Babel Music introduces us to the quitiplás, a fascinating musical instrument from Mestizo America that is made of bamboo and comes in different sizes and pitches.

In this episode of Sonido Babel [Babel Sound], we'll learn a bit about the origin and history of rap music. We've even invited rapper Junior High to join us, who'll help you learn more Spanish with a very special rap.

Let's discover yet another upbeat Colombian musical genre with Antonio, porro, by listening to its melody and witnessing how it is danced.

What is candombe? In this episode from Sonido Babel [Babel Sound], we'll travel to Uruguay to find out more about this musical style that is influenced by more than twenty different African cultures as well as the indigenous Charrúas and Guaranis, the Spanish, and the Portuguese.

Antonio shares with us some fascinating facts about rumba, a popular Cuban rhythm, from its African roots to its influence on other musical genres.

Learn vocabulary helpful for meeting new people and even inviting them out in Cleer's casual interview with Giluancar, a Venezuelan who has recently arrived in Germany.

Yolimar Gimon, one of the ten finalists in the "Mrs. Venezuela" contest in 2012, tells us a bit about how the contest gives the chance to a bit more mature women to prove their abilities outside of the home as well as what her participation in the contest meant to her.

Lifelong mariachi artists explain their passion for the mariachi music and way of life.

Welcome to Miami's Calle Ocho, a street in Miami which allows us to catch a glimpse not only of Cuban culture, but also the various other Latin American cultures which merge and congregate there.

As the fifteenth birthday of young girls in Venezuela and most other Latin American countries marks a special rite of passage into womanhood, it is traditional for the family to throw them a big birthday bash.

Luis receives a class in the basics of astrology, a science which utilizes the location of the planets when individuals are born and may help us to make decisions about specific aspects of our lives during specific periods.

Yabla introduces us to Yepez, a painter from Venezuela.

It's your opportunity to learn how to make some beautiful ocarinas. Their sound is so sweet!

La Vela is a small town in the state of Falcón, on the northwest coast of Venezuela, where every December 28th Los Locos [“The Crazy Ones”] arrive wearing colorful and elaborated costumes. The whole town becomes a party, with businesses closing and people dancing in the streets. It’s a tradition that could be in any magical realism novel and that desperately struggles to not fall into oblivion.

It’s quite possible that El Día de Los Locos, as celebrated in La Vela de Coro, has its roots as far back as the Roman Empire, which celebrated Saturnalia at the same time of year. Both festivals, historically, involve turning the social order on its head, with slaves dressing like their masters.