Podcasting Latinidad as a Crónica Rhetorical Narrative in Stories, Music, and Entrevistas

Abstract

Podcasts provide opportunities for challenging cultural practices and offer valuable perspectives. This essay explores how Latina/o/x podcasts extend notions of Latinidad to new media technologies, transcend borders, and offer a “hemispheric perspective”as an alternative to the “citizenship narrative” so ingrained in rhetoric’s intellectual history.We use the concept of crónica to examine three podcasts distributed by NPR: the award-winning Radio Ambulante and Latino USA, and the music-centered Alt. Latino. The analysis reveals that crónica uses a hemispheric approach to Latinidad, personalizes broader issues, and historicizes Latina/o/x experiences.

Keywords:

• Crónica
• Latinidad
• Narrative
• Podcasts
• Rhetorical Criticism

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Teresita (Tere) Garza, Tiara Na’puti, Robert Mejia, Amy Johnson, and the anonymous reviewers for their feedback on this essay. We are grateful for their thoughtful comments and encouragement.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. For a history of podcasting see (Berry, 2016a; Hammersley, 2004). Edison Research/Triton Digital offers statistics related to increasing podcast use over time.

2. A cronista is someone who narrates or writes a crónica.

3. Cume refers to cumulative audience-the total number of people who tune in to the weekly show for at least five minutes.

4. Interviews.

5. Original messages are in Spanish; we have reproduced the English translation published on the podcast’s website.

6. By “us,” we refer to ourselves as Latina/o/x scholars, but we also address any Latina/o/x listeners of these podcasts and allies.

Additional information

Funding

Previous versions of this essay were presented at the National Communication Association’s annual convention in 2018 and the Western States Communication Association Annual Convention in 2019.