This series tells the story of early settlement, conquest and immigration; of tradition and reinvention; of anguish and celebration;and of the gradual construction of a new American identity from diverse sources that connects and empowers millions of people today. The series covers the 1500s to the present day.
Airs Wednesdays at 2 a.m. beginning 5/1.
- #1 – 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.
- #2 – 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.
- #3 – 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.
- #4 – 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.
- #5 – 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.
- #6 – 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.