Featuring New Documentary Films from INDEPENDENT LENS, POV, and AMERICAN MASTERS, THE 36th HISPANIC HERITAGE AWARDS, the Premiere of Three-Part Series BECOMING FRIDA KAHLO, New Episodes of ROSIE’S RULES and ALMA’S WAY from PBS KIDS, and A Collection of Streaming Content Spotlighting Hispanic Stories
ARLINGTON, VA; September 7, 2023 -- PBS will celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with a slate of new programs, specials and digital content as part of its ongoing commitment to spotlighting the work and stories of diverse content creators throughout the year.
Below is the schedule of Hispanic Heritage Month 2023 programming on PBS (check local listings), PBS.org, and the PBS app and PBS KIDS (check local listings) and streaming on pbskids.org and the PBS KIDS Video app.
PBS KIDS ALMA'S WAY *NEW*
New Episodes Premiere Monday, September 18, 2023
The engaging modern-day series stars 6-year-old Alma Rivera, a proud, confident Puerto Rican girl who lives in the Bronx with her parents and younger brother, Junior, as well as a group of close-knit and loving friends, family and community members. ALMA’S WAY gives children ages 4-6 the power to find their own answers to their problems, express what they think and feel, and recognize and respect the unique perspective of others. The new episodes will also be available to stream in Spanish.
POV “Bulls and Saints” *NEW*
PremieresMonday, September 18, 2023, 10 p.m. ET
After 20 years of living in the United States, an undocumented family decides to return home. Little do they know; it will be the most difficult journey of their lives and reawaken an intense desire for a place to belong. Set between the rodeo arenas of North Carolina and the spellbinding Mexican town they yearn for, “Bulls and Saints” is a love story about reverse migration, rebellion, and redemption.
BECOMING FRIDA KAHLO *NEW*
Premieres Tuesday, September 19-October 3, 2023, 9 p.m. ET
In a striking new three-part series, BECOMING FRIDA KAHLO strips away the myths to reveal the real Frida – a passionate and brilliant artist living through extraordinary times. The series explores the major events of Kahlo's life, both personal and political, from her lifelong health problems to her complicated relationship with artist Diego Rivera, whom she married not once but twice. Throughout her life Kahlo used her artwork as a way to process her own emotions, producing what are now some of the most valuable – and most widely reproduced — paintings of the twentieth century. Today her iconic self-portraits attract auction prices in the tens of millions of dollars.
INDEPENDENT LENS “Sansón and Me” (co-presented with VOCES) *NEW*
Premieres Tuesday, September 19, 2023, 10 p.m. ET
Filmmaker Rodrigo Reyes is inspired to make a documentary about Sansón, an immigrant serving life for first-degree murder, but authorities won’t allow the incarcerated young man to be filmed. In light of this, Sansón's story is shared through dramatic reenactments of his letters, using members of his own family as actors.
New Episodes Premiere Wednesday, September 27, 2023
ROSIE’S RULES stars 5-year-old Rosie Fuentes, a bilingual Mexican American girl from suburban Texas who is just beginning to learn about how the great, big, fascinating world around her works. Featuring an engaging social studies curriculum, a dynamic cast of characters, catchy music, and hilarious stories, the series aims to show kids ages 3-6 how they, as individuals, fit into their own community, as well as broader society. The new episodes will also be available to stream in Spanish.
36TH HISPANIC HERITAGE AWARDS 2023 *NEW*
Premieres Friday, September 29, 2023, 9 p.m. ET
Celebrate the recipients of the 36th annual Hispanic Heritage Awards. The evening includes performances and appearances by some of the country's most celebrated Hispanic artists and visionaries.
AMERICAN MASTERS(co-presented with VOCES) “A Song for Cesar” *NEW*
Premieres Friday, September 29, 2023, 10 p.m. ET
Trace the life and legacy of labor activist Cesar Chavez. Through interviews with Maya Angelou, Joan Baez, Carlos Santana, and more, see how music and the arts were instrumental to the success of the social movement Chavez helped found, which mobilized thousands of farmworkers across the U.S.
INDEPENDENT LENS (co-presented with VOCES) “El Equipo” *NEW*
Premieres Monday, October 9, 2023, 10 p.m. ET
Legendary U.S. anthropologist Dr. Clyde Snow sets out to train a new group of Latin American students in the use of forensic anthropology. Their goal: to investigate disappearances in Argentina during the “dirty war.” The group expands its horizons, traveling to El Salvador, Bolivia, and Mexico, doggedly working behind the scenes to establish the facts for the families of the victims.
AMERICAN MASTERS “José Clemente Orozco - Orozco: Man on Fire”(co-presented with VOCES) (Encore)
Premieres Saturday, October 7, 2023, 8 p.m. ET
Filled with drama, adversity, and triumph, the life of Mexican painter José Clemente Orozco (1883-1949) is one of the great stories of modern art. Despite poverty, childhood rheumatic fever that damaged his heart and an explosion in his youth that cost him his left hand, Orozco became one of the leading lights of the Mexican muralism movement. Newly released in Spanish with English subtitles.
INDEPENDENT LENS “Children of Las Brisas" (Encore)
Check local listings
In Venezuela's Las Brisas neighborhood, the power of music is put to the test. Poverty, murder, and corruption leave the community's families with few ways to create a brighter future. Their best local hope: a youth orchestra founded in 1975 known as El Sistema that offers children the opportunity to pursue a life of art in spite of the harshness of the society around them.
VOCES "The Pushouts" (Encore)
Check local listings
Meet Victor Rios, a high school dropout and former gang member turned award-winning professor, author and expert on the school to prison pipeline, who works with young people who were pushed out of school for reasons beyond their control.
VOCES "Letters to Eloisa" (Encore)
Check local listings
A haunting portrait of a writer's life and struggle for artistic freedom, meet Cuba's Jose Lezama Lima, an all but forgotten figure of the Latin American literary boom that included Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Octavio Paz and Mario Vargas Llosa.
STREAMING & DIGITAL
PBS’s celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month will also continue across its digital platforms with a featured playlist on the PBS app. PBS will also showcase related content highlighting the art, music, dance, history and diversity of the Latinx experience on PBS.org and across PBS’s social channels.
Additional titles are available to stream on PBS’s YouTube Channel, PBS.org and the PBS App:
PBS SHORT DOCS “Folk Frontera”
Far West Texas is a place where local folklore looms as large as the landscape. Two fronteriza women—one a public radio music show host, the other a Mariachi and folklórico dancer—live in two cultures at the same time, as they struggle to find their place in the vast Chihuahuan Desert. Touches of magical realism infuse this portrait of life along the U.S.- Mexico border.
PBS SHORT DOCS “Why This Texas Man Drives Over a Thousand Miles Every Weekend”
Luciano makes a living as a maletero, driving across the border delivering goods from immigrants who settled in Texas to their families in Mexico. Luciano’s responsibility goes beyond delivering boxes; he lessens the distance between families separated by an increasingly impenetrable border.
PBS SHORT DOCS “Alejandro Jimenez: The Ground I Stand On”
The Ground I Stand On is a lyrical and meditative documentary short that explores the work and creative process of Alejandro Jimenez, Mexico’s 2021 Slam Poetry champion. See how his life experience as a U.S. immigrant farm worker shapes his unique vision of the power of poetry and its connection to a collective past. What happens when an artist holds up a mirror to the world? This documentary shorts series from AMERICAN MASTERS and Firelight Media follows emerging cultural icons on their journeys to becoming masters of their artistic disciplines. Across seven episodes, meet creatives who are making work that explores and influences American culture today.
LATINOS ARE ESSENTIAL is a collection of unique and insightful short portraits and stories about Latinos who are serving as essential workers in a wide variety of jobs and/or services across the United States, even as the COVID 19 pandemic continues to disproportionately impact Latino and other communities of color.
ORIGIN OF EVERYTHING “Why Do We Say Latino?”
The first thing to pop into your mind when you hear "Latino" is probably people from Latin America - places like Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, etc. But where exactly did the history of that word come from, and has it always meant Central America and South America as well as the Caribbean? Today host Danielle Bainbridge traces the origin of the term "Latino" and the debates that still surround it as well as the term "Hispanic" and "Latinx."
Using Mexican heirloom corn and the Aztec technique of nixtamalization make for an authentic taste of home in chef Gustavo Romero's tamales. He shares with host Yia Vang his family traditions behind tamales and why he calls them "Mexican energy bars."
SOUND FIELD “Bachata: Why You’re Hearing This Dominican Rhythm Everywhere”
We visited the Mexican-American band La Santa Cecilia to learn how they mix Latin genres with pop and rock. They told us about a Dominican style rhythm called Bachata that provides the rhythm for their new single Winning. Bachata music comes from the Dominican Republic in the 1960's but thanks to newer acts like Romeo Santos and Aventura, has blown up internationally. Join Nahre in learning about this distinctly Latin rhythm as she attempts to create her own bachata fusion song.
SOUND FIELD “Understanding Bomba: Puerto Rican Music of Resistance”
Bomba is an ancient genre of resistance from Puerto Rico created by enslaved people on the island over 400 years ago. Recently, bomba music has been a staple of Black Lives Matter protests calling back to its roots as a music of resilience. Together, hosts Linda Diaz and LA Buckner break down the musical and cultural elements that make bomba, bomba. Ivelisse Diaz of Bomba con Buya teaches Linda about bomba singing, and LA learns bomba drum rhythms.
Tank Ball heads to San Antonio, Texas to learn about the musical tradition of Tejano corridos, which are ballads that were created by the Mexican people along the Texas-Mexican border during the mid-1800s. Usually sung in Spanish to a waltz or polka rhythm, corridos are songs that tell the stories of the Mexican and Mexican American people: their heroes and their fight against Anglo racism and Texas Ranger violence; their stories of love and betrayal and land dispossession; of revolutionaries and their struggle for justice, equality and social change. Tank meets with musician, writer, activist, educator Juan Tejeda and his cousin Armando Tejeda to play a corrido along with Teresita Lozano to talk about the relevance of corridos today.
Additional programs will be available via PBS Passport including LA FRONTERA WITH PATI JINICH, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE “Roberto Clemente,”GREAT PERFORMANCES “Roots of Latin Jazz,” and many more. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website.
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CONTACTS
Cara White, CaraMar, cara.white@mac.com
Michaé Godwin, PBS, mmgodwin@pbs.org
Lubna Abuulbah, PBS KIDS, labuulbah@pbs.org
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