Alt.Latino

Alt.Latino

The global Latinx community is evolving and growing fast. Alt.Latino is here to celebrate it and all of its nuances through music. Each episode, NPR Music's Felix Contreras and Anamaria Sayre sit down with a different living legend or rising star to discuss Latinx culture, heritage, and the shared borders of our experiences. Let the chisme begin! Support NPR and get your music exploration sponsor-free with Alt.Latino+. Learn more at plus.npr.org/nprmusic

Episodes

El futuro es Milo J

May 6, 2026 • 30 mins
I've been dying to interview Argentine artist Milo J ever since he came to NPR earlier this year to perform at the Tiny Desk. The 19-year-old started his career as a trap artist, but his latest album, 'La Vida Era Más Corta,' mines Argentine folklore to present a bold vision of his country that resonates deeply with younger generations. That Tiny Desk was just released -- and became one of our fastest-growing shows ever -- so we fi...
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Flamenco meets Música Mexicana

April 29, 2026 • 27 mins
Fusion is at the heart of so much of the music we cover - especially on this week's episode. Flamenco producers descend on Hermosillo to experiment with regional Mexican music. Young Argentine artists blend trap with folk and rock en Español. A sunny Rio sound is born in Spain. Plus, a New Mexican string band, an Afro-Brazilian collective and an exploration of Latin roots from Cypress Hill.  

Artists and albums featured in...
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Argentine indie, Venezuelan reggaeton and punk from San Antonio

April 22, 2026 • 29 mins
This week's new music show spans the breadth of Latin America. Argentine indie artist Paula Prieto goes experimental. Venezuelan reggaeton pioneers Chino y Nacho return to the limelight. Brazilian singer Marina B reminds Felix of The Beatles. Guatemala's Doctor Nativo pays homage to the "caminantes" heading north to find a better life. Plus, Latin punk from San Antonio, and a celebration of Afro-Cuban legend Arsenio Rodriguez.
...
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Jorge Drexler returns home

April 15, 2026 • 31 mins
Jorge Drexler is one of the most decorated singer-songwriters in Latin America. His albums are always high profile events, and his latest record merits the attention. It's called Taracá, and to make it he returned home to his native Uruguay - after living in Spain for 30 years - to explore the roots of an Afro-Uruguayan tradition known as candombe. On this week's episode we chat with Drexler about the motivation for returning to hi...
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Sonic Bloom: Fresh, funky new tracks from Rio, Granada and more

April 8, 2026 • 31 mins
Listen to this episode out in the springtime air. It starts with a bucolic jaunt through Brazilian guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento's latest orchestral project, then finds La Plazuela's fresh Spanish funk and Macha's irreverent side project. Other sounds along the way: Caribbean pop from Venezuela, feel-your-feels indie from northern Mexico and an electronic spin on the indigenous Náhuatl language.

See pcm.adswizz.com for i...
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Dominican indie, Peruvian cumbia and experimental Argentine pop

April 1, 2026 • 32 mins
Two phrases spoken during this week’s episode stand out because they represent how Ana and I approach our searches for new music. The first: “The only limit is the imagination.” In my constant hunt for the sound I have never heard, this thought is my mantra. The new music we’re bringing this week really steps up to that challenge, from young upstarts like Broke Carrey to beloved veterans like Draco Rosa.

The second phrase?...
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Songs she loves: Sofia Rei and the magic of the human voice

March 25, 2026 • 27 mins
From the very beginning of Alt.Latino, female vocalists have captivated us the most -- and New York-based Argentine vocalist Sofia Rei has been high on our list of favorites for a while. She uses the human voice like paint on a canvas, layering voices to create choirs that take flight at the mere suggestion of a melody. On her new album Antónima, she not only creates magic with her own voice but also collaborates with some Alt.Lati...
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A Tejano master gets his flowers. Plus, Yahritza y Su Esencia returns

March 18, 2026 • 31 mins
This week's new music pairs well with a glass of wine - or, at least, that's what Ana chose while taping this happy hour edition of Alt.Latino at Felix's dining room table. And the music on tap spans a huge breadth of styles. Yahritza y Su Esencia returns with a powerful sophomore album after a spell out of the limelight. Brazilian legend-in-the-making Lucas Santtana collaborates with his mentor Gilberto Gil. Ana Tijoux revisits he...
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If the singer falls silent, life falls silent: The female power anthem hall of fame

March 11, 2026 • 34 mins
International Women's Day is more than a perfunctory holiday in many parts of Latin America. In Mexico City, for example, more than 120,000 people turned out on Sunday to protest femicide and celebrate the ongoing fight for basic rights for women in the country. In honor of the holiday, this week's episode debuts our female power anthems hall of fame, highlighting women in Latin music whose art challenged the status quo of their ti...
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From church basement to salsa immortality: Remembering Willie Colón

March 4, 2026 • 25 mins
On Feb. 21, the musical world lost a legend and pioneer of salsa: Willie Colón.

The trombonist, songwriter, producer and arranger was a key part of the transition of Afro-Caribbean dance music from regional traditions to worldwide popularity. For an insider’s perspective on that history, this week we speak to trombonist and bandleader Angel “Papo” Vázquez, a Philadelphia-born musician who was not only inspired to play the ...
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Chicano soul, Canary Islands merengue and a percussion supergroup

February 25, 2026 • 29 mins
This week on Alt.Latino, it's another new music episode with a global panorama: Canary Islands merengue, Chicano soul, Afro-Brazilian roots and more. Plus, a percussion supergroup that Felix could listen to for hours.

Featured artists and albums:

(00:00) Introduction
(00:55) Quevedo, 'NI BORRACHO'
(05:02) Joey Quiñones, 'In a Soul Situation'
(12:24) Carolina Mama, 'Amina'
(15:31) Elipsis, 'Elipsis'
...
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A Brazilian summer and a lost Mexican masterpiece

February 18, 2026 • 33 mins
So, I was away for a bit and the new music just piled up during the holidays, and while we were watching Bad Bunny make headlines at the Grammys and the Super Bowl. Our first new music episode of the new year has quite a variety of styles from lots of different countries. We could say that about just about every new music show we produce. But what are we to do when the amount of creativity that comes our way pretty much overwhelms ...
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Puerto Rico takes the field at the Bad Bunny Super Bowl

February 11, 2026 • 33 mins
Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show was many things: a time-traveling journey through the history of Puerto Rico, a statement of pan-American unity, and a masterpiece of cultural expression. This week, co-hosts Felix Contreras and Anamaria Sayre are joined by Isabella Gomez Sarmiento — who brings on-the-ground reporting from San Juan — to unpack the symbolism embedded in Bad Bunny's performance.

See pcm.adswizz.com for in...
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Bad Bunny makes history at the Grammys. Up next, the Super BBowl

February 4, 2026 • 37 mins
Last Sunday, Bad Bunny's 'DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS' became the first exclusively Spanish language album to win album of the year at the Grammys. This coming Sunday, the Puerto Rican megastar will perform at the Super Bowl halftime show. For this week's episode, Anamaria Sayre and Isabella Gomez Sarmiento chat about what these two moments mean for Bad Bunny, the island of Puerto Rico, and the role of Latin music in America more broadly....
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Venezuela speaks: Producer Ella Bric spins songs with a 'teardrop of optimism'

January 28, 2026 • 31 mins
This month we’ve been looking at the music of Venezuela from a lot of different angles. For this episode, we’ve invited trumpet player and producer Ella Bric to be our guest DJ. She shared what she thinks are the most socially, culturally and politically impactful pieces of music to come out of Venezuela in the last half century.

Ella Bric grew up in a migrant-rich town in Venezuela called San Antonio de los Altos, surroun...
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Rawayana on their new album and a changing Venezuela

January 21, 2026 • 26 mins
Sometimes life imitates art - or at least the two can seem eerily connected. On Jan. 1, the Venezuelan band Rawayana released a new album, '¿Dónde Es El After?,' which began with a lyric that many interpreted as a wish for their country's leadership to be gone. A few days later, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was ousted from power and seized by American forces. For this week's episode, we chat with Fofo Story and Beto Monteneg...
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Our Love Letter to Bob Weir

January 14, 2026 • 28 mins
Over the weekend, we lost a musician who shaped the lives of countless people: the late, great Bob Weir. He was a founding member of the Grateful Dead who played guitar, wrote and sang in the band for 30 years. After Jerry Garcia died and the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir kept the spirit of the music alive for three more decades, creating new Deadheads for generations to come — he brought John Mayer, Billy Strings and even ...
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Music as protest in Venezuela

January 8, 2026 • 26 mins
Venezuela has a deep tradition of reflecting political change through music. This week, as the country reels from the seizure of its president by American forces, we explore the recent history of Venezuelan protest music, and from the Nineties right up until the present. First, we share an excerpt of an episode we made at another moment of political turmoil in Venezuela, in the summer of 2024. Then, we'll walk up to the present and...
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What We Missed In 2025

December 17, 2025 • 31 mins
The sheer volume and variety of Spanish-language music released every year is breathtaking. Even those of us with our ears to the ground are bound to miss things. So, in this episode we travel back through the year to resurface some of the remarkable albums that somehow didn't make it on the show. Catch Afro-Caribbean jazz, a history-spanning classical strings project, the return of Juana Molina and much, much more.

Artist...
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What Were Felix and Ana's 2025 Favorites?

December 10, 2025 • 34 mins
This year was bookended by two major statements in Latin music. In January, Bad Bunny released DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, and followed that up with a 31-show residency in Puerto Rico over the summer. Then, in November, the Spanish vocalist Rosalía released her genre-defying masterpiece LUX, which sent legions of music lovers scrambling to try to grasp the magnitude of an album performed in 13 different languages.

But they were ...
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