John Leguizamo is uninterested in the omission of Latino tales in American historical past. And he is doing one thing about it… once more.
The award-winning actor and producer is the host and pressure behind a brand new PBS sequence, “American History: The Untold Story of Latinos“, premiering September 27.
Directed by Ben DeJesus, the three-part present follows comic “Freak” as he explores threads of Latin American historical past typically reduce from textbooks.
With in-depth information from historians, anthropologists, authors – and narratives from actors corresponding to Benjamin Bratt, Rosario Dawson, Edward James Olmos, and Rosie Perez – the sequence hopes to affirm the long-standing existence of Latinos within the United States and their contributions .
“This was a ardour challenge that represents my cultural contribution to Latinos in America,” Leguizamo tells the Times.
The first episode, “Echoes of Empires,” highlights pre-colonization indigenous communities.
“So a lot of the historical past we hear about is advised from the standpoint of the colonizers,” DeJesus mentioned. “It’s virtually as if it was assumed that till the Spanish arrived on the shores of the Caribbean, we did not exist.”
In one instance, the sequence highlights the wonders of historical Inca trepanation – a neurosurgical process by which the cranium was drilled to alleviate stress on the pinnacle – which had a survival fee of 80%, compared to 50% for cranial surgeries carried out 400 years later, through the top of the American Civil War.
From honoring the medical feats of pre-colonization indigenous civilizations to exploring the prevalent civil rights contributions of Latinos within the United States, Leguizamo and DeJesus hope to reclaim histories which can be typically glossed over or excluded from the mainstream.
“We’ve been right here since 1492 and means earlier than that,” mentioned the Colombian-born, Queens-raised actor. “So for us to be so invisible, so erased, so excluded everywhere in the American map, within the media and within the company environments the place choices are made is simply appalling.”
Leguizamo believes “American Historia” might be the corrective, calling it a “vaccine” to deal with the shortage of illustration in textbooks.
He references a 2023 report printed by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy and UnidosUS, which discovered that 87% of the key topics in Latin history they had been omitted from U.S. textbooks or talked about in 5 sentences or much less. The solely Latin American breakthrough story from the previous 200 years shared throughout the six textbooks analyzed was the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the US Supreme Court.
And there are penalties, Leguizamo mentioned, pointing to Latino college students who do not see themselves mirrored within the story they’re studying, contemplating that they are going to represent a third of the public school population by 2030.
“You can abuse us, make the most of us and take away our political energy,” Leguizamo mentioned. “It permits individuals to ‘otherize’ us as a result of they didn’t see that we helped create this nation.”
The actor isn’t any stranger to being crucial of the disenfranchised tales of Latinos.
His Tony-nominated one-man Broadway present turned Netflix particular, “Latino History for Morons,” was a comedic try to pack 3,000 years of Latino historical past right into a 90-minute lesson. It was inspired to create it after realizing her teenage son wasn’t studying about his Latino heritage at school.
“When John was engaged on ‘Latin History for Morons,’ he would say one thing that struck me,” mentioned DeJesus, who captured the comic’s second return to the theater district within the 2018 documentary “John Leguizamo’s Road to Broadway.”
“He mentioned, ‘Can you think about how different individuals would take a look at us in the event that they knew what an unimaginable contribution we made to the founding of this nation?’ ” DeJesus added.
The two are longtime artistic companions in relation to Latino storytelling. They labored on PBS’”American Masters: Raúl Julia,” the place they honored the legacy of the late patriarch enthusiastic about “The Addams Family,” and the sequence particular “Lights, camera, action“, spotlighting Latino creatives within the leisure business. Last yr, the duo explored Latino communities, tales and cuisines within the United States on MSNBC’s six-part sequence “Leguizamo makes America.”
“I actually give John numerous credit score for risking his profession, as a result of he isn’t afraid to talk out concerning the lack of Latino illustration,” DeJesus mentioned.
Two years in the past, the actor wrote an open letter within the Times calling for better illustration of Latinos within the business, the place solely 2.6% of Latinos had been featured within the reveals, according to a 2022 Latino Donor Collaborative Report on Latinos in the Mediaregardless of the make-up 19.1% of the US demographic.
“We want a greater pipeline for Latinos in movies, TV reveals and performs. We want a system for our tales and our tasks. We want leaders to offer the inexperienced mild,” Leguizamo wrote.
During this yr 76th version of the Emmy AwardsLeguizamo gave an unhindered speech concerning the altering panorama of Latin American representational leisure, teasing that his “complaints,” in June announcement in the New York Times soliciting extra numerous appointments has lastly borne fruit.
“But the business labored as a result of, in a single day, Hollywood modified. OK, not likely. But what I see right here tonight makes me, nicely, virtually glad and definitely much less offended, as a result of tonight is among the many most numerous record of nominees in Emmy historical past“, he mentioned.
The Sept. 27 premiere of “American Historia: The Untold History of Latinos” might be adopted by the second and ultimate episodes on Oct. 4 and 11, respectively.
