Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One

Dominican-born novelist Junot Diaz is considered one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary fiction. Diaz is the author of the national bestseller Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. He is the fiction editor at the Boston Review and the Rudge (1948) and Nancy Allen professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Diaz talks with Maria Hinojosa about his immigrant experience, race and class in America, and how he deals with his writer's block.

After Iraq, Mexico is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists. Alfredo Corchado, the Mexican bureau chief for The Dallas Morning News, is one of the last journalists covering the increasingly violent drug war. Corchado received the Lovejoy Award for courage in journalism, bestowed annually by Colby College in Waterville, Maine.In this interview with María Hinojosa, he talks about why he risks his life every day to report the truth.

Host Maria Hinojosa talks with Mercedes Doretti, a world leader in using forensic anthropology and archeology to investigate human rights violations. Doretti is the co-founder of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team. From Indonesia to Congo, from El Salvador to Croatia, Doretti's organization has worked at every known location of genocide and mass killings. Their findings are used by Amnesty International, the United Nations, and other human rights organizations in reporting crimes against humanity. Join this 2007 McArthur Fellow as she describes her challenging work.

Comedian and actor Cheech Marin is best known as half of the iconic comedy act Cheech & Chong. He has appeared in dozens of TV, film, and stage productions, including Spy Kids, Nash Bridges, and The Lion King. In addition to his work as an actor, director, musician, and writer, Marin is one of the leading collectors of Chicano art in the US. He talks about his successful — and tumultuous — partnership with Chong, his multifaceted film and television career, and his passion for Chicano art.

Conceptual artist Krzysztof Wodiczko joins María Hinojosa to discuss his career as one of the most admired conceptual artists in the world. His work has ranged from large-scale slide and video projections on architectural façades worldwide to creating a vehicle for the homeless. In his latest exhibit for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Wodiczko focused on veterans engaged in active combat in Iraq, as well as Iraqi civilians.

Maria Hinojosa is joined by critically-acclaimed screenwriter Jose Rivera, whose 2004 film The Motorcycle Diaries earned an Oscar nomination for “Best Adapted Screenplay,” making him the first-ever Puerto Rican nominee in the category. Maria Hinojosa on her interview with Jose Rivera: "You think because someone is an award-winning screenwriter that they are somehow holier than thou....But that was SO not the case with Jose Rivera. He struck me as a real artist who is moved not by fame but by the nature of the writing. Besides Motorcyle Diaries his other big movie is Trade. I found both of them to be so powerful. And I especially appreciated Rivera's humility. I want that to inspire the next generation of Latino screenwriters in Hollywood. Jose is a gem and you get to see that side of him in our extensive and deep felt interview."

Francisco Goldman's first three novels, The Long Night of White Chickens, The Ordinary Seaman and The Divine Husband, received numerous awards. His fiction and journalism writing has appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Times. In his first non-fiction book, The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop, Goldman reconstructs and investigates the murder of Guatemalan’s human rights leader, Bishop Juan Gerardi - one of the most controversial murder cases in contemporary Latin America. In this interview with Maria Hinojosa, Francisco Goldman shares how he launched his career in journalism, the impact of his investigation on Guatemala’s future, and what he has done to honor his late wife, Aura Estrada.

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Tulane University professor and MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry (at the time of our interview, Melissa Harris-Lacewell) joins Maria Hinojosa to discuss the state of African Americans in the Obama era. Winner of the W.E.B. DuBois book award for Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought, Harris-Perry is a professor of political science and founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Project on Gender, Race, and Politics in the South.

Host María Hinojosa interviews the man with perhaps the greatest backstage pass of all time: former Rolling Stone editor Ben Fong-Torres. During his career at Rolling Stone, which spanned from 1968–81, he wrote cover stories on legends like Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Marvin Gaye, and the Grateful Dead. His interview with Ray Charles won the Deems Taylor Award for Magazine Writing in 1974. In his interview with Hinojosa, he discusses the highlights of his award-winning career; a career so unique that he was portrayed in the 2000 film Almost Famous by actor Terry Chen. Fong-Torres also discusses his father’s immigration to the United States, and growing up Chinese-American in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

Phylicia Rashad is one of the most iconic mother figures in the history of American television. In the 1980’s she became a household name with her role as Clair Huxtable as Bill Cosby’s wife – in the hit sitcom The Cosby Show. The Cosby Show is considered one of the biggest surprise hits in American TV history. For 5 straight years (1984-1989) it was the most watched show in the nation. Since she has starred in movies, TV series, and on Broadway shows—and in 2004 she became the first African American to win a Tony for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a play. In this conversation with Maria Hinojosa, she talks about growing up during segregation in Texas, her relationship with Bill Cosby, and where she finds her inspiration.

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A worldwide phenomenon, the female empowerment play The Vagina Monologues has been translated into 45 different languages and performed in more than 119 countries. Creator Eve Ensler joins María Hinojosa for discussion about the play, its global impact, and her tireless activism.

Ensler created V-Day to stop violence against women around the world. In 10 years, the movement has raised over $70 million and has been cited as one of Worth magazine's "100 Best Charities.”

In 1978 she became the first American-born queen of an Arab country when she married His Majesty King Hussein of Jordan. For the last three decades, she has been a world-famous advocate of cross-cultural dialogue and global peace. In this interview with María Hinojosa, Her Majesty Queen Noor talks about her late husband’s efforts to maintain peace in the Middle East, how she balanced tradition with her role as a contemporary queen, and her initiative Global Zero, launched in 2008 to eliminate nuclear weapons worldwide.

Maria on her interview with Queen Noor:

"Getting ready to interview Her Majesty was one of the few times that I felt just a bit nervous. I had never interviewed official royalty on Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One and of course the first thing that comes to mind is protocol. One never touches royalty unless they extend a hand. Queen Noor more than extended a hand. She was gracious and engaging with everyone in the studio. She is not a fast speaker--thoughtful and smart is more her style. It was an honest and revealing conversation. When she said a final good bye from a far, I threw her a pretend hug. She turned around and came back to give me one for real. Such is the touch of Her Majesty."


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Grammy Award-winning pianist Danilo Perez is considered one of the most dynamic and influential jazz musicians of our time. His career spans more than two decades, a journey that took him from his native Panama to stages all over the world.

Perez has played with some of jazz’s greatest musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Paquito D’Rivera. Perez is the founder and artistic director of Berklee College of Music's Global Jazz Institute and the annual Panama Jazz Festival, now in its seventh year. In this interview with María Hinojosa, Perez talks about what he learned from Dizzy Gillespie, his creative process and the future of jazz.

Maria on her interview with Danilo:

"Danilo Perez is like a breath of fresh air in jazz. He is an extraordinary musician befriended by the great Dizzy Gillespie. But what Danilo has is beyond raw talent. He has espiritu. Danilo plays the piano from the heart and delivers music with emotion. This was a truly wonderful experience to have Danilo Perez playing piano on a special One on One. Music, piano jazz, and great talk...what more could you want!"


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Jennifer 8. Lee is a former staff writer for the New York Times and author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, which made it to #26 on the New York Times best-seller list. She has appeared on The Colbert Report, The Martha Stewart Show, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, NPR, and TED.com. In this conversation with María Hinojosa, she shares about growing up Chinese American in New York and the roots of “Chinese” food in America.

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Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, author of The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet and host of the WGBH-produced TV series Nova ScienceNow talks about his passion for science, his efforts to make astronomy accessible, and why he doesn't think the sky is the limit.

The classic images of Brazil are the carnival, samba and soccer, but this Portuguese speaking 190 million people country to the south is much more than that. It is the world’s 5th most populated nation in the world and is rapidly establishing itself as a leading global force culturally, politically and economically. Paulo Sotero, director of the Brazil Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, discusses with Maria Hinojosa the economic future of Brazil, the country’s energy independence, and the 2014 Soccer World Cup.

In 2009, at age 34, Julian Castro was elected the mayor of San Antonio, the 7th largest U.S. city, and made history by becoming the youngest mayor ever of a top 50 American city. Mayor Castro was born into a political family. His mother Rosie is a well-known Mexican-American civil rights activist, and his identical twin brother Joaquin is a Texas State Representative.

Raised in a middle class family, Castro went to Stanford and Harvard. He is at the forefront of an emerging new generation of Latino leaders. Some believe he’s a rising star that could end as the first Latino president of the United States. In this interview with Maria Hinojosa, Mayor Castro talks about his family, the crucial importance of educating Latino youths, and if he sees himself in the White House someday.

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Legendary activist Dolores Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers of America with César Chávez. She organized the infamous grape boycotts of the 1960s and ‘70s. A committed feminist at age 80, she spent two years traveling the country, urging Latinas to run for office. She has received nine honorary doctorates, been arrested twenty times, and raised eleven children. She tells María Hinojosa what has driven her unwavering activism for the past forty years.

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Kevin Bales is one of the world's leading experts on modern-day slavery. He has determined that approximately 27 million people are enslaved worldwide. Although most of these slaves are in Africa and Asia, there are over 40,000 slaves living among us here in the United States.

Bales is the author of The Slave Next Door and Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy, which has been translated into 10 languages. He is also the co-founder of the abolitionist group Free the Slaves, a nonprofit organization incorporated in 2000 with the primary objective of ending slavery worldwide. In this One-on-One conversation, Bales discusses the realities of contemporary enslavement, the motivation behind his work, and how our generation can bring slavery to an end.

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Listen to Phillip Martin's investigative report on human trafficking in the Boston Area.