With apologies to George Clooney, etc.
If you're catching up on podcasts this summer, check out Season 6 of "Rediscovering Latinidad," my podcast on Latino genealogy co-hosted and co-produced with Briar Rose, Fausto, and Jellissa! 2025 has obviously been an epochal year (Saying this in June? "Captain, it's Wednesday."), and while we recorded most of our episodes in December anticipating changes in U.S. immigration policy, the speed of the Trump administration's actions required us to record many updates before we released episodes in February and March.
Season 6 centers around the past and present of Latino immigration and citizenship. In Episode 4, I gave a rough overview of more than two centuries of U.S. immigration policies and we discussed how immigration is often a last-resort measure to escape desperation. We also can't separate immigration patterns from the legacy of U.S. foreign policies, as explained in Juan Gonzalez's book Harvest of Empire. As Latin America destabilized, the U.S. ended its immigration quota system and sought cheap labor for its service economy, and U.S. Latinos steadily grew to become currently one-fifth of the nation.
Episode 5 we did it all over again, looking at the history of U.S. citizenship laws from the 1790 Naturalization Act to President Trump's latest executive orders. In particular, I want listeners to know about U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark, a landmark Supreme Court case that determined way back in 1898 that the children of immigrants born in the United States are birthright citizens. Following Trump's executive order, the U.S. public is now split on whether birthright citizenship should be granted to children of undocumented immigrants, and it's likely the Supreme Court could revisit this matter in the not-too-distant future. (Credit where credit's due: I learned about the importance of this case reading The Cartoon Guide to the Constitution of the United States by Eric Lurio as a kid. It's a worthwhile read if you can locate a secondhand copy.)
In Episode 7 we looked at the broader political landscape, and how an increasing number of Latinos supported Trump and other Republican candidates in 2024. Episode 2 reviews Solis, a dystopian novel by Paola Mendoza and Abby Sher that imagines if current anti-immigration sentiments in the U.S. mutated into high-tech political and military persecution.
On a lighter note, Jellissa shared a fascinating story of global migration in Episode 3, describing how she visited her brother, who lives in Abu Dhabi, and interacted with some of the tens of thousands of Latinos who lived in the United Arab Emirates. Halfway around the world, Latin American culture thrives in a cosmopolitan oasis.
Courtesy of Jellissa Alvarado.
Rounding out our episodes on "existential crises," Episode 1 looked at the recent bankruptcy of the DNA testing company 23andMe, and how many users chose to delete their genetic data from its databases. Genealogists Ellen Fernandez-Sacco and Teresa Vega weighed in on whether family history enthusiasts should be concerned about their DNA privacy, and how genetic tests aided their investigations into Latin American genealogy, especially to help uncover histories of Black and Indigenous ancestors.
Our listeners' mental health matters, and we recommend checking out Episode 14, which features social worker Lillian Schene and my Dad, Dr. Eduardo Rueda-Vásquez, who is a psychiatrist. Also, Episode 13 re-aired our terrific conversation with Latinx Parenting founder Leslie Priscilla on how to overcome inherited family trauma and end our families' reliance on "chancla culture" and physical discipline.
Of course, "Rediscovering Latinidad" also focuses on cultural celebrations. For Episode 11 we put a spotlight on Cuba, "The Pearl of the Antilles," and the manifold contributions of Cubans and Cuban-Americans. Two historians who focus on Afro-Cuban history joined us: Dr. Jane Landers from Vanderbilt University, who has researched in Cuba since 1991 and heads the Slave Societies Digital Archive, and Dr. Raquel Otheguy from Bronx Community College, who recently published her book, Black Freedom and Education in Nineteenth-Century Cuba.
We reviewed a Cuban film in Episode 10! The charming biopic Yuli (2018) tells the story of Cuban ballet star Carlos Acosta, while taking some creative licenses in his narrative and incorporating dance numbers.
Episode 6 brought another special guest, American Ancestors' senior genealogist Melanie McComb, whose Jewish and Irish background makes her a perfect commentator on the recent claim that Christopher Columbus had "Jewish" DNA, and to reflect on the common Celtic roots of Spain, Ireland, and other parts of Western Europe.
We unpacked genealogy knowhow in Episode 12, focusing on free resources for genealogy (FamilySearch, Google Books, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc.), and in Episode 8 we answered family history questions written by ChatGPT. Our True Crime series continued in Episode 9, with the story of El Chapo and Kate del Castillo.
Finally, my co-hosts thankfully agreed to my idea to record a Bonus Episode in May, after the surprise election of Pope Leo XIV, a naturalized Peruvian citizen, as the next global leader of the Catholic Church. We also looked back at the legacy of Pope Francis, the first pontiff from Argentina and Latin America at large.
Unusually, Pope Leo's genealogy became breaking news, as New Orleans genealogist Jari Honora pieced together that the new pontiff descended from multiracial Creole Louisiana families. Internet sleuths (myself included!) searched digitized archives and found records linking the pope's ancestors back to Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. This "open-source" investigation into Pope Leo's family tree culminated with Henry Louis Gates's masterful investigation for The New York Times, which included the amazing fact that the pope is related to Bolivian President Antonio José de Sucre! Given Pope Leo XIV's Latin American roots and genuine love for Peruvians, it's no question why he is invited to the carne asada.
Season 7 of "Rediscovering Latinidad" will be recorded in the next couple months, and we will start dropping weekly episodes on September 18, in time for Hispanic Heritage Month! See you then, wherever you download your podcasts.
Questions? Comments? Please email me at ruedafingerhut (at) gmail.com.
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