With the Latino community flexing its power economically and politically, it’s hard to ignore us these days. We make up 18% of the U.S. population, and though many of us are bilingual and bicultural, we hold on to the beauty of the cultures of our homelands with ferocity. It’s why we bring such a unique flair to everything we touch—from food to music to fashion and beauty—it’s that toque personal that makes us stand apart from the rest.
If you’d like to get to know the Latinx community here in the U.S. a bit more, or at least get in on the ground level on our incredible food and bumping music, then you have to start with these publications.
Just remember, Latino history IS American history, and it isn’t just important during Hispanic Heritage Month. So take a deep dive into what makes our community so incredible, and you’ll probably even learn a little something about something you love too, like tacos or reggaeton.
The Americano launched in 2019 with an all-star editorial team focused on covering breaking national news from a Latinx-lense. This all-female editorial team covering news for Latinas here in the U.S. focuses on local issues in our communities, specifically in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Texas, and Puerto Rico. With a mission of keeping our democracy healthy by making sure our communities are informed, their goal is to provide fact-based reporting while keeping us engaged and involved in the politics that affect our day-to-day lives.
In a profile piece, reporter Araceli Cruz digs into what forced a brilliant DACA recipient to travel out of state to study at Harvard instead of staying close to home for college. A law passed in 2006, Proposition 300, denies Dreamers in-state tuition, even if they’ve lived in Arizona their whole lives. Clearly, the consequences of this haven’t been fully thought out, as it will undoubtedly lead to real brain-drain as incredibly smart young people like Darian Benitez Sanchez are forced to leave in order to pursue the education they work so hard for.
HipLatina is a publication created for young Latinas that focuses on the diversity that makes Latinx culture beautiful and vibrant. Covering everything from trending news topics to pop culture to beauty and fashion trends, the site and its social handles have been a go-to for the millennial crowd since 2018. This publication blew up by focusing on Afro-Latina beauty and body positivity when most pubs for Latinas were still only covering celebs that look like J.Lo and Sofia Vergara.
HipLatina partnered up with National Geographic to do an incredible series of investigative pieces looking at violence against women all across Latin America and the United States. Heartbreaking and harrowing but absolutely necessary, it centralizes the many scattered narratives about femicides in Latin America and shines a light on the many activists fighting for the dignity and safety of women across the western hemisphere while disavowing us of the notion that this is just an issue south of the border.
With a mission to ‘Celebrate the taco lifestyle in L.A.,’ L.A. Taco has been a mainstay of Los Angeles Latinx culture for years. Launched in 2006 by its founders’ humble desire to document tacos, weed, and street art (i.e. “the taco lifestyle”), they have since gone on to win the first-ever Emerging Voices award from the prestigious James Beard Foundation in 2020. Don’t be fooled by their guides on what to do in Los Angeles when stoned out of your mind — there is top-rate storytelling and reporting happening on L.A. Taco.
Don’t sleep on the Taco’s original reporting. They recently hit the streets to talk with activists making a difference and standing up for Haitian refugees like Maraky Alemseged, the Los Angeles organizer for the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, and took a deeper look at the Black-led alliance showing up in support. ‘Los Angeles has been ground zero in terms of support for the movement for Black Lives from labor,’ Felipe Caceres, a coordinator with SEIU Local 721, told L.A. Taco.
Remezcla has always had its ears to the ground for Latinx artists and folks breaking new ground. Their reporters always have their finger on the pulse of what’s hot before anyone else even knows what hit them, and they have the most comprehensive overview of Latinx movers and shakers in the world of the arts, music, film, and television. From the latest singles dropping to exclusive interviews with icons like Fefita La Grande, this should be your first stop if you care about Latinx culture.
First and foremost, if you haven’t been watching On My Block (Netflix) then you are seriously missing out, and reporter Cristina Escobar’s nuanced review of what makes this show so special hits the nail on the head. It’s a true teen dramedy, with jokes about embarrassing high school sex mixing with the messy and all-too-real violence and fear that comes with living in Black/Brown neighborhoods riddled with gang violence. They may be under-resourced but they should never be underestimated, and On My Block does a beautiful job of highlighting this delicate balance.
This iconic brand just went through a major reboot. Originally published in 1996 with a little-known actress/singer/dancer named Jennifer Lopez on the cover, Latina relaunched in May of 2021 after effectively being offline for years. Many thought that the first-ever magazine for Latina women in the U.S. was long gone, but with a new Editor in Chief and a team of young Latinx creatives taking on politics and representation, things are looking up for the magazine.
Latina celebrated their relaunch and the 25th anniversary of their first issue with an in-depth exclusive profile of the sultry Colombian singer who has been making major waves since her last album came out in 2020. Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios) featured a major breakout radio hit for her in ‘Telepatia,’ but don’t call her an overnight success. Kali has been working hard since she released her very first mixtape in 2012. Writer Sandra E. Garcia captures Kali’s enigmatic allure perfectly, ‘The whimsy, the sensuality, the air in her step, how she seems to creep out of a fantasy world where hummingbirds part her hair and clouds break to reveal a ray of sunshine perfectly lighting her face, all came from her intentional journey through womanhood.’
The National Association of Latino Journalists has a publication, and it’s worthy of your attention. Dedicated to uplifting in-depth storytelling that mainstream publications often overlook, palabra. gives freelance members of NAHJ a place to share their stories and accurate and authentic reflections of their communities. Founded in 2019 by former NAHJ Executive Director Alberto B. Mendoza and founding Managing Editor Ricardo Sandoval-Palos, palabra. is unique in that it gives fledging reporters a place to develop their craft and tell the smaller and more intimate stories more prominent publications pass on for the most part.
Working with non-profit news organization InvestigateWest, palabra. reporter Joy Borkholder digs into how bias may be subjecting Latino ballots to greater scrutiny, thus disenfranchising thousands of eligible voters. ‘In Washington state counties with the highest proportions of Latino voters, voters like Reyes with Latino-sounding last names are four times more likely to have their ballots rejected because of a signature challenge,’ Borkholder reports. This kind of specific investigative journalism into issues directly affecting our communities is exactly why palabra. was created.
Founded by Julio Antonio Varela, a Harvard grad who saw a gaping hole in the space of Latinx political commentary, Latino Rebels now boasts over 500 contributors—and the non-profit news organization was recently acquired by Maria Hinojosa’s Futuro Media. Featuring hot takes on politics, breaking news from a wonky perspective, and opinion pieces that make even the most daring talking heads raise their eyebrows, Latino Rebels has never been for the faint of heart. However, if you’re into progressive politics, this might be your new home.
Carlos Edill Berríos Polanco reports on the protests currency rocking Puerto Rico and why the blackouts and rising electricity prices are driving citizens of the commonwealth into the streets. Once again, residents of the archipelago are calling for the ouster of the current Governor and the end of the Financial Oversight and Management Board of Puerto Rico, which has subjected them to harsh austerity measures while closing schools and hospitals and raising prices on pretty much all basic necessities from water to electricity to food. Polanco reports that the spokesman for the Workers’ Socialist Movement, Ricardo Santos Ortiz, told the crowd: ‘We have to be clear, what the government and LUMA are moving us towards is a crisis larger than the crisis we lived after Hurricane María.’
Started by two young women living their best lives in New York City, Emperifollá is where all the cool girls go to find out about the latest style trends and who they should be following, like, yesterday. Heavy on fashion, beauty, and the cultures that define those for young Latinas here in the U.S., emperifollá means “to get dolled up” in everyday Spanish slang. Co-founders Frances Solá-Santiago and Andrea Antúnez de Mayolo Devoto embody what it means to be “ni de aquí, ni de allá” (neither from here, nor there) while making it all look effortless.
In an industry dominated by white men, Maisa Bribiesca is probably not who most people would expect to run one of Latin America’s first cannabis investment funds. Bribiesca’s family was less than enthused with her new career, asking flat out if she was laundering money. But with Mexico on the way to becoming one of the largest markets for cannabis globally, she’s making a genius bet and smart investments. ‘Right now, we have a chance to create from scratch an industry that has a gender perspective and doesn’t come with all the patriarchal dispositions other industries have,’ Bribiesca tells Emperifollá.
Source: The Americano, HipLatina, L.A. Taco, Remezcla, Latina Magazine, palabra., Latino Rebels, Emperifollá
