Americas

Actor Raul Julia (Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Addams Family) narrates this 10-part series on Latin American and Caribbean culture from the Annenberg/CPB Project currently airing on PBS. We watched programs 4 and 5 (Mirrors of the Heart: Race and Identity and In Women's Hands: The Changing Role of Women, respectively). Mirrors of the Heart looks at racial and ethnic problems in Bolivia where approximately a third of the indigenous population are mestizos (mixed Spanish and Indian blood). The first half of the program examines prejudices and cultural assumptions as they relate to one particular family (the Mammani's), and then shifts to the Dominican Republic, where racial tensions with the neighboring Haitians are escalating. Here, taxi driver Carlos Perez prides himself on his light skin. In the Dominican Republic, Perez is "treated like a White," but on a recent trip to the U.S. he found out what it meant to be "treated like a Black." If darker-skinned peoples are treated as second-class citizens in the lower Americas, women are treated thus regardless of color. In Women's Hands focuses on the role of the women's protest movement in Chilean politics. In the wake of the 1973 coup d'état, in which General Pinochet wrested power from President Allende, the new military junta came under heavy attack from women's groups protesting the disappearances of their husbands and sons. They too would be led away and tortured under the repressive dictatorship that would last until December, 1989. Ironically, the strong, outspoken voices of the Chilean women that gave Aylwin the presidency would find scant representation in the new government. In fact, only one woman, Maria Antonietta Saa, would be elected (to a mayoral post). The feisty Saa, however, is very optimistic about the future, and her energetic approach to reform bodes well for the status of women in Chile. Somewhat slow-moving, Americas nevertheless offers an interesting contemporary perspective on our neighbors to the South. Recommended. (Available from: The Annenberg/CPB Collection, P.O. Box 2345, South Burlington, VT 05407-2345; (800) LEARNER.)