"Latino Americans," a three-part six-hour documentary, will premiere tonight on PBS at 8 p.m. ET.
The premiere episode of the documentary series can be watched online via live stream video on PBS' website.
Trailer videos of each episode and interviews can been seen here.
The documentary will be the first major series of its kind, chronicling the 500-year history of Latinos in the United States, beginning from the sixteenth century to present day.
According to PBS, the documentary "is a story of immigration and redemption, of anguish and celebration, of the gradual construction of a new American identity that connects and empowers millions of people today."
At the beginning of the series, historian David Montejano says, "We're trying to construct a history that has not been written. We had a blank slate that had to be recaptured, recovered."
The series features up to 100 interviews, including Rita Moreno, the Puerto Rican star of West Side Story and a winner of Academy, Tony, Grammy and Emmy Awards; labor leader and 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Dolores Huerta; Mexican-American author and commentator Linda Chávez, and Cuban singer and entrepreneur Gloria Estefan, who has sold over 100 million solo and Miami Sound Machine albums globally.
LATimes' Mary McNamara praised the new series, writing, "Latino Americans" begins to do exactly what it promises: Chronicle American history from the viewpoint of a group too often left in the shadow of mainstream culture."
The timing of the documentary series will coincide with Hispanic Heritage Month, which began Sunday.
Many are saying that the attention to Latinos in America is long overdue.
Ray Suarez of PBS says, "One out of six Americans is Latino. But if you turn on the TV you'd never know that."
Feliz Sanchez, the chairman of National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts says, "Everyone thinks we're newly arrived. People never noticed us because we were doing manual labor."
