Black in Latin America

Black in Latin America, a new four-part series about the influence of African descent on Latin America, is the latest production from renowned Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The series examines how Africa and Europe came together to create the rich cultures of Latin America and the Caribbean. Latin America is often associated with music, monuments and sun, but each of the six countries featured in Black in Latin America including, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico and Peru, has a secret history. On his journey, Professor Gates discovers, behind a shared legacy of colonialism and slavery, vivid stories and people marked by African roots. Latin America and the Caribbean have the largest concentration of people with African ancestry outside Africa -- up to 70 percent of the population in some countries. The region imported more than ten times as many slaves as the United States, and kept them in bondage far longer. On this series of journeys, Professor Gates celebrates the massive influence of millions of people of African descent on the history and culture of Latin America and the Caribbean, and considers why and how their contribution is often forgotten or ignored.