John Leguizamo highlights forgotten Latino history in PBS documentaries

John Leguizamo hopes to “flip the script on how America sees Latinos and how we see ourselves” with his new PBS documentary “VOCES American Historia: The Untold History of Latinos,” premiering Friday.

The “Encanto” actor, who also hosts the three-episode series, sat down with several Latin scholars and professors to discuss the contributions of civilizations dating back to the Incas, Aztecs and indigenous peoples of the Caribbean – the first inhabitants of Christopher Met Columbus’s New World – now known as the Taíno.

“I’m like the Rain Man of facts about Latin America, and besides, with all these professors and experts in Latin history, I was very excited to be in the same room with each of them,” Leguizamo told TheWrap in a recent interview.

“We are the only ethnic group to have fought in every war America has ever fought: 500,000 of us fought in World War II. We have over 60 Medal of Honor recipients, the most of any ethnic group. And our contribution is unlimited, scientifically, politically, and of course in building the infrastructure and feeding the United States,” he said, just one of many statistics he mentioned during the conversation.

“With the infrared laser, they discovered that the Maya had highways and it was an area much larger than the area conquered or ruled by the Mayan Empire. The Amazon also had empires that we had no idea about because the jungle devours everything,” Leguizamo explained.

“Everything has been erased, so you can’t take credit for things like the dahlia and the sunflower. These are Aztec flowers that everyone thinks belong to Europe. They were ours. The invention of rubber is us. Galvanization is us. The Incas performed brain surgery that was far more effective than anything else until the American Civil War. Suspension bridge, binary code…” he continued, babbling innovation after innovation.

The famous actor remembers stories about unsung Latino heroes — including Guy Gabaldon, an 18-year-old from East Los Angeles who captured more than 1,000 enemy soldiers during World War II; or Gilberto Bosques Saldívar, who saved 40,000 Jews in Vichy France and then gave them asylum in Mexico; or Jovita Idar, a journalist who ran her own newspaper and “saved Latino boys from lynching throughout the Southwest. I want to tell this story.”

“I added period themes to some of these stories. And they tell me, “Oh, we don’t do period stuff.” And then boom, “Gladiator II”, “The Crown”. They sold me a bill of lading,” Leguizamo noted.

When asked how he could focus on which story to tell when there were so many to choose from, he replied, “I only want to tell one! Green light, damn it. It’s very difficult to get Latin content greenlit in America. I see a lot of Latino talent that isn’t being utilized, and it’s frustrating and painful for me to watch.”

He said that sharing the contributions of Latinos around the world empowers him, and he hopes it will empower young Latinos to do the same: “I wanted them to see themselves in a new light, to show that they matter, that they are important, that they can achieve anything, what they want because they come from greatness.”

Leguizamo is also proud to bring the series to PBS. “When I was a kid, they were the first to have real Latino representation,” he said, citing groundbreaking series from the 1960s and 1970s such as “Zoom,” “Electric Company,” “Sesame Street” and “¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.” . the first Latin comedy series in the country.

“They were way ahead of everyone. So being on this network is really important to me because these shows saved me and gave me an identity,” he said.

“VOCES American Historia: The Untold History of Latinos” premieres Friday on PBS.