Hi, this is Alana Casanova Burgess.

You might know me, or at least my name, from the On the Media credits at the end of the show every week.

Well, for the last few months, I've actually been working with a crew of Puerto Rican reporters and producers on a new series from WNYC Studios and Futuro Studios.

It's called La Brega. And in a lot of ways, it's a response to

conversations you've heard on On the Media about how certain places and certain people get

covered in the mainstream press. We wanted to do journalism about Puerto Rico, made by Puerto

Ricans, and tell stories that you're not hearing anywhere else.

Anyway, we're putting this episode of La Brega down the on-the-media feed,

but you can listen to the whole seven-part series in either English or Spanish,

or you can listen to each episode in both languages.

We did make each one twice by finding La Brega on your podcast platform of choice.

That's La Brega, L-A-S-B-R-E-G-A.

Or you can go to labregapodcast.org.

And thanks. In the summer of 1979, journalist Julio Ricardo Varela was 10 years old,

and he was spending the summer with his dad in Rio Piedras in San Juan.

And it was the same year that the 1979 Pan American games were happening and were being

hosted in Puerto Rico. It felt like it was our little mini Olympics. For the opening ceremony,

they commissioned this big Hollywood-style musical number.

And it was so exciting because here they were.

You were all these athletes.

And when you're 10 and you're a sports freak like I am, that's all you were thinking about.

I mean, I was obsessed with it.

...