The Letter https://TheLetter.podbean.com A podcast on Latin/American & Hispanic Literature in the US, hosted by writers Mónica-Ramón Ríos and Carlos Labbé Mon, 19 Jan 2026 15:36:00 -0400 https://podbean.com/?v=5.5 en us Copyright 2023 All rights reserved. Arts:Books 1440 episodic THE LETTER is a podcast that addresses the diversity of Latinx, Hispanic, Chicana, and Latin/American book traditions in the United States of America. Scripted and narrated by the writers Mónica-Ramón Ríos and Carlos Labbé Prisma Prisma No false https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/16347204/The_Letter_Logo_gdyzva.png The Letter https://TheLetter.podbean.com 144 144 A Manual Against Censorship: Giannina Braschi Reads Putinoika A Manual Against Censorship: Giannina Braschi Reads Putinoika https://TheLetter.podbean.com/e/7/ https://TheLetter.podbean.com/e/7/#comments Mon, 19 Jan 2026 15:36:00 -0400 TheLetter.podbean.com/12e206f6-a911-351b-aa63-5bd2e5d502d4 Giannina Braschi reads from her fourth novel, Putinoika, a meditation on how the poet’s language is already equipped to respond to catastrophe—and transform it—through mouthfuls of humorous and sublime wordplay, into a manual against censorship.

This episode was made with the support of the Arts Fund of the Brooklyn Arts Council, Poets&Writers, and The New York State Council of the Arts.

At Pratt Institute, it also received the support of the Department of Humanities & Media Studies, the Creative Writing Program, The School of Arts, and The School of Liberal Arts & Sciences. Special thanks to Gina Marchetti, Joshua Tan, Jorge Oliver, and Peter West. Special thanks to Tess O'Dwyer for her continuous support.  

]]> Giannina Braschi reads from her fourth novel, Putinoika, a meditation on how the poet’s language is already equipped to respond to catastrophe—and transform it—through mouthfuls of humorous and sublime wordplay, into a manual against censorship.

This episode was made with the support of the Arts Fund of the Brooklyn Arts Council, Poets&Writers, and The New York State Council of the Arts.

At Pratt Institute, it also received the support of the Department of Humanities & Media Studies, the Creative Writing Program, The School of Arts, and The School of Liberal Arts & Sciences. Special thanks to Gina Marchetti, Joshua Tan, Jorge Oliver, and Peter West. Special thanks to Tess O'Dwyer for her continuous support.  

]]> Prisma false No 4081 7 full New Monuments Are Love Songs, or Latino Poetry New Monuments Are Love Songs, or Latino Poetry https://TheLetter.podbean.com/e/dreaming-of-freedom-voices-beyond-borders/ https://TheLetter.podbean.com/e/dreaming-of-freedom-voices-beyond-borders/#comments Mon, 23 Jun 2025 14:33:32 -0300 TheLetter.podbean.com/54ae6532-778c-37e9-b291-7f180b8a35d6 This a letter to Jocelyn Carranza, who was 11 years old when she gave us her life after being harassed by her US schoolmates because of the immigration status of her parents. This is a letter about Latino Poetry, the comprehensive, urgent, groundbreaking volume for the annals of United States, compiling 186 voices pacing from past to future of our literature, edited by Rigoberto González, and published by The Library of America. This letter is the first of our live readings series, funded in part by Poets & Writers, as well as public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and by the Brooklyn Arts Fund of The Brooklyn Arts Councils, also supported by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

]]> This a letter to Jocelyn Carranza, who was 11 years old when she gave us her life after being harassed by her US schoolmates because of the immigration status of her parents.

This is a letter about Latino Poetry, the comprehensive, urgent, groundbreaking volume for the annals of United States, compiling 186 voices pacing from past to future of our literature, edited by Rigoberto González, and published by The Library of America.

This letter is the first of our live readings series, funded in part by Poets & Writers, as well as public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and by the Brooklyn Arts Fund of The Brooklyn Arts Councils, also supported by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

]]> Prisma false No 2191 6 full War and Love in The Palace of Eros War and Love in The Palace of Eros https://TheLetter.podbean.com/e/war-and-love-in-the-palace-of-eros/ https://TheLetter.podbean.com/e/war-and-love-in-the-palace-of-eros/#comments Tue, 19 Nov 2024 17:09:54 -0400 TheLetter.podbean.com/3f51d61c-a96c-36d4-b72c-3e8432a0443a This letter is addressed to the beloved one who is always suspicious yet never reveals: our essay on the recent novel "The Palace of Eros," by the Uruguayan-American Caro de Robertis, in the context of the current genocide, systemic violence, and the communitarian enlightenment through bodily emancipation that offers another taste for those classic narratives.

This episode was developed with the support of the NYSCA Artist grant 2024.

]]> This letter is addressed to the beloved one who is always suspicious yet never reveals: our essay on the recent novel "The Palace of Eros," by the Uruguayan-American Caro de Robertis, in the context of the current genocide, systemic violence, and the communitarian enlightenment through bodily emancipation that offers another taste for those classic narratives.

This episode was developed with the support of the NYSCA Artist grant 2024.

]]> This letter is addressed to the one who is always suspicious yet never reveals themselves: the suspicious Eros, not defined by her connection to Thanatos, but by her love story with Psyche. This episode is an essay on Uruguayan-American Caro de Robertis’s recent novel, ”The Palace of Eros”, connecting it to the broader societal discussions around the ongoing genocide, the conservative wave, and the contrasting emergence of communal enlightenment through bodily emancipation. Prisma false No 1095 5 full On Friends and Mephistos On Friends and Mephistos https://TheLetter.podbean.com/e/on-friends-and-mephistos/ https://TheLetter.podbean.com/e/on-friends-and-mephistos/#comments Wed, 10 Jan 2024 12:32:15 -0400 TheLetter.podbean.com/37114ef4-2cec-3e4f-ac90-6b12abb49113 This letter is addressed to the friends we have lost in the hope that literature, our literatura, will provide a pact of love. In that hope, as well, we delve into the spiritual pacts that books can offer, such as the ones in novels by Mariana Enríquez, Ursula K. Le Guin, José Donoso and Zora Neale Hurston.

This episode was developed with the support of the NYSCA Artist grant 2024.

]]> This letter is addressed to the friends we have lost in the hope that literature, our literatura, will provide a pact of love. In that hope, as well, we delve into the spiritual pacts that books can offer, such as the ones in novels by Mariana Enríquez, Ursula K. Le Guin, José Donoso and Zora Neale Hurston.

This episode was developed with the support of the NYSCA Artist grant 2024.

]]> Prisma false No 976 4 full Literary Mourning Ritual for Chile, 1973 Literary Mourning Ritual for Chile, 1973 https://TheLetter.podbean.com/e/literary-mourning-ritual-for-chile-1973/ https://TheLetter.podbean.com/e/literary-mourning-ritual-for-chile-1973/#comments Mon, 11 Sep 2023 17:43:45 -0300 TheLetter.podbean.com/96b906b8-90dc-3b95-99f7-bff15fd366f5 This special episode has been our own ritual to never forget what happened with literature in Chile since September 11th, 1973. It was recorded on September 11th, 2023, for us to grasp that previous moment of complete potentiality, and to manifest that fuerza into our lives and books.

]]> This special episode has been our own ritual to never forget what happened with literature in Chile since September 11th, 1973. It was recorded on September 11th, 2023, for us to grasp that previous moment of complete potentiality, and to manifest that fuerza into our lives and books.

]]> Prisma false No 979 3 full A Language for Disaster A Language for Disaster https://TheLetter.podbean.com/e/a-language-for-disaster/ https://TheLetter.podbean.com/e/a-language-for-disaster/#comments Thu, 22 Jun 2023 17:37:14 -0300 TheLetter.podbean.com/2b01b87b-1aa5-35a6-8040-201c28aacbc0 This letter seeks for empathy from the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, whose parents applied for asylum. We reflect on the exhibition No existe un mundo poshuracán through the book while they sleep: under the bed is another country, by poet roque raquel salas rivera, as well as Shellyne Rodriguez’s Third World Mixtapes.

]]> This letter seeks for empathy from the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, whose parents applied for asylum. We reflect on the exhibition No existe un mundo poshuracán through the book while they sleep: under the bed is another country, by poet roque raquel salas rivera, as well as Shellyne Rodriguez’s Third World Mixtapes.

]]> Prisma false No 1217 2 full The Many Names of Gabriela Mistral The Many Names of Gabriela Mistral https://TheLetter.podbean.com/e/the-many-names-of-gabriela-mistral-1683140922/ https://TheLetter.podbean.com/e/the-many-names-of-gabriela-mistral-1683140922/#comments Wed, 03 May 2023 16:08:42 -0300 TheLetter.podbean.com/4de5c47a-9c63-31c6-9dbf-679b3bdacba5 This letter is addressed to all the migrant children who are currently being forced to work in the United States. We read Gabriela Mistral, the first Latina Nobel Prize of Literature, to look for the many names of those migrant children.

]]> This letter is addressed to all the migrant children who are currently being forced to work in the United States. We read Gabriela Mistral, the first Latina Nobel Prize of Literature, to look for the many names of those migrant children.

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