FELIX CONTRERAS, HOST:
From NPR Music, this is ALT.LATINO. I'm Felix Contreras. Before we can get back to talking about music and culture, we have to address the elephant in the room - that is the attack on Capitol Hill on January 6. I know there have been countless hours of conversation about it on cable news, lots of ink used to go over it in the newspaper. And social media? Forget about it. So what we're going to do this week is look back and look forward from a Latino, Latina or Latinx perspective. These are conversations that have been missing from the broader discussions. We're going to hear from a Latino journalist who was there, outside of the Capitol on that day, who says he felt personally threatened by the mob because of being a member of the media and his ethnicity. For countless Latinos across the country, these scenes at the U.S. Capitol brought back memories of coups, attacks and violent takeovers in places like Chile, Argentina, Uruguay. And we're going to hear from a historian to put all of that into context.
And did you know that in 1954, four Puerto Rican nationalists smuggled arms into the Capitol, into the U.S. House of Representatives, and shot at congressmen in the name of the struggle of Puerto Rican independence from the U.S.? We're going to hear a little bit about that. And finally, we're going to get analysis, with all of these perspectives in mind, from two NPR journalists who cover Congress and the White House. But first, let's go back to that day, January 6, and get an eyewitness account from Pablo Gato. He is a national correspondent who covers Washington for Univision. This is what he saw.
PABLO GATO: The day of the insurrection, we were at the office. And we have a balcony that you can see completely across from the Capitol. And we were seeing all these people, thousands and thousands, going to the Capitol. And all of a sudden, we see that this crowd is really storming the Capitol. And we were able to see it from the balcony of our offices. So we go down. I go down with my co-worker (inaudible). And we were outside the Capitol. We were in the perimeter. And it was quite an image. We were seeing thousands of people going in and going out. And we were in disbelief. It was disappointing. It was madness. And we were shocked that something like this could be happening in the United States. And there was not too much police presence at the time. It was increasing a few hours later.
And like I said, I was shocked and disappointed because I'm originally from Spain. And after the Franco dictatorship, we had the same thing, something similar, (inaudible). And yes, you feel threatened. Fortunately, nothing happened to you, but you know that some of these members of this crowd are more violent than others. And some of them, in other occasions, tried to attack us. And fortunately, nothing happened. But even if it's not a group of people attacking you, there is always one or two that could harm you, and always, you have to have eyes on your back to make sure that nothing happens to you. But, yes, you know, the tough answer is that in the Capitol of the United States, you are working with the same precautions that would usually be something in other countries at war. And it's really not only something disappointing and sad to see that this happened here, but at the end of the day, Felix, I think that the conclusion is that, fortunately, democracy triumphed, democracy won, and not this crowd of people. And the conclusion is that democracy prevailed. And that's very beautiful for the media, for the country and for everybody else.
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CONTRERAS: The assault on the Capitol was unprecedented in so many ways. And it will take years to fully grasp what happened and even longer to understand what it means for our country. But we can start thinking about all that now. And that's what we're going to do next. Dr. Geraldo Cadava is an associate professor of Latino and Latina studies at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University. And I invited him to talk about what it means in the context of U.S. history and Latin American history.
OK. So we're recording this just a few hours after the inauguration. And we've had two weeks to absorb the incidents at the Capitol, two weeks to get over the shock and, in some cases, anger. Now, how have you processed this as a professor of U.S. history? And specifically, where do you place this in the history of democracy here in the U.S.?
GERALDO CADAVA: I think it was a really scary moment. I mean, the past few months, I mean, since the election, have been a really kind of scary moment - to see, one, you know, the candidate who lost just wage an all-out assault on the election results and the implications that that had for democracy was really, really scary, you know? As a historian, you know, being able to understand this moment in comparison with earlier moments. I mean, perhaps that does give me some perspective and helps me - I wouldn't say calm is the right word, but kind of understand that we've had some very tumultuous moments in our national history before, and we've made our way through them. That, of course, is no guarantee that we will always find our way through very difficult moments. We may come to an end at some point. But it does seem like what I felt very much to be a threat to our democracy has passed for the moment. And, you know, at the end, I guess, just today what was so kind of surprising, except for the fact that Donald Trump didn't attend the inauguration, is how smoothly things seemed to go, you know?
So I will say just quickly that, you know, I think for the past four years, we've been wrestling with how new is this, how familiar is this? Have we been here before in American history, or is this entirely unprecedented? So I think in some ways, the whole - our evaluation of the Trump era has been a kind of conversation about how new this is and how familiar it is. And, you know, I think the question about January 6 kind of falls into that way of thinking about the Trump years as well.
CONTRERAS: Right now, I want to refocus our conversation back on history and, in particular, an event that has not been mentioned off in the media, but it has resonance for Latinos here in the U.S. OK, right now, I want to play some tape for you. It's a segment from the NPR radio program Radio Diaries. It's about an incident in 1954 when four Puerto Rican nationalists smuggled arms into the U.S. House of Representatives. They were up in the viewing gallery and fired shots inside all in the name of their struggle and the fight for independence of Puerto Rico from the U.S.
Now, I'm going to play the tape. And I want people to be warned - there is some archival audio in this report that uses some really editorially slanted language in this reporting. But nonetheless, let's check it out.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1, BYLINE: In Washington, D.C., ruthless, fanatic violence erupted in the halls of Congress. Three men and a woman believed to be members of the Puerto Rican nationalist gang opened fire from the visitors' gallery of the House of Representatives.
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MIKE MICHAELSON: At that time, we were debating a bill called the Bracero bill, allowing immigrant workers to come in to work the fields and harvest the fruit. And I turned around. I noticed some people came in the door, which was to my left upstairs. And then I turned around and looked at them, and, you know - but I figured they were just tourists, like so many people. And I paid no more attention to them.
BILL GOODWIN: And I was standing in the doorway of the cloakroom, and I looked up. And this man stood up, and he had a dark suit on - tall, lanky guy. And he reached inside of his coat pocket and pulled out a pistol. And I just - that is a pistol. I couldn't believe it. I knew it was a pistol.
MICHAELSON: Then I see these people are standing up with guns in their hands. And a woman was standing with them, and she had a big flag. And she was unfurling the - you know, waving the flag back and forth.
RAY SUAREZ: Their leader, Lolita Lebrón, was a seamstress in New York. They were working-class Puerto Rican New Yorkers who happened to be attached to the Nationalist Party. My name is Ray Suarez. I'm Puerto Rican. And I'm a journalist and a writer. These four began reciting the Lord's Prayer. Lebrón shouted, viva Puerto Rico libre. And they opened fire.
GOODWIN: Everybody started hitting the ground. And some congressmen, like myself, just stood there looking at the guy, and he was shooting. And then I remember the gun stopped. And he pulled another clip out of his pocket, put the clip in. And he started shooting again, and his gun jammed. And then a second man stood up. He was in a light blue suit - I remember that, a lighter suit. And he started shooting.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: Police hurry to America's House of Representatives in Washington following an attack by three Puerto Ricans.
BENJAMIN JASON: My partner and I were patrolling on Louisiana Avenue just a block from the Capitol when the call came out - shooting in the House of Representatives. And we got there immediately. Inside, the Capitol was very hectic and yelling. And people pointed to this particular tall person. I grabbed a hold of him, and I had him by the belt.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: Five congressmen were hit. Albert (ph) Bentley of Michigan was seriously injured.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #3: The would-be assassins apparently had plotted the shooting for weeks, hoping it would dramatize their demands for Puerto Rico's independence from the United States. Rafael Miranda answered some questions from Washington reporters.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #4: How about the gentleman? Would he like to say anything?
RAFAEL MIRANDA: Yes. I am a Puerto Rican in the struggle for independence of my country.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #4: Are you sorry for what has happened?
MIRANDA: I am not sorry for what happened.
SUAREZ: There is a part of the Puerto Rican mentality that always says, you know, they don't really care about us. So this is one way to get noticed - the cry of, in effect, desperate people.
JOE BARTLETT: That was a real feeling of anger, wanting to get at them. How dare they do this? And look what they've done to our friends or our colleagues?
PAUL KANJORSKI: I understood the political nature of what they had done. And not that it forgives them, but it puts a context of understanding.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #3: A few days later, a fast-moving federal grand jury indicted the four Puerto Ricans on charges of intent to kill and of assaulting a congressman with a dangerous weapon.
SUAREZ: They were tried, sentenced to long prison sentences and served over a quarter of a century in federal prison until their sentences were commuted by President Jimmy Carter.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #5: To Irvin Flores, Rafael Miranda, Mrs. Lolita Lebrón, Andres Cordero, the gun wielders, goes the evil distinction of having perpetrated a criminal outrage almost unique in America's history.
KANJORSKI: I would say in a matter of a week, it was somewhat forgot about.
SUAREZ: And the whole event sort of disappeared into history.
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CONTRERAS: Notwithstanding the dramatic news reading and background music, how widely known do you think that this incident is among people here in the United States?
CADAVA: I don't think it's very widely known. I mean, I knew about it, and I saw people making comparisons between what happened on January 6 and Lolita Lebrón's shooting in Congress in 1954. But these were other, like, Latino journalists who've been doing this stuff their whole life, and I think they saw the connection just because, if I'm not mistaken, it was the last time that, you know, there was an invasion in Congress and shots fired in Congress. And so I understand why people's minds jump to that. But, you know, I have a Ph.D. in American history. I have taught Latino history for years and years, and I don't think I even came to understand that incident well until just a couple years ago when I was writing my book about Hispanic Republicans.
So I think the first thing to note about the similarities and differences - the points of connection and why the comparison gets made, I think it's obvious. You know, people firing guns in Congress is a pretty dramatic happening - something that doesn't happen often. I mean, it happens much less often in the 20th century than it did in the 19th century, when Southern and Northern congressmen would beat each other with sticks on the floor of Congress. So this is a different kind of violence. But it's remarkable, and it's stunning. And guns being fired and a siege of the Capitol is a kind of dramatic occurrence. So I understand why the comparison is made.
But in other ways, they're two entirely different contexts. Donald Trump, the president on January 6, was - in his speech before the march on the Capitol was encouraging their march in their protest, and he was talking about how much he appreciates them, values them, thinks they're wonderful people, called them patriots. That was not the response that Americans had to Lolita Lebrón and her accomplices in 1954. I mean, they were immediately, in 1954, kind of tarred as communists and Marxists and radicals. The FBI went and searched Lolita Lebrón's apartment the day after in New York and discovered all kinds of apparently Marxist and communist propaganda. And, you know, it was 1954. It was the height of the Cold War. It was the year of the McCarthy hearings.
So I think understanding what Lolita Lebrón did in the context of the Cold War is important. But then there's also just this kind of tangled history of U.S.-Puerto Rico relations that makes this episode different, and the '50s is a really important episode in this. So the independence movement was really, you know, trying to gain steam in the early 1950s because in 1952, Puerto Rico became the Estado Libre Asociado. It became a commonwealth of the United States, which kind of preserved Puerto Rico's status as this kind of non-incorporated territory where, you know, this has been the kind of lightning rod in Puerto Rican politics for much of the past 120 years. And there's a pro-statehood party, a pro-independence party and then a pro-commonwealth party. And the independence movement two years after Puerto Rico maintained its Commonwealth status was really active and growing and fed up with the preservation of this commonwealth status. So they were kind of redoubling their fight for independence for the island.
So I think it's also just really important to understand the Lolita Lebrón incident in the context of U.S.-Puerto Rico relations. I mean, I'm sure there are all kinds of other comparisons you could make having to do with, you know, claims to freedom and autonomy for an island and from an oppressive government here in the United States. But I think, in a lot of ways, the people fighting for independence of Puerto Rico and the people who invaded Congress on January 6 have very, very different goals and ways of seeing the world.
CONTRERAS: Let's continue to put this in the context of Latin American history. I was texting with a friend during the event. We were watching separately. She's from Chile, and she wrote, almost in an offhand manner, reminds me of Chile in '73, where she witnessed the overthrow of the Allende government. We have people here in the U.S. who have lived through this kind of thing before in Latin America - in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay. Is there something that - is there a lesson you think that they draw from this or that we can learn from this, putting it into context of things that have happened in Latin America?
CADAVA: Oh, sure. I'm sure there are lots of lessons to be drawn, lots of parallels and comparisons. I think the - you know, the main thing I would point to, though, is that, you know, the United States has long liked to see itself as a shining example of democracy on the world stage and an example of a kind of functioning, well-ordered society that doesn't have this kind of unrest. In fact, one of the Latino conservatives I have interviewed a lot told me that one of the ways in which Democrats fundamentally understand the ambitions and motivations of immigrants is that they think immigrants want to come to the United States and kind of get lumped in with other Latinos as a minority group in the United States.
But he says that that's not at all the case. They immigrate to the United States because they don't want to be in a city like Caracas, or they don't want to be in a city like Managua, Nicaragua, cities that don't work, that they want to escape from. And so his argument was that Latin American immigrants have been very uncomfortable watching all of the protests unfold in the United States over the summer and in the fall and now in 2021 because, in many ways, it reminds them of the turbulent societies they left behind. So I think the main thing I would say is that, you know, the United States should think long and hard about how we preach to the rest of the world about being an example for the rest of the world when it comes to an ordered democracy based on freedom and equality. I think that what we're seeing now is much more complicated than that.
CONTRERAS: And finally, your own personal feelings as you watched the invasion of the Capitol take place - I mean, were you able to compartmentalize your reactions as a historian versus your reaction as a citizen? I mean, these are people who - for the most part, some of the people who were involved in this invasion were people who want to do harm to people who look like you and I.
CADAVA: I know. It's wild, isn't it? It's really wild. You know, my reactions have been different at different times. So for example, when my friends started texting me and said, dude, you got to start watching TV, there's this kind of crazy stuff going on, all I saw were, you know, a mob of people circulating outside of the Capitol. Those were some of the first images. And yeah, that is - you can recognize that as historic because you don't often see people marching and protesting and pushing up against the walls of the Capitol like that. But I became more shaken by what had happened once I started seeing images of what was going on inside. You know, as more and more accounts came out of someone dying inside or people carrying Confederate flags through the halls of Congress, when I got much closer to the protesters, hearing their words, seeing their close-up pictures, what they were doing inside of the chamber and sitting at Mike Pence's desk, things like that, that's when I became more kind of shaken by what had happened.
But - so first of all, I mean, yes, I'm a historian, but I'm also an American. I'm also a Latino just kind of living through these crazy, crazy times. And so sometimes, I - just as an American, as a person reacting to this moment, I try to do what I can to rationalize what we're seeing, mainly to keep my own sanity. I mean, I think if we kept chasing every atrocity of the Trump era down a rabbit hole and really trying to obsess over every single thing that happened, we would probably all lose our minds. So I think all of us are probably trying to balance, you know, just living our daily lives and proceeding through the day, assuming that we're going to wake up again tomorrow and the sun's going to rise and going about our normal business at the same time that we're trying to process what feels to us, like, very anxious and extraordinary times. So that's how I kind of felt as an American.
But as a historian, I think that's where I've also kind of been going back and forth over the past few years between understanding this as a really exceptional moment in American history and understanding it as, you know, one in a series of very turbulent periods out of which we will emerge into something better. And hopefully, that will be the case.
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CONTRERAS: Now it's time for a little analysis in real time. Claudia Grisales is a congressional reporter for NPR News, and Franco Ordoñez covers the White House for NPR. You can hear them on the radio reporting on the daily machinations of how government works. But for this special edition of ALT.LATINO, I asked them to think about what happened and what it means for the country, for our history and for people of color who still have to deal with all of this white supremacy.
To wind up this special edition of ALT.LATINO, we want to take some time to think about what happened, put it all in some kind of political and historical context. And to do that, I've invited Claudia Grisales and Franco Ordoñez. She covers Congress, and he covers the White House for NPR News. Both of you, welcome to ALT.LATINO.
CLAUDIA GRISALES, BYLINE: Thank you.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: Thanks for having me.
CONTRERAS: OK. First, Claudia. You cover Congress. You cover Capitol Hill. Were you there? And if not, what was going through your mind as you witnessed the events?
GRISALES: I was not there. I've been reporting from Capitol Hill. I took a pause when the pandemic started, and I've been reporting from Capitol Hill on and off since June. And I'd been out there quite frequently. But I had just decided around the holidays that I was going to work remotely that week. And it was a historical day. And so looking back at it, that was difficult to see that from afar happening. I think I had some guilt for not being there. I was worried about all the journalists and everybody else who was there as this insurrection invaded. It was horror. We were getting reports. We have an informal Capitol Hill pool, which is reporters who do go up there and they feed into this pool system during the pandemic. And we were getting updates from reporters who were literally in hiding in the House gallery and elsewhere and as they were moving through. And it was really difficult to watch that happen and what everybody was going through at those moments.
ORDOÑEZ: I was also working remotely. It was not my shift that day, but I was covering the events. I was covering President Trump that morning, watching his speech from the Ellipse. I was stunned. I mean, he was really firing up the crowd. I was fascinated to hear him say that he was going to join them going to the Capitol. He said it a couple times. You know, people - me and my colleagues were like, what's going on? Is he really going to do this? There's no way Secret Service would let them - him do this, but he kept saying it. So it was very curious. Obviously, he went back to the White House and watched it from television, and we know what happened next.
But, you know, I think the one image that I think will always be seared in my mind on this is the image of the Capitol Police, guns raised, guarding the doors of the House chamber. You know, this is a room that Claudia can talk more about. But, you know, I've been there for votes. It's where State of the Union speeches happen. I mean, just thinking about it, this is - the first, the second and the third people in line for presidential succession were there, in danger, and had to be evacuated. I mean, that's just - it's just really incredible.
CONTRERAS: Picking up on that - I mean, from your perspectives as experienced political reporters, what does this all mean for the country? It's a big thought. It's a big ask. But your initial reactions - 'cause this is something that's going to evolve over time as we think about it and as we learn more and more about what actually happened - where you are now in your coverage, what does it all mean?
ORDOÑEZ: I mean, I think it really just shows how difficult of a time it is. I mean, people from both sides are really going at it. I mean, this event, you know, kind of brought people together. Vice President Pence obviously attended the inauguration even though Trump wouldn't. But there are still millions of people who think there was funny business going on in the election even though there wasn't. And, you know, Biden talks about the uncivil wars, the divisions, and those are very real. And, you know, this is ALT.LATINO. You know, obviously, this is - a big part of this is race and racism against Black and brown people. But it's not just a white person problem.
If you look at the FBI posters of people wanted for the assault, there are some Black and there are some brown faces. And I don't need to tell, you know, this audience, but while a majority of Latinos supported Biden, there was a chunk who supported MAGA causes and some of the claims of fraud. The leader of the Proud Boys is a Cuban American who leads, you know, Latinos for Trump. There are divisions in our own community that must be dealt with as well.
GRISALES: Yeah. I have to agree with Franco in his point. It's such a turning point for our country at this moment. It really triggered this internal review on so many levels. And I think he's right. It wasn't just white faces we were seeing that day. There was diversity among those mobs. And Franco reminds me, he also did some really critical reporting leading up to the election in Florida, talking to Latinos there who supported Trump and how they were haunted by these concerns of seeing socialism from their countries rise here in this country. So that, in a way, prepped me for seeing these divisions even among, for example, Latinos and how they view the Trump administration.
CONTRERAS: It's curious that they would fall back on things that they had seen in their own country as a way to side with the Trump movement while, as we heard in the interview with the historian - that there are also people here in the United States who lived through these kind of government or constitutional attacks in Chile and Argentina, different places in Latin America. They have those very real experiences remembering watching these houses of government be stormed. So I guess that reflects the mixed experience of Latinos coming from other countries, living here in the United States, having different reactions to what's going on.
GRISALES: Exactly.
ORDOÑEZ: Absolutely. I mean, I think, you know, there are so many different parallels with Latino communities. I mean, you go down to Miami, and you talk about - people are worried about Biden bringing in socialism, as Claudia says. But there are also the Caudillos, you know, the strongmen of Latin America that you're talking about, that the professor talked about who, you know, had - you know, had these very boisterous personalities, but also kind of, like - kind of had these inner circles of people who crowded around them and made, you know, many autocratic moves. You know, there are a lot of Latinos who see that in, you know, the previous administration.
CONTRERAS: We're talking on the day after now-President Biden and Vice President Harris have been sworn into office. But when you think back, three Wednesdays ago, we had the insurrection. Two Wednesdays ago, we had an impeachment. Then yesterday, a Wednesday, we had an inauguration. That's mind-boggling in contemporary times. Looking back at your reporting that you've done on this, is there something that stands out to you that helped you put into perspective - an interview you did, a fact you discovered, something maybe that didn't make it into your stories for the sake of time - is there something there that helps you continue to try to grapple with this and put it into perspective?
GRISALES: I think, for me, it's been what I've seen since the insurrection - the images, the videos, the photos, the reports since then. We didn't realize how close it was. As Franco was mentioning, we had the next three successors in the line to the presidency very close - very close to these insurrectionists. And as you mentioned, it was deadly. People did die as a result of this. And that's very scary how close they came to causing even more damage. But just going around the Capitol and seeing just still evidence of shattered glass windows and other damage - saw it yesterday during the inauguration - and it's just a reminder of just kind of this lingering and remaining damage. You can visually see it, but people feel it, too. Pelosi just mentioned that today in terms of House workers and others who experienced this trauma. So it's visible in terms of what we see now of how dangerous this really was and the repercussions it has left behind.
ORDOÑEZ: I agree. You know, I feel like there's, like, this movie projector kind of going on, you know, speed dial in my head. And it comes, you know, frankly, just to yesterday. You know, I'm watching this, you know, beautiful and optimistic ceremony - this inauguration ceremony celebrating democracy and how we lift up against adversity. You know, if people didn't hear the young poet - inauguration poet Amanda Gorman recite her poem on "The Hill We Climb," you know, it really captured that. I highly recommend it.
You know, but at the same time, as, you know, Claudia's saying, Washington right now is on lockdown. I mean, it is a fortress here. The amount of military forces, of resources here is, you know, frankly, mind-boggling. And, you know, it's not because we're under threat by foreign adversaries. It is not 911. I mean, this is - these are about concerns about other Americans. And that to me, just, you know - frankly, it's just so shocking to me. And it just - I think it just shows how radically different things are in the United States right now. There is just such a great divide, an incredible divide in the country right now. And Biden - President Biden and the leaders of the country, both Democratic and Republican, they really got their work cut out for them.
CONTRERAS: Picking up on that, in terms of the people who were behind the insurrection - and what about your own personal perspectives? You both identify as Latino or Latina, and you're both members of the media, and those are two groups that supremacists are not really friendly toward. Are you nervous about the political environment out there as individuals, but also as members of the media?
GRISALES: You know, I don't know what my problem is, but I'm not (laughter). Maybe I should be worried. I know there's all this division out there. I know, like, we saw it on display January 6 - these forces of hate, the Confederate flag being marched through this sacred democratic institution. I know they're out there. But I guess you could say just, you know, being born to immigrant parents growing up in this country, grew up in the South, I have seen these forces before - not to this extent, not to this violent extent that we saw January 6, of course. But I have always been aware that it's there. And I'm also aware of the job that I have to do. And as far as I'm concerned, that's not going to get in my way.
So my objective is to tell this story from the best vantage point that I can to our listeners, to readers, and let them know what the current story is for Capitol Hill on different levels. So I do that as a Latina with awareness of all the diversity that we confront and - including some of those that would rather not see Latinos out there, perhaps, working in this capacity. So - but we all have jobs to do. So it doesn't make me nervous about the political environment. Maybe - in terms of a national picture, maybe there's concerns about this division and then how this division is going to be addressed in the future. That is a worry in terms of how this goes forward, what does that look like? But as a reporter, I don't see it impacting my job.
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say I feel personally in danger because I'm Latino. However, you know, some of this was obviously directed at the media. I mean, you had some of the extremists scratching, quote, "murder the media" into the doors of the U.S. Capitol. There were thousands of dollars of camera and computer equipment, electronic equipment destroyed on the Capitol grounds. This is - you know, this is information that folks like Claudia and I, you know, use and need to bring these reports to the public. And, you know, I think this campaign of misinformation has really damaged trust in the media. And for folks like us who are trying to bring a straight story, that's really worrisome.
You know, all that said, though, I mean, like, you know, I think there's no question that race was a factor here. I was not inside the Capitol. But my colleagues who are Black and brown, I can absolutely see that there would be some concern there and - because, you know, they were walking around with the Confederate flag, and there were some of the T-shirts about Nazism. I mean, it was, you know, some graphic images.
You know, take our colleague Sam Sanders' piece. He wrote an article about how this is, you know, just the latest chapter of an ongoing battle over race. I mean, these are issues that are very much with us, and this event was very much a part of that. You can't ignore that. And like Claudia says, I think being Latino definitely shapes how we bring our coverage, how they have an impact not only on all our listeners but also our listeners who are Black and brown.
CONTRERAS: Franco Ordoñez covers the White House for NPR, and Claudia Grisales covers Congress for NPR. Guys, thank you so much for doing this.
ORDOÑEZ: Hey, thank you so much.
GRISALES: Thanks for having us.
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CONTRERAS: We will return to music and culture here on ALT.LATINO in the coming weeks, but I felt it was important to hear from the people we heard from this week to get their thoughts and insights on an event that we all hoped would never happen but now we can never forget. My thanks to Claudia Grisales, Franco Ordoñez, Dr. Geraldo Cadava and Pablo Gato. And also, thanks to ALT.LATINO intern Anamaria Sayre for her help in setting this show up. You have been listening to ALT.LATINO from NPR Music. As always, thank you so much for listening. I'm Felix Contreras. Please be careful out there.
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