Black in Latin America

As a four-part documentary miniseries emceed by historian and Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the program BLACK IN LATIN AMERICA explores the union of Europe and Africa that formulated Caribbean and Latin American Cultures. One of the theses of the series is the idea that such cultures far exceed surface level perceptions of their music, food, pageantry and monuments - in fact, each country is inextricably linked to its own unique (and secret) past. As an extension of the idea, each episode explores the history of one such nation. Yet Gates also unveils a common transnational history characterized by slavery and colonialism - and he discusses the fact that the Caribbean and Latin America still have the highest concentration of people with African backgrounds, thanks to the overwhelmingly high number of slaves imported into those countries, in prior centuries. Episodes include: HAITI & DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: AN ISLAND DIVIDED, CUBA: THE NEXT REVOLUTION, BRAZIL: A RACIAL PARADISE, and MEXICO & PERU: A HIDDEN RACE.