VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 19: “Reading My First Afro-Jotería Studies Blog Post”

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 19: “Reading My First Afro-Jotería Studies Blog Post”
In this episode, I return to the roots of VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS by reading my first-ever blog post on Afro-Jotería Studies in an audiobook-style format.
This is a special episode because Afro-Jotería has been part of this podcast since the very beginning, and now, nearly two years later, I wanted to dedicate an episode to slowing down and reading this foundational text together with my audience.
In this blog reading, I introduce Afro-Jotería Studies as the field I created to expand Jotería Studies by centering the lived experiences, cultural realities, and liberation of Queer and Trans Afro-Latinx, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Indigenous people. I also break down the meaning of Jotería, Afro-Jotería, Afro-Jotx identity, and Afro-Jotx consciousness, while naming the political, spiritual, and methodological practices that ground this work.
This episode is part reflection, part study space, and part invitation—for anyone who is new to this podcast, new to my work, or encountering Afro-Jotería Studies for the first time. It is a chance to listen, read along, and enter the framework with me from the source.
Presented by: LA REINA TAÍNA (Ms. Reina CÁMO Cemi’no)Content note: This episode includes discussion of systemic oppression, violence, colonialism, transphobia, racism, and other forms of structural harm.
Stay Connected:Instagram: @vamoshablaringlespodcast
✨ Reina’s Life Motto: “To re-imagine and challenge the ‘self’ via art.” 🎨
Support & ShareCashApp: $camoisnotdeadVenmo: @lareinareinatainaPayPal: @ReinaTaina14

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 18: “A Deep Dive into My Full Discography: The Sound of Afro-Jotería”

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 18: “A Deep Dive into My Full Discography: The Sound of Afro-Jotería”
In this episode, I’m doing a deep dive into my full music discography—paying ode to the discipline, imagination, and self-determination it took to release more than 35 songs across all streaming platforms completely by myself, from concept to execution.
I move through each era of my work to reflect on what I was building sonically, visually, spiritually, and politically. This episode is about independent artistry, worldbuilding, and what it means to create a body of work that refuses to separate sound, self, theory, and survival.
More than a music retrospective, this episode re-grounds the VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast in Afro-Jotería. I’m naming this space for what it is: the #1 Afro-Jotería podcast, and a living foreground for the growth of Afro-Jotería Studies. Through my discography, I show how the music, the image, the thought, and the lived experience all move together as one practice.
Discography walkthrough:
LA REINA TAÍNA (EP, 3 tracks) — 2023
EL CUCO! — 2023
Amor Propio — 2024
PAYASO — 2024
TOCA CORAZÓN — 2024
IM ON AUX NOW — 2024
JUNGLE JUICE — 2024
LUIGI. — 2025
THE REDPRINT: LA PREMIÈRE RÉVOLUTION — 2025
Hosted by: LA REINA TAÍNA (Ms. Reina CÁMO Cemi’no) Content note: This episode includes mature themes and explicit language.
Stay Connected: Instagram: @vamoshablaringlespodcast
✨ Reina’s Life Motto: “To re-imagine and challenge the ‘self’ via art.” 🎨
Support & ShareCashApp: $camoisnotdeadVenmo: @lareinareinatainaPayPal: @ReinaTaina14

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 17: “A Look into THE REDPRINT: LA PREMIÈRE RÉVOLUTION”

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 17: “A Look into THE REDPRINT: LA PREMIÈRE RÉVOLUTION”
In this episode, I’m taking you inside my album THE REDPRINT: LA PREMIÈRE RÉVOLUTION—not just how it sounds, but how it became.
I go song by song and tell the origin story of each track: what sparked it, what I was living through when it formed, what each title really means to me, and how the sound choices became part of the message.
This is a behind-the-scenes “liner notes” moment—where the concept of the album comes into focus as one full body of work, and each song starts to feel like a chapter in the same revolution.
Track-by-track walkthrough:
THE REDPRINT
ARTKINESIS.
COSMOLOGICAL GANG BANG.
DÉJAME EN PAZ.
A.E.I.O.U.
LUIGI.
IM DA ALPHA, Ü DA BETA!
Hosted by: LA REINA TAÍNA (Ms. Reina CÁMO Basquiat Cemi’no I)
Content note: This episode includes mature themes and explicit language.
Stay Connected:Instagram: @vamoshablaringlespodcast
✨ Reina’s Life Motto: “To re-imagine and challenge the ‘self’ via art.” 🎨
Support & ShareCashApp: $camoisnotdeadVenmo: @lareinareinatainaPayPal: @ReinaTaina14

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 16: “Dear Future Me…”

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 16: “Dear Future Me…”
In this episode, I share a deeply personal tradition I’ve kept since 2017: recording an annual audio letter to my future self. What began as a quiet act of reflection has now reached its 10th anniversary, and I’m still sitting with how surreal that feels.
Every year, before recording the new message, I listen back to all the previous audios—hearing past versions of myself speak from moments of hope, confusion, grief, growth, and becoming. This year’s “Dear Future Me” felt especially tender, knowing a full decade has passed.
After finishing this year’s recording, I created a truncated version to share with you—an offering from my past, present, and future selves, held together in one moment.
This episode is about memory, continuity, and the quiet power of returning to yourself year after year.
Becoming isn’t linear. Sometimes, it’s a letter you keep writing. 💛
Hosted by: LA REINA TAÍNA (Ms. Reina CÁMO Basquiat Cemi’no I)
Content note: This episode includes reflection on time, memory, identity, grief, and personal growth.
Stay Connected:Instagram: @vamoshablaringlespodcast
✨ Reina’s Life Motto: “To re-imagine and challenge the ‘self’ via art.” 🎨 
Support & ShareCashApp: $camoisnotdeadVenmo: @larealreinatainaPayPal: @ReinaTaina14

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 15: “One Year on Estrogen & 26 Years of Becoming”

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 15: “One Year on Estrogen & 26 Years of Becoming”
In this November episode, I take a deep breath and reflect on a full year on estrogen—what shifted in my body, what shifted in my spirit, and what I didn’t expect to feel along the way. Since it’s also my birthday month, I zoom out even wider: 26 years of gender + sexuality—of searching, masking, surviving, experimenting, unlearning shame, and finally learning how to come home to myself.
I talk about the “second puberty” reality in a grounded way: the emotional waves, the softness, the patience it forces, the grief that can rise up, and the quiet joy of noticing yourself change in real time. I also break down the realistic first-year timeline: for many transfeminine people, some changes tend to begin within the first few months, while “full” results can take years—which is both frustrating and deeply affirming (because it means there’s still room to keep becoming).
I also bring in a few affirming stats, because I want listeners—especially Black trans women—to feel the bigger picture. One major survey found that 98% of people who accessed gender-affirming hormone therapy said it made them more satisfied with their lives. Another report found that access to gender-affirming care is associated with a lower prevalence of suicide attempts (which is one more reason community care and medical access matter so much). And in data focused on Black trans folks, so many of us are still choosing ourselves and moving forward in our transitions—even while navigating systems that were never built to hold us gently.
Becoming isn’t a finish line. It’s a practice.
Feliz cumpleaños to me. Feliz becoming to you. 💛
 
Hosted by: LA REINA TAÍNA (Ms. Reina CÁMO Cemi’no)
 
Content note: This episode includes discussion of gender dysphoria, body image, sexuality, transphobia, racism, mental health, and navigating medical systems.
 
New here?
About the Host: Ms. Reina CÁMO Cemi’no—professionally LA REINA TAÍNA—is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker-in-training, and cultural worker whose work blends storytelling, scholarship, and liberation practice through Afro-Jotería Studies.
Why Tune In: Monthly episodes rooted in truth-telling, tenderness, and liberation—where identity gets treated like something sacred, not something to “prove.”
What This Episode Is: A personal, grounded reflection on 1 year of estrogen + 26 years of gender/sexuality becoming, with practical context for what the first year can feel like.
HRT Year-One Snapshot (general timeline, varies by person): – Some changes often begin within 1–3 months (libido shifts / spontaneous erections may decrease for some). – Some changes often begin within 3–6 months (skin softness, fat redistribution starting, breast growth beginning for many). – Many effects continue evolving beyond year one; “maximum” changes commonly take 2–5 years. This is general education, not medical advice—always check in with a qualified clinician for your body + needs.
Stay Connected: Instagram: @vamoshablaringlespodcast
✨ Reina’s Life Motto: “To re-imagine and challenge the ‘self’ via art” 🍭
Support & Share
CashApp: $camoisnotdeadVenmo: @larealreinatainaPayPal: @ReinaTaina14

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 14: Wisdom Sharing and Becoming with Amaïs Alexander Perez

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 14: "Wisdom Sharing and Becoming with Amaïs Alexander Perez"
In this October episode, I sit down with Amaïs Alexander Perez for a genuine, grounded conversation about identity, liberation, and what happens when a movement goes mainstream. Amaïs introduces herself through the fullness of her lived experience—Afro-Indigenous, Asian, and Trans—and I ask her about the growing “Protect the Dolls / Fund the Dolls” trend: what it means, who it was meant to protect, and how quickly slogans can get reshaped by capitalism, whiteness, and respectability politics.
From there, the conversation moves into the realities Black trans women and Black femmes face in public: the pressure to be “passing,” the violence of being clocked, and the double standards that show up across communities. Amaïs breaks down how it isn’t only about physical features—voice, tone, and self-advocacy can become targets too—especially when Black women defend themselves and get read through a masculinizing, dehumanizing lens.
Amaïs also shares personal history across place: born and living in Puerto Rico, with formative years spent in Detroit and Memphis—and how racism felt sharper and more dangerous in the U.S. South and Midwest (especially in the early 2000s) than in Puerto Rico in the present day. The episode also delves into cultural preservation, exploring what it truly means to protect Puerto Rican culture within its full historical context—especially the African and revolutionary roots of Bomba—and why reclaiming culture is not merely an aesthetic endeavor. It’s survival.
I close with a powerful reflection on identity itself: how to research your history, hold your intersecting truths, and stay anchored in who you are—even if family, community, or society tries to narrate you into something smaller. Amaïs leaves listeners with practical, affirming guidance for trans youth navigating life on their own: stay curious, stay rooted, and stay true to you.
Hosted by: LA REINA TAÍNA (Ms. Reina CÁMO Cemi’no)
Content note: This episode includes discussion of racism, transmisogyny, anti-Blackness, and anti-trans violence.
New here?
• About the Host: Reina CÁMO Basquiat Cemi’no—professionally LA REINA TAÍNA—is a visionary multidisciplinary artist and entrepreneur whose career spans music production, filmmaking, choreography, scholarship, nonprofit leadership, and more. As founder and CEO of LA REINA TAÍNA, LLC, I’m building a multimedia enterprise rooted in ancestral intelligence and narrative sovereignty.
• Why Tune In: Each episode delivers trauma-informed, anti-racist, and decolonial insights designed to spark personal healing and collective liberation.
• Why Follow My Journey: As a producer of 30+ original songs, multiple theatrical works, and brand campaigns—and the originator of the Afro-Jotería Studies framework—I combine creative innovation with measurable impact, turning art into community-driven market disruption.
• Stay Connected: Limited edition “LUIGI” laptop sticker available in my shop (search: LA REINA TAÍNA LUIGI sticker).
✨ Reina’s Life Motto: “To re-imagine and challenge the ‘self’ via art” 🎨
Support & Share
CashApp: $camoisnotdeadVenmo: @larealreinatainaPayPal: @ReinaTaina14

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 13: “Kika.”

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 13: “Kika.”
In this new chapter of VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS, I step into September 2025—a month of firsts, transitions, and embodied healing. Episode 13: “Kika” chronicles my first full month as a film student in Kiskeya, balancing academic discipline with spiritual grounding while navigating the chaos of migration and rebuilding.
Throughout the month, I moved through four temporary living spaces before securing my own home. Even in moments of uncertainty, movement became my medicine. I began pole-dancing classes—four in total—that reconnected me with my body’s power, sensuality, and rhythm. For the first time in years, I felt myself return fully to the body that had carried me through so much.
When I wasn’t dancing, I was creating. I found inspiration in the Netflix show Beauty in Black, in the unapologetic energy of Grace Jones, and in the visionary designs of Jean Paul Gaultier. These influences reminded me that art, fashion, and identity are intertwined—that performance is not an act, but a way of reclaiming presence.
This episode also documents quieter milestones: completing two therapy sessions with a spiritually-inclined therapist who helped me define peace as permission, obtaining my Dominican phone number, and re-imagining my future business ventures through the lens of “embodied performance.”
Through Kika, I reflect on what it means to be grounded in a body that has experienced displacement yet still insists on movement. It’s about learning that every delay is divine, that every unanswered prayer might be a re-direction, and that home is both a place and a practice.
✨ “Kika” is dedicated to my September self—the one who kept dancing, kept creating, and kept believing that what’s meant for her will always find its way back.
New here?• About the Host: Reina CÁMO Basquiat Cemi’no—professionally LA REINA TAÍNA—is a visionary multidisciplinary artist and entrepreneur whose long career spans music production, filmmaking, choreography, scholarship, nonprofit leadership, and more. As founder and CEO of LA REINA TAÍNA, LLC, she’s built a multimedia enterprise from the ground up, architecting a new creative economy rooted in ancestral intelligence and narrative sovereignty.
Why Tune In: Each episode delivers trauma-informed, anti-racist, and decolonial insights designed to spark personal healing and collective liberation.
Why Follow My Journey: As a producer of over 30 original songs, multiple theatrical works, and brand campaigns, plus originator of the Afro-Jotería Studies framework, I combine creative innovation with measurable impact, turning art into community-driven market disruption.
Stay Connected: Snag the limited edition “LUIGI” laptop sticker at www.lareinataina.com/store and explore all offerings at www.lareinataina.com.
✨ Reina’s Life Motto: “To re-imagine and challenge the ‘self’ via art” 🎨
Support & Share:
CashApp: $camoisnotdeadVenmo: @larealreinatainaPayPal: @ReinaTaina14
#VHIPodcast #AfroJotería #555 #Oshun #CreativeHealing #Spanglish #TransVoices

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 12: “Boy, Why You So Speechless?”

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 12: “Boy, Why You So Speechless?”
In this deeply reflective Episode 12 of VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS, I return to my August 2025 archives—thirty-seven handwritten journal pages, photos, and songs that document a season of rebuilding, release, and radical self-parenting.
After the stillness of July, August erupted into motion: I entered film school, relocated across multiple homes, and restructured my creative and personal foundations from scratch. The Lion’s Gate Portal (8/8) became a spiritual mirror—a reminder that loyalty begins within. I wrote:
“You need to learn to let go of the things that bring you pain. Let go of it. It’s not yours to carry anymore. You did a great job.”
From there, music became my medicine. Cleo Sol’s “Know That You Are Loved” played just as I finished that journal entry, affirming that my healing was aligned with something larger than myself.
This episode also revisits my relationship with breath, voice, and ancestry. I reflect on my mother’s presence in my dreams—how she once told me that singing is breathing, and breathing is living. It’s through these inherited lessons that I continue to heal the silence I was born into.
Recorded in Kiskeya on October 12, 2025, exactly 532 years after the Taíno genocide, this episode transforms remembrance into reclamation. It’s both a love letter to my ancestors and an altar for every voice still learning how to breathe.
✨“Boy, Why You So Speechless?” invites listeners to confront what keeps them quiet, to release what they’ve been carrying, and to remember that their voice—no matter how trembling—is sacred.
 
New here?• About the Host: Reina CÁMO Basquiat Cemi’no—professionally LA REINA TAÍNA—is a visionary multidisciplinary artist and entrepreneur whose long career spans music production, filmmaking, choreography, scholarship, nonprofit leadership, and more. As founder and CEO of LA REINA TAÍNA, LLC, she’s built a multimedia enterprise from the ground up, architecting a new creative economy rooted in ancestral intelligence and narrative sovereignty.
Why Tune In: Each episode delivers trauma-informed, anti-racist, and decolonial insights designed to spark personal healing and collective liberation.
Why Follow My Journey: As a producer of over 30 original songs, multiple theatrical works, and brand campaigns, plus originator of the Afro-Jotería Studies framework, I combine creative innovation with measurable impact, turning art into community-driven market disruption.
Stay Connected: Snag the limited edition “LUIGI” laptop sticker at www.lareinataina.com/store and explore all offerings at www.lareinataina.com.
✨ Reina’s Life Motto: “To re-imagine and challenge the ‘self’ via art” 🎨
 
Support & Share:
CashApp: $camoisnotdeadVenmo: @larealreinatainaPayPal: @ReinaTaina14
#VHIPodcast #AfroJotería #555 #Oshun #CreativeHealing #Spanglish #TransVoices

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 11: “555: You Are Destined for Greatness!"”

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 11: “555: You Are Destined for Greatness!”
After three months of silence, I return with Episode 11 of VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS: “555: You Are Destined for Greatness.”
This episode was born out of ceremony—of stillness, faith, and transformation. Recorded in Kiskeya, it marks both a spiritual and artistic rebirth. Where Episode 10 closed a cycle of grief and loss, Episode 11 opens a doorway toward renewal, healing, and the sacred act of becoming.
I trace how the number 555—Oshun’s number of change—appeared to me during a morning offering labeled “FAITH.” From that encounter, this episode unfolds as a conversation between ritual, numerology, and resilience.
Inside the episode, I revisit my July archives—journals, photos, and memories—to complete three affirmations that reshaped my understanding of self:
1️⃣ “I was not made to belong to broken systems… because I was never broken.”2️⃣ “I’m not here to fix what was built to erase… I’m here to grow like trees and flow like oceans.”3️⃣ “I am the healer, the exile, the prophet, and the home… I do it on my own.”
Through these words, I explore what it means to rebuild voice and vision after silence—how faith and change can coexist, and how creative spirituality becomes a tool of decolonial survival. Living now in Kiskeya, I speak in Spanglish, where English holds my analysis and Spanish carries my prayer.
✨ This episode is an offering to those navigating transformation in unseen ways—a reminder that your rebirth, too, is sacred.
 
New here?• About the Host: Reina CÁMO Basquiat Cemi’no—professionally LA REINA TAÍNA—is a visionary multidisciplinary artist and entrepreneur whose long career spans music production, filmmaking, choreography, scholarship, nonprofit leadership, and more. As founder and CEO of LA REINA TAÍNA, LLC, she’s built a multimedia enterprise from the ground up, architecting a new creative economy rooted in ancestral intelligence and narrative sovereignty.
Why Tune In: Each episode delivers trauma-informed, anti-racist, and decolonial insights designed to spark personal healing and collective liberation.
Why Follow My Journey: As a producer of over 30 original songs, multiple theatrical works, and brand campaigns, plus originator of the Afro-Jotería Studies framework, I combine creative innovation with measurable impact, turning art into community-driven market disruption.
Stay Connected: Snag the limited edition “LUIGI” laptop sticker at www.lareinataina.com/store and explore all offerings at www.lareinataina.com.
✨ Reina’s Life Motto: “To re-imagine and challenge the ‘self’ via art” 🎨
 
Support & Share:
CashApp: $camoisnotdeadVenmo: @larealreinatainaPayPal: @ReinaTaina14
#VHIPodcast #AfroJotería #555 #Oshun #CreativeHealing #Spanglish #TransVoices

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 10: “Pride 2025 Reflections: Offering a Ritual of Remembrance and Reclamation”

Episode Title: VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 10: “Pride 2025 Reflections: Offering a Ritual of Remembrance and Reclamation”
In this unflinching Episode 10 of VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS, I ground my Chiron in Sagittarius in the 11th-House reading in the brutal reality of this Pride Month—eviction, unemployment, and the relentless fight to survive. This is not an academic chat; it’s a moment of pause, a ritual to honor the inner child I have carried through every crisis. I return to my core “why”: I make art and host this podcast to heal that wounded child, and today I hold space for them in real time, using my voice and the void of this episode as a sanctuary.
I pivot the conversation on three radical, heart-piercing questions drawn straight from my own journey:
Can you finally stop proving that you’re worthy of being loved?
Can you release the fantasy that those who hurt you will come back differently?
Can you choose your own truth, even if no one claps for it?
As I reflect on losing my mother to violence at the age of two, then facing homelessness and job loss in late May and June 2025, I also name the fresh waves of violence targeting Trans people of color here and around the world. Together, these ruptures become the altar on which we place our grief—and from which we reclaim our power. You’ll be invited into each question with raw honesty, real-time examples from my own healing process, and concrete rituals to transform survival mode into sacred ceremony, isolation into chosen family, and trauma into declaration.
Tune in on Podbean—and if this work holds you, please share, subscribe, and help keep a roof over my head. Your listen, your share, and your gift keep VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS and me alive.
New here?• About the Host: Reina CÁMO Basquiat Cemi’no—professionally LA REINA TAÍNA—is a visionary multidisciplinary artist and entrepreneur whose long career spans music production, filmmaking, choreography, scholarship, nonprofit leadership, and more. As founder and CEO of LA REINA TAÍNA, LLC, she’s built a multimedia enterprise from the ground up, architecting a new creative economy rooted in ancestral intelligence and narrative sovereignty.
Why Tune In: Each episode delivers trauma-informed, anti-racist, and decolonial insights designed to spark personal healing and collective liberation.
Why Follow My Journey: As a producer of over 30 original songs, multiple theatrical works, and brand campaigns, plus originator of the Afro-Jotería Studies framework, I combine creative innovation with measurable impact, turning art into community-driven market disruption.
Stay Connected: Snag the limited edition “LUIGI” laptop sticker at www.lareinataina.com/store and explore all offerings at www.lareinataina.com.
✨ Reina’s Life Motto: “To re-imagine and challenge the ‘self’ via art” 🎨
Support & Share:If this work resonates, please consider supporting and sharing my GoFundMe—your donations cover rent, medical care, and living expenses during my creative pivot. Your solidarity powers this community. 🙏🏽
CashApp: $camoisnotdeadVenmo: @larealreinatainaPayPal: @ReinaTaina14
#VHIPodcast #ChironHealing #Pride2025 #TransPOC #CollectiveReflection #AfroJotería