About the Author

Kristina Puga

  • Bio:

    Kristina Puga, Web Producer: A graduate of Barnard College and The Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Kristina is the product of an Ecuadorian father and a Russian mother. Raised in culturally diverse Queens, NY, she has been covering the Latino community for about a decade for publications such as the New York Daily News, AOL Latino, NYRemezcla.com, and Urban Latino. She loves to travel and experience different foods and cultures while discovering interesting characters along the way and telling their stories. After a long stay in Oaxaca, Mexico, she now considers it her second home. According to legend, she will be back since she ate chapulines there.

  • Twitter: @kristinapuga

Most Recent

Ismael Cruz Cordova (Courtesy Sesame Workshop)

[VIDEO] Meet Mando, the new Latino neighbor on “Sesame Street”

By

Video by Maria Eugenia Alcon  Ismael Cruz Córdova arrived in New York City from rural Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, bright-eyed and bushy-haired at 19 to pursue … Read More

Maria Lopez performing her high-wire act at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. (Courtesy Feld Entertainment)

[PHOTOS] The high-wire act of being a circus mom

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Maria Lopez was born in Chile and into a circus family. At 30, she’s now part of a legendary Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey troupe traveling all over … Read More

Arlene Castro interviewing with "America's Most Wanted" in 2005.

What did the Castro children know about DeJesus’ kidnapping?

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Gina DeJesus was found Monday with two other young women who were held in captivity for nearly a decade. They were found in an old boarded-up house in … Read More

Steven Bonano (Courtesy New York Police Department)

Retired NYPD captain hopes a stranger donates bone marrow to save his life

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Once robust, Steven Bonano used to say it wasn't a job, but “a calling” for him to be a law enforcer and protect the innocent.  A 30-year veteran of the … Read More

Friday, March 3, 2004, Felix DeJesus, holding a banner showing his daughter's photograph, standing by a memorial in his living room in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)

Cousin says Gina DeJesus is ready to return to her normal life

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Nine years ago, on April 2, 2004, 14-year-old Gina DeJesus left Wilbur Wright Middle School on a rainy afternoon in Cleveland, Ohio, and never made it … Read More

Dawn Diaz speaking at her first annual Milagros Day Mother's Day Walk last year. (Photo/ Dan Miller, PhD)

Latina Leaders: One woman who turned from being a victim of abuse to helping others

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Dawn Diaz is used to saving people from emergencies. For 20 years, she was a paramedic for the New York Fire Department. During those two decades, she says … Read More

Kuno Becker playing General Ignacio Zaragoza in "Cinco de Mayo: La Batalla" (Photo/ © Copyright Pantelion Films 2013/Sandra Mayerstein)

A film explains what really happened on Cinco de Mayo

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Before you grab that margarita or a beer to celebrate Cinco de Mayo this Sunday, Dallas-based Mexican actor Kuno Becker wants everyone to watch the film … Read More

(Courtesy Matt Saucedo)

“The Amazing Grocery List” app, created by a college senior

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Two years ago, Matt Saucedo was a senior studying communications at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). One day, he says he got tired of forgetting … Read More

Tony "Ham" Guerrero and son (standing), Alfredo Guerrero. (Photo/Ben Skylar)

[VIDEO] Texas band, Tortilla Factory, modernizes Tejano music

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Alfredo Guerrero might be a Tejano born and raised in San Angelo, Texas, but he says you will never find him wearing a cowboy hat. He has an eclectic sense of … Read More

(Left to right) AAP President Dr. Thomas McInerny; Dr. Raul Arguello; AAP CEO Dr. Errol Alden; Dr. David Schonfeld, a member of AAP's Disaster Preparedness Advisory Council, and a pediatrician who visited Newtown the day after the shootings, and who is an expert who is frequently called on to counsel children and survivors of violent events/mass shootings. (Photo/American Academy of Pediatrics)

Pediatricians across the country meet with legislators to push for gun safety

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Dr. Raul Arguello, a father of two of the lucky children who survived the Sandy Hook school shooting in December, traveled from his Connecticut to Washington, … Read More