Highlighting stories by, from & about the Puerto Rican community.
Latest Episodes
Political activist, José Cha Cha Jiménez, who also held the positions of President & Chairman of the Young Lords, joins us for this episode along with Young Lords Scholar, Jacqueline Lazú, PhD. In this episode, we sit down for a rare, uninterrupted long-form interview about the The Young Lords, also known as the Young Lords Organization.
Jessie Fuentes returns to the show to discuss the impact of Hurricane Fiona on Puerto Rico, the storm exposing a decades-deep issue, and how you can support disaster relief efforts.
Jessie Fuentes returns to the show to discuss the impact of Hurricane Fiona on Puerto Rico, the storm exposing a decades-deep issue, and how you can support disaster relief efforts.
It's time for some Puerto Rican history! Long time listeners know these are some of our favorite episodes to do because they give us a chance to learn alongside you. This time, we’re focusing on the 1966 Division Street Riots in Chicago - the first riot in the United States attributed to Puerto Ricans.
In this bonus episode, we’re sharing a press conference from the House Committee on Natural Resources, which oversees insular affairs for the United States, including the affairs of Puerto Rico. What you'll hear in this press conference is a historic announcement from congressional members, who have supported two opposing bills that address Puerto Rico’s status.
The press conference will tell you more, but to give you a high level view, US House lawmakers announced today that they have come to a compromise and are working on legislation that, if passed, would trigger a binding referendum on Puerto Rico’s political status. The proposal would require Puerto Ricans to choose from three options: independence, statehood, or sovereignty in free association with the US. What makes this different from past referendums is that it would be binding - meaning that it would require Congress to act on the referendum regardless of the outcome.
Mónica Feliú Mójer, Ph.D. joins the show today. She is a scientist, science communicator & project lead for the Aquí Nos Cuidamos, which is an award-winning community engagement project that promotes COVID-19 prevention and the well-being of vulnerable and marginalized communities in Puerto Rico through culturally relevant multimedia education, community engagement, science and solidarity.
We discuss her work on the Aquí Nos Cuidamos project, the realities communities in Puerto Rico face when trying to gain access to life saving information from the science community, and how she has navigated microaggressions as a Boricua in the science field.
Happy Earth Day! In this episode, we show love to Puerto Rico’s ecology with a ton of fun facts that show just how naturally amazing la Isla is. Press play to learn about PR’s national flower, how wet El Yunque can get, the way Taíno’s used Ceiba Trees, native and not-so-native animals, and a whole bunch more.
Puerto Rico's newest debt restructuring plan has been met with harsh criticism, but you would never know it reading most of the mainstream media coverage of its approval. Marisol LeBrón and Sarah Molinari published an opinion piece in Truthout challenging the mainland press narrative that the plan is one of the best things to ever happen to Puerto Rico. In this episode, we take a deep dive into their article to look at who wins and who loses in this new debt plan. We also discuss their work with the Puerto Rican organizations, PR Syllabus and the Puerto Rican Studies Association.
If Puerto Rico became independent, what would happen to its economy? Some fear Puerto Rico would self-destruct, but author Javier A. Hernández has a different take. In this episode, we sit down with Javier to discuss how a sovereign Puerto Rico could potentially be economically sustainable.
Puerto Rican marine biologist Melissa Cristina Márquez has appeared in places like Forbes, Good Morning America & National Geographic. Her next stop? Our podcast! Listen to this episode to learn more about Melissa's work, shark myths, the reasons shark research is lacking in Puerto Rico, obstacles preventing more Latinas from entering the STEM field & more!
For this bonus episode, we’re sharing a Facebook Live panel discussion from Power 4 Puerto Rico. The topic of discussion is on the State of the U.S. Colonies. Listen in to hear from leaders, scholars, and activists from American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands on the major challenges these colonies face and how to be an ally in struggles for land rights, food sovereignty and more.
Author J.L. Torres discusses his latest book Migrations, Roberto Clemente being confronted with racism & writing about the Puerto Rican diaspora. Migrations is a collection of stories focused on selected moments in Puerto Rican history & their impact on everyday people. In the second half of the show, we break down the latest Puerto Rican News, including Sofia Jirau becoming the first Victoria's Secret model with Down Syndrome and the continuation of the worker protests on la Isla.
Have you ever heard of the Black Code policy that passed in the 19th century in Puerto Rico? Educator Nina Vázquez has studied this topic extensively & stops by the show to give us a little history lesson on this awful racist law. You won't want to miss out on the deep dive into a moment of Puerto Rico's history. Stay tuned for the end of the show when Joshua & Kim break down the latest Puerto Rico news, including the massive worker strikes happening on la Isla right now, the anti- privatization protest in Ocean Park known to many as Wepapalooza, and JLo's and Bad Bunny's recent magazine photoshoots.
For this bonus episode, we’re sharing a Facebook Live panel discussion from our friends at Power 4 Puerto Rico. The topic of discussion is Puerto Rico’s recently approved debt restructuring plan that the US colonial board - La Junta - imposed on Puerto Rico. We talked about the new debt restructuring plan and its faults in our last episode and took a deeper dive on our Instagram page - @paseopodcast - as to why this new plan could lead to devastating effects down the road for la Isla. But what we’re sharing today will provide a more in-depth unpacking of the details of the plan.
Author Xochitl Gonzalez stops by the show! She has worn many hats - entrepreneur, wedding planner, tarot card reader. Now, people are loving her work as an author with her debut novel, Olga Dies Dreaming. We cover a lot of ground in this interview, including the ways her novel explores Puerto Rico's status issues, class dynamics, gentrification, and the questioning of the American Dream. We also discuss the cast, which includes actors Aubrey Plaza and Jesse Williams, and a deleted scene from her upcoming HULU pilot based on Olga Dies Dreaming.
Sonia Manzano has gone from teaching us our ABCs & 123s on Sesame Street to highlighting #PuertoRican culture in her new children's show, Alma's Way, on PBS. We sit down with the 15x Emmy winner and accomplished author to discuss Alma's Way, her early experiences as one of the first Latinas on TV, Willie Colón visiting her home as a kid, and what being Puerto Rican means to her.
How are young Puerto Ricans changing in their views on Puerto Rico's status? Are they leaning toward independence, statehood or keeping the current common wealth status? And - across age groups - where do the demographics fall or rise in support for PR's political parties? Insider Senior Reporter Gwen Aviles joins the show to discuss her recent reporting on this topic and researcher/MIT Undergrad Francisco Proskauer Valerio breaks down the available data to give us insight into the ideologic shifts occurring on La Isla.
Considering all of the stories coming out of Puerto Rico & by Puerto Ricans, why a remake of West Side Story now? In this episode, we sit down with 3 Latina academics to reflect on & analyze the impact of the production over the past 60+ years.
We’re going to talk about Puerto Rican food in this episode. The underlying theme in our conversation surrounds the question - Is Puerto Rican food healthy? And by that we mean...how do we think about our food? Do we only look at it as fast food? Why do we eat the food we eat today? Are we ignoring other parts of our ancestral history in trying to maintain what we feel is the “right way” to make Puerto Rican food today? And - are we challenging ourselves enough to think of different ways that elevate the way Puerto Rican cuisine is presented without losing that same great flavor?
Today we welcome Yari Vargas - executive chef and owner of Casa Yari in Chicago - to discuss these questions and more. We’re also going to hear about her journey to becoming a small business owner, what being Puerto Rican and Honduran means to her, and her Puerto Rican food recommendations for people who want to be a bit more health conscious ahead of the holiday dinner season.
It's a packed episode today! First, we welcome Denise Ruiz and Cristina Guitirrez to the show. They are the founders of The Honeycomb Network - a holistic co-working and co-creating collective care sanctuary centered and focused on the BIPOC community. We learn more about their organization, and we cover a lot of ground on things like knowing your worth, opening their space during the pandemic, creating spaces for people to address their generational trauma and personal healing. They also share a story of dealing with people in the neighborhood, who don’t take too kindly to what they do and their mission, which has led to the repeated vandalization of their space.
Then we welcome returning guest, freelance journalist from Puerto Rico, Carlos Berrios Polanco, to discuss the controversial bill known as PC1003 that recently became law in Puerto Rico. It’s basically a law that takes care of La Junta and vulture capitalists and takes away from pensions, education, and public services that working people benefit from so deeply.
In a historic leak, the Pandora Papers revealed that wealthy people have billions of dollars hidden beyond reach in tax havens around the world - AND Puerto Rico banks, celebrities & more are involved. Journalist Luis Valentín has been doing some great reporting on this story for Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, so we invited him on the show to help us make sense of it all.
Puerto Rico residents are PISSED over consistent power outages happening in Puerto Rico since LUMA Energy - a private Canadian-American company - took over la Isla's electricity on June 1, 2021. We welcome Nicole Acevedo, NBC News and NBC Latino reporter, and Carlos Berríos Polanco, a freelance independent journalist focused on covering extremism, political corruption and civil unrest in Puerto Rico, to the show to discuss what the heck is going on.
The Puerto Rican Festival begins today through September 26! It’s been going strong for 39 years, but was once at risk of not happening in 2019 due to the unethical stewardship of the committee in charge at the time that ended in the organization filing bankruptcy. The group of community leaders we have on today’s show actually stepped up during that time to organize the fest successfully within less than 2 months.
They had to be scrappy then and they needed to be scrappy this year, not just because of the pandemic, but because they are starting from square one. They're showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon, so we're happy to welcome them to the show to talk about how they are elevating the experience for festival gowers compared to previous years, what you should keep in mind if you want to start a community event of your own for your neighborhood, and their thoughts on what it means to be Puerto Rican.
Being a small business owner can be tough, and the pandemic has only made things harder, especially for BIPOC owners. On today's episode, we welcome Boricua small business owner, Rachel Diaz, to the show. She is the owner of a Puerto Rican Bakeshop called Borinken Cakes. She’s a working mother of two, who - before getting into the baking business - had a career in product design with products appearing on the shelves of retailers like Target, Michael's, and Joann Fabrics. When she entered the baking industry, she went from baking at home, to operating out of a mall kiosk to now owning two storefronts. We’re going to talk with Rachel about what it took for her to start her own business, the challenges she faced as a small business owner, and of course, the wonderful world of Puerto Rican desserts!
What’s up everyone! It’s good to be back in action. In today’s episode we get the Paseo Podcast team together to talk about a ton of Puerto Rico news that we either missed or wanted to talk about while we were on break. We’re going to talk about Puerto Rican athletes, Jessica Camacho-Quinn and Amanda Serrano, Puerto Rico as a tax haven through the lens of Jake and Logan Paul, climate change and Puerto Rico, and Lin-Manuel Miranda and our responsibility as BIPOC folks to tell our stories.
On today’s show we welcome Nicole Alvarez. She's the Co-Founder & Coordinator of Actívate PR, which is a collective dedicated to bringing awareness to the importance of Puerto Rican independence from a present day lens. We’re going to discuss predatory gentrification in Puerto Rico today. There’s been a number of news stories over the years bringing attention to the policies contributing to the pushing out of Boricuas on the island in favor of affluent individuals, mostly white, to move to Puerto Rico. Some examples include the Jones Act, la Junta, privatization, tax laws like Act 60 and others. So, we’re going to talk to Nicole about some of these policies and how they are impacting the island as well as what the Puerto Rican government is doing to combat gentrification...HINT - NOT MUCH!
On today’s show we welcome Dr. Sara Awartani. We're going to talk about settler colonialism and armed struggle within the context of Puerto Rico and Palestine, examples of Puerto Rican and Palestinian solidarity, and hear some of her literary suggestions on where people can begin to educate themselves on Puerto Rico and Palestine independence. She is a Global American Studies Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History. An interdisciplinary U.S. social movement historian, her research, publications, and teaching interrogate twentieth century Latinx and Arab American radicalism, interracial solidarities, policing, and American global power.
On today’s show, we welcome Ali Six. He is a multi-medium artist from Chicago. Among other things, in today’s episode we’re going to discuss the role Aladdin & Michael Jordan played in his name, his 3 key takeaways for aspiring artists he’s learned in his career, what getting arrested meant for his trajectory in the Chicago art scene and where in the diaspora the Jibarito was first created.
We’re going to discuss a recent essay from the Center for American Progress, titled An Urgent Rescue Plan for Puerto Rico. In the piece, one section was dedicated to the 8 actions the executive branch should take to aid Puerto Rico. We’re focusing on that part of the article in this episode. Make sure you stay tuned till the end when we discuss obsessions and favorite PR food spots. We don’t know how we managed to do it, but we got a Bennifer mention in there.
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The Paseo Podcast is hosted by Joshua Smyser-DeLeon, a Chicago-born Boricua with a love for all things Puerto Rican.
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“This is a wonderful podcast that gives a platform to importing voices. I love the format of the podcast. The host asks thoughtful questions that shows a sincere level of engagement while giving the guest space to tell their story.”
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Our Partners
Join us in celebrating a monumental moment - the 100th episode of the Paseo Podcast! Over the past four years, we've embarked on an incredible journey, dedicated to spotlighting stories by, from and about the Puerto Rican community. Since the beginning of our podcast project, it’s been a true honor to be part of our community's narrative.
This episode marks not just a milestone, but a tribute to the resilience, vibrancy, and diversity that define our community. Thank you for being part of our story!