WEBVTT

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-Think about what you were
taught about U.S. history,

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and I bet it doesn\'t
include the contributions

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Latinos made to this country.

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And growing up
in Jackson Heights, New York,

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my history books
certainly didn\'t.

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Did you know
that Latino people were here

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before the 50 states were
even a twinkle

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in the Founding Fathers\' eyes?

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-There\'s been Latinos in this
country for 500 years, you know,

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before it was even formed
as a country.

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-We were here long before
the British colonies existed.

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-And throughout the battles
for independence

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and territorial expansion,
we played a pivotal part.

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-And Latinos have participated
in every single conflict

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that the United States
has ever had.

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-And let\'s not forget who was
in the Southwest or Puerto Rico

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before they were even part
of the U.S.A.

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-They\'re building
the infrastructure for the rise

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of cities like Phoenix, for the
rise of cities like Los Angeles.

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-Let\'s make this clear.

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Latino people are African,
indigenous,

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and Spanish by blood.

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And \"Latino\" means you\'re
from Latin America,

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while \"Hispanic\" means
from Spain or Spanish-speaking.

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-We are in many ways both the
conquered and the conquering.

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-But because of our shared
history, we\'re covering both.

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Now, in the case of my family,

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we\'re a mix of Spanish,
indigenous, and African.

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And if you know me,

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you know that I\'m passionate
about my culture and my roots.

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So that\'s why I\'ve handpicked
some fascinating stories

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about how Latinos helped birth
this nation

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and contributed
all along the way.

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Without us Latinos,

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the United States
would be a very different place.

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♪♪

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♪♪

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-To bring the history
in this series to life,

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the following program includes
images generated by A.I. tools.

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-You know,
there\'s a special energy

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that comes from
the diverse cultures

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that make this city great,

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including Latinos
of every variety.

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So it shouldn\'t come
as a surprise, then,

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that the first nonnative
New Yorker was a Latinohermano

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from the Dominican Republic.

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♪♪

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-Juan Rodriguez happens to be
the first non-Native American,

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the first black person,
and the first Latino person

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to have resided
in the metro area.

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Why Latino?

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Because he came from
Santo Domingo and Santo Domingo

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was a Spanish culture society.

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In Santo Domingo, in
La Española, at the time,

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the majority of the population

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was already formed
by black people,

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the ancestral society to what is
today the Dominican Republic,

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and that many, many of them
were engaged in this trading

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with non-Spaniards.

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Juan Rodriguez was recruited
by a Dutch merchant ship

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that was fur trading with the
Native Americans of the area,

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and as part of that crew,
he arrived in 1613

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in what is today
the New York area.

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-\"The lands were as pleasant

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with grass and flowers
and godly trees

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and very sweet smells
came from them.\"

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-Juan Rodriguez would soon
thrive in the Manhattan estuary,

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establishing himself
as a savvy trader.

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-After two months or so,

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the Dutch captain decided
to return to the Netherlands.

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Juan Rodriguez adamantly refused
to go.

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And the argument was,
\"I am a free man.

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I don\'t want to go to
the Netherlands,\" and,

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\"If you force me
to go to the Netherlands

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on your ship,
at the first chance,

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I am going to jump overboard.\"

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That\'s what the Dutch documents
of the sailors say.

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-Now, you don\'t last
very long in New York

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if you don\'t have a hustle.

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And Rodriguez, he had it.

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And it was only with the help
of the local Lenape people

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that he thrived as a fur trader.

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But when
the original Dutch company

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that he worked for came back,

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they found
that through his business savvy,

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he\'d taken over
the whole market.

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And let\'s just say
that they weren\'t too thrilled.

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-In 1614, the captain that
had brought him over returns.

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They find Juan Rodriguez living

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among the Native Americans
of the area.

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He had this astonishing ability
for survival.

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A man from the Caribbean
in the early 17th century

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to be able to survive
a winter in what nowadays

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is New York City.

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Rodriguez is working for
a competitor company and crew

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that has arrived before.

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Confrontation develops.
People get hurt.

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The Dutch sailors return
to try to settle their dispute

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before the Dutch authorities
in the Netherlands.

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Juan Rodriguez is the beginning
of the story of Latino presence

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and Latino contribution
to what this society has been

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until what it is today.

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-Our conception of the past,

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of who existed in the past,

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and who stills exist today
can really impact modern lives

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for modern living people.

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-People tend to forget
that Latinos were here

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long before the United States
existed.

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-We are able to appreciate
the contributions

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of indigenous ancestors,
of African ancestors,

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of European ancestors, and
everything that came after that

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with a much broader
and critical lens

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than when we consider
only one part of our history

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as being important.

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-Indigenous people were here
before Latinos,

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and we don\'t always
talk about that.

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And so it\'s a complicated story.

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-We are in many ways both the
conquered and the conquering.

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And we share with our native
indigenous brothers and sisters

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our genetic background, as well
as the Spanish colonial period.

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♪♪

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-And it\'s true --

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We didn\'t come to America
because weareAmerica.

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When the people started flooding
in from all over the world,

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Latinos were already here.

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The Dutch, German,
Scottish, and British

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all put down roots

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in what would become
the 13 Colonies,

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and Latinos have fought in every
single U.S. war since day one.

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When the British Crown levied
more and more taxes,

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the colonists decided
enough was enough.

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So the Founding Fathers signed
the Declaration of Independence

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in 1776,

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thus declaring
the U.S. independent

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of the British Crown,

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and soon after that, the war
for American independence

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would begin -- a war
that could not have been won

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without the help
of our Latino people --

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our soldiers and -- let\'s
not forget -- ourreales.

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And because of those sacrifices,

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we Latinos
are the sons and daughters

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of the American Revolution.

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♪♪

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-History is usually
patriotic propaganda, right?

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-Right, right, right.
-History is written

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by the one who won.

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-The victors. Yeah, yeah.
-The victors. Right.

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♪♪

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-Here we are at the monument
of the Unknown Soldier.

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Both of us know that there were
10,000 unknown Latino patriots

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that fought
in the American Revolution,

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and there were a total
of 80,000 troops,

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so we were 1 in 8,
which is a huge contribution.

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And yet you don\'t
ever hear about it anywhere.

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That\'s a huge number.

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-When the American Revolution
began,

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George Washington had
never really commanded an army

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because the Continental Congress
didn\'t have an army.

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It was all militias
or mercenaries.

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A lot of them were merchants,
farmers.

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And so they needed to get paid
to sustain their livelihood.

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And as a result,
when the Continental Congress

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didn\'t have enough money,

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these people didn\'t
want to fight.

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There were a lot
of mutinies.

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And Washington, in fact,

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had to execute some
of the leaders of the mutiny

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in order to maintain discipline.

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-You don\'t have a large base
of finances

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that can be used to buy
musketry or artillery or food

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to keep your armies going.

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This is why the support
from Spain and France

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and other nations was decisive

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in winning
the American Revolution.

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Without that support,
we don\'t win.

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-Did you know that our
Latino ancestors saved the day?

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That\'s right.

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Latinos tipped the scale
in the American Revolution

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against the British.

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And, of course, you\'ve heard
of Paul Revere, right?

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\"One if by land,
two if by sea.\"

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But have you ever heard
of Bernardo de Gálvez?

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-Bernardo de Gálvez
wasespañol.

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He served
in the Spanish military.

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The Spanish Crown sent
Bernardo de Gálvez

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with a mandate,
which was,

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\"Assist the 13 Colonies
clandestinely with materials,

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with men, and more
importantly, gunpowder.\"

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And he did so
by getting rid of the British

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along the Mississippi River.

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[ Gunshots ]

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-As a young soldier
in Spanish territory,

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Bernardo de Gálvez participated
in a brutal campaign

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against local Apache people.

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So by the time
the American Revolution began,

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he was already experienced
in the ways of war.

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Do you know what
you need to fight a war?

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Dinero. Plata. Chavo.
That\'s right.

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And lots of it.

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So when George Washington
was running low on cash

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to pay his army, he turned
to his Latinoamigosfor help.

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The Cuban,
Spanish, and Mexican people

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delivered the needed money,

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making it possible

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for Washington\'s troops
to keep fighting.

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-A lot of people
donated wedding rings,

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gold and silver,
churches with chalices,

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and deliver it
so that they pay the militias.

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De Gálvez raises
this multicultural army,

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as well as his navy, comprised
ofespañoles,Native Americans,

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manumitted slaves, free slaves,

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what we\'d now considercubanos,
puertorriqueños,

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mexicanos, ecuatorianos.

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This multicultural army fought
battles along the Gulf Coast

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against all those
established forts,

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which were Baton Rouge,
Mobile Bay,

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and then eventually
Pensacola Harbor

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and the taking of Fort George.

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[ Cannon fires ]

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-Look, I know Latinos
can be really stubborn

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because once we get
something into our heads,

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it\'s hard to let go.

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Now, the British had

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a notoriously impenetrable
stronghold

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at Fort George.

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Their cannon firepower was
so great

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that no one could get close.

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But de Gálvez said,
\"I\'m gonna take it.\"

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-So when de Gálvez brought his
fleet to the mouth of the bay,

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a lot of the captains
from the other ships

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refused to sail into the harbor

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because it was essentially
a suicide mission.

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And so one of the captains even
threatened to have him arrested

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and sent back to Spain.

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So he climbed aboard his ship

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and by himself
sailed into that harbor.

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But the British were
so surprised by the act

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that they couldn\'t lower
their cannons in time

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to blow his ship apart.

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-De Gálvez
and reinforcements

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successfully captured
Fort George,

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and he became known
for his catchphrase\"Yo solo,\"

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or \"I alone,\" because he
attacked when others would not.

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And thanks to de Gálvez,

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the British were driven
out of the South.

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And Bernardo de Gálvez was
in good company.

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-Francisco Saavedra raised
a lot of money.

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He raised over half a million
dollars in one day.

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-Cubans supported the
American independence movement,

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donating millions of dollars.

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And that was critical
for American success.

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-And that was considered the end
of the American Revolution.

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-So the contributions
of people from the Caribbean

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and Latin America
to the American Revolution

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were quite decisive.

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-Latinos have continued
to fight for this country

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all the time and
all around the world.

00:13:20.510 --> 00:13:22.738
But when many of them
get back home,

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they get hassled
for speaking Spanish.

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But there was one
of our Founding Fathers

00:13:27.808 --> 00:13:29.911
who understood the importance
of our language.

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-Thomas Jefferson,
our former president,

00:13:33.690 --> 00:13:40.548
felt that it was very important
for Americans to learn Spanish.

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He spoke Spanish.

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There are letters from him
to his family

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expressing to them the
importance of learning Spanish,

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because he told them,

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\"The history of America right
now is more than half of it

00:13:55.002 --> 00:13:57.630
written in Spanish.\"

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-When your lived identity
doesn\'t match the history

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that you\'re taught in school,

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I think that makes you
not appreciate how complex

00:14:07.181 --> 00:14:09.951
and beautiful
your origins really are.

00:14:09.975 --> 00:14:14.205
-For our young people who are
bilingual or Spanish-speaking,

00:14:14.229 --> 00:14:20.253
the idea that your culture has
contributed an enormous amount

00:14:20.277 --> 00:14:22.922
of blood to the formation
of this country

00:14:22.946 --> 00:14:26.552
means to you that you
don\'t have to ask permission

00:14:26.576 --> 00:14:28.344
to do something in this country.

00:14:28.368 --> 00:14:33.183
You can do whatever you want
because it has been paid for

00:14:33.207 --> 00:14:36.978
with a lot of bloodshed
by your people.

00:14:37.002 --> 00:14:43.318
♪♪

00:14:43.342 --> 00:14:45.320
-Fresh off winning
the War of Independence,

00:14:45.344 --> 00:14:48.699
the U.S. was full of vim and
vigor and wanted more.

00:14:48.723 --> 00:14:52.828
More land, more resources,
more so much more.

00:14:52.852 --> 00:14:54.996
But there was
an inconvenient fact --

00:14:55.020 --> 00:14:56.998
Most of the land
they set their sights on

00:14:57.022 --> 00:15:01.878
was already owned by Mexico
and myriad indigenous tribes.

00:15:01.902 --> 00:15:04.214
That\'s when you need
a silver bullet,

00:15:04.238 --> 00:15:07.050
a powerful marketing concept
to explain

00:15:07.074 --> 00:15:11.179
why you have the right to land
that someone else already owns.

00:15:11.203 --> 00:15:12.430
And it took two words --

00:15:12.454 --> 00:15:14.390
\"Manifest Destiny,\"

00:15:14.414 --> 00:15:15.726
the media campaign

00:15:15.750 --> 00:15:18.061
that said it was the
God-given right of the U.S.

00:15:18.085 --> 00:15:20.271
to take all the land
they wanted under the guise

00:15:20.295 --> 00:15:24.777
of spreading democracy and
good old-fashioned capitalism.

00:15:24.801 --> 00:15:27.822
Now, the U.S. wanted
a huge chunk of land --

00:15:27.846 --> 00:15:30.574
Texas, California,
Colorado, Nevada,

00:15:30.598 --> 00:15:32.283
almost the entire Southwest,

00:15:32.307 --> 00:15:35.120
and nothing was gonna stop
them from taking it.

00:15:35.144 --> 00:15:37.581
You know, everybody likes
to talk about Mexicans

00:15:37.605 --> 00:15:38.915
crossing the border,

00:15:38.939 --> 00:15:40.543
but they forget it was
really the U.S. of A.

00:15:40.567 --> 00:15:44.588
that crossed the border
when they expanded into Mexico.

00:15:44.612 --> 00:15:46.674
[ Horse whinnies ]

00:15:46.698 --> 00:15:48.843
-Manifest Destiny was
the argument

00:15:48.867 --> 00:15:52.178
that the young United States
was destined by Providence

00:15:52.202 --> 00:15:56.266
to expand from sea
to shining sea.

00:15:56.290 --> 00:15:58.644
-This meant expanding into lands

00:15:58.668 --> 00:16:01.647
that were already settled
by indigenous peoples,

00:16:01.671 --> 00:16:07.026
and so to expand into those
lands meant to declare them

00:16:07.050 --> 00:16:12.115
as unsettled despite
the rich history in these areas.

00:16:12.139 --> 00:16:16.620
One of the most famous paintings
depicting Manifest Destiny

00:16:16.644 --> 00:16:22.083
is John Gast\'s painting
of \"American Progress\" in 1872.

00:16:22.107 --> 00:16:24.377
You have to supply a narrative

00:16:24.401 --> 00:16:28.464
in which
that takeover is justified.

00:16:28.488 --> 00:16:30.008
-Now, let\'s talk about
this painting.

00:16:30.032 --> 00:16:34.179
You notice the Native Americans
fleeing the angelic America

00:16:34.203 --> 00:16:35.471
and the imposing settlers?

00:16:35.495 --> 00:16:37.641
Or how Gast portrays
the American way

00:16:37.665 --> 00:16:41.311
as bringing light, technology,
knowledge, and civility

00:16:41.335 --> 00:16:43.939
to the dark, barbaric West.

00:16:43.963 --> 00:16:46.859
Tell me what you really think
of indigenous people

00:16:46.883 --> 00:16:48.484
without telling me.

00:16:48.509 --> 00:16:50.946
This painting was created
years after the end

00:16:50.970 --> 00:16:52.363
of the campaign westward,

00:16:52.387 --> 00:16:54.742
and it was done to glorify
the conquest of the lands

00:16:54.766 --> 00:16:57.243
from the Mississippi,
all the way to the Pacific.

00:16:57.267 --> 00:17:00.997
But before the settlers could
claim the Western territories,

00:17:01.021 --> 00:17:04.960
they\'d have to fight
Mexico for Tejas, or Texas,

00:17:04.984 --> 00:17:06.754
as we know it today.

00:17:06.778 --> 00:17:10.465
♪♪

00:17:10.489 --> 00:17:15.721
-Anglo-American planters began
moving their slaves to Texas,

00:17:15.745 --> 00:17:21.793
which was part of Mexico at
the time, to grow cotton there.

00:17:23.293 --> 00:17:28.233
75% of people
of African ancestry

00:17:28.257 --> 00:17:30.778
in Spanish America were free.

00:17:30.802 --> 00:17:34.030
In the United States,
it was not 75%.

00:17:34.054 --> 00:17:35.824
It was 4%.

00:17:35.848 --> 00:17:38.869
-What led to the Texas
War of Independence

00:17:38.893 --> 00:17:41.997
and eventually the U.S. invasion
of Mexico --

00:17:42.021 --> 00:17:43.498
It all boils down to slavery.

00:17:43.523 --> 00:17:49.212
The wealthiest Anglo colonial
settlers were slave owners.

00:17:49.236 --> 00:17:53.216
-For the new settlers, slavery
was not just big business --

00:17:53.240 --> 00:17:56.762
It was the foundation
of their entire way of life.

00:17:56.786 --> 00:17:58.806
It was a basis
for their economy.

00:17:58.830 --> 00:18:00.891
It provided the labor
for just about every one

00:18:00.915 --> 00:18:06.295
of their industries, and without
it, the society would collapse.

00:18:08.088 --> 00:18:09.566
-At the same time,

00:18:09.590 --> 00:18:12.653
enslaved African-Americans
are fleeing to Mexico

00:18:12.677 --> 00:18:14.613
and finding sanctuary.

00:18:14.637 --> 00:18:18.241
There are American Congressmen
who want to sue Mexico

00:18:18.265 --> 00:18:21.452
for stealing what
they called \"our property.\"

00:18:21.476 --> 00:18:25.040
What they meant was enslaved
people from Louisiana, Florida,

00:18:25.064 --> 00:18:28.002
Texas finding freedom in Mexico.

00:18:28.026 --> 00:18:31.379
-So I met with historian
David Montejano to learn more.

00:18:31.403 --> 00:18:35.300
-Texas Mexicans were seen
as sympathetic to slaves.

00:18:35.324 --> 00:18:39.013
Everywhere that Mexicans
were found in a neighborhood,

00:18:39.037 --> 00:18:43.349
they had to be expelled
in order to make slavery safe.

00:18:43.373 --> 00:18:48.605
-The Texas Latinos here
were considered abolitionist

00:18:48.629 --> 00:18:50.607
against white Southerners\'
commerce.

00:18:50.631 --> 00:18:52.442
-So you had
several expulsions...

00:18:52.466 --> 00:18:54.653
-Mm-hmm. Latinos.
-...of communities

00:18:54.677 --> 00:18:57.781
in Central Texas and East Texas.
-Yeah.

00:18:57.805 --> 00:18:59.891
That\'s a wild statement.

00:19:01.559 --> 00:19:04.788
Mexico abolished slavery
in 1829.

00:19:04.812 --> 00:19:06.623
That\'s why in 1835,

00:19:06.647 --> 00:19:09.084
Presidente Antonio López
de Santa Anna

00:19:09.108 --> 00:19:12.629
marched troops to Texas
to uphold the ban.

00:19:12.653 --> 00:19:16.299
-Anglo Texans were infuriated
with a Mexican government

00:19:16.323 --> 00:19:21.304
who demanded that, in fact,
slavery cease in 1835.

00:19:21.328 --> 00:19:24.600
-President Santa Anna is coming
to Texas

00:19:24.624 --> 00:19:29.688
to enforce the prohibition
on slavery.

00:19:29.712 --> 00:19:33.232
-People say,
\"Remember the Alamo,\"

00:19:33.256 --> 00:19:36.653
but do they really know
what happened there?

00:19:36.677 --> 00:19:38.237
Here\'s what I learned.

00:19:38.261 --> 00:19:41.240
Mexican president
Antonio López de Santa Anna

00:19:41.264 --> 00:19:42.367
arrived at the Alamo,

00:19:42.391 --> 00:19:44.995
hoping to find a diplomatic
solution to the conflict,

00:19:45.019 --> 00:19:46.830
but someone inside the Alamo

00:19:46.854 --> 00:19:49.750
fired a cannon
at Santa Anna\'s forces,

00:19:49.774 --> 00:19:51.502
kicking off a 13-day battle

00:19:51.526 --> 00:19:55.421
that would claim the lives
of Anglos and Tejanos alike.

00:19:55.445 --> 00:19:58.008
[ Explosion, screaming ]

00:19:58.032 --> 00:20:00.468
[ Gunfire ]

00:20:00.492 --> 00:20:09.394
♪♪

00:20:09.418 --> 00:20:15.441
-A month later, the Texas forces
surprise the Mexican army.

00:20:15.465 --> 00:20:17.152
Santa Anna\'s captured.

00:20:17.176 --> 00:20:20.030
He\'s held prisoner
and forced to declare

00:20:20.054 --> 00:20:23.033
Texas to be independent.

00:20:23.057 --> 00:20:27.788
Mexico refuses
to recognize that independence.

00:20:27.812 --> 00:20:30.331
-There is a lot of irony
there, that the reason

00:20:30.355 --> 00:20:34.044
why they revolted was because
they wanted to keep slavery,

00:20:34.068 --> 00:20:37.923
and they did it
in the name of freedom.

00:20:37.947 --> 00:20:43.095
-After Texas becomes
an independent republic,

00:20:43.119 --> 00:20:46.014
it petitions to become part
of the United States.

00:20:46.038 --> 00:20:47.933
-Oh, I didn\'t know that.

00:20:47.957 --> 00:20:52.228
-The Texas Anglo settlers made
it very clear they wanted land

00:20:52.252 --> 00:20:54.565
not for small farms,

00:20:54.589 --> 00:20:58.694
but for plantations,
for great ranches.

00:20:58.718 --> 00:21:00.445
They want expansion.

00:21:00.469 --> 00:21:03.949
And what expansion means
in the 1830s

00:21:03.973 --> 00:21:05.659
is the expansion of slavery,

00:21:05.683 --> 00:21:10.581
because it\'s the most profitable
economic system on the planet.

00:21:10.605 --> 00:21:12.124
There\'s no other system

00:21:12.148 --> 00:21:14.042
that\'s even close
in terms of the profits

00:21:14.066 --> 00:21:15.752
that are generated from slavery.

00:21:15.776 --> 00:21:17.087
-In 1845,

00:21:17.111 --> 00:21:19.338
Texas entered
the United States\' union

00:21:19.362 --> 00:21:20.924
as a slave state.

00:21:20.948 --> 00:21:22.593
[ Cannon firing ]

00:21:22.617 --> 00:21:25.971
-And then after that was
the Mexican-American War,

00:21:25.995 --> 00:21:29.265
which was basically
an excuse of a stronger country,

00:21:29.289 --> 00:21:30.809
the United States,

00:21:30.833 --> 00:21:34.062
to take the lands
of a weaker neighbor, Mexico.

00:21:34.086 --> 00:21:39.442
♪♪

00:21:39.466 --> 00:21:43.655
-President Polk knew that
it would not be a popular war.

00:21:43.679 --> 00:21:45.281
He needed a justification.

00:21:45.305 --> 00:21:49.995
-The U.S. is trying to provoke
Mexico into a shooting war.

00:21:50.019 --> 00:21:55.584
-He sent his troops down to the
U.S.-Mexico border in Texas

00:21:55.608 --> 00:21:57.085
by the Nueces River.

00:21:57.109 --> 00:21:59.295
-Mexico never recognized
the Texas boundary

00:21:59.319 --> 00:22:00.631
of the Rio Grande,

00:22:00.655 --> 00:22:01.924
but, rather, the Nueces River.

00:22:01.948 --> 00:22:04.051
When American troops
went into the Nueces Strip,

00:22:04.075 --> 00:22:06.970
they, in fact, were going into
disputed territory.

00:22:06.994 --> 00:22:09.640
-Which was seen
as a provocation by Mexico.

00:22:09.664 --> 00:22:12.142
Mexico then fired
upon those troops,

00:22:12.166 --> 00:22:15.394
but it was all
that President Polk needed.

00:22:15.418 --> 00:22:18.065
-\"Mexico has passed the boundary
of the United States,

00:22:18.089 --> 00:22:21.400
has invaded our territory,
and shed American blood

00:22:21.424 --> 00:22:22.945
upon the American soil.

00:22:22.969 --> 00:22:25.697
She has proclaimed
that hostilities have commenced

00:22:25.721 --> 00:22:29.117
and that the two nations are now
at war.\"

00:22:29.141 --> 00:22:31.036
[ Cannon firing ]

00:22:31.060 --> 00:22:34.164
-During
the Mexican-American War,

00:22:34.188 --> 00:22:36.208
a lot of Americans
were conscious

00:22:36.232 --> 00:22:40.629
that this was an illegal
and immoral war of aggression,

00:22:40.653 --> 00:22:41.672
and they wrote about it.

00:22:41.696 --> 00:22:45.300
-\"We beseech our countrymen to
leave off this horrid conflict,

00:22:45.324 --> 00:22:49.137
abandon their murderous plans,
and forsake the way of blood.

00:22:49.161 --> 00:22:51.181
Our country may yet be saved.

00:22:51.205 --> 00:22:53.684
Let the press, let the pulpit,
let the church,

00:22:53.708 --> 00:22:55.852
let the people at large
unite at once,

00:22:55.876 --> 00:22:58.647
and let petitions flood
the halls of Congress

00:22:58.671 --> 00:23:00.148
by the millions,

00:23:00.172 --> 00:23:03.026
asking for the instant recall
of our forces from Mexico.

00:23:03.050 --> 00:23:07.972
This may not save us,
but it is our only hope.\"

00:23:09.307 --> 00:23:13.537
-In Mexico, they call it the War
of North American Aggression,

00:23:13.561 --> 00:23:15.247
which is more accurate.

00:23:15.271 --> 00:23:18.875
[ Cannon firing ]

00:23:18.899 --> 00:23:20.794
-The war lasted
almost two years,

00:23:20.818 --> 00:23:23.880
and by its end,
the U.S. had defeated Mexico

00:23:23.904 --> 00:23:26.216
and seized their capital,
Mexico City.

00:23:26.240 --> 00:23:27.718
And with their backs
against the wall,

00:23:27.742 --> 00:23:31.847
Mexico was forced to sign
the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

00:23:31.871 --> 00:23:35.809
The U.S. took possession of
Mexican territory in California,

00:23:35.833 --> 00:23:39.896
Nevada, Utah, New Mexico,
Arizona, Colorado,

00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:41.898
Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming.

00:23:41.922 --> 00:23:43.233
That\'s a lot of land.

00:23:43.257 --> 00:23:45.152
And the Mexicans living
on that land

00:23:45.176 --> 00:23:49.573
were subject
to a whole new set of rules.

00:23:49.597 --> 00:23:53.368
-The treaty was signed
in the Zócalo --

00:23:53.392 --> 00:23:56.246
the central place
for the Aztec Empire.

00:23:56.270 --> 00:23:58.248
The treaty came as the aftermath

00:23:58.272 --> 00:24:03.045
of American troops
inhabiting Mexico City itself.

00:24:03.069 --> 00:24:05.881
-The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
secured

00:24:05.905 --> 00:24:08.175
that the Mexicans living
in the United States

00:24:08.199 --> 00:24:11.928
would have
their property rights respected,

00:24:11.952 --> 00:24:15.766
and had the right
to become American citizens.

00:24:15.790 --> 00:24:19.477
Since at the time
whiteness was a requirement

00:24:19.502 --> 00:24:22.981
of American citizenship,
the United States government

00:24:23.005 --> 00:24:26.985
declared Mexicans whites
as a group.

00:24:27.009 --> 00:24:29.696
-But they weren\'t
culturally accepted as white.

00:24:29.720 --> 00:24:32.908
Culturally, they
didn\'t have that citizenship.

00:24:32.932 --> 00:24:34.534
They were told,
\"You weren\'t white.

00:24:34.558 --> 00:24:37.204
Therefore, you cannot be
a citizen.\"

00:24:37.228 --> 00:24:40.332
And these things have
real material consequences.

00:24:40.356 --> 00:24:41.457
At this point in history,

00:24:41.481 --> 00:24:44.294
if you weren\'t white,
you couldn\'t own property.

00:24:44.318 --> 00:24:47.422
To divest somebody
of their citizenship

00:24:47.446 --> 00:24:50.425
meant to divest them
of their property.

00:24:50.449 --> 00:24:54.429
So those Mexicans that presented
as more indigenous,

00:24:54.453 --> 00:24:57.473
as brown, they weren\'t allowed
to be citizens.

00:24:57.497 --> 00:25:01.186
So right away, their land
was stripped from them.

00:25:01.210 --> 00:25:05.315
-The signing of the treaty was
supposed to grant citizenship

00:25:05.339 --> 00:25:06.608
to Mexican Americans

00:25:06.632 --> 00:25:08.402
and protect their land claims,

00:25:08.426 --> 00:25:11.071
but for many,
it was the beginning of the end,

00:25:11.095 --> 00:25:13.657
because they would
soon lose their property,

00:25:13.681 --> 00:25:17.852
their livelihoods,
and for some, their lives.

00:25:20.229 --> 00:25:22.374
-There\'s a tremendous amount
of land lost.

00:25:22.398 --> 00:25:26.670
And so the impact on those
Mexicans who are left in Texas

00:25:26.694 --> 00:25:28.547
in what becomes
New Mexico Territory

00:25:28.571 --> 00:25:34.428
or Arizona Territory
is generally devastating.

00:25:34.452 --> 00:25:36.972
This treaty served
as a force

00:25:36.996 --> 00:25:40.225
to take people\'s lands
away from them

00:25:40.249 --> 00:25:45.021
and get those lands in the hands
of large Anglo ranchers.

00:25:45.045 --> 00:25:48.358
-But Latinos were
not going to let people take

00:25:48.382 --> 00:25:50.026
what was rightfully theirs.

00:25:50.050 --> 00:25:52.028
So that\'s when
the Texas Rangers stepped in,

00:25:52.052 --> 00:25:56.032
making sure the interests of
the Anglos would be protected.

00:25:56.056 --> 00:25:58.034
-The reputation
of the Texas Rangers,

00:25:58.058 --> 00:25:59.786
of course, has been
of two kinds --

00:25:59.810 --> 00:26:02.706
the mythical Ranger
and the real Ranger.

00:26:02.730 --> 00:26:04.708
The mythical Ranger is
this individual

00:26:04.732 --> 00:26:07.586
who bears no harm
against the innocent.

00:26:07.610 --> 00:26:12.382
But the real Ranger, in fact,
killed innocents left and right.

00:26:12.406 --> 00:26:14.843
-How are these executions
perpetrated?

00:26:14.867 --> 00:26:17.095
-It\'s not
like we have to document them

00:26:17.119 --> 00:26:20.056
because the Rangers would take
pictures...

00:26:20.080 --> 00:26:21.725
-Wow.
-...with the folks

00:26:21.749 --> 00:26:24.728
that they had executed.

00:26:24.752 --> 00:26:27.689
You have to imagine
the brutality here.

00:26:27.713 --> 00:26:32.569
You could find a postcard
of Rangers on horseback,

00:26:32.593 --> 00:26:36.031
a dead Tejano at the feet
of the horse

00:26:36.055 --> 00:26:40.536
with the rope
still around the neck,

00:26:40.560 --> 00:26:45.582
the Texas Rangers posing
next to the bodies.

00:26:45.606 --> 00:26:48.001
We\'re talking about postcards

00:26:48.025 --> 00:26:51.530
that were then sold
throughout the country.

00:26:53.823 --> 00:26:57.302
-The Texas Rangers were
an interesting warrior group.

00:26:57.326 --> 00:27:01.389
They learned all of their
tactics from the Comanches.

00:27:01.413 --> 00:27:05.018
The Comanches themselves were
probably the finest warriors

00:27:05.042 --> 00:27:08.647
and the finest cavalry
of the Southwest.

00:27:08.671 --> 00:27:11.149
-The Texas Rangers observed
the Comanches\'

00:27:11.173 --> 00:27:12.692
skilled combat techniques,

00:27:12.716 --> 00:27:16.613
watching how they shot guns and
arrows from under their horses.

00:27:16.637 --> 00:27:18.698
Then the Rangers adopted
that practice,

00:27:18.722 --> 00:27:23.119
but used their guns instead to
terrorize and kill the locals.

00:27:23.143 --> 00:27:27.165
-The Texas Rangers
were also used to go into Mexico

00:27:27.189 --> 00:27:30.877
to capture
escaped African slaves

00:27:30.901 --> 00:27:33.463
and to bring them back
into Texas.

00:27:33.487 --> 00:27:34.881
The Texas Rangers identified one

00:27:34.905 --> 00:27:37.884
or two Mexican guerrillas
from a particular area.

00:27:37.908 --> 00:27:40.637
They would go into a village
and wipe everybody out.

00:27:40.661 --> 00:27:44.808
They were guilty of atrocities
of rape against Mexican women,

00:27:44.832 --> 00:27:45.976
against young males.

00:27:46.000 --> 00:27:48.478
Anyone over 18 was assassinated.

00:27:48.503 --> 00:27:51.231
-There\'s lots of lynchings
of Latinos and Latinos

00:27:51.255 --> 00:27:54.109
being shot and burned alive
that are not documented.

00:27:54.133 --> 00:27:58.488
-The range runs from 300
to 1,000

00:27:58.513 --> 00:28:00.824
within a two-,
three-year period.

00:28:00.848 --> 00:28:02.659
\"We were sent to provoke
a fight,

00:28:02.683 --> 00:28:06.121
but it was essential
that Mexico should commence it.

00:28:06.145 --> 00:28:08.999
The occupation and annexation
were,

00:28:09.023 --> 00:28:11.251
from the inception
of the movement

00:28:11.275 --> 00:28:13.044
to its final consummation,

00:28:13.068 --> 00:28:15.380
a conspiracy to acquire
territory,

00:28:15.404 --> 00:28:18.551
out of which slave states
might be formed

00:28:18.575 --> 00:28:20.051
for the American Union.

00:28:20.075 --> 00:28:23.430
Even if annexation itself
could be justified,

00:28:23.454 --> 00:28:26.933
the manner in which
the subsequent war was forced

00:28:26.957 --> 00:28:28.727
on Mexico cannot.

00:28:28.751 --> 00:28:30.854
-So on the one hand,
you can say that the U.S.

00:28:30.878 --> 00:28:33.148
in the short term is a victor,

00:28:33.172 --> 00:28:35.901
but in long term,
the Texas War of Independence

00:28:35.925 --> 00:28:37.235
is a catastrophe.

00:28:37.259 --> 00:28:38.904
You had a number of people,

00:28:38.928 --> 00:28:40.322
especially in
the anti-slavery movement,

00:28:40.346 --> 00:28:41.907
who said, \"Don\'t do this.

00:28:41.931 --> 00:28:46.369
Don\'t invade Mexico
to reintroduce slavery

00:28:46.393 --> 00:28:49.372
because it\'s so profitable,
what you\'re going to do

00:28:49.396 --> 00:28:51.291
is, you\'re gonna end up placing
the country so much

00:28:51.315 --> 00:28:52.585
on the side of slavery

00:28:52.609 --> 00:28:56.212
that the only outcome is
going to be a bloody civil war.\"

00:28:56.236 --> 00:29:04.387
♪♪

00:29:04.411 --> 00:29:06.056
-Southerners expect

00:29:06.080 --> 00:29:08.391
that the Mason-Dixon Line
will be extended

00:29:08.415 --> 00:29:10.310
all the way to the Pacific Ocean

00:29:10.334 --> 00:29:15.398
and New Mexico,
Arizona, Southern California

00:29:15.422 --> 00:29:18.801
would all become
slave territory.

00:29:21.095 --> 00:29:23.740
The Southerners want to expand
slavery.

00:29:23.764 --> 00:29:26.702
The Northerners
do not desire that.

00:29:26.726 --> 00:29:29.412
There\'s a conflict here
over what to do

00:29:29.436 --> 00:29:32.874
with this land
acquired from Mexico.

00:29:32.898 --> 00:29:34.710
♪♪

00:29:34.734 --> 00:29:37.420
[ Cannon firing ]

00:29:37.444 --> 00:29:39.590
-The War
of North American Aggression,

00:29:39.614 --> 00:29:44.512
aka the Mexican-American War,
was over by 1848,

00:29:44.536 --> 00:29:45.428
but in the U.S.,

00:29:45.452 --> 00:29:47.263
it had fanned the flames
of conflict

00:29:47.287 --> 00:29:49.933
between abolitionists
and proponents of slavery.

00:29:49.957 --> 00:29:53.103
And those tensions set
the stage for the Civil War.

00:29:53.127 --> 00:29:56.797
And guess who was there?
Us Latinos.

00:29:57.716 --> 00:29:58.942
[ Cannon fires ]

00:29:58.966 --> 00:30:03.405
And our half-español brother,
Admiral David Farragut,

00:30:03.429 --> 00:30:07.618
whose exploits read
like something out of a movie.

00:30:07.642 --> 00:30:11.454
-David Farragut
is part of this long tradition

00:30:11.478 --> 00:30:16.752
of sailors in the Spanish,
Caribbean, Mexican world.

00:30:16.776 --> 00:30:23.091
He\'s a person who apprentices
to be a seaman, to be a sailor.

00:30:23.115 --> 00:30:25.343
He becomes a captain of a ship.

00:30:25.367 --> 00:30:26.928
During the American Civil War,

00:30:26.952 --> 00:30:32.560
he is rising in the hierarchy
of the United States Navy.

00:30:32.584 --> 00:30:35.311
Not only
was he the first Latinx officer

00:30:35.335 --> 00:30:38.314
who was a rear admiral
in the United States Navy --

00:30:38.338 --> 00:30:41.610
That position
was actually created for him.

00:30:41.634 --> 00:30:46.823
♪♪

00:30:46.847 --> 00:30:48.825
During the American Civil War,

00:30:48.849 --> 00:30:51.494
he physically puts himself
in harm\'s way

00:30:51.519 --> 00:30:55.666
in a way that most admirals
in the 19th century do not do.

00:30:55.690 --> 00:30:57.250
-And thanks to him,

00:30:57.274 --> 00:31:00.504
we all know the catchphrase
\"damn the torpedoes!

00:31:00.528 --> 00:31:01.963
Full speed ahead!\"

00:31:01.987 --> 00:31:04.592
[ Explosions ]

00:31:04.616 --> 00:31:05.676
-At that time,

00:31:05.700 --> 00:31:07.469
torpedoes were actually
like mines

00:31:07.493 --> 00:31:09.805
that were laid
in the harbors.

00:31:09.829 --> 00:31:12.265
At Mobile Bay,
he saw that,

00:31:12.289 --> 00:31:15.977
and he said, \"Damn
the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

00:31:16.001 --> 00:31:17.772
Let\'s go in there
and do battle.\"

00:31:17.796 --> 00:31:19.230
[ Explosions ]

00:31:19.254 --> 00:31:24.695
-It captures this courageous
man\'s fighting spirit,

00:31:24.719 --> 00:31:27.906
because if you\'re familiar
with naval history,

00:31:27.930 --> 00:31:32.787
most men who work below the deck
despise their officers.

00:31:32.811 --> 00:31:35.413
But David Farragut,
he\'s not just an officer

00:31:35.437 --> 00:31:37.957
who separates himself
from the men below the deck.

00:31:37.981 --> 00:31:43.421
He\'s highly respected
by the common sailor.

00:31:43.445 --> 00:31:46.007
Many of our ancestors
worked below the decks,

00:31:46.031 --> 00:31:49.969
but without that work below the
decks, the ship doesn\'t move.

00:31:49.993 --> 00:31:54.541
The cannons don\'t fire,
the battles don\'t get won.

00:31:56.876 --> 00:31:58.771
-In the fall of 1864,

00:31:58.795 --> 00:32:01.607
Farragut\'s Navy defeated
the Southerners,

00:32:01.631 --> 00:32:03.609
taking control of Mobile Bay

00:32:03.633 --> 00:32:07.070
and cutting off Southern access
to a vital trade port.

00:32:07.094 --> 00:32:09.740
This was instrumental
in creating a blockade

00:32:09.764 --> 00:32:14.077
of Southern ports and turning
the tide of the Civil War.

00:32:14.101 --> 00:32:17.856
[ Cannons firing, gunfire ]

00:32:19.439 --> 00:32:22.127
-There were Latinos
who fought for the Union.

00:32:22.151 --> 00:32:25.756
There were Latinos who fought
for the Confederacy.

00:32:25.780 --> 00:32:28.365
[ Gunfire ]

00:32:29.199 --> 00:32:31.554
-Mexicans fighting
for the Confederacy

00:32:31.578 --> 00:32:34.472
is also part of something else.

00:32:34.496 --> 00:32:37.643
Even though they themselves
were highly oppressed,

00:32:37.667 --> 00:32:42.773
you are willing to die
for the ideal of a group

00:32:42.797 --> 00:32:44.440
in order to belong.

00:32:44.464 --> 00:32:47.402
That is citizenship.

00:32:47.426 --> 00:32:50.989
-And it wasn\'t only men going
to fight for the United States.

00:32:51.013 --> 00:32:53.617
On the front lines
of the American Civil War,

00:32:53.641 --> 00:32:56.871
Latin women showed up
to serve their country.

00:32:56.895 --> 00:33:00.791
Loreta Velásquez was a Cuban
woman who refused to stay home

00:33:00.815 --> 00:33:02.959
when her husband went off
to fight in the Civil War,

00:33:02.983 --> 00:33:07.297
so she bought a commission
and disguised herself as a man,

00:33:07.321 --> 00:33:11.927
taking on the fake identity
of Lieutenant Harry T. Buford.

00:33:11.951 --> 00:33:12.969
Ooh, what a name!

00:33:12.993 --> 00:33:17.473
-There\'s so many great stories
of Latinas in history

00:33:17.497 --> 00:33:20.143
that we\'ve overlooked.

00:33:20.167 --> 00:33:25.273
-Lola Sánchez is one of these
iconic Latinos who ended up,

00:33:25.297 --> 00:33:28.151
in a sense, fighting
for the Confederate side

00:33:28.175 --> 00:33:29.820
for family reasons.

00:33:29.844 --> 00:33:31.112
Her people were from Cuba

00:33:31.136 --> 00:33:33.824
and they moved to what\'s
now Palatka, Florida --

00:33:33.848 --> 00:33:35.074
more or less, Central Florida.

00:33:35.098 --> 00:33:40.581
Her father was accused by
the Union Army of being a spy.

00:33:40.605 --> 00:33:43.333
-After attempts to free
her father proved futile,

00:33:43.357 --> 00:33:45.836
Lola and her sisters
devised a plan.

00:33:45.860 --> 00:33:48.338
They would host
the Union soldiers for dinner.

00:33:48.362 --> 00:33:51.466
A little hospitality,
cubano-style.

00:33:51.490 --> 00:33:54.260
-She was fluent in a number
of different languages,

00:33:54.284 --> 00:33:57.305
and she was very charismatic,
very outgoing.

00:33:57.329 --> 00:34:01.434
This enabled her to gain
the trust of Union officers.

00:34:01.458 --> 00:34:03.562
-And that\'s how she overheard
valuable information

00:34:03.586 --> 00:34:07.106
about the attack the Union had
planned the following morning.

00:34:07.130 --> 00:34:09.192
-She turned around
and gave that information

00:34:09.216 --> 00:34:12.529
to help them capture
Union supplies.

00:34:12.553 --> 00:34:15.908
-And her father was later
released from Union custody.

00:34:15.932 --> 00:34:18.577
-It wasn\'t that she had
a passion

00:34:18.601 --> 00:34:21.162
or a life
in supporting slavery.

00:34:21.186 --> 00:34:24.332
It was because her family
had been negatively impacted

00:34:24.356 --> 00:34:25.291
by the North.

00:34:25.315 --> 00:34:29.212
This is really the thing
that motivated her to become,

00:34:29.236 --> 00:34:32.173
in a sense, a spy for the
Confederate States of America.

00:34:32.197 --> 00:34:35.176
I don\'t judge her harshly
for that.

00:34:35.200 --> 00:34:37.095
The record is clear
that Latinx peoples

00:34:37.119 --> 00:34:42.141
were not a monolith
during the American Civil War.

00:34:42.165 --> 00:34:44.728
-When people talk about
the Civil War,

00:34:44.752 --> 00:34:46.187
we envision the East Coast,

00:34:46.211 --> 00:34:49.148
but if the Confederates
had gotten their way,

00:34:49.172 --> 00:34:50.275
they\'d have taken slavery

00:34:50.299 --> 00:34:52.820
all the way to the beaches
of California.

00:34:52.844 --> 00:34:56.657
That\'s why the Battle
of Glorieta Pass mattered.

00:34:56.681 --> 00:34:58.199
-The battle was very important.

00:34:58.223 --> 00:35:01.912
It\'s known as the Gettysburg
of the West.

00:35:01.936 --> 00:35:04.915
It\'s not as big a battle
as Gettysburg,

00:35:04.939 --> 00:35:06.625
but it was critical.

00:35:06.649 --> 00:35:09.920
If the Confederacy was
successful enough, that is,

00:35:09.944 --> 00:35:11.922
if they could hold down
the Southwest

00:35:11.946 --> 00:35:16.467
and capture the United States\'
gold supply in San Francisco,

00:35:16.491 --> 00:35:20.263
then perhaps they\'d be able
to induce the British Empire

00:35:20.287 --> 00:35:22.265
and the French
to join the Confederacy.

00:35:22.289 --> 00:35:25.561
If that had happened, that
would have been a catastrophe.

00:35:25.585 --> 00:35:28.104
-The Union forces
were outnumbered

00:35:28.128 --> 00:35:29.732
in the three-day battle,

00:35:29.756 --> 00:35:33.944
and that\'s where Manuel Chaves
came in to stop the Confederacy.

00:35:33.968 --> 00:35:36.279
-Manuel Chaves was
very important in terms

00:35:36.303 --> 00:35:40.450
of the protection of
the goldfields in California

00:35:40.474 --> 00:35:43.704
and the silver mines
in New Mexico.

00:35:43.728 --> 00:35:46.665
Historically, he\'s good
and evil.

00:35:46.689 --> 00:35:48.625
He was of Spanish heritage

00:35:48.649 --> 00:35:53.421
and did a lot of battles
against the Native Americans.

00:35:53.445 --> 00:35:55.007
[ Hoofbeats ]

00:35:55.031 --> 00:35:56.759
-Chaves led troops
down the mesa,

00:35:56.783 --> 00:35:59.928
where they surprised the tail
end of the Confederate forces,

00:35:59.952 --> 00:36:01.889
destroying their supply wagons.

00:36:01.913 --> 00:36:02.806
[ Bell rings ]

00:36:02.830 --> 00:36:07.477
-New Mexico is also in danger of
turning towards the Confederacy,

00:36:07.502 --> 00:36:12.315
so José Manuel Gallegos
and his Mexican American allies

00:36:12.339 --> 00:36:13.734
step up to the plate
and say,

00:36:13.758 --> 00:36:16.319
\"We\'re going in
the direction of liberty.\"

00:36:16.343 --> 00:36:17.821
[ Bell ringing ]

00:36:17.845 --> 00:36:21.658
José Manuel Gallegos
grew up in Mexico.

00:36:21.682 --> 00:36:23.493
He became a priest.

00:36:23.518 --> 00:36:27.246
He mainly ministered
to Pueblo Indians

00:36:27.270 --> 00:36:29.792
in what became New Mexico.

00:36:29.816 --> 00:36:31.334
He was anti-slavery.

00:36:31.358 --> 00:36:34.671
After the end
of the Mexican-American War,

00:36:34.695 --> 00:36:38.424
he rises very quickly
to political leadership.

00:36:38.448 --> 00:36:40.094
He\'s the first Hispanic

00:36:40.118 --> 00:36:44.056
who\'s elected
to a territorial legislature

00:36:44.080 --> 00:36:45.223
in U.S. history.

00:36:45.247 --> 00:36:49.477
The speeches he gave
against slavery were so eloquent

00:36:49.502 --> 00:36:50.478
and so powerful.

00:36:50.503 --> 00:36:55.526
He said, \"As Mexican people,
we are an anti-slavery people.

00:36:55.550 --> 00:36:57.152
We believe in liberty.

00:36:57.176 --> 00:36:59.195
The Anglostalkabout it.

00:36:59.219 --> 00:37:00.572
Weliveit.\"

00:37:00.596 --> 00:37:02.741
-Gallegos\' message
was so powerful

00:37:02.765 --> 00:37:04.701
that the Confederates
kidnapped him

00:37:04.725 --> 00:37:06.870
when they took
Santa Fe, New Mexico.

00:37:06.894 --> 00:37:09.330
And fortunately for him,
he was so popular

00:37:09.354 --> 00:37:12.000
that the Confederates
couldn\'t kill him for fear

00:37:12.024 --> 00:37:13.544
of serious backlash.

00:37:13.568 --> 00:37:16.630
-And this tradition
of anti-slavery activism,

00:37:16.654 --> 00:37:18.590
really, among Mexicans,

00:37:18.614 --> 00:37:20.425
is what saves
the American Southwest

00:37:20.449 --> 00:37:23.302
from the Confederacy
during the Civil War.

00:37:23.326 --> 00:37:25.806
-The Southerners
would soon retreat to Texas,

00:37:25.830 --> 00:37:29.101
abandoning their hopes
of conquering the Southwest.

00:37:29.125 --> 00:37:30.519
And for the Confederates,

00:37:30.543 --> 00:37:33.504
this is how the West
wasnotwon.

00:37:37.008 --> 00:37:40.779
Slavery was officially outlawed
in 1865,

00:37:40.803 --> 00:37:42.781
but the ruling
that outlawed slavery

00:37:42.805 --> 00:37:48.286
did not apply to the system
of peonage.

00:37:48.310 --> 00:37:50.080
Latin Americans,
Native Americans,

00:37:50.104 --> 00:37:52.248
and formerly enslaved
black Americans

00:37:52.272 --> 00:37:57.588
soon found themselves trapped
in debt slavery.

00:37:57.612 --> 00:38:01.257
-Peonage is a system
like indentured servitude.

00:38:01.281 --> 00:38:04.595
It\'s a system
that\'s actually recognized

00:38:04.619 --> 00:38:05.929
in the old common law.

00:38:05.953 --> 00:38:10.308
It\'s this idea that you have
to continue working for someone

00:38:10.332 --> 00:38:12.603
until you pay off a debt.

00:38:12.627 --> 00:38:15.313
-The peon owns
his or her own body.

00:38:15.337 --> 00:38:16.607
They can\'t be sold.

00:38:16.631 --> 00:38:18.525
The families are not broken up.

00:38:18.549 --> 00:38:21.778
Can they be forced to remain
on the land,

00:38:21.802 --> 00:38:24.114
working generation
after generation?

00:38:24.138 --> 00:38:26.158
Unfortunately, yes.

00:38:26.182 --> 00:38:29.828
-On paper, it\'s abolished
in 1867.

00:38:29.852 --> 00:38:30.829
But in reality,

00:38:30.853 --> 00:38:33.123
many Latinx workers
and many black workers

00:38:33.147 --> 00:38:36.960
and Native workers are still
subjected to different forms

00:38:36.984 --> 00:38:41.446
of peonage, especially
in the American South.

00:38:42.573 --> 00:38:45.052
Most people don\'t even know
that peonage was involved

00:38:45.076 --> 00:38:48.847
in the building
of railroads and dams and roads

00:38:48.871 --> 00:38:50.766
in major parts
of the United States.

00:38:50.790 --> 00:38:52.350
One typical example of peonage

00:38:52.374 --> 00:38:57.940
is, a railroad company goes
to a small town in Mexico

00:38:57.964 --> 00:39:00.776
and puts out recruiting notices
and says,

00:39:00.800 --> 00:39:04.988
\"Hey, we have great work
for you to do in Santa Fe

00:39:05.012 --> 00:39:06.198
or in Albuquerque,\"

00:39:06.222 --> 00:39:07.950
but then you show up
at a railroad station

00:39:07.974 --> 00:39:11.161
one day for passage north,
and they say, \"Well, yeah,

00:39:11.185 --> 00:39:13.789
but you have to pay us the money
in advance for your ticket.

00:39:13.813 --> 00:39:15.832
If you don\'t have any money,
that\'s okay.

00:39:15.856 --> 00:39:17.084
We\'ll put it on a ledger sheet.\"

00:39:17.108 --> 00:39:21.337
Oh, by the way, you have to eat
between here and Albuquerque.

00:39:21.361 --> 00:39:24.716
So by the time you
even get to the United States,

00:39:24.740 --> 00:39:26.301
you owe a lot of money.

00:39:26.325 --> 00:39:29.513
And the debts are piling up
and piling up.

00:39:29.537 --> 00:39:32.099
That\'s another insidious form
of peonage,

00:39:32.123 --> 00:39:35.644
which continues
to be very pervasive.

00:39:35.668 --> 00:39:37.353
And by the 1920s,

00:39:37.377 --> 00:39:41.024
the anti-peonage campaign is
one of the main campaigns

00:39:41.048 --> 00:39:45.403
of the earliest iteration
of the NAACP --

00:39:45.427 --> 00:39:48.615
the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People.

00:39:48.639 --> 00:39:55.038
♪♪

00:39:55.062 --> 00:39:57.624
♪♪

00:39:57.648 --> 00:40:01.169
[ Brakes screech ]

00:40:01.193 --> 00:40:02.629
-After the Civil War,

00:40:02.653 --> 00:40:04.715
you have
this powerful young country

00:40:04.739 --> 00:40:07.884
spreading from coast
to coast, all under one flag.

00:40:07.908 --> 00:40:11.013
Factories were being built
and goods were in high demand,

00:40:11.037 --> 00:40:12.639
especially in the West,

00:40:12.663 --> 00:40:14.641
where towns and cities
were springing up overnight.

00:40:14.665 --> 00:40:18.061
But the U.S.
had major supply chain issues --

00:40:18.085 --> 00:40:21.148
how to get those goods
from point A to point B.

00:40:21.172 --> 00:40:24.735
And the best way to transport
goods at the time was by train.

00:40:24.759 --> 00:40:26.361
But there wasn\'t enough labor
in the country

00:40:26.385 --> 00:40:28.487
to build the network
of railways we needed,

00:40:28.512 --> 00:40:30.699
connecting
east to west, north to south.

00:40:30.723 --> 00:40:34.620
So guess who came in
to build the thousands of miles

00:40:34.644 --> 00:40:35.746
of railway tracks.

00:40:35.770 --> 00:40:39.583
Mexican and Mexican American
laborers, known astraqueros,

00:40:39.607 --> 00:40:43.587
who represented almost 60%
of the entire workforce.

00:40:43.611 --> 00:40:45.547
And thanks to the work
of thetraqueros,

00:40:45.571 --> 00:40:49.259
the transcontinental railroad
changed the landscape

00:40:49.283 --> 00:40:52.346
of this country and commerce
forever.

00:40:52.370 --> 00:40:54.514
[ Train whistle blowing ]

00:40:54.538 --> 00:40:57.059
-Traquerosbuilt the Southwest,

00:40:57.083 --> 00:40:59.728
along with their
Chinese counterparts,

00:40:59.752 --> 00:41:00.979
their Irish counterparts.

00:41:01.003 --> 00:41:02.773
They\'re building
the infrastructure

00:41:02.797 --> 00:41:07.944
that makes it possible for
the rise of cities like Phoenix,

00:41:07.968 --> 00:41:10.280
for the rise of cities
like Los Angeles.

00:41:10.304 --> 00:41:15.619
Without their labor,
these cities do not exist.

00:41:15.643 --> 00:41:20.624
Mexican railway workers gain
in importance and numbers,

00:41:20.648 --> 00:41:24.252
especially after
the U.S. exclusion of Chinese

00:41:24.276 --> 00:41:26.946
and Chinese American workers.

00:41:28.488 --> 00:41:31.843
-We can pay a great deal
of attention

00:41:31.867 --> 00:41:34.596
to the importance
of Mexican labor

00:41:34.620 --> 00:41:36.807
for the construction
and creation

00:41:36.831 --> 00:41:39.475
of much of the Southwest.

00:41:39.499 --> 00:41:40.519
♪♪

00:41:40.543 --> 00:41:44.463
[ Train whistle blowing ]

00:41:46.048 --> 00:41:48.318
-But when the railroad came
to New Mexico,

00:41:48.342 --> 00:41:51.196
it brought a lot of Anglo
ranchers into the territory

00:41:51.220 --> 00:41:54.324
who thought,
\"This land sure does look good.

00:41:54.348 --> 00:41:55.491
We should make it ours.\"

00:41:55.516 --> 00:41:58.870
And that\'s just what they did.

00:41:58.894 --> 00:42:01.497
-The European migrants
coming en masse --

00:42:01.522 --> 00:42:05.419
That\'s the way in which
Mexicans in the Southwest

00:42:05.443 --> 00:42:09.172
became foreigners
in their own land.

00:42:09.196 --> 00:42:11.675
That also leads us
into terrible stereotypes,

00:42:11.699 --> 00:42:16.346
i.e., that Mexican labor is
only good for its brawn

00:42:16.370 --> 00:42:18.223
and not for its brain.

00:42:18.247 --> 00:42:22.477
That mark of cheap
has always been associated

00:42:22.501 --> 00:42:24.146
with Mexican labor itself,

00:42:24.170 --> 00:42:27.232
and that\'s part
of the stereotype

00:42:27.256 --> 00:42:32.738
that we\'ve had to live down
for the last 150 years.

00:42:32.762 --> 00:42:36.783
-Barbed wire doesn\'t conjure up
a lot of positive images for me.

00:42:36.807 --> 00:42:39.995
It makes me think of prisons,
concentration camps,

00:42:40.019 --> 00:42:42.748
and of controlling people.

00:42:42.772 --> 00:42:45.459
-Previous to the newcomers
coming in,

00:42:45.483 --> 00:42:47.753
you had an open range.

00:42:47.777 --> 00:42:49.713
Obviously, many
of the landowners

00:42:49.737 --> 00:42:53.717
depended on that open range
to move their cattle or sheep

00:42:53.741 --> 00:42:57.637
from one watering hole
to another.

00:42:57.661 --> 00:43:00.474
All of that begins to change

00:43:00.498 --> 00:43:03.852
with the introduction
of the barbed wire,

00:43:03.876 --> 00:43:06.062
and now a newcomer\'s coming in,

00:43:06.086 --> 00:43:10.526
buying up the water sources and
then fencing in the property.

00:43:10.550 --> 00:43:12.277
♪♪

00:43:12.301 --> 00:43:15.322
-It was said with barbed wire
came hunger.

00:43:15.346 --> 00:43:16.948
And that\'s where
these three brothers

00:43:16.972 --> 00:43:19.493
who called themselves
Las Gorras Blancas,

00:43:19.518 --> 00:43:21.077
or \"The White Caps,\" came in

00:43:21.101 --> 00:43:24.122
and took matters
into their own hands.

00:43:24.146 --> 00:43:26.833
-Americans may know them
as vigilantes,

00:43:26.857 --> 00:43:28.251
but for the New Mexican
point of view,

00:43:28.275 --> 00:43:30.378
they were freedom fighters,
and these were

00:43:30.402 --> 00:43:33.131
mostly men
who disguised themselves

00:43:33.155 --> 00:43:35.926
and cut many
of the barbed wire fences

00:43:35.950 --> 00:43:39.221
that were stretched
across Mexican land grants

00:43:39.245 --> 00:43:42.098
by ranchers as well as
by the American government.

00:43:42.122 --> 00:43:45.227
-Las Gorras Blancaswere
fighting to retain their land,

00:43:45.251 --> 00:43:47.979
farming rights,
and access to resources.

00:43:48.003 --> 00:43:49.481
They weren\'t out there
being racist,

00:43:49.506 --> 00:43:52.734
like some other
white-hooded groups.

00:43:52.758 --> 00:43:55.445
-We favor
irrigation enterprises,

00:43:55.469 --> 00:43:56.488
but we\'ll fight any scheme

00:43:56.513 --> 00:43:59.534
that tends to monopolize
the supply of any water sources

00:43:59.558 --> 00:44:03.620
to the detriment of residents
watered by the same streams.

00:44:03.644 --> 00:44:06.331
If the fact that we are
law-abiding citizens

00:44:06.355 --> 00:44:07.707
is questioned,

00:44:07.731 --> 00:44:08.792
come out to our houses

00:44:08.816 --> 00:44:12.547
and see the hunger and
desolation we are suffering.

00:44:12.571 --> 00:44:17.843
♪♪

00:44:17.867 --> 00:44:22.430
♪♪

00:44:22.454 --> 00:44:25.016
-Continuing the campaign
of Manifest Destiny,

00:44:25.040 --> 00:44:28.103
the United States went abroad
and this time invading

00:44:28.127 --> 00:44:31.314
the Spanish Caribbean
archipelago of Puerto Rico.

00:44:31.338 --> 00:44:34.651
We called Puerto Rico
La Isla del Encanto,

00:44:34.675 --> 00:44:35.819
the Isle of Enchantment.

00:44:35.843 --> 00:44:39.489
-Puerto Rico was referred to
as \"the key to the Indies,\"

00:44:39.514 --> 00:44:40.740
\"the key to the Americas.\"

00:44:40.764 --> 00:44:46.162
Puerto Rico was first occupied
by the Spanish Empire in 1493.

00:44:46.186 --> 00:44:48.915
-When us Puerto Ricans,
when we refer to ourselves,

00:44:48.939 --> 00:44:51.586
we often talk about
us beingBoricuas,

00:44:51.610 --> 00:44:53.504
meaning
\"from the island of Borikén,\"

00:44:53.528 --> 00:44:57.465
which was the name
of what is today Puerto Rico

00:44:57.489 --> 00:44:59.426
before European contact.

00:44:59.450 --> 00:45:00.844
-For the United States,

00:45:00.868 --> 00:45:03.221
Puerto Rico
was a force in the region

00:45:03.245 --> 00:45:05.140
and they needed to protect
their interests.

00:45:05.164 --> 00:45:08.351
They knew that
they wanted to have control

00:45:08.375 --> 00:45:09.853
over the Panama Canal.

00:45:09.877 --> 00:45:11.187
They already had Cuba.

00:45:11.211 --> 00:45:16.109
They had the Dominican Republic
as a de facto neocolony.

00:45:16.133 --> 00:45:19.988
Puerto Rico was
militarily important.

00:45:20.012 --> 00:45:21.031
So in 1898,

00:45:21.055 --> 00:45:23.992
Admiral Sampson bombed
the capital of San Juan

00:45:24.016 --> 00:45:25.827
for a couple of hours...

00:45:25.851 --> 00:45:28.371
[ Explosions ]

00:45:28.395 --> 00:45:31.333
...and by December 10, 1898,

00:45:31.357 --> 00:45:34.711
Puerto Rico had become
a US colonial possession.

00:45:34.735 --> 00:45:36.880
-In the case of Puerto Rico,
we did not choose

00:45:36.904 --> 00:45:38.757
to become
a part of the United States.

00:45:38.781 --> 00:45:41.718
We were invaded
by the United States in 1898,

00:45:41.742 --> 00:45:43.512
and we have been a part
of the United States,

00:45:43.536 --> 00:45:47.642
whether we like it or not,
for over 100 years.

00:45:47.666 --> 00:45:49.602
-It wasn\'t until
the War of 1898,

00:45:49.626 --> 00:45:52.312
colloquially known
as the Spanish-American War,

00:45:52.336 --> 00:45:56.399
that the United States
became an empire.

00:45:56.423 --> 00:46:00.613
[ Explosions, gunfire ]

00:46:00.637 --> 00:46:02.739
There\'s places
where there were parades

00:46:02.763 --> 00:46:05.033
welcoming the occupying forces.

00:46:05.057 --> 00:46:07.662
For many Puerto Ricans,
it was just another day.

00:46:07.686 --> 00:46:09.454
The occupation
of the United States

00:46:09.478 --> 00:46:12.874
simply meant the occupation
of another imperial force.

00:46:12.898 --> 00:46:15.335
People needed to wake up,
go to their work,

00:46:15.359 --> 00:46:18.380
and continue their lives as is.

00:46:18.404 --> 00:46:21.383
-And while the island nation
was of great strategic

00:46:21.407 --> 00:46:23.468
and economic value
to the United States,

00:46:23.492 --> 00:46:26.096
the people of Puerto Rico
had no way to prepare

00:46:26.120 --> 00:46:29.474
for the ramifications
of U.S. colonization.

00:46:29.498 --> 00:46:31.560
♪♪

00:46:31.584 --> 00:46:34.771
-The citizenship
that was granted in 1917

00:46:34.795 --> 00:46:36.815
and that\'s still the
citizenship that we have,

00:46:36.839 --> 00:46:38.775
is a second-class citizenship.

00:46:38.799 --> 00:46:41.403
That is, Puerto Ricans are
not fully protected

00:46:41.427 --> 00:46:44.906
by the United States
Constitution\'s Bill of Rights.

00:46:44.930 --> 00:46:49.578
-Until 1947, there was not one
single governor of the island

00:46:49.602 --> 00:46:51.287
who was Puerto Rican.

00:46:51.311 --> 00:46:52.789
The island to this day

00:46:52.813 --> 00:46:56.585
has had what\'s called a resident
commissioner in Congress,

00:46:56.609 --> 00:47:01.089
but that person has
no right to vote.

00:47:01.113 --> 00:47:04.968
That person exists there as
nothing more than a witness.

00:47:04.992 --> 00:47:07.262
-Imagine having
to sit there powerless

00:47:07.286 --> 00:47:09.682
while your colleagues
decide your fate.

00:47:09.706 --> 00:47:12.350
It feels profoundly unjust.

00:47:12.374 --> 00:47:14.102
-When you think
a whole group of people

00:47:14.126 --> 00:47:15.771
doesn\'t exist
or doesn\'t contribute

00:47:15.795 --> 00:47:18.148
or was never part
of the story of a nation,

00:47:18.172 --> 00:47:20.817
then that group of people
is not going to be included

00:47:20.841 --> 00:47:22.402
in your projects for the future.

00:47:22.426 --> 00:47:26.657
-Now, the negative effects of
colonization impacted Latinos

00:47:26.681 --> 00:47:27.991
not just on the island

00:47:28.015 --> 00:47:30.703
but also those
that immigrated to the U.S.

00:47:30.727 --> 00:47:35.331
♪♪

00:47:35.355 --> 00:47:40.170
-New York is the place
where immigrants land.

00:47:40.194 --> 00:47:43.882
People from Latin America have
been coming to this country

00:47:43.906 --> 00:47:47.636
in part because they\'ve been
driven out of Latin America

00:47:47.660 --> 00:47:51.890
as a result of U.S. foreign
and economic policy.

00:47:51.914 --> 00:47:56.061
-New York City became a haven
for Puerto Rican activists.

00:47:56.085 --> 00:48:00.106
One of them was
Afro-Latino Arturo Schomburg,

00:48:00.130 --> 00:48:01.692
who began a collection
that would

00:48:01.716 --> 00:48:03.193
uplift the African diaspora,

00:48:03.217 --> 00:48:07.280
helping to lay the foundation
of the Harlem Renaissance.

00:48:07.304 --> 00:48:08.532
-Arturo Alfonso Schomburg

00:48:08.556 --> 00:48:12.828
first arrived
in the United States in 1891.

00:48:12.852 --> 00:48:15.205
Schomburg was
really an advocate for

00:48:15.229 --> 00:48:17.373
Puerto Rican
and Cuban independence.

00:48:17.397 --> 00:48:18.542
[ Indistinct shouting ]

00:48:18.566 --> 00:48:21.211
When we think about
the Spanish-American War,

00:48:21.235 --> 00:48:23.004
we cannot simply think of it

00:48:23.028 --> 00:48:25.591
as a war that was taking place
in the Caribbean.

00:48:25.615 --> 00:48:28.093
It was being organized
from New York City,

00:48:28.117 --> 00:48:30.929
and Schomburg was
at the center of it.

00:48:30.953 --> 00:48:34.099
-Now, Latinos aren\'t exempt
from colorism

00:48:34.123 --> 00:48:35.892
or how it can permeate
a culture,

00:48:35.916 --> 00:48:37.894
leaving those with darker skin,

00:48:37.918 --> 00:48:40.063
indigenous features,
or African heritage

00:48:40.087 --> 00:48:42.357
feeling like they aren\'t
properly represented.

00:48:42.381 --> 00:48:45.235
Fortunately,
Arturo took a stand and said,

00:48:45.259 --> 00:48:46.903
\"Yes, I am Afro-Latino

00:48:46.927 --> 00:48:50.949
and my history
is worth celebrating.\"

00:48:50.973 --> 00:48:53.702
♪♪

00:48:53.726 --> 00:48:57.205
-He\'s important because
he identified as Black.

00:48:57.229 --> 00:48:59.750
-Right. Right.
-So Arturo made common cause

00:48:59.774 --> 00:49:02.085
with Black Americans,

00:49:02.109 --> 00:49:05.881
and he built institutions
around learning,

00:49:05.905 --> 00:49:10.969
understanding the history of
Black people in the Americas --

00:49:10.993 --> 00:49:15.808
not just in the United States,
but in Latin America.

00:49:15.832 --> 00:49:17.976
Because when you
talk to Americans,

00:49:18.000 --> 00:49:21.980
they assume that the majority
of Black people

00:49:22.004 --> 00:49:24.775
or enslaved Africans
landed here.

00:49:24.799 --> 00:49:28.779
-Right. When the truth is,
all over Latin America.

00:49:28.803 --> 00:49:31.782
-Something like a quarter
of enslaved Africans

00:49:31.806 --> 00:49:34.702
came to the United States.
-Just a quarter. So...

00:49:34.726 --> 00:49:36.829
-Just a quarter.
-...three quarters more

00:49:36.853 --> 00:49:39.080
were all over Central America,

00:49:39.104 --> 00:49:43.334
South America, Brazil,
Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela.

00:49:43.358 --> 00:49:45.838
Everywhere.
-Everywhere.

00:49:45.862 --> 00:49:48.131
-Arturo Schomburg had
a teacher actually tell him

00:49:48.155 --> 00:49:52.553
that Black people didn\'t have
a history worth teaching.

00:49:52.577 --> 00:49:57.015
He made it his mission
to prove otherwise.

00:49:57.039 --> 00:50:01.311
-Arturo Schomburg begins
the project of crafting

00:50:01.335 --> 00:50:04.940
a center for the study of Black
culture and Black history,

00:50:04.964 --> 00:50:08.861
premised on the idea that Black
people throughout the world

00:50:08.885 --> 00:50:10.987
have been dispersed
by exploitation,

00:50:11.011 --> 00:50:13.364
by trauma,
by persecution and genocide,

00:50:13.388 --> 00:50:16.827
and we need to see each other
as being related.

00:50:16.851 --> 00:50:20.623
-And thanks to Arturo Schomburg,
we\'re better able to honor

00:50:20.647 --> 00:50:23.542
the history of Afro-Latinos
and Black culture.

00:50:23.566 --> 00:50:28.004
He\'s helped to reshape
the narrative that defines us.

00:50:28.028 --> 00:50:31.466
-They named the library
after a Puerto Rican.

00:50:31.490 --> 00:50:33.802
-Right, and made his name
American,

00:50:33.826 --> 00:50:34.970
anglicized.
-Arthur.

00:50:34.994 --> 00:50:38.056
-Arthur instead of Arturo,
which was his real name.

00:50:38.080 --> 00:50:42.937
Latinos are a people still
pushing for representation.

00:50:42.961 --> 00:50:45.856
A friend of mine, she was
a dark-skinned Latin woman,

00:50:45.880 --> 00:50:46.941
sent out two headshots --

00:50:46.965 --> 00:50:49.067
one with a Latin name,
one with a white name.

00:50:49.091 --> 00:50:50.401
The Latina name got nothing.

00:50:50.425 --> 00:50:53.404
The white-sounding name was
the one that got her jobs.

00:50:53.428 --> 00:50:54.990
Maybe that\'s why
I\'m John Leguizamo

00:50:55.014 --> 00:50:57.576
instead of Juan Leguizamo,
right?

00:50:57.600 --> 00:51:00.704
♪♪

00:51:00.728 --> 00:51:04.082
The problem with us climbing
in this country and succeeding

00:51:04.106 --> 00:51:08.294
comes from anti-Latino feeling
and all that violence.

00:51:08.318 --> 00:51:12.173
-You\'re being told on a daily
basis that you\'re inferior.

00:51:12.197 --> 00:51:13.049
-Mm-hmm.
-You know?

00:51:13.073 --> 00:51:14.467
That you don\'t belong here.

00:51:14.491 --> 00:51:19.598
-We watched our parents
come home every day,

00:51:19.622 --> 00:51:20.766
working two jobs,

00:51:20.790 --> 00:51:22.935
insisting that
their children go to school,

00:51:22.959 --> 00:51:27.731
clothing us, feeding us,
with respect.

00:51:27.755 --> 00:51:30.275
But they\'re being treated

00:51:30.299 --> 00:51:33.028
as second-class citizens,

00:51:33.052 --> 00:51:38.074
even though we fought and died

00:51:38.098 --> 00:51:39.242
at every war.

00:51:39.266 --> 00:51:42.997
So when my dad came home
one day and he told my mother

00:51:43.021 --> 00:51:46.207
that he had asked his foreman
for a raise,

00:51:46.231 --> 00:51:50.921
and the foreman told him,
\"Go back to Mexico\"...

00:51:50.945 --> 00:51:55.341
So my mother
kissed his forehead,

00:51:55.365 --> 00:51:57.093
and he stopped crying.

00:51:57.117 --> 00:52:04.018
And here you have a man
whose ancestors were in Tucson

00:52:04.042 --> 00:52:06.352
as early as the 1750s.

00:52:06.376 --> 00:52:09.230
-We were not supposed
to have any political rights.

00:52:09.254 --> 00:52:11.066
We were not supposed
to be citizens.

00:52:11.090 --> 00:52:16.071
We were not supposed to be able
to argue with our employers.

00:52:16.095 --> 00:52:19.992
The idea was you take it,
you accept it.

00:52:20.016 --> 00:52:23.746
And we didn\'t take it.
We didn\'t accept it.

00:52:23.770 --> 00:52:27.666
We fought exploitation.
We fought racism.

00:52:27.690 --> 00:52:28.792
We fought indignity.

00:52:28.816 --> 00:52:30.711
We joined
with African Americans.

00:52:30.735 --> 00:52:32.087
We joined with white Americans.

00:52:32.111 --> 00:52:33.964
We joined with Jewish Americans.

00:52:33.988 --> 00:52:35.966
And that\'s part of the history

00:52:35.990 --> 00:52:38.010
that I\'d like people to learn.

00:52:38.034 --> 00:52:43.473
-Once Latinos get to see
their contributions to history,

00:52:43.497 --> 00:52:45.308
there\'s a pride to it.

00:52:45.332 --> 00:52:47.102
And as a historian,

00:52:47.126 --> 00:52:52.775
I feel my responsibility is to
tell people\'s stories to others.

00:52:52.799 --> 00:52:54.442
-We\'ve been here,
we\'ve been working,

00:52:54.466 --> 00:52:57.905
and without us
there is no United States.

00:52:57.929 --> 00:53:00.198
-And so therefore,
it\'s all of our responsibility

00:53:00.222 --> 00:53:03.660
to become educated as
to who we really are

00:53:03.684 --> 00:53:06.789
and to pay attention
to what we do

00:53:06.813 --> 00:53:09.248
and how it contributes
on a daily basis

00:53:09.272 --> 00:53:11.167
to the lives of all people.

00:53:11.191 --> 00:53:15.923
-If American society doesn\'t
learn enough about who we are,

00:53:15.947 --> 00:53:18.717
American society is
not gonna appreciate us,

00:53:18.741 --> 00:53:22.178
and American society
is not gonna respect us.

00:53:22.202 --> 00:53:24.515
-Far too often,
Latinos are omitted

00:53:24.539 --> 00:53:26.224
from the great
American narrative,

00:53:26.248 --> 00:53:28.852
and that\'s just one problem
with the history

00:53:28.876 --> 00:53:31.354
that\'s been fed to us
all these years,

00:53:31.378 --> 00:53:33.941
because it\'s incomplete,
inaccurate,

00:53:33.965 --> 00:53:35.567
and it leaves out so much.

00:53:35.591 --> 00:53:37.694
And that\'s why I\'m
on this journey,

00:53:37.718 --> 00:53:40.697
to make sure
that this history is accurate

00:53:40.721 --> 00:53:41.990
and that people don\'t forget

00:53:42.014 --> 00:53:43.784
that Latinos have
been contributing

00:53:43.808 --> 00:53:47.245
to this great country
all along the way.

00:53:47.269 --> 00:53:57.255
♪♪

00:53:57.279 --> 00:54:07.265
♪♪

00:54:07.289 --> 00:54:17.633
♪♪