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Bettos Arcos

Broadcast Journalist

"Since I started working as a music and arts radio journalist more than 25 years ago, I understood that I have a responsibility to educate and enlighten listeners about the complexity and richness of Latin American music and culture. It's not a small nor an easy task, but I feel the need is urgent now more than ever.”

Biography

As a radio journalist, curator, and music promoter based in Los Angeles, Arcos is a regular contributor to NPR, the BBC, and KPCC, writing and producing stories about music and art from all over the world, and he is currently the Latin Music Curator at the San Jose Jazz Festival. In addition to his work in public radio, Arcos has taught arts and culture and broadcast journalism at Loyola Marymount University; he also developed a musical component for two different courses at Harvard University’s Divinity School, “Religion in the Latin American Imagination” and “Latinos Remaking America,” taught by professor David Carrasco. He is a guest speaker at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute, lecturing on Latin American music to career diplomats. 

 Originally from Mexico, Arcos received his degree in broadcast journalism with honors from the University of Colorado Boulder, and has used his cross-cultural understanding to deepen the appreciation of Latinx music in the U.S., bringing attention to the many folk-based musical traditions that often go unrecognized. Arcos pursues this work as host and producer of the podcast The Cosmic Barrio, and from 1997-2015, he produced and hosted the daily music program Global Village on Pacifica Radio’s KPFK. For the past four years, he has been a guest speaker at the Oslo World Festival, Ecuador Jazz Festival, Panama Jazz Festival, Asunción Jazz Festival, Havana AM-PM Festival, Bogotá's Colombia al Parque, and Bogotá Music Market.