LATINO AMERICANS is a landmark three-part, six-hour documentary series narrated by actor Benjamin Bratt. The series will air nationally on PBS on three consecutive Tuesdays, premiering on September 17, September 24 and October 1.

LATINO AMERICANS is the first major documentary series for television to chronicle the rich and varied history and experiences of Latinos, who have for the past 500-plus years helped shape what is today the United States and have become, with more than 50 million people, the largest minority group in the U.S. A companion book by Ray Suarez, Senior Correspondent for PBS NEWSHOUR, will be released to coincide with the series. The television broadcast will also be accompanied by a nationwide public engagement initiative, and bilingual digital engagement and public education campaigns. A preview of the series is available at pbs.org/latino-americans.

The series will also be broadcast nationally in Spanish on Vme, the Spanish-language channel on public television, over six consecutive Fridays beginning on September 20.

LATINO AMERICANS is led by Emmy Award-winning series producer Adriana Bosch and documents the evolution of a new “Latino American” identity from the 1500s to the present day, featuring interviews with close to 100 Latinos from the worlds of politics, business and pop culture — including Herman Badillo, Dolores Huerta, Gloria Estefan and Rita Moreno — as well as deeply personal portraits of lesser-known Latinos who lived through key chapters in American history.

“In six episodes of first-rate television, LATINO AMERICANS covers centuries of history about native-born Latinos and immigrants from throughout the Americas,” said Bosch, a Cuban-born filmmaker whose previous PBS projects include LATIN MUSIC U.S.A. and a number of documentaries for the series AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. “We do not shy away from addressing key issues of legitimacy, justice, discrimination and the very meaning of citizenship. The series has great cinematography, incisive interviews, evocative archive materials — but what I am most proud of is that we were able to tell history in the first person. LATINO AMERICANS is history ‘con nombre y apellido’ — with first and last name. And that is what makes our stories compelling and profoundly human.”

Leading up to the broadcast premiere, LATINO AMERICANS will be presented in different prominent Hispanic markets throughout the country as a part of a nationwide public engagement initiative that will kick off in Phoenix, AZ, on May 23. That event is being presented by Eight, Arizona PBS in partnership with the Latino Institute, a program of the City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department. A screening will take place at the Latino Institute, followed by a discussion about Latino identity and history with LATINO AMERICANS series producer Adriana Bosch and others featured in the film. These public media events aim to significantly expand the reach and impact of the series beyond the broadcast. Events will also take place in markets including Austin, TX; Miami, FL; Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; San Antonio, TX; and Washington, D.C., among others.

LATINO AMERICANS also includes a bilingual digital engagement campaign, the first phase of which launched in early May and provides an interactive way to approach and understand Latino American history, its contribution, and its role in American society. The project has created an integrated digital media experience designed to motivate viewers, listeners and digital media users to engage in discussions, explore their communities and share their stories, bringing texture and immediacy to the LATINO AMERICANS series. Individuals and communities can share their experiences and thoughts on cultural traditions and identity atpbs.org/latino-americans and be a part of the conversation by using the project hashtag #LatinosPBS on Twitter. The public can submit video submissions now at pbs.org/latino-americans/en/send-videos/.

The companion book to the series, authored by Ray Suarez, will be published by Celebra, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), and will be available in both English and Spanish. It may be pre-ordered now, and will go on-sale September 3. Additionally, theLATINO AMERICANS project is accompanied by a major bilingual public education campaign, including the development of a school-based curriculum that will be available in late summer 2013.

The diversity of the Latino American experience is reflected in both the on-camera interview subjects and the filmmaking staff. The production team, most of who are Latino Americans, includes individuals who are of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Salvadoran and Dominicans heritage, among others. In addition to Bratt as the narrator, the musical score for LATINO AMERICANS is by award-winning composers Joseph Julián González, a native of California’s Central Valley of Mexican descent, and Claudio Ragazzi, a native of Argentina; and the acclaimed singer-songwriter Lila Downs, born in Oaxaca, Mexico, will serve as the featured artist for the series, performing the closing song in LATINO AMERICANS.

LATINO AMERICANS is a production of WETA Washington, DC; Bosch and Co., Inc.; and Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB); in association with Independent Television Service (ITVS). The series executive producers are Jeff Bieber and Dalton Delan for WETA, Sandie Viquez Pedlow for LPB, and Sally Jo Fifer for ITVS. The series producer is Adriana Bosch. The supervising producer is Salme Lopez. The producers are Nina Alvarez, Dan McCabe, Ray Telles and John J. Valadez. The associate producers are Sabrina Avilés, Yvan Iturraga and Monika Navarro. For the re-enactment sequences, the producer is Cathleen O’Connell and the directors are David Belton and Sonia Fritz. The production manager is Mary Sullivan.

Major funding for LATINO AMERICANS is provided by Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Ford Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and The Summerlee Foundation. Funding for outreach is supported by a grant from The New York Community Trust.

LATINO AMERICANS tells the story of early settlement, conquest and immigration; of tradition and reinvention; of anguish and celebration; and of the gradual construction of a new American identity from diverse sources that connects and empowers millions of people today. The series is broken into the following six chronological episodes that cover the 1500s to the present day:

Premiering Tuesday, September 17, 8-10 p.m. ET on PBS

Episode 1. “Foreigners in Their Own Land” spans the period from 1565-1880, as the first Spanish explorers enter North America, the U.S. expands into territories in the Southwest that had been home to Native Americans and English and Spanish colonies, and as the Mexican-American War strips Mexico of half its territories by 1848.

Episode 2. “Empire of Dreams” documents how the American population begins to be reshaped by the influx of people that began in 1880 and continues into the 1940s, as Cubans, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans begin arriving in the U.S. and start to build strong Latino-American communities in South Florida, Los Angeles and New York.

Premiering Tuesday, September 24, 8-10 p.m. ET on PBS

Episode 3. “War and Peace” moves into the World War II years and those that follow, as Latino Americans serve their new country by the hundreds of thousands — but still face discrimination and a fight for civil rights back in the United States.

Episode 4. “The New Latinos” highlights the swelling immigration from Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic that stretches from the post-World War II years into the early 1960s as the new arrivals seek economic opportunities.

Premiering Tuesday, October 1, 8-10 p.m. ET on PBS

Episode 5. “Pride and Prejudice” details the creation of the proud “Chicano” identity, as labor leaders organize farm workers in California, and as activists push for better education opportunities for Latinos, the inclusion of Latino studies and empowerment in the political process.

Episode 6. “Peril and Promise” takes viewers through the past 30 years, with a second wave of Cubans arriving in Miami during the Mariel exodus and with hundreds of thousands Salvadorans, Nicaraguans and Guatemalans fleeing civil wars, death squads and unrest to go north into a new land — transforming the United States along the way. The debate over undocumented immigrants flares up, with a backlash that eventually includes calls for tightened borders, English-only laws and efforts to brand undocumented immigrants as a drain on public resources. Simultaneously, the Latino influence is booming in business, sports, media, politics and entertainment. The largest and youngest growing sector of the American population, Latino Americans will determine the success of the United States in the 21st century.