His latest American Historia: The Untold History of Latinos Premieres Sept. 27 on PBS

Written by Julio Martinez

John Leguizamo was born in Bogotá, Colombia but raised in New York City. He has appeared in over 100 films, working as a stand-up comedian, actor, writer and producer. On stage, his one-person play, Latin History for Morons garnered him a Tony Award after 400+ performances, and he followed that up by his PBS special: Great Performances: The Road to Broadway.  Now, working in tandem with acclaimed television director Ben DeJesus, they have co-created PBS’s VOCES American Historia: The Untold History of Latinos, hosted by Leguizamo and scheduled to debut September 27, 2024.

“This project was originally inspired by my stage play, which I created because I was horrified by the almost total absence of Latinos from my son’s American History books,” Leguizamo exclaimed during the recent Television Critics Association press tour.

Leguizamo’s one-man show highlighted the fact that Latinos didn’t just simply arrive here, they’ve been here since 1492. The first Euro language spoken in America was not English, it was Spanish, and the American land mass, from the Mississippi to the Pacific, was, in fact, Mexico until 1840.

“To label John as just the host of this show would be doing him a disservice,” deJesus adds.  “John is the genesis of the whole thing.”  Leguizamo laughs, “I’ve always been a history nerd, especially when it comes to Latin history. I’m like the Rain Man of Latin facts.” 

So all this came to him easily because he’d been studying the subject for the last 20 years. Leguizamo doesn’t just narrate the documentary.  He conducts one-on-one interviews. Instead of just telling this history, he talks to individuals who can help bring the narrative to life.

 “You need witnesses and testimonies,” Leguizamo explains. “Most people are Latin history deniers in this country. You need evidence. We need to have verification to authenticate what we’re talking about.”

 Leguizamo makes it clear that many deniers are entrenched in academia. When he was touring the country with Latin History for Dummies, he learned that U.S. Latino history was banned in Arizona for ten years. This is a state that has a population of 30 percent Latinos. In Texas, educators are allowed to teach Latino history only one day of the year, yet Latinos make up 40 percent of the population in Texas, and represent the majority.

“John Hopkins University did a study and found that 87 percent of Latino contributions to the making of America are not in history textbooks,” DeJesus adds. “So that’s erasure right there.”  

DeJesus believes this special that he and Leguizamo have produced is one of the ways to combat all the deniers. Concluding that, “If we can get this to be a regular series, it can be brought right into the schools.”

When DeJesus was asked to describe a few of the stories that really struck him, they were war stories, particularly the ones from Army veteran Guy Gabaldon. He explains, “Guy Gabaldon’s was a guy from East L.A. who happened to grow up with Japanese neighbors, so he picked up some Japanese. Based on his ability to speak Japanese, he was able — in the middle of the night – to get 1300 Japanese soldiers to surrender.

As for Leguizamo, his happiest and most satisfying interview was easy.  “Dolores Huerta. Oh, my God, she’s so lovely. It was such an honor to meet such a gracious, gentle, generous warrior. And her sense of inclusivity and embracing everybody, even though she’s a fighter, she’s still about nurturing. And that’s who I’d like to aspire to be.”

Leguizamo and DeJesus talked about future projects, particularly dramatic ones and if they thought their projects could have a home on PBS?  “That would be up to the producers on PBS.  It would be great to do it at PBS. There’s so many great stories to be told,” he said with a shrug and a smile. 

Case in point, during their research, Leguizamo and DeJsus discovered Gil Bosques Saldivar to be be an important figure in one of many stories. In World War II, he was a Mexican ambassador who saved 40,000 Jews in Vichy, France.  He hid them in two churches. That’s more than Oskar Schindler saved. Bosques then gave his refugees asylum in Mexico. “It’s an amazing story that needs to be told. It was pitched to the studios but was rejected,” DeJesus exclaimed.

“What is a Latino?” Leguizamo asks rhetorically.  “For the most part, Latinos are of three ancestries — African, European Indigenous. We’re one of the few ethnic groups whose religion, culture, and language were completely destroyed, and yet here we still are, and thriving in America.”

In fact, according to the Latino Donor Collaborative, Latinos contribute $3.2 trillion to the GDP of the United States and as a group, Latinos have the buying power of $3.4 trillion in the U.S.

 ‘We’ve come from so much oppression, yet our superpower is tenacity. We just don’t accept no for an answer,” Leguizamo proclaims.

VOCES American Historia: The Untold History of Latinos

Director and Co-Creator: Ben DeJesus – Co-Creator: John Leguizamo

Documentary Series:  90 minutes

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The 37th annual Imagen Awards nominations were announced for The Imagen Foundation in Los Angeles. Award-winning director Ben DeJesus and producer Jill Krikorian’s documentary film for American Masters’ Voces: Lights, Camera, Acción was nominated in the Best Short Film category. 

The award ceremony will take place on Sunday, October 2, 2022, in Los Angeles at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes.

“It is an honor to be nominated among such a great group of content creators. We continue to do our best to bring forward our stories in the most authentic manner possible” said DeJesus.  

Lights, Camera, Acciòn, a co-production of Latino Public Broadcasting’s VOCES and American Masters, is a celebration of the incredible impact that Latinos have made in Hollywood – past, present and future, with a focus on the exciting new wave of talent that is transforming the industry.

From award-winning director DeJesus and executive producer John Leguizamo, the documentary captures the candid perspectives of prominent voices in film and television, from in front and behind the camera, sharing their challenges, personal journeys and outlook on the future.

DeJesus is an Emmy and Tony-nominated director, producer, writer and co-founder of NGL Studios with his partner John Leguizamo. With over a decade of experience in the U.S. multicultural, Latinx and youth markets, DeJesus has created over 100 hours of award-winning content including non-fiction, episodic, music videos and branded content.

Ben got his start as stage actor before landing at MTV, where he became one of the original writer/producers for several seasons of MTV Cribes. He then went on to produce and write for MTV News, VH1, mun2, Nick @ Nite, and many of the on-air VJ’s.

Recent Television credits include: (PBS) American Masters: Lights, Camera, Acción; (CBS) Essential Heroes: Momento Latino, exec-produced and hosted by Eva Longoria; (Peacock) The Latino Presidential Inauguration Special and multiple episodes of (Disney) Bunk’d, the hit multi- cam sitcom. Currently, Ben is directing and exec-producing a 6-episode series for MSNBC hosted by Leguizamo.

Film credits include: Raul Julia: The World’s a Stage which received an Emmy nomination in the Non-Fiction Series category in 2020, along with his second Imagen Award and Best Latinx Film Award by the National Association of Independent Latino Producers (NALIP). Ben also directed Great Performances: John Leguizamo’s Road to Broadway where he won his first Imagen Award for Best Documentary. His previous feature doc (PBS) Tales from a Ghetto Klown was also produced by DeJesus and Academy Award- Winner® Fisher Stevens (The Cove) and premiered nationwide.

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The national broadcast premiere of Lights, Camera, Acciòn, happens on Tuesday, October 5 on PBS in celebration of the Latino Heritage Month.

Lights, Camera, Acciòn is an American Masters project directed by Ben DeJesus and executive produced by John Leguizamo, Michael Kantor of American Masters, and Sandie Viquez Pedlow of Latino Public Broadcasting/VOCES and David Chitel of NGL Collective premieres Tuesday, October 5, on PBS.

A co-presentation of Latino Public Broadcasting’s VOCES and American Masters, Lights, Camera, Acciòn is a celebration of the incredible impact Latinos have made in Hollywood — past, present and future, with a focus on the exciting new wave of talent that is transforming the industry. Featuring prominent Latino voices in film and television, this special captures the candid perspectives of talent from in front of and behind the camera, as they share their challenges, personal journeys and outlook on the future. 

In the documentary we hear from high profile A-talent who have been grandly representing Latinos in Hollywood for years. The documentary also focuses on the current writers and the on-camera talent that are now front and center, reshaping the image of Latinos in Hollywood through their work. The long list of talent include actors Edward James Olmos, Gina Torres, John Leguizamo, Chelsea Rendon, Jimmy Smits, Ivana Rojas, Esai Morales, Xolo Maridueña; showrunners Tanya Saracho (Vida), Peter Murrieta (Mr. Iglesias) and Marvin Lemus (Gentefied), media scholar Chon Noriega, and more.

“When I set out to make this film, my goal was to shed light on the incredible contributions – often unacknowledged – that Latinos have made to the history and success of Hollywood since the very beginning,” says director DeJesus. “I also wanted to showcase the new generation of talent that are now blazing their own trails, both on-screen and behind the scenes.”

“Visual media is such a powerful medium. It has the power to change the way we look at the world around us,” says executive producer Leguizamo. “Ben is on a 24/7 mission to get more of our stories out there because if people are able to see the incredible contributions that Latinx people make and have made to our society, imagine how they would look at our community. And more importantly, imagine how we would look at ourselves.”

The 24-minute documentary film premieres on Tuesday, October 5, immediately following the broadcast of American Masters — Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It at 9 p.m. (check local listings). The film will also be available for streaming on all station-branded PBS platforms, including pbs.org/americanmasters  and the PBS Video App beginning October 5.

Lights, Camera, Acciòn is a co-production of NGL Studios and Latino Public Broadcasting in association with American Masters Pictures, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Directed by Ben DeJesus. Produced by Jill Krikorian and Cionin Lorenzo. Executive Producers: Sandie Viquez Pedlow, Michael Kantor, John Leguizamo, and David Chitel. Series Producer for VOCES: Luis Ortiz. Series Producer for American Masters: Julie Sacks.

The post ‘Lights, Camera, Accion’ Celebrating Latinos in Hollywood Then and Now first appeared on .

Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre 

In collaboration with Ben DeJesus | Bencedor Presents

Flaco Navaja’s Evolution of a Sonero

Directed by Jorge B. Merced

January 9th to 19th

Following sold-out and standing ovation engagements at The Public Theater in NYC, Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, CA, Ann Arbor Summer Festival in Ann Arbor, MI, and Cara Mía Theatre Company’s Latinidades Festival at the Latino Cultural Center in Dallas, TX, Pregones/PRTT’s acclaimed production of Flaco Navaja’s Evolution of a Sonero returns to its home at Puerto Rican Traveling Theater for a strictly limited NYC encore run!

“I be the son of hardcore South Bronx Puerto Rican nationalists. An aguinaldo, bomba y plena, salsa, rumba singing actor-activist.” 

This self-declaration opens celebrated poet, actor, singer, all-around entertainer, and Pregones/PRTT ensemble member Flaco Navaja’s first full-length play. Part coming of age story, a part love letter to salsa and The Bronx, Evolution of A Sonero delivers a testament to human resilience in a spirited concert theater tribute. Backed by five world-class Latinx musicians in the role of The Razor Blades band, Flaco Navaja draws from Héctor Lavoe, The Doors, KRS-1, and many humorous friends and family that shaped him.

Cannily directed by Jorge B. Merced to showcase the artistry in its storytelling, the charisma of each of its characters, and the collective talents of its cast, Evolution of A Sonero is as much about Flaco Navaja’s creative evolution as it is about the cultural mix that makes our América great!

It’s a sizzling fusion of salsa, spoken word, and hip hop. A one-man show with an amazing band!

Encore run produced by Pregones/PRTT in collaboration with Ben DeJesus. Evolution of A Sonero was developed with support from Pregones/PRTT’s Step Up Artists in Residence initiative, funded by The New York Community Trust.

Evolution of a Sonero
Lighting: Lucrecia Briceno
Costumes: Emilio Sosa
Sound: Milton Ruiz

Performed in English and Spanish, for the first time with dual language supertitles.

Featuring: Flaco Navaja and The Razor Blades (Waldo Chavez, Carlos Cuevas, Gabo Lugo, Victor Pablo, Hommy Ramos)

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Airs on PBS September 13th 

New York Latino Film Fest Premiere
4:00 PM, August 17th
AMC Empire

By Julio Martinez

On September 13th, PBS’s American Masters and Latino Public Broadcasting will join forces to present the first documentary on Raúl Juliá, the brilliant Puerto Rican actor, whose career was cut short by his untimely death in 1994 at age 54. At a recent meeting of the Television Critics Association, the documentary, Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage, was discussed by actor/social activist Edward James Olmos, now the co-founder and chairman of Latino Public Television. He was joined by Ben DeJesus, director, and producer of the documentary. 

“I hope everyone gets a chance to see this documentary, said Olmos. “Ben DeJesus has done a brilliant job. And I’m emotional right now because it’s been 25 years and this is the first time we’re talking about Raúl Juliá. And if it wasn’t for Ben and what he’s done, we wouldn’t even be talking about him today. I mean, he was the best we had. He was better than José Ferrer.  He’s better than Anthony Quinn. He’s better than me. He’s better than any of us.  There’s not one actor that could come close to him. He could do the classics in Spanish and English. Anthony couldn’t do that.  Quinn couldn’t do that. And José Ferrer never did it. And so I can only tell you that what you’re going to experience now has been a long time coming. 

He was nominated four times for a Tony, never got it. Emmys, Golden Globes, you name it.  He got nominated. Never won. And that shows you the understanding. He died with never receiving an accolade. He was nominated but never received one until he was dead.”

Juliá received a posthumous Golden Globes Award for his performance of activist Chico Mendes in the 1994 television movie, The Burning Season, directed by John Frankenheimer (Juliá also received a posthumous Emmy Award). This was Julia’s last film released during his lifetime. “I had to receive it and I wept,” continued Olmos. “I’m really tired of how long it’s taken for our diversity to be recognized.”

Born in Puerto Rico in 1940, Juliá was convinced to move to New York by actor Orson Bean, taking over Bean’s role in the off-Broadway rock musical, Your Own Thing. A fluidly bilingual actor, he performed off-Broadway, Broadway, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater and Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival, appearing opposite Meryl Streep in The Taming of the Shrew. During the 1980s he worked in several films, including Kiss of the Spider Woman. In 1991 and 1993, Juliá portrayed Gomez Adams in two film adaptations of The Addams Family. In 1994, he suffered several health afflictions, eventually dying after suffering a stroke. 

This film is a breakthrough project for Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB), a non-profit organization funded by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting. LPB is the leader in the development, production, acquisition, and distribution of non-commercial, educational and cultural media that is representative of Latino people or addresses issues of particular interest to Latino Americans. The organization was created in 1998 by Olmos and Marline Demer, who served as Executive Director until 2002 and now sits on the Board of Directors. Olmos is presently LPB’s Chairman of the Board of Directors and is passionately involved in the organization’s efforts to increase the presence of Latino films on public television in the United States.

In addition to American Masters, LPB is deeply involved in VOCES, which is premiering four new films this season, beginning with The Pushouts, premiering September 20th, telling the story of celebrated professor and author, Dr. Victor Rios who, by the age of 15, was a high school dropout with multiple felony convictions. The film follows Victor over one summer as he works with his former mentor, Martin Flores, at YO! Watts, a Los Angeles program committed to changing the lives of young people who are often referred to as “dropouts,” that are actually pushed out of the education system. They are among the almost one in four Latino and black students who do not graduate each year and end up with low-paying jobs, and, too often, in the criminal justice system.

For Olmos, the working partnership with PBS is rapidly increasing the validity of LPB, which is beginning to exceed early expectations. “Thanks to the guiding lights of our executive director (Sandie Pedlow) and our staff right now, we’ve hit the highest we’ve ever been, and we’re starting now to really understand ourselves to the fullest. It’s difficult because we originally came about through a necessity to get diversity in line with the South Pacific Islanders, the indigenous, the African-American, of course, ourselves, Latino. Our cultures were so underrepresented, and we still are.” 

“I’ve been doing this for 50 years, and I can tell you that things have gotten worse, and the reason they’ve gotten worse is that there’s more of us here now. The minority system of the country has grown, all of it, so that now we really should have a more diverse look in the arts, and it’s not being done. And I thank, very much, PBS and CPB and all the different groups that have helped us throughout the years to try to get alternative voices in line and to be seen.”  

All I can say is PBS and Latino Public Broadcasting has been a dream, and it’s a dream come true, and we’re just beginning.”

About Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage
The documentary is a special presentation of American Masters and VOCES. The film is a co-production of ITVS, NGL Studios, Diamante Content, and LATINO PUBLIC BROADCASTING in association with American Masters Pictures.

The Team
Director/Producer: Ben DeJesus
Producer: Jill Krikorian
Editor/Co-Producer: Sikay Tang
Co-Producers: Edgar Andrade, Cionin Lorenzo
Executive Producers: Sandie Viquez Pedlow, Sally Jo Fifer, Michael Kantor
Co-Executive Producers: John Leguizamo, David Chitel, Donald Thoms
Cinematography: Edgar Andrade, Jonathan Belinski
Original Score: Chris Hajian
Post Production Mixer: Bassy Bob Brockman
Associate Producer: Evelyn Madera
Archival Producers: Jennifer Petrucelli, Rachel Antell
Animation & VFX: Garbanzo 
Graphic Design: David Irlanda

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Directed by Ben DeJesus
Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF)

Ben DeJesus‘ long-awaited feature documentary, Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage, examines the life and career of the inspiring entertainer, Raul Julia. The film, a portrait of the charismatic actor, who earned recognition across the world for his versatility on stage and on screen before his life was tragically cut short, is set to premiere on Saturday, August 3, 2019, at the historic TLC Chinese Theater in the heart of Hollywood, CA.

Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage is a revealing portrait of the charismatic, groundbreaking actor’s journey from his native Puerto Rico to the creative hotbed of 1960s New York City, to prominence on Broadway and in Hollywood. Directed by Ben DeJesus, the film traces Raul’s personal and professional journey, showcasing his groundbreaking performances and humanitarian activism. Before diversity and inclusion were part of the national conversation, Raul with his magnetic personality and charismatic talent was able to amass a varied body of timeless work that helped pave the way for many Latino actors today.  

Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage is a special presentation of American Masters and VOCES. The film is a co-production of ITVS, NGL Studios, Diamante Content, and Latino Public Broadcasting in association with American Masters Pictures. Director/Producer: Ben DeJesus. Producer: Jill Krikorian. Executive Producers: Sandie Viquez Pedlow, Donald Thoms, John Leguizamo, Michael Kantor, and Sally Jo Fifer. Michael Kantor is an executive producer for American Masters. Sandie Viquez Pedlow is an executive producer for VOCES. Co-Executive Producers: John Leguizamo, David Chitel, Donald Thoms. Cinematography: Edgar Andrade, Jonathan Belinski
This film was made possible by the generous support of Latino Public Broadcasting, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, WNET, PBS, and ITVS. 

*** Additional screenings are scheduled in New York, Puerto Rico, San Diego, Miami, and Puerto Rico, leading up to the PBS national premiere 
Friday, September 13, 2019 at 9 p.m. ET(check local listings), pbs.org/americanmasters and the PBS Video App in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month. 

The post LALIFF: Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage, Premieres Aug. 3rd, TLC Chinese Theater first appeared on .

Author/Playwright Josefina Lopez talks about her projects and Film Director Ben DeJesus talks about his groundbreaking work with John Leguizamo, Latin History for Morons

TheTRENDTalk show airs on Sunday mornings at 7:30 a.m. on MeTV network. You can always catch the shows on YouTube and here on Latin Heat.

Co-hosts are EMMY award-winning journalist Naibe Reynoso and Bel Hernandez, CEO, and President of Latin Heat Media. Both ladies have been embedded in the Hollywood entertainment industry for decades and have always been at the forefront of Latinos working in front and behind the camera. On TheTRENDTalk, the ladies reach out to Latinos making a difference not just in entertainment but in all industries and through their efforts, are making a positive impact in their communities. Both Reynoso and Hernandez have author books– “Be Bold, Be Brave!, an inspiring illustrated book for girls and young Latinas by Reynoso, and “8 Ways To Say I Love My Life,” a book compiled with chapters written by eight women who relate their stories of courage and strength, Hernandez wrote one of the chapters.

Lopez is a Chicana playwright, best known as the author of the play and co-author of the screenplay, Real Women Have Curves. Her other notable plays include Simply Maria, or the American Dream, Confessions of Women from East L.A, Boyle Heights, and Hungry Woman in Paris, which is based on her first novel.

How DeJesus got to where he is today is a fascinating story, but somewhere along the way after his theater education at Rutgers University, he met John Leguizamo, which led to directing the PBS documentary Tales from a Ghetto Klown to Latino History for Morons. In between, DeJesus has directed episodic TV for many series on the Disney Channel.

Read more on Ben DeJesus, click LatinHeat, and click on Josefina Lopez for more on what she’s been up to.

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