After nearly ignoring Latinos in his 14-hour PBS documentary on jazz--Machito, Tito Puente, and Eddie Palmieri were mere dust in the wind--and, in his baseball epic, spending 6 minutes on Roberto Clemente with but a nod to other Hispanic players who have, Hellooo, gained hegemony over the sport, Ken Burns, in his latest attempt to tell it like it is to the US public, completely blows off the 500,000 Latinos who served, and gave their lives, during World War II.
But this time, not so fast. PBS's golden boy is being beleaguered by an organized opposition that is threatening to boycott the Public Broadcasting system if edits aren't made to include the stories of soldiers who received more Congressional Medals of Honor, in proportion to their population, than any other ethnic group. Historian Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, who's been on the case of Latinos in W.W. II, has formed
Defend the Honor, a coalition attempting to exact apologies and change. The group is being supported by the Hispanic Caucus, and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists has weighed heavily in. So far, PBS and Burns are standing firm on: Sorry Charley, but Burns is a good guy whose artistic integrity shouldn't be messed with. The series is to be aired in November. Let's see if it's still status quo by then.
Meanwhile here's a brief survey of the righteous indignance of the media:
National Public Radio's
LatinoUSA--great show. Podcast it.
AlternetThe Albuquerque Journal via
HispanicBusiness.comMaggie Rivas-Rodriguez on
Democracy Now
