California’s San Joaquin Valley runs right along the middle of the state, from just south of Bakersfield up to Sacramento. It was ground zero for Cesar Chavez’s groundbreaking campaign for farmworkers, and it was where I met Agustín Lira when I lived in Fresno.

He was a hero there — someone who helped kick off a historic social-justice movement using a guitar and his voice. He, along with brothers Luis and Daniel Valdez, used song and theater from the back of flatbed trucks on the edges of orchards to get Chavez’s message to the folks working in the unforgiving San Joaquin Valley sun.

Luis Valdez went on to create El Teatro Campesino, which became a world-renowned Chicano theater organization. Agustín Lira stayed in Fresno and continued to sing songs about dignity and resistance to exploitation, with a deep understanding of the value of hard physical labor.

With the release of Songs And Struggle And Hope, Lira finds a new home with the legendary record label Smithsonian Folkways. It is the 44th release in the Traditions/Tradiciones series, produced with the help of the Smithsonian’s Latino Center, and it’s a perfect match. Lira is a bit of living history who is moving the tradition of protest music forward.

Here, Lira, along with his musical partner Patricia Wells, adapt their message for modern times, while maintaining the same inspirational lyrics and conviction. Their music resonates as strongly as it ever has.

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

His music really transported me back to the nights and days of endless parties in my hometown, Buenos Aires. Back then I was a teenager completely outraged by the 4 a.m. curfew my very strict parents imposed on me (nightclubs don’t even get started until 2 a.m. back home).

My most bizarre New Year’s memory took place in Buenos Aires. My friend had a party — one of those memorable celebrations where the whole neighborhood shows up, plus their cousins from other neighborhoods, and at some point the house looks like a crowded Where’s Waldo? illustration.

By 7 a.m. it started winding down and people went to sleep wherever they could find a spot, but my best friend Gabi and I had this romantic idea to grab breakfast by the river. As we started walking toward the port, we accidentally found ourselves in the middle of a street fight between two very drunk teenage crews. Scared, we ran into an old garage and hid until the police showed up.

As I peeked through the garage door cracks and saw the enraged kids beating one guy with sticks, I had a passing feeling this was going to be the year in which things changed, and whether that was for better or worse, it had to happen and couldn’t be stopped even if I wanted it to. Even in my adolescent melodrama, there was a grain of truth — by the end of the year, that kind of fighting had become common and I’d packed my bags and left.

But that moment was pure teenage adrenaline. This was love. This was the time in life when everything is the first time. It was the time of waking up covered in glitter — and desperately scrubbing it off so your parents thought you’d actually been with your study group. This was thumping, bumping music all the time.

Gabi and I sneaked out of the garage, looked at each other, laughed and said something I’ve come to realize many years later and wish I could say more often, something this week’s show feels like: Let’s just go home.

P.S.: Mami, if you’re reading this, sorry I snuck out.

Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

This week, they’re giving us a recap of their favorite artists of the year, from a soulful Miami singer who is taking a page from Janis Joplin, to a young Mexican American DJ who is mixing genres with surprising results.

Don’t forget to let us know what your favorite records were this year, and check out Alt.Latino’s complete list here.

Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Regardless of your spiritual affiliations, the end of the year provides an opportunity to reflect on what we’d like to do differently next year, what we’ve learned, our successes and failures, and what makes us thankful.

In that spirit, we invite you to enjoy this holiday concert from the Washington, D.C., choir Cantigas, which performs songs from across the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world. Whether you choose to sit still or twist and shout, the music’s mix of reflection and celebration provides a perfect soundtrack for digesting 2014 and celebrating the arrival of the year to come.

Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

We kick off our coverage with special guests Bianca Laureano and Daniel Familia, two of the minds behind the fantastic LatiNegr@s Project. Celebrating Afro-Latino perspectives, issues and stories, the project is one of the boldest, most innovative projects on the Latin media landscape. It’s essential to our community: As we discuss in today’s show, Black Latino perspectives are significantly under-served by Latin media.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Alt.Latino without music: In addition to discussing the state of Afro-Latino affairs with Laureano and Familia, we listen to fantastic music from Brazil, Cuba, Peru and the Dominican Republic.

Laureano and Familia will continue the conversation on Alt.Latino‘s Twitter and Facebook, as well as on this page. So please leave your comments — and stay tuned, because we have a month of amazing shows coming up.

Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.