¡Celebremos con podcasts para niños!
National Hispanic Heritage Month in the United States began on Wednesday, September 15, and runs through Friday, October 15.
This national holiday was created to recognize the contributions made by the Hispanic and Latinx/Latine communities to the history, culture, and achievements of the United States. It’s a great time to learn about the richness of the Hispanic and Latinx/Latine cultures and to talk about it with your family. Here are some fantastic resources from our member shows.
Hispanic Heritage Month seeks to encompass many different communities, making choosing how to respectfully honor and support it potentially complex yet important, and that is why we are grateful to The Ten News for doing a breakdown of the correct usage of “Hispanic” and “Latino, Latinx, and Latine” between their host Bethany and their correspondent Nathalie. Bethany goes on to talk about ways the holiday is celebrated and ways we can all celebrate! We think there couldn’t be a more perfect way to kick off discussions about this holiday with your families.
Eat Your Spanish produced a five-episode “Spanish Summer Song Series” where they made a downloadable playlist in Spotify or Apple Music of ten of their favorite Spanish songs and then discussed five of them (one per episode). Their show is sprinkled with Spanish culture in every episode, so hit subscribe or follow and enjoy new episodes every two weeks!
The popular science podcast Tumble launched their show for Spanish-speaking listeners, Tumble En Español. The Tumble team created this wonderful resource to promote inclusivity, representation, and access for Hispanic and Latinx/Latine families. Episodes are accompanied by downloadable resources like transcripts and phrasebooks on their website.
Girl Tales has two great episodes centering on Latinx characters and culture:
Timestorm is an award-winning adventurous story series about The Ventura twins — who are yanked into another dimension where they meet a distant cousin who gives them an extraordinary mission: travel through time to preserve their culture’s true history. Alexa and Beni visit three continents across the span of five centuries, meeting people who have left their mark on Puerto Rican heritage. In the twenty-first century, the twins navigate school, friendship, and family while keeping their time-traveling quests a secret. Do yourself a favor and start at the beginning!
The Fina Mendoza Mysteries is a podcast as well as a growing series of exciting books about a 10-year-old Mexican-American girl and her family who move from LA to DC with her congressman father. Fina and her canine partner Senator Something solve mysteries on Capitol Hill in this lively and engaging audio drama that’s a little bit “The West Wing” with a dash of “Nancy Drew!”
It’s best to start at the beginning of this audio drama, but the episodes they created in response to the events at the US Capitol in January 2021 are incredible, and also include thorough and well-researched free curriculum guides from the show’s creator, Kitty Felde.
Dorktales Storytime Podcast EP33: Ángela Peralta, Hidden Hero of History
¡La historia del ruiseñor mexicano! Beloved for her remarkable Bel Canto singing style, Ángela Peralta became known the world over as “The Mexican Nightingale.” She made her debut at the young age of 15, rising in demand to appear at leading opera houses throughout Mexico, Italy, France, Spain, Russia, Egypt, and the United States. Beyond singing, Ms. Peralta also wrote and composed her own music and boldly started her own opera company. Like the audiences who loved her, we stand up and cheer “¡Bravo, Ángela Peralta, Bravo!”
The Genius Generation
“Gia Mar Ramos”
Ever since she was a little girl, Gia Mar Ramos had an interest in computer science and technology, but as she got older she noticed something: there were very few girls in her technology classes… so Gia decided to do something about that. The summer before high school she started a non-profit organization called Girl Innovation (https://www.girlinnovation.net/) dedicated to closing the gender gap in computing and technology. She does this by educating middle school girls about computer science on her home island of Puerto Rico.
While studying abroad in Japan, 16-year-old Luna Abadia saw the effects of climate change first-hand. Typhoons were getting stronger, snow becoming rarer, and traditional crops were no longer able to grow. This inspired Luna to act. She entered a speech competition and wrote about the importance of combating climate change. Her speech got a lot of attention and Luna became a national finalist. Realizing the power her voice could have when Luna returned home to Oregon, she founded the Effective Climate Action Project (https://www.effectiveclimateaction.org/) or ECAP for short — a youth-led organization working to increase awareness of effective solutions to climate change.
We Got You
“Melissa”
This week we are going to talk about what it’s like when a parent is present, but maybe that presence is inconsistent. Melissa is 16 years old. Her parents separated when she was barely 5. She lived mainly with her mother, and although her father was present in her life, it was never consistent. Today, she talks about how that affected her, and what she learned in the process.
Cultureverse
This story is based on el Cholito de la Suerte, a folk creature from Hidalgo, Mexico. According to popular culture, this creature appears only to girls and if he is found, you should take him, clean him, feed him, and protect him. In return, he will give you money every morning for the rest of your life…..if he remains a secret. If not, the Cholito and your new fortune will disappear at once.
This story is inspired by Juan Bobo, a Puerto Rican folk character. In Spanish, bobo means “fool,” and Juan Bobo is a jíbaro -which means “farmer.” He’s known for always getting into sticky situations, but in the end, Juan’s choices always show he is much wiser than expected.
Finally, if you are an educator/practitioner, check out these additional resources from many of our nation’s organizations:
Thank you Melissa Victor for the copyediting!
