The Latino Americans collection Empire of Dreams

Streaming video - 2014

Latino Americans is the first major documentary series for television to chronicle the rich and varied history and experiences of Latinos, who have for the past 500-plus years helped shape what is today the United States and have become, with more than 50 million people, the largest minority group in the U.S. The series chronicles Latinos in the United States from the 1500's to present day. It is a story of people, politics, and culture, intersecting with much that is central to the history of the United States while also going to places where standard U.S. histories do not tend to tread. Latino Americans relies on historical accounts and personal experiences to vividly tell the stories of early settlement, conquest and immigration; of... tradition and reinvention; and of anguish and celebration, from the millions of people who come to the U.S. from Mexico, Spain, Puerto Rico, and countries in Central and South America. Latino Americans is driven by the human dramas of individuals' struggles and triumphs, successes and disappointments, featuring interviews with close to 100 Latinos from the worlds of politics, business, military, academia, literature, and pop culture, as well as deeply personal portraits of Latinos who lived through key chapters in American history. Latino Americans is the story of the gradual construction of a new American identity that connects and empowers millions of people today. In this episode: Documents how the American population begins to be reshaped by the influx of people that began in 1880 and continues into the 1940s, as Cubans, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans begin arriving in the U.S. and start to build strong Latino-American communities in South Florida, Los Angeles and New York. more