“[The Congress shall have the power] To establish an uniform rule of naturalization … ”
The United States has more Spanish speakers than any other country in the world, except its southern neighbor of Mexico. This may be ironic, given that the most spoken language in the United States is English. Nonetheless, the United States has a significant Spanish-speaking population, most of whom are native speakers. Indeed, Hispanics are the largest ethnic minority group in the United States – although it is noteworthy that they are not considered a “race” by the United States Census. Rather, “Hispanic or Latino” is considered an ethnicity, and includes people from multiple races, particularly Whites and Native Americans. This reflects the ethnic diversity of their various countries of origin, where White colonists from Spain had frequently intermarried with the locals.
Benjamin Bratt, the Hispanic/Latino narrator of this documentary
Episode 1: “Foreigners in their Own Land”
It is clear that their countries of origin cannot be ignored, when talking about Hispanic Americans in the United States. Nonetheless, this series focuses primarily on their history in this country, with only passing references to their various countries of origin. This documentary’s tagline makes reference to “the 500-year legacy that shaped a nation,” and there is truth in this tagline. But surprisingly, this documentary has virtually no coverage of the first few centuries of their history in this area. For example, there is no discussion of the Spanish Conquest, the Spanish colonization of Latin America, or the Latin American wars of independence from Spain and Portugal. Rather, the documentary starts around the time that Texas declared its independence from Mexico, so that it could be quickly annexed by the United States. This was the precursor to the U.S.-Mexican War of 1846-1848. In this war, Mexico lost roughly half of its territory to the United States. This included most of what is today the American Southwest – including Arizona, the state where I live. It is understandable that they chose to start with this history, given that this is when Hispanics first became subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Nonetheless, one wonders why they advertise “the 500-year legacy that shaped a nation,” when they focus only on the last 200 years or so of this history. The first episode focuses partly on how all this territory was transferred during the U.S.-Mexican War, and then talks about how Mexican Americans were then trying to adapt to the new American rule. As the episode’s title says, they were now “Foreigners in their Own Land,” who would be expected to adapt to both the English language and the Gringo culture of their conquerors.
Antonio López de Santa Anna, the president of Mexico during this time
Episode 2: “Empire of Dreams”
The second episode talks about another American war with great importance for Hispanics, which was the Spanish-American War of 1898. In this war, the United States acquired Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. But this episode focuses mostly on Cuba and Puerto Rico (as you might expect), and how they adapted to the new American rule. Many Cubans and Puerto Ricans emigrated to the United States, particularly when Washington allowed those living in American territories to emigrate freely to the heartland of the United States. This created a large Cuban community in Florida, and a large Puerto Rican community in New York. This had massive effects on the kinds of Spanish spoken in these places. They also cover Mexico’s “Great Revolution” of the 1910’s, with towering names like Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. It seems safe to say that this era was turbulent for them, and made life extremely dangerous for those living under it. Thus, there were growing numbers of Mexicans escaping to the American Southwest by crossing the border. But some of them actually returned to Mexico during the later Great Depression, when there was a severe lack of jobs in the United States. With discrimination against Hispanics, Mexican Americans found it particularly difficult to find work at this time, and saw jobs mostly going to their Gringo neighbors. It was a testament to how bad things were for them in the United States during the Great Depression, that many of them wanted to go back to Mexico. Others were deported there, during the administration of Herbert Hoover.
Pancho Villa, a major figure in Mexico’s “Great Revolution” of the 1910’s
Episode 3: “War and Peace”
The third episode begins by talking about Hispanic American servicemen in World War II. Many had an impressive war record, and their stories make for great television. Most Hispanic servicemen fought side-by-side with their Gringo counterparts during this war, since many Hispanics were legally classified as Whites at this time. Nonetheless, they were often targeted for discrimination, like that dispensed during the “Zoot Suit Riots” of 1943. In these riots, virtually any young person wearing a zoot suit was targeted by out-of-control Gringo servicemen. Most of the zoot suiters were Mexican American youths – although they also included African Americans, Italian Americans, and Filipino Americans. As this documentary notes, the zoot suiters were sometimes associated with gangs, although many of those wearing them were just innocent teenagers trying to look cool by wearing these zoot suits. This is one of the sadder episodes of World War II, at least on the American home front. Mention is also made of Hispanics in Puerto Rico, who were actually subject to American conscription. Most of Latin America remained neutral during World War II (since they had their own problems to deal with), but Puerto Rico was a notable exception, because it was a United States territory. Thus, many Puerto Ricans served in the United States military, and made notable contributions to the war effort. This episode also discusses Hispanics coming home after the war, and the early part of the civil rights movement (which also affected African Americans).
Boys stripped and beaten by U.S. Navy sailors during the Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles, 1943
Episode 4: “The New Latinos”
The fourth episode discusses a number of topics, including the 1961 film “West Side Story.” This documentary argues that the film etched the “stereotype of the knife wielding Puerto Rican” into the American consciousness. Nonetheless, they argue that this was one of the most prominent films to discuss racism, and depict it in a negative light. Most of the movie’s “Puerto Rican” cast were not actually Puerto Ricans (an example of whitewashing), but the actress for Anita was. This actress (Rita Moreno) won an Oscar for her performance. They also cover immigrants fleeing Cuba during its communist revolution of 1959, many of whom expected their sojourn in the United States to be brief and temporary. Sadly, the revolution turned out to be much more permanent than any of them had expected. Thus, many of them never got the option of going home, although many were happy to stay in America instead. Mention is also made of the United States intervention in the Dominican Civil War, where American troops occupied the Dominican Republic for a time. This drove a notable Dominican immigration to the United States, which this documentary briefly discusses.
Dolores Huerta, prominent civil rights leader
César Chávez, prominent civil rights leader
Episode 5: “Prejudice and Pride” and Episode 6: “Peril and Promise”
The fifth episode covers a number of civil rights activists, including Dolores Huerta and César Chávez – possibly the most famous of them all. When I lived in Yuma, Arizona (near the Mexican border), my Mexican American classmates likened César Chávez to Martin Luther King. This told me how much they valued Mr. Chávez. He and Dolores Huerta won union rights for Mexican American farm workers, and protected them from harsh working conditions and other exploitation. The sixth episode covers immigration from Central America, much of which was driven by the various conflicts of the Cold War in that part of Latin America. But this episode also gives a rather biased coverage of illegal immigration in the American Southwest (and elsewhere), in which all opposition to illegal immigration is painted as “racist.” Sadly, it is rare for concluding episodes to be that good, since they are almost always compromised by political bias. Sadly, this series is a typical example of this phenomenon.
Conclusion: This is a great introduction to Hispanic/Latino history (at least in the United States)
Nonetheless, this film deserves great credit for bringing Hispanic history to a popular audience. General classes in American history are usually very good at teaching black history, but seldom spend much time teaching Hispanic history – even in the American Southwest (where I live), where this history is of vital importance. Thus, I learned a lot from this film, despite my disagreements with certain parts of its conclusions. It may be the only television history of Hispanic Americans out there at this time. One might have to turn to other sources to get further relevant information about their countries of origin (such as Mexico), and about the prior history of the region that later became the American Southwest. But this may be the best television overview of their history in the United States, and is thus worthy of a television audience. This is a part of history that deserves to be more remembered than it is – particularly in places like the American Southwest where I live.
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
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