In the United States of Jazz, Latin music and musicians, or more to the point, Latinos and their culture in general, barely merit a footnote. This view obviously reflects the biases and cultural limitations of Burns and his advisors, but their perspective, however, is one widely shared. In its obsession with race, the United States is stuck on the idea of an imaginary country, populated only by descendants of white Europeans and their former slaves. Nobody else counts. This is an astounding notion, especially given that, with more than 30 million Latinos living within its borders, the United States is actually the fifth largest Latin American country. This is a country within a country. In fact, racial issues between blacks and Latinos, and the balance of political and economic power both between those two groups and in relation with the white majority, will help define life here for this century and beyond. And yet, in the United States, Burns explores in Jazz, Latinos are simply not relevant to the story. Not then, not now.
Program 108
00:00 / 00:00
14:07 - 15:05
In the United States of Jazz, Latin music and musicians, or more to the point, Latinos and their culture in general, barely merit a footnote. This view obviously reflects the biases and cultural limitations of Burns and his advisors, but their perspective, however, is one widely shared. In its obsession with race, the United States is stuck on the idea of an imaginary country, populated only by descendants of white Europeans and their former slaves. Nobody else counts. This is an astounding notion, especially given that, with more than 30 million Latinos living within its borders, the United States is actually the fifth largest Latin American country. This is a country within a country. In fact, racial issues between blacks and Latinos, and the balance of political and economic power both between those two groups and in relation with the white majority, will help define life here for this century and beyond. And yet, in the United States, Burns explores in Jazz, Latinos are simply not relevant to the story. Not then, not now.