Latin Londoner #18: Gloria Lizcano - LGBT community leader
Celebrating 20 years of her legendary Latino LGBT Club night Exilio this Friday, Gloria Lizcano has been the pioneer and main activist for the Latin LGBT community in London.
Marielle: She Inspired Us All
Black Lives Matter in Brazil too, where of the thousands that die every year at the hands of police, 75% are black. Marielle Franco defended those who had no voice, she gave voice to the hopes of favela dwellers, black people,…
Argentina: Why is Peronism back in the Casa Rosada?
Economics, doctrine & Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
Latin America Criminalises Mining Protest
All over Latin America mining protest is being criminalised by government legislation. Protestors in Andalgalá, Argentina are arrested and beaten, while in Brazil the Munduruku are fighting Anglo American, financed by US…
LATIN LONDONER #5 Katya Torres de la Rocha - Entrepreneur
Mexican born Katya Torres de la Rocha, is the CEO of www.mexgrocer.co.uk. which sells authentic Mexican food groceries and at 40 years old was voted Business Personality of the Year by both the public and the judges. Here is her…
Latin Londoner #40: Monica Feria-Tinta, Barrister
Originally from Peru, Monica is the first Latin American barrister to practise at the Bar of England & Wales. She holds an LLM in International Law (LSE) and was awarded the prestigious Diploma of the Hague Academy of…
Let’s Talk About Religion: Interview with directors Maya Cueva and Leah Galant
On the Divide premiers March 17th as part of the “Human Rights Watch Film Festival”. The feature-length documentary follows the life stories of Mercedes, Denisse and Rey in McAllen, Texas, a small town in the Rio Grande Valley,…
Same-Sex Marriage Becomes Legal in Mexico
On 26 October, Tamaulipas became the last of Mexico’s 32 states to legalise same-sex marriage. Legislators approved the measure to reform the state’s civil code - which previously only recognised marriage as the unity between a…
LATIN LONDONER #50: LISA LUGO, SVP Marketing & Creative Solutions Live Nation UK
Born and bred a true Nuyorican, after working at Live Nation in the US, Lisa Lugo moved to the UK in 2015 where she oversees a team responsible for developing programmes for brand partners across Live Nation’s festivals and…
Does Economic Reality Jeopodise Latin America's Second Pink Tide?
In an impressive switch, Latin America's right-wing presidents have lost almost all the presidential elections. The region has, once again, been painted in pink and red, even more than during Chavez and Correa´s times.…
Oriximiná: Quilombolas vs The Mines
In Oriximiná, a municipality in the northern state of Pará, traditional people see their lands being invaded by mining, under the conniving gaze of the authorities
Aécio Neves: The Underdog in Brazil's General Election
Aécio Neves is the presidential candidate for PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) but from the start never showed much promise to beat the current president Dilma, who is hoping for re-election. Despite his success in…
Surrogate Latino #1 Ian Mursell – Founder of Mexicolore with Graciela Sanchez
LAYING DOWN THE LORE – For 30 years Ian Mursell, development education specialist and his wife Graciela Sánchez, a dancer with the world famous Ballet Folklórico de México, and have worked with 2,000 primary schools and a wealth…
Sembrando Cultura: This is How We do It!
Maria Luna, a Dominican American residing in London, speaks to four Latinas in the United States, Scotland and England to find out what it means to be a Latina and how a Latina maintains or compromises her culture when she starts…
Colombia: Starbucks Meets its Match
Starbucks's most recent expansion plan has taken them to Bogota, Colombia. How has the arrival of the coffee giant affected the market?
COVID STORIES: Fabian, a London Survivor
Fabian Cataño is a London surviver. In 2005 Fabian was badly injured in the 7/7 bombings, but came back from 2 years of rehabilitation to build his cafe in Seven Sisters indoor market. In March 2020 Fabian spent 30 days in ICU…
Colombia: Commemorating the Mulatos Massacre
On 21st February 2005, paramilitaries and Colombian soldiers massacred eight people from two hamlets of the San Jose Peace Community, in Apartadó, Colombia. Despite assassinations and forced displacement since the Peace Community…
COVID STORIES: The Grief of the Marmolejo Family
Los Marmolejos, a family at the very heart of London’s Latin Community, who lost their beloved husband, father and grandfather, Hector, to COVID in March. In the most honest way, Julian, Hector Jr, Kike, Jorge, Sandra and Maria…
Argentina: Toxic Waste from Fracking in Patagonia
A BP subsidiary is being sued by indigenous groups for criminal dumping of toxic waste
An unknown path for Argentina as far-right libertarian Javier Milei wins election
Amidst one of the worst economic crises in Argentina’s history, Javier Milei staged one of the biggest upsets in its political history by beating Sergio Massa, the current economy minister and Peronist candidate, in the…
Things That Matter to ...Aleida Guevara
Aleida Guevara was the first born of Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s seven children. The Argentine-born revolutionary fought in Cuba and the Congo before dying in Bolivia in 1967 at the age of 39. Aleida has grown up with an iconic…
The FBI, the Fusion Center, and the Far Right in Brazil
In an important new investigation, journalist Natalia Viana reveals how, during Sergio Moro’s 15 month tenure as Justice and Security Minister, the government of Jair Bolsonaro is rapidly enabling the US Federal Bureau of…
Colombia: What does Peace Mean in Comuna 13?
Gwen Burnyeat visits Comuna 13, the Medellín community blighted by guerrilla, militia and state violence during Colombia's civil war and finds that graffiti and urban escalators have achieved a sense of pride and…
Chronicle of a Repression Foretold
In 1975, one-year-old Carole Concha Bell and her family journeyed into exile. They fled Chile as refugees during the Pinochet dictatorship, after her grandfather, a government official for the democratically elected Socialist…
Not So ‘Pura Vida’
Sun and sea yes, but sex tourism, in Costa Rica? Behind the image of the Caribbean’s cleanest and most civilised tourist hotspot, lies a murky world, fed by foreign sex tourists, of exploitation and poverty.
Colombia: London Mural Honours Lucas Villa
London graffiti artist Kapo pays tribute to the demonstrator assassinated during Colombia’s national strike in 2021 in Stockwell’s ‘Hall of Fame’
¿Viva la Revolución? What happened to Mexico’s Zapatista Movement...
“Excuse the inconvenience, but this is a revolution,” proclaimed Subcomandante Marcos on the 1st January 1994. But in 2010, is it just a mild inconvenience that the government and media readily ignore, or is the Zapatista…
The death of Fidel Castro, what his legacy to Cuba has been, and how he should be remembered.
Richard Gott, historian, journalist and one of the few foreigners who met both Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, recounts his impressions of the 20th century revolutionary icon.
Bolivia: the mysterious death of Orlando Gutiérrez
Miners' leader and prominent MAS figure killed after frequent death threats on social media and from sections of the state apparatus.
Being Latin in London - Part 1
We all come with a different story. From the high life of Carlos Acosta and polo players who mingle with royals, to the invisible cleaner working double shifts in city offices so that she can put her children through school back…
Ana Victoria's Story - Part 2: Helena
Ana Victoria is an Afro-Colombian biologist who was ordained as the first female Colombian priest of the Anglican church in July 2017 in St Paul Cathedral. After being kidnapped by armed traffickers while she was working with…
BRAZIL: Tapajós industrial waterway -- a potential environmental disaster
In early August, the Brazilian government unexpectedly cancelled the São Luiz do Tapajós hydroelectric power station, the largest of a series of major dams planned along the Tapajós River and its tributaries. Indigenous groups…
Los Niños Vascos and The English Lord
In 1937, as Bilbao was being bombarded, 4,000 Basque children arrived in Southamption, thanks to some extraordinary individuals who defied the British government's official policy of appeasement (which ultimately contributed…
London's Latin Culture Under Threat
Stefanie Alvarez, who grew up amidst the bustling 'Pueblito Paisa' market, where her mother works, in Seven Sisters, is set on defending the much-loved north London Latin hub from the designs of property developers who…
"They Looked for Them out of Love"
'Abuelas' is a film about a group of ordinary grandmothers who became extraordinary women. Known as the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, these women have spent almost 50 years looking for their ‘disappeared’ grandchildren who…