A partnership between #WeAllGrow Latina and LatinaMedia.Co
‘IN THE HEIGHTS’
Dominating our feeds, In the Heights was everywhere this month. In #TheLatinaPress, so much virtual ink was spilled – we rounded up 12 film reviews by Latinas before the film even came out! And that’s not counting interviews like Refinery29’s Ariana Romero talking to Leslie Grace or Monica Castillo profiling Melissa Barrera in The Cut.
But the interview that arguably made the biggest splash was The Root’s Felice León, talking to director Jon M. Chu and the two female leads. It launched a deep and needed conversation about colorism within the film and our community that’s still going.
THE ‘T’ IN PRIDE
June was also Pride Month and we loved celebrating our LGBTQ+ community, particularly seeing folks uplift genderqueer Latinx excellence. For Elite Daily, Rhyma Castillo interviewed three third-gender activists about how ideas around gender, Indigenous traditions, and colonialism all intersect in their lived experiences.
Over at Remezcla, Jhoni Jackson profiled Villano Antillano and her latest music video, writing “Inside the flamboyant femme walls of the track’s video, released late last week, the dolls — including prominent Puerto Rican trans figures and artists — are wholly in control.” And Juanita Ramos Ardila took the immigration angle in her piece, “No Justice, No Pride: Trans Activists Call for End to Immigration Detention Abuses.”
IMMIGRATION AND THE NEW ADMINISTRATION
It may seem like a million years ago, but in June Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Guatemala and told people there “do not come.”
All sorts of Latinas fired back, notably journalist Maria Hinojosa and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortéz who said, “the US spent decades contributing to regime change and destabilization in Latin America. We can’t help set someone’s house on fire and then blame them for fleeing.”
But that wasn’t the only bit of immigration news this month with Harris traveling to the border later to ostensibly make amends. Meanwhile, Carmen Sesin and her colleagues at NBC Latino still have to report stories like this one: “Asylum-seekers, attorneys decry ‘horrendous’ Louisiana ICE detention center.”
FEATURED BYLINES
How My Small Business Survived the Pandemic
By Araceli Cruz, The Americano
A Miami Family’s Agonizing Wait After the Surfside Building Collapse
By Stephania Taladrid, The New Yorker
10 Lessons We Learned from Our Favorite Latino Dads on TV
By Shayne Rodriguez Thompson, HipLatina
