Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the series that explores race, culture and identity through genealogy and genetics, focuses on Latino ancestry in the season finale this Sunday, May 20 at 8 p.m.
What does it mean to be Hispanic? This Sunday, May 20 at 8 p.m. ET, the season finale of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the PBS television series that explores issues of race and identity through the genealogy of some of America’s best-known personalities, seeks to answer that question. Through the family histories of actors Michelle Rodriguez and Adrian Grenier, and Linda Chavez — an author, syndicated newspaper columnist and political analyst for FOX News — host Henry Louis Gates, Jr. investigates American identities that took shape long before the Mayflower arrived at Plymouth Rock.
The three subjects of Sunday’s episode all share Spanish colonial roots, yet each views him or herself very differently: as Native American, Puerto Rican, Dominican, or simply Latino. Crisscrossing Mexico, Spain, the Caribbean, and the American Southwest, Professor Gates reveals underlying connections that show how Hispanic identity has emerged from the tangled histories of European, Native-American, and African peoples.
Such connections drive home the point that Gates makes in this series, as well as in his previous television productions: despite our diverse backgrounds and racial differences, Americans are much more deeply related than we commonly acknowledge. In the past nine weeks of the series, viewers learned that married couple and award-wining actors Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon are distant relatives. Viewers saw how CNN anchor Dr. Sanjay Gupta, comedian Margaret Cho and media mogul Martha Stewart had similar ancestral stories, though their roots led to completely different parts of the globe. The series also showed how Harry Connick, Jr., and Branford Marsalis, musicians and best friends from New Orleans, both had European ancestors who immigrated to the slave-era South in 1850. And viewers discovered that musician John Legend and comedian Wanda Sykes shared dramatic, long-lost stories of freed black slaves in their respective family histories.
For this Sunday’s episode, the Finding Your Roots research teams trace the families of Chavez, Grenier, and Rodriguez back in time to uncover parallel stories about the interactions between Spaniards, Native Americans, and Africans in the New World. Chavez’s roots lead from bootleggers in Depression-era New Mexico all the way back to Spain in the 1500s — by way of the Pueblo Indians who the Spanish sought to suppress.
Grenier’s ancestry also has a strong connection to Native American tribes in the Southwest. His 11th great-grandfather, Hernan Martin Serrano, arrived in New Mexico in 1598 with the territory’s controversial “founder,” Don Juan de Onate — and found himself marrying into the Indians he came to fight.
Similarly, Rodriguez’s family is steeped in the racial politics in the Caribbean, where generations of her ancestors interbred — with cousins marrying cousins — to keep out African and Native American blood. In the end, Gates reveals that none of these families were as racially “pure” as they pretended to be — and that Hispanic identity is far more complex than we imagine. Perhaps most surprising of all, Chavez’s ancestry links her to “Crypto-Jews” — Spanish Jews who converted to Catholicism to survive the Inquisition, yet continued to practice their religion in secret.
Previously aired episodes of the series, which were filmed on location across the United States, are available online at PBS Video. The season finale will air nationally Sunday, May 20 at 8 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings). Additional information about the series, Professor Gates and the entire production team is available at PBS PressRoom.
Utilisíma Launches “Tu Vida Más Simple”, An Original Lifestyle Production To Make Latin Families’ Lives A Whole Lot Easier
Monday – Friday, 6:00pm EST/PST
Utilísima, the only 24-hour, 100% original, Spanish-language lifestyle network, will premiere its new original production, “Tu vida más simple,” on Wednesday, May 16. This new one-hour lifestyle show is dedicated to helping Latin families improve their day-to-day lives and overcome everyday challenges by offering tips, tricks, DIY projects and more. Hosted by Martin Llorens (Hola Martín!) and Luz Blanchet (Luz en Casa), the show will bring together top shelf talent from throughout the Utilísima channel.
“Tu vida más simple” will air Monday through Friday and is slated for an initial 60 episode run. Programming will include sections onCooking, Crafts and Decor, Fashion and Beauty, Parenting, Health, Celebrations, as well as tips for the Man of the House, Home and Gardening. Each segment will be hosted by one of Utilísima’s talented experts, who will help viewers learn how to save time and money while enjoying more fulfilling lives.
In Cooking, Puerto Rican chef Doreen Colondres (Boricuas) and the Mexican culinary artist Toño de Livier (Hombres en la Cocina) join James Tahhan and Enrique Piñeiro to share healthy recipes and dishes and give Latin families a step-by-step guide to prepare delicious meals for the whole family.
In Crafts and Decor, Jackie Castañeda (Hogar Express), Carmen de la Paz (Be Handy con Carmen) and Maggie Hegyi (Tienda de Diseño) will show viewers how to put together DIY and handcrafting projects for kids, as well as how to reuse and recycle materials around the house.
Latin families seeking to run their homes better will be able to turn to host Luz Blanchet for organization and gardening tips, Jackie Castañeda for pet care and Julie Stav, who recently joined the Utilísima family, for financial advice. Meanwhile, Laura Posada (Manual de Supervivencia) will share her parenting advice and experiences with Hispanic families.
Renowned LA-based designer and decorator, Eduardo Xol, will team up with an international team of experts that includes Marcial del Río and Martín Amado. The crew will help viewers improve their homes with tips on reusing materials from around the house to improve living space and share highlighting design trends.
In Fashion and Beauty, Martin Llorens will conduct on-air makeovers as well as give Latinas home beauty tips, tricks and recipes, makeup secrets and more.
Finally, Health, a star-studded team of specialists will cover body and mind topics to help audiences copy with everyday life. Dr. Claudio Aldunate (Salud Emocional) will educate viewers on common illnesses, care and prevention, while psychologist Blanca Almeyda will help Latinos overcome everyday conflicts. And to keep the body fit and healthy, Jorge Luna will show outdoor yoga routines while Luana Hervier will cover nutrition and show to exercise at home.
“Tu vida más simple” premieres on Wednesday, May 16, at 6:00 PM EST/PST.
For more information on Utilísima and its programming, please visit www.utilisima.com.
Utilísima
About Utilísima:
Created in 1996, Utilísima offers 24 hours of Spanish lifestyle programming especially oriented to women. Utilísima is one of the largest producers of Television and Internet Spanish lifestyle content producing over 1,200 hours every year. One of Latin America’s dominant entertainment destinations for women, Utilísima’s programming spans across Food, Arts & Crafts, Home Improvement, Health & Beauty and Parenting. As a unit of Fox International Channels since 2007, Utilísima is distributed across Latin America, United States, Canada, Spain, and the Balkans.
Beautifully shot in Echo Park and against Los Angeles’ downtown skyline, this beguiling coming-of-age romance introduces two phenomenal young actors in EJ Bonilla and Veronica Diaz-Carranza. At school, Jordin (Bonilla) is a cocky but charming Latino firebrand; at home he is a doting grandson who can’t seem to please his perpetually cranky father. On the day he’s suspended for insulting a teacher, Jordin meets Felipa (Diaz-Carranza), a bookish, no-nonsense New York girl who sees past the swaggering facade. The two immediately embark on an unlikely friendship that inspires Jordin to find out who he really is.
Written and directed by the remarkable Nicholas Ozeki in his feature debut, Mamitas stars EJ Bonilla, Veronica Diaz, Jennifer Esposito, Joaquim de Almeida, Jesse Garcia and Pedro Armendariz Jr.
On Friday, May 4th, the Best Translated Book Award winners for 2012 were announced in a ceremony at McNally Jackson Books in New York City, as part of the PEN World Voices Festival. These awards, organized by the website Three Percent, honor newly-translated works published in U.S. during the preceding year—and include cash prizes for both the authors and the translators of the winning books.
Wieslaw Mysliwski’s novel Stone Upon Stone, translated from the Polish by Bill Johnston and published by Archipelago Books, won the fiction prize. In poetry, the prize went to Kiwao Nomura’s Spectacle & Pigsty, translated from the Japanese by Kyoko Yoshida and Forrest Gander and published by Omnidawn.
Congratulations to Bill, Kyoko, and Forrest!
Visit ALTA (American Literary Translators Association) to learn more about “bridging cultural communication among countries and languages through the art and craft of literary translation.”
