BOSTON — It is the 107th week of The Latino Newsletter, and I am at the point where I am as excited about our future as I am focused on how we get to a third year next year. The good news is that we are getting donations during a time when running a nonprofit journalism site has been challenging, and I am also excited because we will be launching American Colony in less than two weeks, on July 4.
As we start rolling out the episodes, I wanted to share my initial thoughts. We are an incredibly small team, but the dedication and belief in this series is real. I did not think this series would move me to the point where I realized that creative dreams can be fulfilled. As I have said before, I have always wanted to produce something about Puerto Rico directly tied to how I have covered it as a journalist. I thought it would have been a book, or even a play, or even a novel one day. But over the last 20 years, as I learned more and more about audio storytelling — a craft that at times has both intimidated me and made me a stronger journalist — American Colony has always been in my mind and my heart.
Now it is close to becoming a show for the public to listen to and react to. As with any creative project, I am nervous, but that is expected. I will continue to share more about the why behind this series, but for today’s edition, I want to list out all the episodes and the producers who have delivered, and will continue to do so throughout the summer. I am deeply proud of all of them. Another reason why donating to us now would mean the world to all of us.
Here are the episode breakdowns:
The American Colony Episode Lineup
Each episode tells one story of the colonial experience. As my fellow co-host Nuria Net put it during the Prologue: “We could go on and on about the history, the political parties, the economics, the scenarios. That's what’s been happening lately — people get stuck there. We want to go beyond it. This is a narrative podcast. The power of audio is hearing first-person accounts of how people experience and move through the world — as Puerto Ricans, in the archipelago and the diaspora.”
Episode 1 (Prologue): Hosted by Nuria and me. Produced by Joaquín Cotler, Nuria, and me. Sets the foundation for the series.
Episode 2: Produced by T.J. Raphael. The story of T.J.’s father, José, a Vietnam veteran born in Puerto Rico who wishes he could retire on the island but can’t, because he needs cancer care that the VA cannot guarantee there.
Episode 3: Produced by Alana Schreiber, hosted by me. The Negro Leagues and Roberto Clemente, and what Puerto Rico can give, and what it’s allowed to receive.
Episode 4: Produced by Raquel Reichard and Locatora Radio. Iris Chacón. How she flipped mainstream beauty standards on their head, and what that says about colonialism.
Episode 5: Produced by Juan Diego Ramírez. Abner Roldán of Café Comunión, a coffee business owner navigating the Jones Act, and what’s possible without the shackles of colonialism, glimpsed while touring the world with Bad Bunny.
Episode 6: Produced by Camille Dalmau Padilla and Frances Medina of 9 Millones. The question of identity, leaving the island, and returning years later.
Episode 7: Produced by Joaquín Cotler. DIVEDCO, the state-run art program, and how Puerto Rican identity got used in it — the good and the complicated.
Episode 8 (Epilogue): Produced by Amalia I. Nuñez-Pires. The mic opens to other Puerto Rican voices asking the same questions, from every side — from leftist statehooders to conservative anti-colonialists.
Every episode airs in both English and Spanish, and we will roll them out during the rest of the summer. We made the full series in both languages.
You can subscribe now at The Latino Newsletter podcast feed.
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What We’re Watching
New Episode of Our Copa: Speaking of personal stories, I share more about growing up in 1986 during the World Cup in Mexico for the latest episode of Our Copa.
Julio Ricardo Varela is the founder of The Latino Newsletter. He is also its current part-time publisher and executive director. He edited and published this edition.
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