Benjamin Bratt

Six hours, three parts, spanning 500 years of history, and with a host of diverse Latinos in front and behind the camera

There have been other documentaries about Latino life in America on public television, cable news, and elsewhere, but none as ambitious or as deeply committed to Latino Hollywood as Latino Americans, a new PBS series that covers more than 500 years of history in almost 100 different interviews, including conversations with Gloria Estefan, Rita Moreno, Herman Badillo, Maria Elena Salinas, and more. The landmark three-part, six-hour series will premiere this fall. The series relies on historical accounts and personal experiences to vividly tell the stories of early settlement, conquest and immigration; of tradition and reinvention; of anguish and celebration; and of the creation of this new American identity with an influx of arrivals from Mexico, Spain, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and countries in Central and South America.

Benjamin Bratt will narrate the series, produced by Emmy Award-winner Adriana Bosch, a Cuban-born filmmaker whose previous PBS projects include Latin Music U.S.A. and the series American Experience on Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Cuban leader Fidel Castro. “It is time the Latino American history be told,” said Bosch. “Latinos are an integral part of the U.S., and this series shares the stories of a rich collection of people coming from so many different countries and backgrounds. It is the story of Latinos, and it is the story of America.”

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
• Cuban singer and entrepreneur Gloria Estefan, who has sold more than 100 million solo and Miami Sound Machine albums globally
• 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
• 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.

Ray Suarez

Equally important, the production team is made up of a great many Latino craftspeople, including men and women of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Salvadoran and Dominican descent. Award-winning composer and classical guitarist Joseph Julián González will compose the musical score for Latino Americans, and singer-songwriter Lila Downs will serve as the featured artist for the series, performing the closing song. Gonzalez is the son of Mexican farm laborers, and has worked with symphonies around the world and artists as varied as Quentin Tarantino, Britney Spears and Slash, and conducted orchestras at Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House. “I’m excited to create the score for this series,” González said. “It’s an important project to be a part of, and it allows me to draw on the multi-faceted musical heritages of many cultures, much like the history told in Latino Americans.” Downs was born in Oaxaca, Mexico, began performing traditional Mexican rancheras as a girl and singing with mariachis. She has toured the world and released seven studio albums with songs in Spanish, English and several native Mexican languages, and is the winner of two Latin Grammy Awards and other industry recognition. “The importance of music as a form of cultural expression to Latinos cannot be understated,” Downs said. “It’s a privilege to have our music be a part of this series, building on that rich tradition.”

The series will also generate a companion book by Ray Suarez, Senior Correspondent for PBS Newshour.