Guatemala has a Nobel prize winner who you've probably never heard of, but she's one of the most incredible cases of a small voice being powerful enough to topple giants: Rigoberta Menchú.

A poor indigenous woman in a nation where belonging to any of those three conditions reduces you to background noise, Rigoberta lost multiple family members in the terrible events of the 36-year Guatemalan Civil War, and knew that she had to speak up if nobody else would.

What followed was a journey of legend, as this woman broke each and every barrier, becoming unstoppable despite the opposition, and eventually leading her to become world-famous and recognized as a true freedom fighter. Discover her story in this week's episode of the Learn Spanish with Stories podcast!

Transcript of this episode is available at: https://podcast.lingomastery.com/listen/3317

Rock music is no longer as popular in the world as it once was (and what a loss THAT has been, am I right?) - but rock "in español" has a very important place in world history.


Not only was it super difficult to produce and promote (thanks to the fact that Latin American dictatorships would read the lyrics with magnifying glasses to ensure it wasn't "inciting violence"), but also because labels looked to fund more traditional Latin American music.

In this episode, we discover how exactly the top Latin American rock bands of all time managed to overcome these endless obstacles, carve their place as musical legends, and remain in the collective memory of global citizens forever. Rock on!


Transcript of this episode is available at: https://podcast.lingomastery.com/listen/3251

The US has done incredible things in its history, but it has also been involved in some of the most tragic events, too. The El Mozote Massacre that occurred on December 11, 1981, is among the worst of these US-sponsored tragedies.


With communist guerrilla movements spreading across El Salvador, both the American and Salvadoran governments knew that they had to quickly put a stop to this before it got out of their control, so they planned "Operación Rescate" (Operation Rescue), a so-called "anti-guerrilla" operation that would end up costing many hundreds of lives of innocents along the way.

But the worst of the operation occurred in a small rural community known as El Mozote, where demons dressed as men (so to speak) committed horrific crimes on men, women, and children. Find out more about this terrible tragedy and how the inhabitants of both El Mozote and El Salvador finally got justice for it recently in this episode of the Learn Spanish with Stories podcast!

Transcript of this episode is available at: https://podcast.lingomastery.com/listen/3185