PBS documentary on Latinos' history in US should shed light on ignorance

I don't have cable. Haven't had it for more than six years and I don't miss it one bit. There's never anything worth my time, except on public television aka PBS. In my opinion, it's one of the very few channels doing tv worth watching these days. That's why I'm always on the lookout for what they have planned next. So, I was jumping up for joy when I found out it's a 6-hour documentary on the history of Latinos in the U.S. from the producers of the highly successful and extremely well done Latin Music USA

The documentary won't air until more than a year from now--fall of 2013--but I'm already looking forward to watching something that will hopefully teach people once and for all that Latinos have been a part of this country's history even before the 13 colonies were established.


Read more in ¿Qué más?: White House honors leaders in memory of César Chávez, proves his work is still revolutionary

WETA, the PBS station in Washington, and the documentary's supervising producer, Adriana Bosch, have been talking about the project since 2008. It took them three years to get the funding together before they even started filming. Unsurprisingly, a large part of the program will deal with the experiences of Mexican-Americans--the largest Latino group in the country--but it will also have stories of Latinos from other countries. 

The best part? There'll be an English and Spanish version! And the documentary will come with a companion book, a bilingual website, and a school curriculum. I'm truly hoping they make it required watching in schools so that Latinos learn about their own history, but also to educate the abundance of people who have no clue about us and all our great contributions.

Truth is I'm sick and tired of people telling us to get out of their country when we actually got here before them and when so much of what is the U.S. today was part of Mexico. I have no patience for people who don't know the history of their own country or for those who'd rather ignore the huge influence Latinos have had in this country throughout time. So I'm hoping this documentary sheds some light on who we are and what we've done.

Want to meet other moms como tú? Like us on Facebook! 

Congrats to PBS and Bosch for believing in such an important and often misunderstood topic! I'm looking forward to watching it and sharing it with my own bicultural children!

What do you think about this documentary? Would you watch it?

Image via laverrue/flickr