Latin Music USA

Excellent History of the Latinos/Hispanics and their Influence to American Music
First things first. I feel that I need to respond to the previous moron's review. A person named Garcia should really do some deep study, not only on Latin Music but also on his/her own Latin culture. To say that Selena brought Latin music to the awareness of the American and Hispanic people is a travesty and an insult to pioneers like Richie Valens, Desi Arnaz, Celia Cruz, Xavier Cougat, Santana and the list goes on and on. Please Garcia, try to sound somewhat intelligent and don't sound off at all. Thank you!

That off my chest, I give this series 5 stars. It has been presented well with research and documentation. It truly gives the background through the eyes of the artists themselves and those who worked with them. It shows how Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans and others influenced the Latino music culture in the U.S. I watched this series on PBS and I highly recommend it whether you are Hispanic, African-American, Anglo or any other culture that wants to find...

Superb Documentary with interviews from ALL the important people
This four-part, four-hour documentary was shown over various PBS stations around the country. In some cities - Philadelphia, for instance - they only aired the last two parts - since these cover rock and roll and the huge crossover artists like Serena and Ricky Martin. But here you get the whole story from the beginning. Actually the series doesn't quite start with the earliest years. In a clever, and successful, effort to draw non-Hispanics into the story, writer/director Daniel McCabe (obviously not Latin) uses Carlos Santa's performance at Woodstock as the opening shot. This episode, titled "Bridges", then takes the viewer back to the artists who came to the US from Puerto Rico and Cuba and planted the seeds of a musical movement which now garners its own Grammy Awards show on prime time TV.

Earlier this year I reviewed an excellent - though much shorter - DVD documentary, "From Mambo to Hip Hop", and gave it five stars. Then this DVD came out and now I've seen two...

2 THUMBS UP.
This dvd covers Latin music in the USA as comprehensive as possible. If there's another documentary that's better they've buried it forever. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

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