The Latino Newsletter podcast has a new host, Michelle Zacarias, who is also a CALÓ News reporter. In episode 4 of the podcast’s second season, Zacarias interviewed CALÓ News cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz.
Alcaraz is an award-winning Chicano visual artist and writer who created “La Cucaracha,” the first nationally syndicated and politically themed daily comic strip.
He’s been recognized by the city of Los Angeles for his contributions to the Latino community on a local and national level. He has won numerous awards, including the Cartoon Award winner for the 2025 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Book and Journalism Awards and the SoCal Journalism award in Editorial Cartoon for Virgen de Guadalupe and Angel Deportation.” Lalo’s art challenges power and sparks conversation.
He has also been a Pulitzer Prize finalist, an item in his bucket list, as he mentions on the podcast, where he also talks about growing up in a border town, politics in comic strips and AI in the art world.
Lalo on CALÓ is his CALÓ News very own section, where all his illustrations and cartoons are featured.
Julio Ricardo Varela is the former host and leads the Latino Newsletter. The second season will have 20 episodes and will release episodes every two weeks. Season 2 of The Latino Newsletter podcast is produced through individual donations and the Latino Media Consortium.
Zacarias joined the Latino Newsletter podcast in its second season as the new host.
Zacarias won a Southern California Journalism award in Race and Society Reporting, Online, for her CALÓ News story “Black and Latino survivors of burned Palm Springs community seek restitution.” Her work exposed systemic failures and uplifted the voices of those fighting for justice.
Zacarias previously cohosted a collaborative podcast episode with Brenda Verano for the Latino Newsletter and CALÓ News about attorney Ester Mendez, a first-generation Oaxacan American who transformed a cycle of incarceration into a life of purpose.
Varela said when Zacarias worked on that podcast, he knew he had found their new host.
“I looked at Joaquin [Cotler] and was like, we found our host,” he commented on the introduction episode to the new Latino Newsletter podcast host.
The Latino Newsletter podcast is available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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