Mandalit del Barco As an arts correspondent based at NPR West, Mandalit del Barco reports and produces stories about film, television, music, visual arts, dance and other topics.
Mandalit del Barco (square - 2015)
Stories By

Mandalit del Barco

Allison Shelley/NPR
Mandalit del Barco at NPR West in Culver City, California, September 25, 2018. (photo by Allison Shelley)
Allison Shelley/NPR

Mandalit del Barco

Correspondent, Arts Desk, NPR West

As an arts correspondent based at NPR West, Mandalit del Barco reports and produces stories about film, television, music, visual arts, dance and other topics. Over the years, she has also covered everything from street gangs to Hollywood, police and prisons, marijuana, immigration, race relations, natural disasters, Latino arts and urban street culture (including hip hop dance, music, and art). Every year, she covers the Oscars and the Grammy awards for NPR, as well as the Sundance Film Festival and other events. Her news reports, feature stories and photos, filed from Los Angeles and abroad, can be heard on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, Alt.latino, and npr.org.

del Barco's reporting has taken her throughout the United States, including Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco and Miami. Reporting further afield as well, del Barco traveled to Haiti to report on the aftermath of the devastating earthquake. She has chronicled street gangs exported from the U.S. to El Salvador and Honduras, and in Mexico, she reported about immigrant smugglers, musicians, filmmakers and artists. In Argentina, del Barco profiled tango legend Carlos Gardel, and in the Philippines, she reported a feature on balikbayan boxes. From China, del Barco contributed to NPR's coverage of the United Nations' Women's Conference. She also spent a year in her birthplace, Peru, working on a documentary and teaching radio journalism as a Fulbright Fellow and on a fellowship with the Knight International Center For Journalists.

In addition to reporting daily stories, del Barco produced half-hour radio documentaries about gangs in Central America, Latino hip hop, L.A. Homegirls, artist Frida Kahlo, New York's Palladium ballroom and Puerto Rican "Casitas."

Before moving to Los Angeles, del Barco was a reporter for NPR Member station WNYC in New York City. She started her radio career on the production staff of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday with Scott Simon. However her first taste for radio came as a teenager, when she and her brother won an award for an NPR children's radio contest.

del Barco's reporting experience extends into newspaper and magazines. She served on the staffs of The Miami Herald and The Village Voice, and has done freelance reporting. She has written articles for Latina magazine and reported for the weekly radio show Latino USA.

Stories written by del Barco have appeared in several books including Las Christmas: Favorite Latino Authors Share their Holiday Memories (Vintage Books) and Las Mamis: Favorite Latino Authors Remember their Mothers (Vintage Books). del Barco contributed to an anthology on rap music and hip hop culture in the book, Droppin' Science (Temple University Press).

Peruvian writer Julio Villanueva Chang profiled del Barco's life and career for the book Se Habla Espanol: Voces Latinas en USA (Alfaguara Press).

She mentors young journalists through NPR's "Next Generation", Global Girl, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and on her own, throughout the U.S. and Latin America.

A fourth generation journalist, del Barco was born in Lima, Peru, to a Peruvian father and Mexican-American mother. She grew up in Baldwin, Kansas, and in Oakland, California, and has lived in Manhattan, Madrid, Miami, Lima and Los Angeles. She began her journalism career as a reporter, columnist and editor for the Daily Californian while studying anthropology and rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley. She earned a Master's degree in journalism from Columbia University with her thesis, "Breakdancers: Who are they, and why are they spinning on their heads?"

For those who are curious where her name comes from, "Mandalit" is the name of a woman in a song from Carmina Burana, a musical work from the 13th century put to music in the 20th century by composer Carl Orff.

Story Archive

Saturday

Maria Emilia Martin created the radio show Latino USA. Conocimientos Press hide caption

toggle caption
Conocimientos Press

Pioneering Latina public radio journalist Maria Martin dies at 72

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1216662361/1217090893" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Some SAG-AFTRA members are concerned about AI provisions in tentative deal

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1216005659/1216005660" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Tuesday

Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto has had a hand in this year's biggest blockbusters

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1213008643/1213008644" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Saturday

Netflix restores Hollywood's iconic Egyptian Theatre

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1212465761/1212467336" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

SZA, seen here at The Webby Awards, was nominated for nine Grammy Awards, including album, record and song of the year. Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for The Webby Award hide caption

toggle caption
Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for The Webby Award

Thursday

Tentative deal ends actors' 118-day historic strike against Hollywood studios

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1211724931/1211724932" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

Outside Fox studios in Los Angeles, production assistant Allie Palm and SAG-AFTRA actress Desiree Woolfolk say they can't wait to get back to work. Mandalit del Barco/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Mandalit del Barco/NPR

Actors and studios make a deal to end Hollywood strikes

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1203789537/1211715519" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Saturday

Actor Jason George is on the negotiating team with SAG-AFTRA: "It's a heist movie" he says. Mandalit del Barco/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Mandalit del Barco/NPR

We asked Hollywood actors and writers to imagine the strikes on screen

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1210547687/1210645299" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Tuesday

Bargaining talks are set to resume between striking Hollywood performers and studios

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1208165054/1208165055" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

Hollywood studios and SAG-AFTRA to return to contract negotiations after 2 week pause

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1208066804/1208066805" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

SAG-AFTRA encourages striking actors to avoid certain Halloween costumes

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1207650415/1207650416" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Tuesday

Alec Baldwin spoke to reporters in 2021 about the shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. MEGA/GC Images hide caption

toggle caption
MEGA/GC Images

Prosecutors seek to recharge Alec Baldwin in the 'Rust' movie shooting

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1206653370/1206915804" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

Taylor Swift's Eras Tour Concert Film is coming to a theater near you

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1205671774/1205671775" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Sunday

He wrote this film before AI was a hot topic. Now it's all the rage.

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1202886132/1202888677" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

He wrote this film before AI was a hot topic. Now it's all the rage.

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1202745342/1202794993" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Tuesday

Placards are gathered together at the close of a picket by members of The Writers Guild of America outside Walt Disney Studios, Tuesday, May 2, 2023, in Burbank, Calif. Chris Pizzello/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Chris Pizzello/AP

Hollywood writers return to work, after a nearly five month strike

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1201936449/1201957033" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

Sunday

Screenwriters on strike protest in front of Paramount Studios on May 2, 2023 in Los Angeles, Calif. Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images

Hollywood writers reach a tentative deal with studios after nearly five month strike

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1200770450/1201453157" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Self-described "filth elder" John Waters unveiled his sidewalk star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday. "It's about time," said fan Kyle Montgomery, who attended the event. "The world is trash. He knew it all along." Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

'Here I am, closer to the gutter than ever': John Waters gets his Hollywood star

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1200624382/1201383761" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

Drew Barrymore, left, faced backlash after she announced her talk show would return to air without her writers who are currently on strike against major studios. She later backtracked. Journalist Michael Schulman says Barrymore's great aunt, Ethel Barrymore, right, undermined union efforts in 1929. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Empire State Realty Trust; Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Empire State Realty Trust; Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Drew Barrymore and others will pause shows until after writers strike ends

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1200076860/1200076861" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Saturday