The history and social structures of Latin America's native peoples were neither simple nor peaceful before the arrival of Europeans. Wars were fought, empires were created and destroyed, and-as this program illustrates-narrative tapestries of fact and fiction were woven in the process. Underscoring the linguistic sophistication that flourished for thousands of years in the region, the program addresses the proliferation of Nahuatl and Quechua literature,...

The history and social structures of Latin America's native peoples were neither simple nor peaceful before the arrival of Europeans. Wars were fought, empires were created and destroyed, and-as this program illustrates-narrative tapestries of fact and fiction were woven in the process. Underscoring the linguistic sophistication that flourished for thousands of years in the region, the program addresses the proliferation of Nahuatl and Quechua literature,...

Arturo Madrid's ancestors made a home on American soil before the Mayflower arrived, but strangers still ask him, "And where are you from?" Weary of always being perceived as "the other," he has devoted himself to challenging the stereotypes that keep Hispanics outside the American mainstream. Madrid is a teacher and president of the Tomas Rivera Center, where he focuses on issues and policies affecting the Latino community. In this program with Bill...

Immigration has been one of the basic realities of life for Latino communities in the United States since the nineteenth century. It is one of the most important themes in Hispanic literature, and it has given rise to a specific type of literature while also defining what it means to be Hispanic in the United States. Immigrant literature uses predominantly the language of the homeland; it serves a population united by that language, irrespective

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Over the past two hundred years, names such as Frederick Douglass, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X, permeate our national consciousness. They along with other African-Americans, fought for American independence, the abolition of slavery, civil and equal rights.

The various protest movements that together constituted the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s urged a "politics of inclusion" to bring Mexican Americans into the mainstream of United States political and social life. This volume of ten specially commissioned essays assesses the post-movement years, asking "what went wrong? what went right? and where are we now?" Collectively, the essays offer a wide-ranging portrayal of the complex situation

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Tokyo is one of the most technologically advanced cities on the planet, but Japan's low birth rate and the diversifying interests of its young people are causing Tokyo to rely increasingly on skilled immigrant labor. This program examines the implications of that change, gathering insightful commentary from a wide range of Japanese society about multiculturalism, racism, and interracial marriage. While the program cites one statistic saying 80 percent...

While Prohibition made it to illegal to sell, transport or make alcohol in the United States, the top brass in the US Congress were able to stay well-lubricated – thanks to the nefarious work of famed bootlegger, George Cassiday.

Since Joseph Smith's first revelations, the Latter-Day Saints faced religious persecution and were forced west from Kirtland, Ohio to Nauvoo, Illinois. In 1846, Brigham Young led the first group of Mormons across the Mississippi on an historic trek to the valley of the Great Salt Lake-the promised land. From newly-built homes in small villages such as Deseret, they built temples in St. George, Logan and Manti. Through the second half of the 19th century,...

This program explains how the transcontinental railroad was built, and then how it opened up the West to European settlers and brought on the extermination of the buffalo and the defeat of Southern Plains Indian tribes. Viewers will witness the transformation through first-person accounts from Native Americans, European immigrants, Chinese laborers, buffalo hunters, homesteaders from the eastern U.S., and cowboys on the dusty trails leading from Texas....