''Black in Latin America'' is a

documentary television Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

series that aired on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

on April 19, 2011, in the United States. The series is based on the 2011 book ''Black in Latin America'' by

Henry Louis Gates Jr. Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African A ...

, who produced the four-episode series. Both the documentary and book explore the historical roots and influence of Afro-Latin Americans. The book's chapters and the documentary's episodes each focus on individual

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

n countries whose African heritage is often overlooked. Each nation has varying perceptions of race and color, but all had policies in order to lighten the overall skin color of their population. For example, in 1933 Mexico restricted the immigration of blacks into the country, and 4 million white European immigrants were welcomed to Brazil between 1884 and 1939. Gates' purpose behind creating the documentary was to make African-American history and present-day experiences better known within the context of Latin America.Williams, Kam. (2011). "Black in Latin America": An interview with Dr. Henry Louis Gates. ''Journal of Pan African Studies,'' ''4''(8), 20. One fact highlighted by Gates was that

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

was not the first black president of a multi-racial nation, but rather

Vicente Guerrero Vicente Ramón Guerrero (; baptized August 10, 1782 – February 14, 1831) was one of the leading revolutionary generals of the Mexican War of Independence. He fought against Spain for independence in the early 19th century, and later served as ...

, Mexico's president from April to December in 1829, was the first.

Episodes

Criticism

There have been several critiques of Gates' work on Haiti and the Dominican Republic, including essentialist depictions and misunderstanding of popular cultural forms. John Maddox and Michael Steinkampf of the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publi ...

wrote in a 2015 ''

Afro-Hispanic Review The ''Afro-Hispanic Review'' is an English-Spanish bilingual peer-reviewed academic journal published by Vanderbilt University's Department of Spanish and Portuguese and Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center. The journal focuses on promoting ...

'' article that Gates leaves out a lot of information in the second episode, "Cuba: The Next Revolution". The authors suggest that due to the strong control of media, the documentary did not provide sufficient information about racism in Cuba. Gates's book ''Black in Latin America'' provides more information on the subject.Maddox, John, and Michael Steinkampf
"Continuing the Revolution: A Critical Analysis of Henry Louis Gates' Cuba: The Next Revolution"
''Afro–Hispanic Review'' 34.1 (2015): 71–85, 174. Web.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 3008828 2011 in American television 2010s American documentary television series African diaspora history African diaspora in North America African diaspora in South America Immigration to North America Immigration to South America Television series by WNET