Are you Black in Latin America?

It's one thing to be Latino and another to be Black; but how about being Black in Latin America? Well in less than one week, on April 19, our documentary friends at PBS are launching Black in Latin America. When I think of the title, I think of a few things but the most obvious thought is the African influence in the Latin American diaspora. And it is there! While the Caribbean islands see the diversity, a lot of natives from Central and South America don't seem to understand the African influence.

Black in Latin America, a new four-part series on the influence of African descent on Latin America, is the 11th and latest documentary film from renowned Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., presenter and writer of the acclaimed PBS series African American Lives (2006), Oprah’s Roots (2007), African American Lives 2(2008), Looking for Lincoln (2009), and Faces of America (2010). Six countries (some obvious some not) will be featured in the series. The six countries featured are Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru, and they all have a secret history. On his journey, Professor Gates discovers, behind a shared legacy of colonialism and slavery, vivid stories and people marked by African roots.