Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One
America's foremost artists, activists, and civic leaders share their stories and perspectives in this series, hosted by journalist María Hinojosa.
All programs premiere Tuesdays at 7:30pm on 2. (Find more airings)
Watch a Web-exclusive interview with host María Hinojosa
COMING UP
Kwame Anthony Appiah
May 5, 2009
Raised in Ghana and educated in England, Kwame Anthony Appiah is a scholar and philosopher whose interests include African American intellectual history and issues of personal and political identity, multiculturalism, and nationalism. He is the author of In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers, Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race, and The Ethics of Identity. Appiah talks about the meaning of race, the Obama effect, and the possibility of a colorblind society.
PREVIOUSLY ON ONE-ON-ONE
April 28, 2009
In 1987, Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa arrived in the US as an illegal migrant farm worker. Today, he is an associate professor of neurosurgery and oncology and the director of the Brain Tumor Surgery Program at Johns Hopkins University. In addition to his medical contributions, Quiñones-Hinojosa is recognized for his leadership in addressing the inequities that minorities face in medical education and health care.
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April 21, 2009
Helen Zia is a journalist and civil rights activist focused on the rights of women, the LGBT community, and Asian Americans. She was involved in the fight to have the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin recognized as a hate crime, and in the effort to allow Asian American actors to audition for Asian roles in the musical Miss Saigon. In 2008, she carried the Olympic torch during its relay in San Francisco. Her book Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People has been quoted by President Bill Clinton. Zia talks about being caught between two worlds, finding her voice, and what it means to be American.
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April 14, 2009
Guatemalan architect Teddy Cruz has worked on both sides of the border, in San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. A graduate of Harvard University and the American Academy in Rome, Cruz is recognized for his research on new forms of affordable housing. He talks about the Tijuana/San Diego area, where some of the most expensive real estate in the US abuts some of the poorest settlements in Latin America.
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March 31, 2009
Fernando Reimers is the Ford Foundation Professor of International Education and the director of global education and of international education policy at Harvard University. Reimers talks about the importance of developing global competencies, the nation's growing Latino dropout rate, and the often overlooked talents and opportunities that Latino children bring to classrooms across the US.
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Shirley Díaz
March 24, 2009
On an average day in the United States, 1,425 children are removed from their homes and placed in foster care — more than 500,000 kids a year. Almost 20% of these children are Latino. Raymond Torres, the executive director of Casey Family Services, discusses the causes of this overrepresentation, the need to enlist more Latino families to participate as foster families, and ways to reduce the number of Latino children who experience foster care in America. Shirley Díaz, a product of six different foster homes, has produced a public radio documentary about the foster care system. She brings a personal and poignant perspective to this discussion.
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Feb. 24, 2009
According to hate crime statistics published annually by the FBI, anti-Latino hate crimes rose by almost 35% between 2003 and 2006, the latest year for which statistics are available. Mark Potok, a former USA Today reporter, is the director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, which monitors hate groups and extremist activity throughout the US. Potok and Hinojosa look at the possible reasons behind the disturbing rise in anti-Latino incidents.
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Feb. 17, 2009
Comedian and actor Cheech Marin is best known as half of the iconic comedy act Cheech & Chong. He has appeared in dozens of TV, film, and stage productions, including Spy Kids, Nash Bridges, and The Lion King. In addition to his work as an actor, director, musician, and writer, Marin is one of the leading collectors of Chicano art in the US. He talks about his successful — and tumultuous — partnership with Chong, his multifaceted film and television career, and his passion for Chicano art.
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Feb. 10, 2009
In 2006, Mexico was second only to Iraq on the Reporters Without Borders list of countries most hostile to journalists. Carlos Lauría is the Americas program coordinator of CPJ, an independent nonprofit organization founded in 1981 to promote press freedom worldwide by defending the rights of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal. Blanche Petrich is a reporter for La Jornada, one of Mexico City's leading newspapers. Petrich broke the story of the arrest and torture of journalist Lydia Cacho-Ribeiro. Lauría and Petrich detail the conditions that journalists face in Mexico and other parts of the world.
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Feb. 3, 2009
Singer/songwriter Shawn Kiehne's story is a transnational one, where the main character — a US-born Anglo — adopts a Mexican singing cowboy persona and finds fame and fortune by tapping into deeply held beliefs about Mexican pride and nationalism. Kiehne, aka El Gringo, is widely known across Mexico for his autobiographical song "El corrido del Gringo." This Norteño music phenomenon, recently featured in the New York Times, brings his guitar to offer a taste of this musical genre.
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Jan. 27, 2009
Lupe Ontiveros is a stage, television, and screen actress as well as producer and community activist. An institution in Hollywood's Latino circles, she is one of the few actors capable of working in both English and Spanish. She is best known for her roles as La Nacha in the Oscar-nominated film El Norte, as Juanita Solís in the ABC hit series Desperate Housewives, and as Carmen García in the popular film Real Women Have Curves. Ontiveros touches on a number of issues, among them the role of women in Hollywood.
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Jan. 13, 2009
For more than two decades, general assignment reporter for the Los Angeles Times Sam Quiñones has been exploring the immigration debate on both sides of the Mexican border. He is the author of True Tales from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino, and the Bronx and Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream. Quiñones draws on years of research to provide his own perspective on the mass movement of Mexicans into the US.
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Jan. 6, 2009
In 2005, a family rock act from San Angelo, Texas, was propelled onto the national stage by their hit song "Heaven." Though their success seemed to have come quickly, Los Lonely Boys (aka Jojo, Henry, and Ringo Garza) had in fact been building their careers in bars and small venues for years. Los Lonely Boys perform in WGBH's Calderwood Studio and talk about their musical influences, their greatest hits, and the importance of family to their success.
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