angry
girl basically, and I've been called that because I'm you know,
(14:50):
I'm like no secret, I'm like sensitive, I get irritated,
I get mad, you know. And as an adult, I've
realized how my anxiety manif fest as youried ability. So
it wasn't that I was angry or in an Ohona.
I was just anxious, you know. Yeah, And so I
think I'm just using that space to kind of explore
(15:11):
that and just another way to reclaim something that's you know,
kind of meant to make you feel bad or meant
to like make you feel like you're being too sensitive
or you're too much, and just play with it and
have fun with it.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
So like growing up where people like, oh, we're not
going to talk about this because she's gonna get mad. Yes, yes,
I hate that.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yes, And it's definitely more of like a immediate family thing,
like even my I don't think my extended family knows
this about me. I'm sure they can say, oh, yeah,
she has those characteristics, but I wouldn't say that even
my broader extended family kind of knows that this was
like my household thing, my name, and it was more
so my mom. Because moms can do that to you.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
They're allowed. They're allowed because they they're the ones who
tend to get the brunt of it.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
They do, they do. I will say, my mom has
gotten the brunt of my like my meanest self, you know,
and I'm not trying to be mean, but it comes
out and then also the best side of myself, you know.
I think that our moms kind of they have they
have that because they're the moms. They get that card.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yes, my mom definitely gets that from me too, unfortunately,
but because she's my safe person.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Yeah, yeah, you know that that love is really unconditional,
I mean, at least from our moms, right, like they
they will tolerate our shit sometimes.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know about your mom's out there,
but our moms, moms are great.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
We can't speak for all the moms we know relations
with the moms can be complicated, but definitely from our
moms we get some some good unconditional love with them,
with the side of critique and criticism and some meanness
and eating disorders yea, all that Latina daughter stuff. But yeah,
there's some good stuff in there too.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Mostly good stuff, mostly good. It's like when you go
to Ross.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Being a mom is like going around Yeah, yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Like having a mom is like going to Ross. It's like,
there's a lot of good stuff here. Sometimes it might
be a little messy, sometimes you have to do a
little digging. But it's a lot of good stuff, and
it's very reasonably prized. It's very accessible.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Yes I can, I can, Yes, I can agree with that.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
I My mom would be so offended if she heard
me say that.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
But you know what I mean, I get what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
The quality is there. You're gonna find stuff that's gonna
get you through the year. You're gonna find school shoes.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Your mom would definitely be mad at this analogy.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
But it's okay because she loves me in condition it's fine. Yeah,
fun so climax A cry, this will this will continue episode.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
And my cry for the week. I've decided to not
share that one. It's too much. It's too much and
I will cry, So I'm gonna keep that one close.
But we'll be bringing this back week after week. I think. Yeah,
let us know what you think.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah, just yeah, sometimes the cry is just too sad,
too sad, can't share it. We go through things to
you guys.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Yeah, yeah, we struggle, and normally, once I've worked through them,
I'm more likely to share them. But right now it's
just too fresh, fair fresh. And I'm actually writing something
about it for the substack because it just feels like
I can write this, I can't say it real. It's
because I will cry if I say it, so maybe
i'll link it if I end up putting it, putting
(18:22):
it out. But yeah, TVD love it.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Thank you for not sharing.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Don't go anywhere loco motives.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
We'll be right back, and we're back with more of
our episode.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
So if you're a longtime listener, you know that we
have an OG segment.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Called yeah so we are continuing that segment this season.
We loveas sometimes our listeners provide us with questions that like, wow,
amazing question. I would have never thought of this. You
are now listening to. Oh yeah, the.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Question is any advice on how to get your spark back? Don't?
I don't know if I even know who I am anymore.
And when I read that, I wanted to hug this person.
So I'm sending you a really, really big hug, and
let's talk about this.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Well, I guess there's a couple different things. So one
the idea of having a spark is like, oh, like
your spark and it's what makes you, I don't know,
like joyful and energetic, and it's the thing that makes
you bright and shiny. And I don't I think sometimes though,
I think about myself and like my sparkiest self in
(19:44):
my life, in my time, and sometimes I'm like that
spark actually needed to set a wildfire and burn everything down,
Like that spark needed almost to be destructive in order
for me to like rise like a phoenix from the
like that spark. I don't actually need that specific spark
(20:05):
back anymore, because that spark was was meant to ignite
and like clear a path for something new and better
and doper to emerge. So for me, just from my
own personal experience, I don't think that I've ever necessarily
wanted to like get back to an old version of me. Rather,
(20:28):
I've like appreciated her, loved her, and took my lessons
and I'm like moving on, you know, and building something stronger.
That's how I think about a question like this, And
what do you think, Yosa, how would you answer this question?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Well, I am a little crazy, so and I say
that to myself with love. I am someone that will
start a project, whether that's creative, physical. There's a reason
I'm always fucking moving like either tennis, gym, running, like
(21:11):
I'm always doing something physical, and for me, that is
how I stay grounded. And I think for me, what
I've learned that the physical stuff is really just about
being in your body and being in my body and
feeling connected to my body, and it can help with
when you're having like a rough mental health time a
(21:32):
season where you're feeling low or you're not feeling like yourself.
For me, movement has really been healing for that reason.
And I agree, I don't think that sometimes we do
want to get back to these versions of ourselves that
don't exist anymore. And I think about that now as
a woman in her thirties, where I look at photos
of myself from my twenties and I look at that person,
(21:54):
that version of myself, and I think like, wow, this
version was so beautiful and so insecure, felt like there
was so much to change about herself, and was always
trying to be skinny, Like I've really been thinking about body,
my own body, and like chasing skinny, this idea of
thinness for most of my life, practically all my life.
(22:17):
And I think this is the first season of my
life where I'm not chasing that anymore. And it's kind
of scary because as our bodies change, we know that
people can be mean to us, right because they expect
us to be this like small version of ourselves. And
tie that with social media, tie that with the current climate,
(22:38):
and how like the ozembic body and the early two
thousands are back in terms of skinniness and thinness, and
so it can feel like so much pressure. But I
look back at that version of myself and I think, like, wow,
you were so sad, you were so happy in so
many ways, but there was a lot of sadness there,
and you had so much growing to do. I feel
like ten years from now, I'm going to look back
at this version of myself and think something similar like, Wow,
(23:01):
you were chasing something that you didn't need to be chasing,
or while like look at how happy you were, or
look at how beautiful you were, and you were feeling
so insecure. I feel like we're always we're doing that
because like society has made women be hard on ourselves.
And so just going back to this idea of a spark,
I think that, like there's so much that we learn
(23:24):
in darkness, and there's so much that we learn in light,
and sometimes we're in like a dark season and sometimes
we're in our light and just like letting ourselves be
in that moment and know that like those seasons don't last,
you know at all?
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Yeah, they come and go. There's seasons, there are seasons.
There are seasons. It's seasonal, and that's so true. Beauty
is truly lost on the young. I mean I go
through the same experience looking back at old photos of
myself and like, what was I so worried about? Yeah,
what was I being so critical of? Like I looked
a maze. Yes, I looked amazing. Yes, And you just
(24:04):
cannot appreciate it while you're in it.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Something that I tell myself now, like when i'm feeling
you know that that that inner critic of like while
you're aging, like you're looking older. But I'm saying it
to myself in a mean way, I remind myself, like, oh,
the older I get, the more I look like my mom.
Am I going to be mean to my mom? To
my own mother. No, I tell my mother she's beautiful.
(24:27):
I tell her she looks amazing. I tell her she's
like that outfit is so cute, you know, Like I'm
not mean to her, I'm not her inner critic. And
so I've kind of been rephrasing it that way for
myself and just thinking of how it is such a
beautiful thing to get older, and we're made to feel
bad about it, women specifically, And so yeah, I know,
(24:49):
I know I'm only in my thirty so on the
grand scheme of things, I'm still very young. But I
think as I've been in entering this decade, I've really
seen like how much like the twel and the youth
are like the main character. Oh yeah, for society, for life,
for culture in the US at least. Yeah, and I'm like, oh,
(25:09):
we're not. That's not us anymore. For better or for worse,
depending how you look at it.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
It's a lot less pressure. Yeah, it's a lot less pressure.
And even just thinking about so I like went shopping
for my vacation and just even thinking about like the
sheer number of outfits we were constantly buying, yeah, for
every weekend, something new, every week and something new.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
We didn't realize we were participating in fast fashion at
the time.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
And we were wheeling. We were fast fashion.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
We were doing it. We didn't realize. We're like, oh,
we're shopping at these little boutiques. It was fast fashion.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Yeah. I mean we looked cute.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, we served lugs.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Always a new look, always a new look out on
the town. I mean it was fun. And that that
I can say so proud of myself for allowing myself
in my twenties. I allowed myself to be wild and
to be free. I mean I was free, honey, I
was free. And I'm so happy that I gave that
(26:07):
to myself and that I had that, because once it's over,
it's over. Yeah, you know, And then after it becomes
like a midlife crisis stuff. Right, if you do it
when you're in your forties and fifties, it's a crisis.
You're supposed to behave those ways when you're in your twenties.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
You know, you can do it at any age, I think.
But I get what you're saying. So it's like, culturally,
it's like, oh, if you if a woman starts partying
in her forties, it's because she's having a midlife crisis.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yes, she's in a state of crisis. And that doesn't
have to be the case. I mean, you know, everybody,
you do what you do, and who knows what the
future holds for for for any of us or for me.
But yeah, I will say that is beauty was completely
lost on me in my twenties. I don't think I
appreciated it for the right reasons. I think I was
more appreciative of like what it could do for me, Yeah,
(26:53):
like what it could get me. But I don't think
that I truly like embodied, Like I don't think that
I was comfortable in it, you know, But I am
grateful that I gave myself like that decade, Yeah, to
be a mess, Yes, and to learn.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Same. Yeah, same, And I think for this person too,
like lean on your friends, like let your friends know
that you are feeling like not yourself right now. And
I think that your friends will remind you who you
are lovingly right, and they will tell you who you are.
And I think that's really important to have, whether that
(27:30):
be family or friends. Have people in your life that
are going to remind you who you are, why you're
so important, why you're important in their life, and that
you're not alone.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Yeah, and embrace what's new, Embrace what's ahead. Yes, it
might be way better.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
When I left my residential care job, my boss who
was like my thea you know, and we still talk
here and there, but she was very much like a
maternal figure in my life. On my last day, she
gave me a sign that she had in her office
and it said, don't look back, You're not going that way. Yeah.
So sometimes I just look at that and I remember
who I was in that moment when I left that job,
(28:04):
and how everything felt so hard and then things got
so good. Yeah, you know, I made space for new things.
So I hope that that can be the case for
this listener.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
So thank you, Thank you for that question. This has
been Ail and Lochaz and if.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
You want to submit a question and get an answered
on the next episode, you can email us, send us
a DM or leave a voice memo on our website
on our little speak pipe on the side.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Don't go anywhere, lokomotives.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
We'll be right back and we're back with more of
our episode. And now for our brand new series. This
is a limited series for season ten and it's called
Totally Nostalgic. It's a four part series about the Latinos
who shaped pop culture in the early two thousands.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
When thinking about this season, well, for some time, mol
and I have been in talking about some of the
artists that we remember growing up with and just really
wanted to pay them homage and talk about them and
talk about what the US Latinos specifically we're doing to
shape pop culture and of course Latin Americans. There was
(29:17):
the Latin boom of the two thousands. There were so
much that was happening, and we wanted to just dedicate
some time and create a series to talk about that,
to talk to experts, to talk to some of the
artists that shaped pop culture at that time.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
I know, for me and for you like, especially on Instagram,
Like somebody that we looked at that were dying to
have on the show is like Apollodianda. You know, part
of this series is our own curiosity about where are
they now? Because we were listening to these artists, the
paladiandas the Prima Jays, you know, Cattaluna, et cetera, et cetera.
(29:54):
We were watching TV. We were watching Mundos and MTV
thres and you know, Keto Miskin says, so there are
these folks who were really creating culture and art for
us back in the day that we were loving and
some of them are not as active as they once were.
Maybe they've made a shift in their careers, but personally
I want to know what they're up to and what
(30:15):
are they doing. I'm also curious as far as this series,
like what parts of the two thousands are really are
like really being brought back. You know, I think that
there's a nostalgia wave for the two thousands right now.
Like when we were kids. I think, like, I don't know,
I feel like hippie stuff was like was like our
(30:37):
throwback stuff that we would wear.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
There was like a bohemian nostalgia for like the fringe,
and I also kind of see the fringe coming back.
But yeah, I hear what you're saying. There was like
this bohemian like quote hippie aesthetic resurgence that we all wanted.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Yeah, at that time it was very boho.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Yes, and so Oh Ho Sheikh was a part of
the two thousands.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Bok was a big part of the two thousands. So
now the youth, they're like nostalgia and the ways that
they're dressing up from the past. They're wearing ed hardy,
you know, I'm seeing like tiktoks where they're talking about
what we were really wearing back then, like the big
owl pendants and those like flared what were those pants,
(31:21):
those like gaucho pants, and like the little Chinese slippers
and like it's interesting to see what gets popular and
then what were we actually doing, right.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yeah, so we're going to be exploring the fashion, the music,
the artists, the TV, the nostalgia of it all with
this series called Totally Nostalgic. To kick us off, we're
joined by Maria Garcia and we were so excited to
bring Maria on to have this conversation because you can
talk about the early two thousands and the wave of
(31:53):
Latino artists without recognizing the impact of Selina Quintania and
Maria Gotta. Sia now is the creator and host of
Anything for Selena, a podcast by W B U R
and Futuro Studios that examines the life and legacy of
Selena Quintania. She's also the host of the podcast My Vivo,
(32:13):
which is about the life of Juan Gabriel and how
it relates to her own personal story. Maria is also
a queer Chicana who listens to Selena like all of us,
when she needs some motivation. So joining us today is
Maria Garcia. We hope you enjoyed this interview your pretty
(32:36):
MUD's favorite podcast.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
My name is Maria Garcia, and I'm the executive editor
of Futuro Studios and the creator and host of Anything
for Selena and My Divo Amazing.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
So let's just get started by talking about some early
memories you may have from the early two thousands and
if you feel that they influenced you in any way.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
Oh my god. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
So.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
First of all, I was born in nineteen eighty five,
so I'm I'm like a I'm a millennial, you know,
and sort of like hitting the geriatric millennial. So in
like two thousand, I was fifteen years old, and so
it was like a very formative time in my adolescence,
(33:32):
in my development. And so this is sort of like
what's happening in my life and in the greater culture
at this time. So the Selena biopic is released in
nineteen ninety seven, and so you know what happens when
the Selena biopic is released. Jennifer Lopez comes into the scene,
and you know, she'd been an artist before, but this
(33:53):
is her big, big break. She goes from you know,
a sort of like emerging niche artist to like a
kid almost to like a household name. And you know,
Abraham Pythenia, Selena's father, likes to tell this story about
how when she got on stage and they were like
doing the astrodome scene, Selena's mother, Marcella, looked at Jennifer
(34:19):
and said, oh my god, it looks like just like her.
She even has Selena's bombies. And then Jennifer Abraham says
that Jennifer like heard that, and then she's like, He's
like and ever since then she never stopped talking about
what So I do remember like the shift in the
early two thousands, So the biopic comes out in ninety seven,
(34:44):
Jlo blows up. She's on magazine covers. Latina Magazine launches
with Jlo as their cover girl. People in Espanol launches
after they released the Selena Commemorative issue after her death,
and they're like, whoa Latino's are interested in media that's
about them, So suddenly you have like media that is
(35:05):
specifically catered to Latinos first through fourth generation Latinos. And
then Jlo comes into the scene and she revolutionizes from
Selena's legacy, like body politics in the United States and
voluptuous bodies, particularly like big Darrires go from being really
(35:27):
like derided to really like coveted and celebrated via Jlo
in the early two thousands. And then this is the time,
right in the eve of the early two thousands, you
have the Latin boom from Jlo. Then comes Ricky Martin.
You know, there's like Shakira starts starts emerging, and so
(35:48):
you have what like media critics called the so called
Latin boom and essentially like the birth of modern Latinida
with all of its like fantasy and myth and problems
and yeah, that's what I remember from like the early
two thousands is I remember like the Latin boom being
(36:08):
in full place. I remember j Lo, I remember juicy sweatpants.
I remember like the big sunglasses. I remember like nude,
glossy lips. I remember like thin eyebrows. Yeah, that's the landscape.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
If you had to pinpoint maybe one factor that really
describes those Latin artists and that Latin boom at that time,
was there something like a through line, a commonality, something
distinct about that music that work those figures in that
time period that really stands out to you, that makes
(36:49):
it gives it its personality.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Hmm. That's a great question. You know, this was at
a time when this idea of the crossover was very
prominent in music media, like can these Latin artists crossover
into English markets? And so it was about it was
(37:14):
a sort of like latinid that that was like be
fiery and Latin but also palatable you know to uh
sort of like mainstream audiences. So it was I don't
want to say that it was just a white gaizy
performance of Latinida, because I think there was some authenticity
(37:36):
to some of the art coming out around this time.
I don't think these artists were just like only motivated
by how to crossover, Like I think they were also
interested in creating their art that was in some way
authentic to them. But there was there was a difference
(37:57):
between like what we now think of Bad Bunny, who's
you know, The New York Times interview him and he's like,
what do you think of audiences that can't understand you?
And He's like, I don't care. You know, that was
not the thinking in the early two thousands. The early
two thousands was like crossover be Latino, and it was
(38:18):
sort of like a little like fiery, a little stereotypical
performance of Latinida, but.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Also be.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
Like palatable and desirable to a wider i e. Audience,
white audience.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Do you think that could have influenced the way everyday
people then embodied Latini?
Speaker 4 (38:40):
Dave, Yeah, I mean I do think look like there
was sort of like a collective identity forming, you know,
and this was like pre two thousands, Like even with Selena,
for example, Like I do genuinely believe that Selena was
(39:00):
sort of like the the beta, like the first sort
of like proto artist that birthed what would be later,
what would evolve into like what we now know as
modern Latini da And I do think that Selena's art
was authentic and not performative, Like Selena was never trying
(39:24):
to be palatable to a white audience. Even in her
like crossover she was she was singing like you know,
R and B infused music that she grew up with,
you know, like that was authentic to her, Like it wasn't.
She wasn't like contorting herself to a gaze. And so
I do think, you know, I can speak for myself,
(39:46):
Like I remember the switch, for example, Shakira in early
two thousands, she goes from you know, I remember late
ninety there was like Biazscalzos and it was like black
hair Shakira, and then in the early two thousands she
transitioned to blonde hair. And I remember thinking like, oh,
(40:08):
this is a phase. And then it was a phase
that like never ended, like we never got black hair
Shakira back. And I think that's I think that's an
example of like the kind of formation that happened in
the early two thousands, you know what I mean, Like
it was she was still Shakira, but she was like
(40:31):
blonde hair Shakira singing in English, and yeah, like I
do think it it formed. It was identity forming for
so many of us, you know, because like what we saw,
what we see in the media often gives us permission
to like exercise a part of our identity. And so yeah,
(40:53):
I think it would be naive to say, like, oh,
that sort of like Latini Dad myth making didn't penetrate
into us at an individual level, like I think it
absolutely did.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
I'm also thinking, like naming all these different artists, They're
all coming from such different places. Ricky Martin is Puerto
Rican and Selena is was it the Hannah, And then
you have even like elehnadl right at that time, from Panama,
and then even all the way up to like Christina
Aguilera who came from the Mickey mouse Club. I mean
she wasn't raised at the Mickey mouse Club, but practically
(41:25):
right so, with Ecuadorian roots. And I'm just wondering, like
all these different artists from different places, Shakira being Colombian,
how did that then form kind of like this umbrella
of like a blanket Latini Dad, but very different influences
and cultures and coming from very different backgrounds. Each of
(41:45):
these artists, but contributing to one like Latin Boom and
what did that kind of do to our idea of
who we are as a people.
Speaker 4 (41:54):
Well, I do genuinely believe that, like, uh so much
of it started with Selena, like after Selena passed well,
first of all, like so you know, when we think
of Selena, for example, she was singing Mexican American roots music.
You know that's essentially like what the Henno is. It's
(42:14):
like centuries old Mexican American roots music. And then Selena
comes and makes this regional roots music go global and
suddenly like people all over Latin America are listening to
this this music this is was just like Mexican American
folk music, and so that like opened the pathways for
(42:43):
sort of like a like cross cultural exchange around like
different Latino ethnicities. But you know, it's always I think
like there are two truths here. Like one is that
there's like an authentic sharing of culture for sure, Like
(43:05):
I am a Mexican American who only went to Puerto
Rico for the first time in my adulthood, and yet
I grew up with such an appreciation and love of
Puerto Rican culture and music because like the export from
Puerto Rico to the world is so vast and beautiful
(43:26):
and rich, you know what I mean. Like, and I
grew up like loving in Canada when I was a kid,
you know, and like in every family party, like in
Canada was you know, playing every cousin of mine had
a crush on Cheyan, you know, Ricky Martin was so
(43:47):
beloved too. And you know, I know so many people
from the Caribbean who tell me, like I grew up
loving Selena, you know, and lots of bookis and so
like there's always been like authentically like pre the modern
notion of Latini that there's always been like an authentic
(44:07):
like solidarity among Latinos through our music and our art
like that that has nothing to do I feel like
with the the structure of like Latinia and the media.
But I do think that like once that sort of
like Latin boom became a thing that was like that
(44:29):
was turbocharged and and look like it's not people people
like to I don't think Latinia is like a it
is what it is like, it's not a villain and
it's not a hero. It's not like all like oh solidarity,
you we're all Latinos. But it's also not like, oh
my god, it's the root of all our evil, like
(44:50):
it's it's it's you have to like recognize it for
what it is.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
You know.
Speaker 4 (44:53):
It was like it was this this concentrated aim to
capture the Latino market. It's born out of capitalism, like
and sometimes it it it makes it sound like a monolith.
But at the same time, like so many of us
also like benefit from the cultural exports of Latin Like
it's fun, you know what I mean. Like sometimes it's
(45:14):
just like it's it's sure Shakida went blond after the
Latino boom, but also like she's had some bangers, Like
it's not like, oh my god, it ended. It's such
a tragedy she fell into the Latini that trap. It's
like we also we love Shakira, like I'm going to
a concert this year, Like you know, it's it's just it. Yeah,
(45:40):
I don't think it's like a negative or a positive,
Like it's just it's a nuance sort of. Yeah, the relationship.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Shakida also and I don't know if she gets this credit,
but she would produce albums or create albums in English
and Spanish, you know, and each the lyrics weren't like
translated word for word, they had their own meaning in
each language, which I think is something really profound and
unique about the artistry that Shakida does. I do want
to ask you, because we've talked about all these like
(46:12):
household big names, Ricky, Martin, Shakira, do you think there
are any Latinos Latina's LATINX artists from the early two
thousands that maybe don't get the shine that they deserve
and were influential at that time.
Speaker 4 (46:26):
I do think, for example, that Christina Aguilera was painted
as a sort of like empty pop princess with the
big voice, and sometimes I feel like we don't give
her the credit for like advancing pop the way she did,
(46:47):
like the way you know. So I'm I'm a Cristina
Aguilera stan And yeah, I agree with you about Shakida,
Like I there's no songwriter like her, like she's a poet,
she's a lyricist, like we we love her artistry. But yeah,
(47:07):
I think I'd have to give it more thought on
like the unappreciated early ATS artists.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
I'm sure that, like like us, you're probably online, you
see you see what the kids are posting and things
that are are in style and are popular right now.
And something that's been very popular to our surprise, I think,
is the way that some of the aesthetics of the
early two thousands have like come back into vogue, but
(47:33):
like things that I wouldn't expect, like ed hardy.
Speaker 3 (47:36):
Like I pants, cook.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
Pre pants, you know, like things that we wore, things
that were cute. And the way that things get remixed
and brought back into to the current moment and integrated
into modern fashion trends is really interesting to me. And
I'm wondering why you think that this time period right
now is like a throwback that's coming back. Why is
(47:59):
this like standing out to folks, this particular aesthetic and
time period.
Speaker 4 (48:05):
Yeah, I think there's a few reasons. I think one,
it's like the natural cycle of fashion, right like we
do see the sort of tried and true like twenty
year cycle, you know, like when I was young, the
eighties were a thing, you know, in like the two thousands,
because it's like twenty years ago, and so I do
think like it's just naturally like that time it's due.
(48:27):
But I also think there's like a nostalgia for a
sort of like the simplicity of the two thousands. So
it was like right in the eve of like the
proliferation of social media, you know, so like people weren't
like chronically online the way they are now. And I
do think, like, as a nineteen eighty five baby, like
(48:51):
you know, this generation, the sort of millennial generation was
akin to like the generations that experience it's like pre
industrial revolution and post industrial revolution, or like pre agriculture
and post agriculture, like something that like revolutionized civilizations as
(49:11):
a whole. And I do think that like this was
this was the information revolution, you know, and we were
never the same, like not just as a society, but
like as a civilization, as human beings after the information revolution,
like the proliferation of the internet, social media, like the
connectedness that we feel now. And so I think there's
(49:36):
like a nostalgia for that, you know, for like the
simplicity of that.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
Yeah, I think we are the last generation, at least millennials,
that remembers a time before the internet. Right, we still
had dial up, Our phones were flip phones. You know,
there was a time where we weren't that plugged in
the way that the generations after us are and there
I agree with you that there's this almost simplicity that
I think folks are craving.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
Now.
Speaker 2 (50:03):
I've seen a couple different writeups of folks saying they
are they have a quote dumb phone now, you know,
so they like ditch their smartphone and they're using like
a phone, like a flip phone, like a regular phone
that has no Internet, no social media like capabilities. And
so I do think that there is this like yearning
(50:23):
and nostalgia for a time before the Internet.
Speaker 4 (50:26):
Yeah, for we all want our analog era.
Speaker 2 (50:30):
You know.
Speaker 4 (50:30):
It makes me sad that like the younger generations like
they'll never have an analog era, you know, unless obviously,
like you're very proactive with giving your children that. But yeah,
it's it's it's I think it's craving that that nostalgia.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
Something that we talked about last season was why did
j Low hate now? Right at this juncture to kind
of shift a little bit, but also take it back
to something you were talking about earlier. You know, Jaylo
had a huge moment when the Selena movie came out,
and it just launched her into the stratosphere and so
(51:10):
much happened, like in her career over the course of
these past twenty years or more. And I'm wondering from
your perspective, what you think about that cycle from blowing up,
being beloved, making her mark on music, on entertainment, on
Latinidad to now this era that we're in where she's
still going super strong. I mean, she has not stopped performing,
(51:32):
she has has not stopped making headlines. But I think
that some of the attitudes maybe I don't remember if
there was like negativity, you know, towards her when she
was first coming out, but the attitude seemed to have
shifted dramatically around Jlo. And I wonder why you think
that is and if you've observed that.
Speaker 4 (51:50):
Oh totally. Well, first of all, like Jlo is a diva,
right like, and some people just will never stand a diva,
you know what I mean, Like it's just it's yeah,
And so I think there's just naturally that And also
(52:11):
like there are you know, there are moments like interviews,
you know, like in the historical record that Jlo has
given where she doesn't come across as like super charismatic.
You know, there was that like interview I think it
was for was it for vibe or interview magazine, and
(52:32):
it was in the early odds where she gave this
gathing interview where she talks shit about everybody in Hollywood.
She said Gwyneth Paltrow was not a good actress. She said,
like she was like but she the thing is, she
was like, I take my craft super seriously, like has
that one? And I don't understand why people, you know,
(52:52):
like like actresses who don't. So I think there's a
little bit of that, like some people, like, you know,
it's just gonna be hard when a woman is like
not super humble, and that's just like a part of
the patriarchy and society, Like people have a hard time
accepting women who are confident and a little bit of
(53:16):
shit talkers, and like j lo Is has talked her shit.
Speaker 1 (53:21):
From the years.
Speaker 4 (53:23):
I think there's that. I also think there's like very
legitimate critiques of her engagement with black artists and black songwriters,
and you know, the sort of concerns that she has
like really overstepped the ethical lines in terms of like
(53:44):
taking some some of the singing in recordings and passing
it off as her own and like not giving credit
to black women, and like that's that's very real, and
so I think she just has like a naturally sort
of like very checkered legacy. You know I was I
(54:06):
was never like a hardcore j Loo fan. I was
never like super into her for all of those reasons.
But I have to tell you this, this last project
she did, the like video film like steampunk, like super meta,
let me talk about my life and all my weddings.
(54:26):
And I loved it. So I ate it up. I
did yes Eva, like give it to us, like. I
loved how self referential it is. I loved how indulgent
it is. I love how seriously she takes herself as
an artist, the way she's like, I'm creating art and
Ben knows it. I'm like, yes, baby, like you are
(54:48):
an artist and we're better for it. Like I I
love this era of Jlo like and so yeah, I
think she just has like a really sort of like
complex legacy. But ultimately, like I stand a diva and
you know, I really enjoy her. I do think, you know,
(55:10):
like I always love when like Mariah Carey is like
I don't know her, like one diva like beeping with
the other diva, like who's more diva? But yeah, overall
I've really come around.
Speaker 2 (55:22):
To j LO. It's really good lore, the diva lore.
So you know, we're in the series, we're talking about
the early two thousands, and of course we have to
look at current day and Latinos LATINX artists have clearly
continue to be influential in American culture and continue to
make their market media and entertainment. Do you see positive
(55:44):
changes from the early two thousands to now or how
do you view this current moment of Latinos and media
and entertainment.
Speaker 4 (55:53):
Yeah, I mean I think it's a mixed bag.
Speaker 1 (55:55):
Right.
Speaker 4 (55:56):
On one hand, Absolutely, there's so much progress, like the
fact that we can have somebody like Bad Bunny who's
like not trying to make himself translatable and not trying
to make himself palatable, not trying to make himself even
legible to a sort of like white mainstream audience, and
(56:16):
he can still become like the most powerful, like global
pop icon in the world without contorting himself to like
a white gaze. My like little nineteen eighty five brain
is still like blown away from that, you know what
I mean, because that was the opposite When I was
growing up, it was all about like assimilation, making yourself legible,
(56:39):
So in that sense, like I love it amazing. I
think in film and TV we still have a little
bit of a ways to go, Like there is it's
sort of checkered, you know, Like I saw the study
that like, you know, Latinos are just like overall overwhelmingly
miss underrepresented and like film and TV and we've known
(57:00):
that for a while, and then sometimes the portrayals we
do have or like a little cringe, you know, like
the the the contrived spanglish, you know, and that's become
like a meme like you know, are you gonna come
and eat my awilitas? You know, like and to me,
like I'm craving stuff about Latinos that doesn't cent her
(57:24):
Latini that that's not about love. Look how Latino we are? Mmmm,
that's not about like performing our cultural identity, but that's
just about like exploring our humanity and like, oh and
we happen to be Latino and like not to say that,
like our identity isn't always like informing us in some way.
But I want something like more subtle and universal, that's
(57:47):
not super heavy handed, that doesn't feel like, oh, this
is the Latino show about love. You know, I'm craving
a little bit of that, but you know, I do
think there's progress and there's more.
Speaker 2 (57:59):
To be made. Amazing love. Thank you so much, this
was such a fun conversation.
Speaker 1 (58:04):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (58:07):
Of course, Thank you again to Maria Garcia for joining
us today. We'll catch you next time. Loka Mories Bessitos.
Loka to A Radio is executive produced by viosa Fem
and Mala Munios.
Speaker 1 (58:20):
Stephanie Franco is our producer, story editing by Me diosa
creative direction by Me Mala.
Speaker 2 (58:27):
Look At Radio is a part of iHeartRadio's Michael Dura
podcast Network.
Speaker 1 (58:31):
You can listen to lok A Radio on the iHeartRadio
app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (58:36):
Leave us a review and share with your Prima or
share with your homegirl.
Speaker 1 (58:39):
And thank you to our locomotives, to our listeners for
tuning in each and every week.
Speaker 2 (58:43):
Besitos
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