Black in Latin America
Black in Latin America
Mon, 09/10/2012 - 7:00pm - 9:00pm
WXXI invites you to explore Latin America’s African roots in this four-part series by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Black in Latin America airs Monday and Tuesday, September 10 and 11 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on WXXI World (DT21.2/cable 524). Black in Latin America examines how Africa and Europe came together to create the rich cultures of Latin America and the Caribbean. On his journey, Professor Gates discovers, behind a shared legacy of colonialism and slavery, vivid stories and people marked by African roots. Starting with the slave experience and extending to the present, Professor Gates unveils the history of the African presence in six Latin American countries through art, music, cuisine, dance, politics, and religion, but also the very palpable presence of anti-black racism that has sometimes sought to keep the black cultural presence from view.
Please note that the dates and time presented in this preview differ from that of our local broadcast schedule.
Episodes and air dates:
Haiti & the Dominican Republic: An Island Divided airs Monday, September 10 at 7 p.m. In the Dominican Republic, Professor Gates explores how race has been socially constructed in a society whose people reflect centuries of inter-marriage, and how the country's troubled history with Haiti informs notions about racial classification. In Haiti, Professor Gates tells the story of the birth of the first-ever black republic, and finds out how the slaves's hard fought liberation over Napoleon Bonaparte's French Empire became a double-edged sword.
Cuba: The Next Revolution airs Monday, September 10 at 8 p.m. In Cuba, Professor Gates finds out how the culture, religion, politics and music of this island are inextricably linked to the huge amount of slave labor imported to produce its enormously profitable 19th century sugar industry, and how race and racism have fared since Fidel Castro's Communist revolution in 1959.
Brazil: A Racial Paradise? airs Tuesday, September 11 at 7 p.m. In Brazil, Professor Gates delves behind the façade of Carnival to discover how this ‘rainbow nation’ is waking up to its legacy as the world’s largest slave economy.
Mexico & Peru: A Hidden Race airs Tuesday, September 11 at 8 p.m.
In Mexico and Peru, Professor Gates explores the almost unknown history of the significant numbers of black people — the two countries together received far more slaves than did the United States —brought to these countries as early as the 16th and 17th centuries, and the worlds of culture that their descendants have created in Vera Cruz on the Gulf of Mexico, the Costa Chica region on the Pacific and in and around Lima, Peru.