World-Class Latin Culture & Global Roots
New York Philharmonic with Gustavo Dudamel & Spanish Harlem Orchestra
Two great orchestras, one classical, one salsa make history with Gustavo Dudamel.
They are playing Gershwin, Villa-Lobos, Ginastera, Ortiz, and salsa at Lincoln Center and United Palace. 🇦🇷 🇧🇷 🇨🇺 🇲🇽 🇵🇷 🇻🇪 More…
New York Latin Culture Brings the World Together
Bryant Park Dance Party is Free Dancing Outdoors to Live Music with a Lesson
Salsa, R&B, Samba/Bossa Nova/Forró, Swing, Bachata, Salsa Cubana
Gabriela Montero’s “Iberia” Shows the Spanish Influence on Piano Repertoire
Don’t miss the Venezuelan concert pianist who is one of the heirs of Albéniz, Granados, and De Larrocha; at 92NY. 🇻🇪 More…
Repertorio Español Latino Theatre
“En el tiempo de las mariposas,” “La Llamada,” “El Quijote, “La Gringa”
New York African Film Festival is "As the Stars Sow the Earth"
“Promised Sky,” “The Eyes of Ghana, “Dust to Dreams”
El Museo del Barrio Hosts Frieze Conference on the Latino Artrising
Museums, curators, and collectors discuss the rise of the Latino Art Market
New York Knicks, Led by Towns and Alvarado, Are Tearing Through the Playoffs
Karl-Anthony Towns “Bodega KAT,” José Alvarado “Grand Theft Alvarado”
International Workers Day or Labor Day is a National Holiday in Much of the Latin World
MAY 1 🇦🇷 🇧🇴 🇧🇷 🇨🇱 🇨🇴 🇨🇷 🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇪🇨 🇸🇻 🇵🇭 🇫🇷 🇬🇹 🇭🇹 🇭🇳 🇮🇹 🇲🇽 🇵🇦 🇵🇾 🇵🇪 🇵🇹 🇷🇴 🇪🇸 🇺🇾 🇻🇪
Global Roots
Latin culture and American culture are far more African than most of us have been taught. We are Asian too.
European NYC
West African NYC
Central African NYC
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East African NYC
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Southern African NYC
Asian NYC
Iroko “Kíko” Keith Widyolar
Founder, Editor, Cacique, Mayimbe, Oba, Bobo, Whateveryouare
¿KLK? I’m an American, a 20-year New Yorker who lives and works in the Latin world.
I build brands and businesses, but my life’s purpose is to bring people together through culture. Maferefún Eleguá.
I’ve been looking for the roots of Latin culture since 2006. They reach around the world, but the literal root has been right in front of me the entire time. It’s the yuca.
Raw yuca root is poisonous. Indigenous Amazonians developed the technology to make it safe to eat.
Taíno brought it to the Caribbean because it’s nutritious and didn’t spoil on long sea voyages.
On the islands, Taíno developed advanced farming techniques and mass-produced casabe flatbread. Yuca was so important, they named the great father Yúcahu.
In the Caribbean, we still eat boiled yuca with garlic and oil, bitter orange, and sauteed onions for any meal. It’s inexpensive, filling, and delicious.
The colonizers recognized yuca’s power and took it to Africa and Asia.
In Mother Afrika, it’s called “cassava,” “manioc” (French for the Brazilian Tupi-Guarani word “mandioca”) or “muhogo.” In West Africa it can be used to make fufu.
In the Pacific, yuca is called some version of “tapioca” or “manioka” and has become the main starch of the islands.
In Asia, yuca is often called “tapioca,” or “cassava.” It is used to make sweets, including the tapioca balls in your favorite Taiwanese Boba Tea.
Thailand is now one of the world’s major yuca producers. That’s where I first tasted it as a child.
I just figured out that those tapioca balls and the boiled yuca I eat for dinner are the same Amazonian Caribbean super food.
So come with me and Yúcahu. Let’s explore New York’s Latin World, the city of enchantment. ¡Ay bendito!
¡WEPA! “E-le-le, le-le-le…” ¡Ashé!