
The Future of Latin Music?
While Venezuela has always been the land of opportunity for Colombians, one of Venezuela’s most successful new musicians and innovative producers, has gone the other way and is coming back with some sounds that are rocking the…
Things That Matter to...Al Roc
Al Roc (pictured left) is a member of Asilo 38, one of the biggest names on the burgeoning Colombian hip-hop scene, featured in the soundtrack to the film ‘Maria Full of Grace’. They come from "Aguas Blancas", one of…
Things That Matter to...Anderson, lead singer of Afro-Reggae
Anderson, 29, was born and raised in Vigário Geral, one of Rio de Janeiro’s most violent favelas. His mum is a dinner lady and his dad, a tax-driver. Anderson’s first jobs involved doing small favours for criminals like wrapping…
Brown Girls in the Ring Make Argentina Sing…
How Cumbia conquered Argentina. The Cumbia invasion rides on populist political culture, but has urban snobs singing a different tune.
Area 23, Hip Hop and Venezuela’s Cultural Revolution
Jorney Madriz or ‘Master’ as he is commonly known, is a rapper with hip hop group ‘Area 23’, based in ‘23 de enero’, one of the most militant low-income barrios, that encircle the country’s capital Caracas.
The History of Latin Music in London
Notwithstanding the cheesy album covers, Latinolife explores the rich and idiocyncratic story of Latin Music in London.
Music, Baseball and Cacao
It’s not only Rio Ferdinand who sees himself as the next Simon Cowell, baseball legend Bobby Abreu has put his weight into promoting Venezuelan music worldwide, with a marketing strategy only fitting for a baseball star.
The Kid is Back
Kid Creole & The Coconuts created a generation of Latin music lovers in London in the early 1980s when he jetted in with a string of outstanding live shows and great albums. Now he's back. Due to perform at the Barbican…
Dutchman in da Latin House
We caught up with the Dutch Latin House Super DJ behind tracks such as "Step by Step", "Vem Rebola" & "Canoa."
Alí Primera’s ‘Necessary Song’
Ali Primera, Venezuela’s own Silvio Rodriguez, was long-discarded to the official cultural sin-bin. But his popularity never waned and now his voice is being resurrected by the establishment that once scorned him.
Our Tribute to Sandro
The man known as The Argentine Elvis was a national treasure. The funeral was held on January 5th at the Argentine national congress, usually reserved only for presidents or former presidents. The streets where lined with…
New York's Ultimate Latin Diva
The muse of Masters at Work's Little Lou Vega and Kenny Dope, India became the dance floor icon of the 90s when House and Garage ruled clubland. Latinolife caught up with the ultimate Latin diva.
The Phenomenon of Latin Music in the US
Back in the late seventies an outstanding documentary was made about Salsa in New York and its social significance. It became a seminal work. Thirty years later its director Jeremy Marre, commissioned by the BBC, went back to…
THE FABULOUS QUINTEROS
In most families, being a world class musician would be the pride of the family, but if you belong to the Quinteros of San Agustín, Caracas, it is merely fulfilling the duty of a long line of stellar musicians. Amaranta Wright…
The History of Reggaetón
For those of you who've come to it late, here's a beginner's guide...
We say Dance. They Say C-C-C-C-C-Cumbia!
Cumbia meets the Happy Mondays? Candela catches up with the Mexican Institute of Sound's eccentric frontman, Camilo Lara, at his home in Mexico City before he leaps over the Atlantic to play in London's La Linea…
New Spanish Cinema - Daniel Monzon and Film Philosophy at its best
On the DVD release of Cell 211, Latinolife interviews Daniel Monzón, one of the new great directors of Spanish Cinema, Daniel Monzón reveals his passions and fears during the making of his film, which ended in some unexpected,…
The End of the World As We Know It
Roxana Silbert, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Argentine born Associate-Director, talks to Elizabeth Mistry about the RSC's joint venture with Mexico's Teatro Nacional which opens in Stratford before transferring to…
Clash of the Literary Titans? (and THAT black eye)
Candela explores the beef between Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa that has long been the intrigue of the literary world. Now that the Peruvian has won the Nobel Prize for Literature, is it time for Latin America…
The Unusual Spaniard
As daughter of Hollywood legend Charlie Chaplin, Geraldine Chaplin was destined for fame or failure in her own film career. Instead, she became an unlikely icon of Spanish cinema through some unusual choices of her own.…
Macedonio Fernandez - The Non-Believer's Belief
This week it is sixty years since the death of Macedonio Fernández, the Argentine writer and philosopher, who Jorge Luis Borges admitted he imitated ‘to the point of devoted and impassioned plagiarism.’ Yet virtually nothing is…
Argentina finds a New Kind of Meat to Export
They're on the television all the time, they're in the magazines, they're on the arms of footballers, politicians and businessmen in all the smart restaurants and nightspots of Buenos Aires.........they are the new…
Cheap Frills Better than No Frills for Argy women
In post-crisis Argentina, middle class women have been forced to lower their lingerie standards.
Presumed Guilty: Victim of Mexico's legal system gets rare break to tell story
Over the net the controversial film about a street vendor stitched up by the Mexican legal system is spreading like wildfire and in England it is about to go on general release. Back in Mexico, judges are seeking to ban…
Travelling the Veins of Caracas
Tanya Yusti interviews Chris Anderson, the acclaimed photo-journalist whose latest book of photographs Capitolio, takes us on a disturbing and exuberant journey through Caracas.
Sins of My Father: an interview with Juan Pablo Escobar
Despite countless books, documentaries and feature films about Latin America's most famous drugs lord, until now a word has never been publically uttered about Pablo Escobar by his family. Sixteen years after his death, now…
At Last Reflecting Everyone's Culture
Richard Gott, author of 'Land without Evil' and 'Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution' explains why Chavez' cultural policy is doing exactly what it should be in a social revolution.
The Politicisization of Venezuelan Culture
Gloria Carnevali, Venezuelan Cultural attaché 1995-2006, says Chavez' cultural policy poses both benefits and dangers to Venezuelan culture.
WRITING BEYOND MACONDO
Do modern Colombian authors still lurk in the shadow of Gabriel García Márquez? Candela explores Colombian literature in light of the 2010 celebrations of all things Latin American: a new list published by Granta magazine of the…
The Photos of Debbie Bragg and the Rise of a New UK Club Culture
By chronicling the new generation of Latino-Brits in their party element, this oustanding photographer became THE documentarist of the urban latin movement in the UK and helped put urban latin culture on the map. Exclusively on…
In Oaxaca The Walls Speak
In a country whose history simmers with political resistance and art, graffiti has come to reflect a post-modern merging of the two. Far away from the Banksy hype, we celebrate the art of Mexican political graffiti and the…
The Taste of Colombia
London's most celebrated Latin American chef and owner of one of London's finest Latin American restaurants describes his passion for the cuisine of his homeland, Colombia. Can we sense a touch of nostalgia, Esnayder?
Spanish Tapas
"Pae-lah and chor-itzo for me, matey!" Yes strange sounding impressions of Iberian cooking seem still to pervade the British psyche. Many people will have heard of tapas (difficult to go wring with that pronunciation),…
Venezuelan Cinema in Search of 'Our Language'
Can Venezuela’s new state-sponsored cinema live up to its Cuban and Russian precedents or will it drown in the accusations of mediocrity and dogma that surrounds it?