John Leguizamo’s PBS series ‘American Historia’ unravels Latino history and triumph

John Leguizamo is tired of the omission of Latino stories in American history. And he is doing something about it … again.

The award-winning actor and producer is the host and force behind a new PBS series, “American Historia: The Untold History of Latinos,” premiering Sept. 27.

Directed by Ben DeJesus, the three-part show follows the “Freak” comedian as he explores threads of Latino American history often cut from textbooks.

With expert knowledge from historians, anthropologists, authors — and narrations from such actors as Benjamin Bratt, Rosario Dawson, Edward James Olmos and Rosie Perez — the series hopes to assert the long-standing existence of Latinos in the U.S. and their contributions.

“This has been a passion project of mine and my cultural contribution to American Latinos in America,” Leguizamo tells The Times.

The first episode, “Echoes of Empires,” highlights Indigenous communities pre-colonization.

“A lot of the history that we hear about it is told from the point of view of the colonizers,” DeJesus said. “It’s almost as if it’s assumed that until the Spanish arrived on the shores of the Caribbean, we didn’t exist.”

In one example, the series highlights the marvels of ancient Inca trepanation — a neurosurgical intervention where the skull was drilled to relieve head pressures — which had a survival rate of 80%, compared to 50% of cranial surgeries performed 400 years later during the height of the American Civil War.

From honoring the medical feats of Indigenous civilizations pre-colonization to exploring the prevailing civil rights contributions of Latinos in the U.S., Leguizamo and DeJesus hope to reclaim the stories that are often whitewashed or excluded from the mainstream.

“We’ve been here since 1492 and way before,” said the Colombian-born, Queens-raised actor. “So for us to be so invisible, so erased, so excluded all over the map in America, the media and corporate settings where decisions are being made is just abysmal.”

Leguizamo believes “American Historia” can be the corrective, calling it a “vaccine” to remedy the lack of representation in textbooks.

He points to a 2023 report released by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy and UnidosUS, which found that 87% of key topics in Latino history were omitted from U.S. textbooks or mentioned in five sentences or less. The only Latino breakthrough story featured in the last 200 years shared among the six textbooks analyzed was Sonia Sotomayor’s appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.

And there are consequences, Leguizamo said, pointing to Latino students who do not see themselves reflected in the history they are reading, considering they will make up a third of the public school population by 2030.

“You can abuse us and take advantage of us and take away our political power,” said Leguizamo. “It allows people to ‘otherize’ us because they haven’t seen that we have contributed to the making of this country.”

The actor is no stranger to being critical of Latino deprived histories.

His Tony-nominated one-man Broadway show-turned Netflix special, “Latino History for Morons,” was a comical attempt to cram 3,000 years of Latino history into a 90-minute lesson. He was inspired to create it after realizing his teenage son wasn’t learning about his own Latino heritage in school.

“When John was working on ‘Latin History for Morons,’ he would say something that resonated with me,” said DeJesus, who captured the comedian’s sophomore return to the theater district in the 2018 documentary “John Leguizamo’s Road to Broadway.”

“He said, ‘Can you imagine how other people would look at us if they knew the incredible contributions that we made to the founding of this country?’ ” added DeJesus.

The two have been longtime creative partners when it comes to Latino storytelling. They’ve worked on PBS’ “American Masters: Raúl Juliá,” where they honored the legacy of the late “Addams Family”-smitten patriarch, and the series special “Lights, Camera, Acción,” spotlighting Latino creatives in the entertainment industry. Last year, the duo explored Latino communities, histories and cuisines across the U.S. in their MSNBC six-part series “Leguizamo Does America.”

“I really give John a lot of credit for risking his own career, because he is not afraid to be vocal about [the lack of Latino representation],” said DeJesus.

Two years ago, the actor penned an open letter in The Times calling for more Latino representation in the industry, where only 2.6% of Latinos were leads in shows, according to a 2022 Latino Donor Collaborative report on Latinos in Media, despite making up 19.1% of the U.S. demographic.

“We need a better pipeline for Latinos in movies, TV shows and plays. We need a system for our stories and our projects. We need executives to provide the greenlight,” wrote Leguizamo.

During this year’s 76th Emmy Awards, Leguizamo delivered an unencumbered speech about the changing landscape of Latino representation entertainment, teasing that his “complaining,” a June ad in the New York Times urging for more diverse nominations, had finally paid off.

“But the ad worked because, overnight, Hollywood changed. OK, not really. But what I see here tonight makes me, well, almost happy and certainly less angry, because tonight is among the most diverse list of nominees in Emmys history,” he said.

The Sept. 27 premiere of “American Historia: The Untold History of Latinos” will be followed by the second and final episodes on Oct. 4 and Oct. 11, respectively.