"Writing Latinos" is a podcast brought to you by PUBLIC BOOKS, featuring interviews with Latino authors of all sorts—scholars, novelists, memoirists, journalists—discussing their books, and how their writing contributes to the ever-changing conversation about the meanings of latinidad.
Julián Delgado Lopera: Pretend You're Dead and I Carry You
Today’s episode features Julián Delgado Lopera talking about his new novel, Pretend You’re Dead and I Carry You, just out from Liveright. It’s as vivid and funny as it is profound. We talk with Lopera about the depths of Colombia’s Magdalena River, the fluidity of language, and what he describes as “Travesti Lore” and the “sacred travesti gospel.” Set in Bogotá, Pretend You’re Dead and I Carry You has many hallmarks of Latin American literature—striking natural landscapes, religion, fútbol—but in Lopera’s novel these more traditional topics are suffused with sex and sexuality, ancestral trauma, and our universal desire to be loved. Lopera teaches creative writing at the City University of New York. His first book, Fiebre Tropical, published by Feminist Press, won several awards.rr
10 Jun 2026
Ada Ferrer: Keeper of My Kin
Today’s guest on Writing Latinos is Ada Ferrer. Her last book Cuba: An American History, won the Pulitzer Prize. Ferrer is out with a new book titled Keeper of My Kin: Memoir of an Immigrant Daughter, published by Scribner. It’s an intimate, devastating, beautifully written account of her family’s migration from Cuba to the United States, and how the Cuban Revolution both broke and made her family. It’s also a meditation on the craft of history itself. Geraldo Cadava reviewed it for The Atlantic. You can read it here: “How Cuban History Broke a Family.” After a long time teaching at NYU, Ferrer recently moved to Princeton, where she teaches history.
27 May 2026
Mary Mendoza: Deadly Divide
In this week’s episode of Writing Latinos, we talk with Mary E. Mendoza about her new book Deadly Divide: How Insects, Pathogens, and People Defied the US-Mexico Border, published by The University of North Carolina Press. Mendoza teaches history at The Pennsylvania State University. In Deadly Divide, she blurs the boundary between humans and animals, and borderlands history and environmental history. We talk about the similar ways that humans, ticks, cattle, and lice were racialized. I didn’t even know animals could have racial identities! We also discuss how the US and Mexican governments, and ranchers on both sides of the border, took the same approach to restricting immigration and stopping the spread of animal-borne diseases. This is the rare episode where listeners interested in Latino history and identity can also satisfy their inner science nerd. Thanks for listening!
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
10 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 25 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
30
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
51
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