The digitized episodes have been made available online by the Benson Latin American Collection
More than 160 digitized episodes of Latino USA, the newsmagazine of Latino news and culture founded at UT in 1993, have been published by the Benson Latin American Collection. Published records include metadata and transcriptions for the episodes, which are available to the public on the open-access University of Texas Libraries Collections Portal. The publication and transcription of the episodes was made possible by a grant from the Latin Americanist Research Resources Project (LARRP).
The selected episodes, which total 168, span the years 1997–2000. They are part of a larger archival collection held by the Benson—Latino USA Records, which documents the history of the radio program from early planning stages in the late 1980s through the program’s first seventeen years (1993–2010).
The newly published episodes consist of over 80 hours of material covering Latin American and Latina/o topics, including interviews with figures such as labor activist Dolores Huerta, singer Little Joe Hernandez, San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, and writers Claribel Alegria, Américo Paredes, and Sandra Cisneros. Prior to their digitization by UT Libraries, these episodes had only existed in a legacy audio cassette format known as DAT, which made them inaccessible to the public.
The published episodes are accompanied by complete transcriptions, funded with a grant from the Latin Americanist Research Resources Project (LARRP). The transcriptions meet accessibility requirements of the digital collections platform, expanding access for the hearing impaired and people with better reading than listening knowledge of English.
Transcriptions can also provide expanded searching and digital scholarship opportunities for researchers and support additional use of these recordings in instructional settings. The transcriptions were provided by UT Austin’s Captioning and Transcription Services Team.
The Latino USA Records at the Benson include nearly 900 program episodes that aired between 1993 and 2010, in addition to correspondence, photographs, ephemera, and other records documenting the program’s history. The Benson and University of Texas Libraries have digitized and transcribed additional episodes that they hope to publish in the future. Archival footage from the Benson was included in various episodes during the program’s 30th anniversary year in 2023, including a special episode dedicated to the anniversary and an episode that focused on the Benson. Latino USA’s special episode dedicated to the memory of the program’s founder, María Martin, also included archival footage and documents from the Benson.
Over 30 Years of History
Launched on May 5, 1993, Latino USA is an award-winning weekly English-language radio journal created to fill a Latina/o-themed void in nationally distributed radio. It was initially produced by the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) in collaboration with KUT at the University of Texas at Austin. Radio veterans María Emilia Martin and Maria Hinojosa joined the staff in the roles of producer and host, respectively, while CMAS director Gilberto Cardenas acted as the program’s first executive producer (Martin and Hinojosa would both eventually serve in this role). Latino USA moved to Futuro Media Group in 2010.
The program was established at a time when the U.S. Latina/o population was one-third of what it is today. As Maria Hinojosa notes, the show traces the history of this immense growth, as well as that population’s participation in all aspects of politics, culture, and society.
Among the staff members who worked in this project are two graduate research assistants (GRAs), Fernanda Agüero, a graduate student at the School of Information (iSchool), and Rosa de Jong, a dual-master’s student at LLILAS and the iSchool.
As LLILAS Benson Digital Initiatives GRA, Agüero worked on the project during fall 2024, giving her the opportunity to listen to a large majority of the Benson’s now-digitized collection.
“The Latino USA collection provides a distinct opportunity to observe the key events and cultural developments that defined Latin American identity through the turn of the 20th century,” Agüero said. “It covers significant moments such as the Elián González case, the Clinton-Gore campaign, and a large focus on the arts, including my favorite episode, which featured a compilation of Latin American female ballad artists. This collection serves as a historical record, allowing listeners to situate themselves within the specific timeframes in which these episodes were produced, offering insight into the political and cultural climate of the period.”
De Jong, a Special Collections Graduate Research Assistant, singled out her highlights in the newly transcribed episodes.
“I especially loved the episodes focused on Tejano and Chicano traditions and cultural workers. One that stands out is titled Tejano Literary Traditions, which features interviews with literary icons Sandra Cisneros and Américo Paredes. In the episode, the authors talk about how their experiences growing up and living in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands shaped their work.” The newly transcribed programs also focused on Puerto Rico, says de Jong. “I was also impressed by the depth and scope of the reporting on Puerto Rico. Covering topics such as the Independence Movement, Puerto Rican political prisoners, and the 1999 Vieques Island protests, Latino USA episodes provide varied and rich accounts of the complex and evolving socioeconomic, political, and cultural contexts both on the Island and within the diaspora. Two episodes that highlight this reporting are Latino USA Program 275, Week #39-98 and Latino USA Program 348, Week #51-99.”
