MPR Archive presents a sampling of stories rooted in the Hispanic cultural experience within the state and region. Highlights include the entrepreneurial spirit in South Minneapolis & St. Paul’s West Side, the arts scene of Teatro del Pueblo, the voices of the migrant workers in the Red River Valley, and the music of Mariachi Flor y Canto, amongst other glimpses into Minnesota’s Hispanic past.
Please note: Most content related to this topic that is contemporary or created after 2005 can be found on our main content pages of MPR News, YourClassical MPR, The Current, APM Reports, and Marketplace.
May 11, 1998 - MPR’s Dan Olson reports on a Minneapolis intersection once known for crime getting a big lift with the opening of a mercado, or marketplace. The city's burgeoning Spanish-speaking population is one of the factor's behind the creation of the business. Residents are welcoming the unusual development as the latest sign of economic revival on Lake Street.
March 5, 1999 - Chicano-Latino community leaders in Minnesota are hoping Governor Jesse Ventura's administration will usher in a new era for Hispanics, and possibly open doors for future cabinet positions. They invited the governor to a reception at Boca Chica, a west side St. Paul restaurant that's been a hub of local Latino culture and politics for over 30 years.
May 3, 1999 - MPR’s Brent Wolfe reports that while Mexican American migrant workers have been drawn to agricultural jobs in Minnesota for many years, an increasing number are calling Minnesota "home."
May 3, 1999 - On this segment of Mainstreet Radio’s Rural Diversity series, commentator George Rabasa wants to talk about the immigrant "home."
May 4, 1999 - MPR’s Jim Bickal talks with musician and anthropologist Maya Lopez-Santamaria about “Musica de la Raza: Mexican and Chicano Music in Minnesota” CD. Lopez-Santamaria collected the music and wrote the book which accompanies it.
June 2, 1999 - MPR’s Lorna Benson interviews writer Elva Trevino Hart, who recollects on the six years of her childhood in Minnesota watching her brothers, sisters, and parents work long days in the fields near Moorhead. In her new book "Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child", Trevino Hart details her family's annual journey north from a small town in Texas.
July 24, 2001 - MPR’s Mary Stucky profiles Marcela Rodriguez, a Minneapolis painter attempting to preserve little bit of ancient Chilean culture…and a little of the contemporary Chilean society too.
May 3, 2002 - MPR’s Art Hughes reports on local Cinco de Mayo celebrations. What began as a Mexican national holiday to commemorate an important battle is now a way to share ethnic pride with Minnesota's exploding population of Latinos from many different countries.
March 6, 2003 - MPR’s Jeff Horwich reports on an old business with a new owner. The Renville Locker butchered meat under the same family ownership for 38 years in southwestern Minnesota. Over that time the population of the region has changed, and more change is on the way. There may be no better symbol of the shift than the new face behind the meat market counter.
May 2, 2003 - MPR’s Dan Olson profiles the music known as Mariachi, and one of Minnesota's best-known Mariachi bands, Mariachi Flor y Canto, as they prepare to perform in the state's biggest Cinco de Mayo celebration on St. Paul's West Side.