Orgullo Latino

"We all have an innate pride in knowing how to dance and move our hips," says Teo Gómez, the owner and main dance instructor at The Salsa Sabrosa School in New York. "It also gives an important sense of identity where one can feel represented by something as global as a musical genre."

In this ritual, the asador is the star. For Diego, the sous chef at Momo Soho in New York, asado is an orchestra, and the asador is the conductor, in charge of the whole thing. It lasts for hours. Everyone talks, drinks wine, eats cheese, and salad, waiting for the conductor to get the main event ready: the meat.

¿Nos tomamos un cafecito? For us, having a cafecito is often a ritual, a special moment, and an experience. It gives us the opportunity to discuss important things – or chismear. The cafecito experience is part of what it means to be Latino and has crossed borders with us.

"She reminds me so much of my grandmother that has passed on," says a commenter on one Latinometrics article. "It gives me a small connection to my grandmother trying to teach me how to cook food from our heritage. Unfortunately, I was (too) stubborn to learn when I was a kid. Her videos take me back."

Mama Necha’s recipe was simple. First, she dehydrated chile peppers (a combination of chiles de árbol, guajillo and pasilla). Then she smashed them and added sea salt and lime, turning it into a powder.

Despite decades of inaccurate portrayals of the Maya in US and European media, they developed one of the world's largest and most advanced civilizations in Mesoamerica over 2,000 years ago. Mysteriously, these advances are overlooked as textbooks educate children about the advances of "less melanated" civilizations.

Today, slang – or jerga – is no longer seen as something "less than". Instead, it has become a colorful addition to our existing language that allows us to succinctly and emotively capture and communicate a feeling.

Podcasts – those nifty audio episodes on everything from true-crime deep dives to advice on how to make the perfect guacamole – have taken the world by storm. According to recent data, there are over 383 million podcast listeners across the globe, of which 100 million are located in the US, 2.4 million podcasts and more than 66 million episodes.

When asked how she started in the coffee industry, Fátima Ismael Espinoza points to literacy. As a teenager, she got the opportunity to teach basic literacy skills to communities in rural areas and soon realized that many people in those regions needed help. So she told her parents she wanted to go to an agricultural school.

If one day you wake up with a chuchaqui (hangover), remember that Ecuadorians claim to have the formula to combat even the worst one imaginable: a delicious fish broth called encebollado.

Latin America is well known for its beaches where visitors get to not only enjoy balmy water and the softest white sand but also the various countries' rich cultures – each with its traditional dishes, joyous music and welcoming people.

If not for hindsight, we would be hard-pressed to believe that a Jesuit priest smuggling in a coffee plant in 1723 would bring about a boom of economic development for what is now known as Colombia. Since then, a whole culture has developed around the bean which is deeply ingrained in our identities. A culture that has, just like all other cultures, evolved over time. These changes have been witnessed by generations of Colombians whose lives are intertwined with the bean from crop to cup.

Today, we represent nearly a fifth of the total US population. We are also the second-largest ethnic group in the country. But the data also shows that Latinos are dispersed rather unevenly across the country – and that our numbers are growing at vastly different rates depending on the state.

When it comes to chemicals, coffee is one of the most heavily treated food crops in the world. According to recent estimates, more than five million tons of pesticides are applied to crops globally, with around 250lbs applied per acre of conventionally grown coffee.

From viral TikTok videos and designer cocktails to desserts and even Beyonce's handbag, Cholula Hot Sauce can be found everywhere. Despite only breaking into the US market 30 years ago, it's the third-most popular hot sauce in the country where it sells more bottles than anywhere else in the world.

From the crack of dawn to late at night, Hondurans heading to and from work are greeted by a now familiar sight: street stalls selling baleadas – a popular meal packed with a favorite Honduran ingredient: beans. In this case, frijoles refritos.

Many of us living in the US are proud Spanglish speakers and see it as a link between two cultures we identify with. It brings English and Spanish together linguistically and, for many of us, this combination also represents the cultural reality of our households.

Olga Cuéllar Gomez dreams of a better world – one in which agricultural communities are treated more fairly and the hard work of producers is truly recognized by all those along the supply chain.

Who remembers a time before reggaetón? A vibrant blend of reggae, dancehall, and Latino music, it has been the world's most popular music genre for more than 20 years - and shows few signs of stopping.

A tradition that is now part of world gastronomy; one which continues to expand as ingredients and cultural layers are added yet retains the character and soul of Peru.

Denisse Coquet speaks to Lea Landaverde about the problem with marketing along stereotypical cultural lines during Hispanic Heritage Month – and every other day of the year.