An Open Call for Our ‘American Colony’ Podcast Series

SAN JUAN — Hi to everyone at The Latino Newsletter. I think this is my first time writing to all of you, so allow me to introduce myself. I am the Senior Producer for our podcast — stay tuned for another episode dropping on Friday — and also direct all the audio and video podcasts we produce here. 

Today, after spending several months in pre-production, we are entering the formal production phase of American Colony, a project Julio Ricardo Varela and I started more than two years ago. The original concept was pretty straightforward: a series that chronicles the history of Puerto Rico’s colonial relationship with the United States, as told by Julio, a Puerto Rican kid who moved to the Bronx back in the 1970s.

We even produced a sizzle reel to pitch the series.

Here’s a page from our original pitch deck, too:

In September of last year, we received a grant from the Mellon Foundation to get the series started. We built a team of Puerto Rican journalists through our San Juan bureau and began workshopping the concept with an editorial partner and potential distributor. 

But once the Trump administration reopened U.S. military bases in Puerto Rico, we realized we needed to update our concept to meet the current moment.

We will be publishing the series on the 250th birthday of the United States, in the middle of an administration that is using Puerto Rico as a literal launchpad to establish a new American outpost (a colony?) in Venezuela. Then Greenland re-entered the news, and the U.S. is now looking at Cuba, too.

Telling the story of one Puerto Rican’s self-discovery about colonial history wouldn’t cover the moment we are living through right now.  

We were initially looking backward, to tell a story that began in 1898, while history is repeating itself all around us. However, we realized that we want American Colony to be a collection of stories about the past, present, and future of Puerto Rico, presented by producers and journalists from the archipelago and the diaspora. 

We’re looking for personal stories about how learning the history of our colony can help us understand the present — and prepare for the future. Our goal is to produce a multitude of answers to the question that’s been nagging Puerto Rico for over a century: what does it mean to be an American colony, and how do we know? I started asking people when they first realized Puerto Rico was a colony, and each answer, no matter their political leaning, was a story in and of itself. 

American Colony will be a podcast series exploring the colonial relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico from all angles. From our underfunded medical system to the decades of military presence on the island, and the “plebescites” that seem to happen every couple of years with no change, Puerto Rico has always been a colonial experiment. A small number of people might vehemently disagree with this position, and we also want to feature that angle in this series. 

We are looking for 20- to 25-minute episodes that tell a personal story while providing clear examples of this experiment in practice. The goal is to draw ties between what’s happening all around us right now and what has been happening since 1898. How has history repeated itself? And what can Puerto Rico’s history tell us about this very moment? 

We can offer $6,000 for producer/hosts or 2-person producer/host teams. You’ll be working directly with me, our Puerto Rico-based team, and a small yet incredibly talented production team. And yes, we will be producing the episodes in both English and Spanish.

We will begin publishing on July 4, so send your episode pitches no later than February 20, 2026. The subject line should start with “American Colony Pitch.” We would love to hear from you as we try to create something that both Julio and I feel so strongly about. We plan to read every pitch.

Email me at joaquin@thelatinonewsletter with your pitches and questions.

Joaquín Cotler is a journalist and audio producer living in Brooklyn, NY. He has covered Puerto Rico and the diaspora for Latino USA, WNYC, NPR, and Latino Rebels.

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