World-Class Latin Culture & Global Roots
The Christian spring festival is a metaphor for Mother Earth’s spring rebirth.
Religious or not, many Latins take time off to visit their families, like Americans do at Thanksgiving.
New York Latin Culture Brings the World Together
Youth American Grand Prix YAGP 2026 Gala
American Ballet Theatre, Berlin State Ballet, La Scala Ballet, New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet
World Music Institute Latin 2026
Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Son Rompe Pera, Pedrito Martínez, Cyro Baptista, Kaoru Watanabe, Suphala, Sunny Jain, Glen Velez, Batalá, Adam Rudolph
Repertorio Español Latin Theatre
“La breve y maravillosa vida de Oscar Wao,” “Los Soles Truncos”
New York International Children's Film Festival NYICFF
“Bird Boy,” “My Grandfather is a Nihonjin,” “Remaining Native”
Whitney Biennial 2026 Has a Puerto Rican Curator
Marcela Guerrero, Beatriz Cifuents, Leo Castañeda, Ignacio Gatica, Oswaldo Maciá, Carmen de Monteflores, Gabriel Ruiz, Julo Torres, Johanna Unzueta
New York Mets 2026 Home Opener
Home Opener, 1986 World Series Ring Replica, Juan Soto 40/30 Bobblehead, Subway Series, Memorial Day, 1986 World Championship Retro T-Shirt, Fireworks Night
No Kings NYC March 2026
New Yorkers of Good Conscience
Latin Culture & Global Roots
New York City and the United States are the greatest mixes of cultures on Earth.
Indigenous NYC 🪶
Iroko “Kíko” Keith Widyolar
Founder, Editor, Cacique, Mayimbe, Oba, Bobo, Whatever
¿KLK? I’m an American, a 20-year New Yorker who lives and works in the Latin world.
I build brands and businesses, but my life’s purpose is to bring people together through culture. Maferefún Eleguá.
I’ve been looking for the roots of Latin culture since 2006. They reach around the world, but the literal root has been right in front of me the entire time. It’s the yuca.
Raw yuca root is poisonous. Indigenous Amazonians developed the technology to make it safe to eat.
Taíno brought it to the Caribbean because it’s nutritious and didn’t spoil on long sea voyages.
On the islands, Taíno developed advanced farming techniques and mass-produced casabe flatbread. Yuca was so important, they named the great father Yúcahu.
In the Caribbean, we still eat boiled yuca with garlic and oil, bitter orange, and sauteed onions for any meal. It’s inexpensive, filling, and delicious.
The colonizers recognized yuca’s power and took it to Africa and Asia.
In Mother Afrika, it’s called “cassava,” “manioc” (French for the Brazilian Tupi-Guarani word “mandioca”) or “muhogo.” In West Africa it can be used to make fufu.
In the Pacific, yuca is called some version of “tapioca” or “manioka” and has become the main starch of the islands.
In Asia, yuca is often called “tapioca,” or “cassava.” It is used to make sweets, including the tapioca balls in your favorite Taiwanese Boba Tea.
Thailand is now one of the world’s major yuca producers. That’s where I first tasted it as a child.
I just figured out that those tapioca balls and the boiled yuca I eat for dinner are the same Amazonian Caribbean super food.
So come with me and Yúcahu. Let’s explore New York’s Latin World, the city of enchantment. ¡Ay bendito!
“E-le-le, le-le-le…” WEPA. ¡Ashé!