Felix Contreras
Felix Contreras is co-creator and co-host of Alt.Latino, NPR's pioneering radio show and podcast celebrating Latin music and culture since 2010 and a curator for the acclaimed Tiny Desk Concert series.
A knowledgeable international ambassador for Latino heritage and arts, "Tio Felix" travels extensively in search of new talent and new music and captures important legacy performers in jazz and Latin genres. He appears regularly on NPR's award-winning newsmagazines, All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Various national and international publications have quoted his expertise on the contemporary influences of Latin culture, music, and media.
He's a recovering TV journalist whose first post at NPR in 2001 was as a Producer/Reporter for the NPR News Arts Desk.
He is also the other NPR Music resident Deadhead and an Afro Caribbean percussionist who performs around the DC area with various jazz and Latin jazz bands.
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To devotees of the Grateful Dead, the first nine days of August are known as the "Days Between." This annual celebration commemorates the birth and death of guitarist Jerry Garcia.
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We remember guitarist Bob Weir, founding member of the Grateful Dead, who died Saturday at 78.
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For three decades with the Grateful Dead and three more after the group ended following the 1995 death of his bandmate Jerry Garcia, Weir helped build and sustain the band's legacy across generations. -
2025 has had some stellar non-fiction. NPR staffer recommend their picks from our Books We Love list - with subjects ranging from Desi Arnaz to women and war.
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Deyra Barrera, the mariachi voice heard on Kendrick Lamar's new album, GNX, shares the story behind their collaboration and a song that moves her.
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NPR staff recommend memoirs from our annual Books We Love list: "Bird of Four Hundred Voices," "The Backyard Bird Chronicles," "Knife," and "Here After."
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Alt.Latino brings us a new installment to their series "Songs That Move You." This week, we hear about dreams derailed when a young man must grow up fast.
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A new documentary on Apple TV+ goes backstage with The Beatles as they prepared for their first U.S. tour in 1964.
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Alt.Latino brings us a new installment to their series: Songs That Move You. This week, we hear about losing a love but gaining a culture.
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On Thursday, Miami hosted the Latin Grammy Awards. Artist Juan Luis Guerra and his band 4.40, who won for record of the year and album of the year, plus producer Edgar Barrera, gathered the most awards of the night.
