Any Latin music fans-- tomorrow night on most PBS stations nationwide, there's going to be a documentary on the evolution of Latin music in this country called Latin Music USA
From a Miami Herald article on the documentary:
A four-part PBS documentary aims to tell the story of that concert and the largely unknown history of Latin music in the United States, a rich tale of a vibrant music mostly ignored and misunderstood by its home country. Latin Music USA, which begins at 9 p.m. Monday on WPBT-PBS 2 and PBS nationally, fills in the role Latin music plays in American music, from the Cuban and Mexican influence on early rock and roll to the way reggaeton allowed young U.S. Latinos to find their own place in hip-hop culture.
Produced by Boston PBS station WGBH, the series tells the quintessentially American story of immigrants combining their musical heritage with the music of their new home, to create something that could only have happened in the United States.
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The first segment, Bridges, reaches back to the 1940s to show the creation of Latin jazz, or Afro-Cuban jazz, as Mario Bauza, the Cuban bandleader who first linked Cuban rhythms and American jazz, called it, and the mambo explosion. The Salsa Revolution tells the story of Fania and the creation of salsa in New York in the '70s, while the third section, Chicano Wave, shows Mexican-American figures like Richie Valens, Selena, Linda Ronstadt and Los Tigres del Norte, ``the most famous band that North Americans never heard of.''
The last hour, Divas and Superstars, looks at Gloria Estefan, the ``Latin Explosion'' ignited by Ricky Martin in 1999, crossover, reggaeton and the vital role that Latin pop plays in staking out a place for Latinos in American pop culture and identity.
It's showing in two hour segments on consecutive Monday nights on my local PBS station.