Latino Americans, Part 3
Tuesday, October 1, 8:00-10:00 p.m.
Examine growing Latino influence on American culture and the debate over undocumented immigrants.
Episode five, “Prejudice and Pride,” details 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.
The final hour, “Peril and Promise,” takes viewers through the past 30 years, with a second wave of Cubans arriving in Miami during the Mariel exodus and with hundreds of thousands Salvadorans, Nicaraguans and Guatemalans fleeing civil wars, death squads and unrest to go north into a new land — transforming the United States along the way.
The debate over undocumented immigrants flares up, with a backlash that eventually includes calls for tightened borders, English-only laws and efforts to brand undocumented immigrants as a drain on public resources. Simultaneously, the Latino influence is booming in business, sports, media, politics and entertainment.
The largest and youngest growing sector of the American population, Latino Americans will determine the success of the United States in the 21st century.
Photo above: Eliseo Medina, left, and Dolores Huerta at a march. Chicago, Illinois, 1971.
Top right: A family of migrant workers during the Great Depression.
Bottom right: Narrator Benjamin Bratt.