LATINO AMERICANS

Encore, Sundays, Sept. 18, 2022 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sept 25 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on KPBS TV / On demand now with the PBS Video App

Actor Benjamin Bratt narrates this landmark six-hour series, the first major television documentary series to chronicle the rich and varied history of Latinos, who have for the past 500-plus years helped shape what is today the United States and have become the country’s largest minority group.

LATINO AMERICANS features interviews with an array of individuals, including entertainer Rita Moreno, the Puerto Rican star of "West Side Story" and a winner of Academy, Tony, Grammy and Emmy Awards; labor leader and 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Dolores Huerta, who in the 1960s co-founded with César Chávez the National Farm Workers Association, which later became United Farm Workers of America; Mexican-American author and commentator Linda Chávez, who became the highest-ranking woman in the Reagan White House; and Cuban singer and entrepreneur Gloria Estefan, who has sold more than 100 million solo and Miami Sound Machine albums globally.

Courtesy of Rahoul Ghose/PBS

View a timeline of important events in Latino American history beginning in 1565 up through 2013.

Interview subjects also include journalist María Elena Salinas, co-anchor of “Noticiero Univision,” the nightly newscast most watched by American Latinos; columnist Juan Gonzalez, author of "Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America" and co-founder of the Young Lords Organization, a Puerto Rican nationalist movement; Rep. Charles Gonzalez, a retired Texas congressman who from 1999-2012 served in the House of Representatives for the district that his father, Henry B. Gonzalez, represented for nearly four decades; and Herman Badillo, the Bronx politician who, in 1970, became the first Puerto Rican elected to the House of Representatives and ran six times for Mayor of New York.

1 of 15

Hilda Hernandez, originally from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, registers to vote. New York City, 1960.

Courtesy of Library of Congress

2 of 15

Portrait of Juan Seguín, a political and military figure of the Texas Revolution and Republic of Texas. Painting by Thomas Jefferson Wright, 1838.

Courtesy of Texas State Library and Archives Commission

3 of 15

An actress portrays Apolinaria Lorenzana, a young orphan who Spain brought into its settlement in California in 1811. Shot on-location for LATINO AMERICANS at Mission San Francisco de la Espada (Espada Mission) in San Antonio, Texas.

Courtesy of Brett Buchanan Photography, 2012

4 of 15

Photo of a family of migrant workers during the Great Depression.

Courtesy of Library of Congress

5 of 15

Salvador & Lupe Villaseñor’s wedding party. Santa Ana, California, 1929.

Courtesy of Victor Villaseñor

6 of 15

Three women in Mexico City, Mexico, 1911.

Courtesy of Library of Congress

7 of 15

Hector Garcia at medical school (front row, far right) at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. He received his M.D. in 1940.

Courtesy of Wanda Garcia

8 of 15

President Truman Awards Macario Garcia the Medal of Honor on August 23, 1945 at a ceremony at the White House.

Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration

9 of 15

Young friends of Rudy Lopez in Zoot Suits in Los Angeles, California. Lopez was a witness to the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots as a teenager.

Courtesy of Rudy Lopez

10 of 15

Photo of Robert F. Kennedy and Herman Badillo, while Badillo speaks.

Courtesy of Herman Badillo

11 of 15

Herman Badillo being interviewed on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

Courtesy of Herman Badillo

12 of 15

Writer Julia Alvarez.

Courtesy of Julia Alvarez

13 of 15

Actress Rita Moreno, on the set of "Untamed," 1955.

Courtesy of Robert Millite

14 of 15

Children in desks raising hands.

Courtesy of New York World-Telegram & the Sun Newspaper/ Library of Congress

15 of 15

An actor portrays Juan Seguín, a political and military figure of the Texas Revolution and Republic of Texas. Shot on-location for LATINO AMERICANS at Northrup Pipe Creek Ranch in Lakehills, Texas.

Courtesy of Brett Buchanan Photography, 2012

EPISODE GUIDE:

"Foreigners In Their Own Land" encore Sunday, Sept. 18 at 11 a.m. on KPBS TV - Survey the history and people from 1565-1880, as the first Spanish explorers enter North America, the U.S. expands into territories in the Southwest that had been home to Native Americans and English and Spanish colonies, and as the Mexican-American War strips Mexico of half its territories by 1848.

"Empire of Dreams" encore Sunday, Sept. 18 at Noon on KPBS TV - See how the American population is reshaped by Latino immigration starting in 1880 and continuing into the 1940s: Cubans, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans begin arriving in the U.S. and start to build communities in South Florida, Los Angeles and New York.

"War And Peace" encore Sunday, Sept. 18 at 1 p.m. on KPBS TV - Trace the World War II years and those that follow, as Latino Americans serve their new country by the hundreds of thousands — yet still face discrimination and a fight for civil rights in the United States.

"The New Latinos" encore Sunday, Sept. 25 at 11 a.m. on KPBS TV - Review the decades after World War II through the early 1960s, as swelling numbers of immigrants from Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic seek economic opportunities.

"Prejudice And Pride" encore Sunday, Sept. 25 at Noon on KPBS TV - Witness the creation of the proud “Chicano” identity as labor leaders organize farm workers in California, and as activists push for better education opportunities for Latinos, the inclusion of Latino studies and empowerment in the political process.

"Peril And Promise" encore Sunday, Sept. 25 at 1 p.m. on KPBS TV - Examine the past 30 years, as a second wave of Cubans and hundreds of thousands Salvadorans, Nicaraguans and Guatemalans flee to the U.S., creating a debate over undocumented immigrants that leads to calls for tightened borders, English-only laws and efforts to brand the undocumented as a drain on public resources. Simultaneously, the Latino influence is booming in business, sports, media, politics and entertainment. Latino Americans become the largest and youngest growing sector of the American population.

Watch On Your Schedule:

The series is available to stream on demand.

With the PBS Video App, you can stream your favorite and local station shows. Download it for free on your favorite device. The app allows you to catch up on recent episodes and discover award-winning shows.