The television network PBS will show a documentary about the less known facts of history after the arrival of Christopher Columbus and his impact in today’s Latin American culture.

“When Worlds Collide” is directed by Carl Byker an Emmy winner who wrote much of the script alongside the journalist, poet and professor of Mexican-Salvadorian descent Ruben Martinez. Ruben Martinez is the president of the LiteratureSchool at the University of Loyola in Marymount, and will be the narrator of the documentary.

“In the United States the understanding of what history represents and the identity of Latin-America after the colonial period tends to be unknown. This documentary will open the eyes of the viewers to memorable events that gave birth to mixed races” explained Ruben Martinez to EFE.

“That word Mestizo or person of mixed blood and all that this word implies, like its greatness, its colonial tragedy and its cultural richness lives on” The process of Mestizaje or the merging of two worlds continues to happen in a very evident way in the United States. We find it crucial to pay tribute to this immense reality”, he added.

“When world Collide” took five years to develop and its actual recording was done in different countries such as Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, Spain and in the state of California.

This documentary starts in the streets of Los Angeles in 2010, the viewers are then transported to Spain and later America where the first European conquistadors and Native contact occurred.

“Before the arrival of the Spanish, the Native civilization had already developed a very sophisticated society that included advanced architectural as well as agricultural and textiles practices; ironically in some aspects this ‘savage world’ had much more advanced practices than that of the invading forces”, according to the information given by PBS about the documentary.

This epic odyssey unravels the impact that this and many other innovations of the New World had in the Old World in an era described as “La Conquista” “The Conquest”

“The biggest consequences of the era were the radical changes that both worlds experienced that gave birth to a new culture called mestiza or of mixed blood that represents a tremendously big part in the heritage of the Hispanics in the United States, added Martinez.

In a very entertaining way the directors of “When Worlds Collide” portray how the clash between the Old and New World was not a total imposition, but a negotiation that allowed both worlds to complement each other.

“Aspects such as food, religion, culture, traditions and economy are played in this documentary, for many the showing will be like a return to home”, Martinez added.

The first showing of the documentary will be the 27 of September in the public service channel, PBS.

“Our history in all its complexity and meaning even before the conquest, the colonial period, the independence, different migrations and the globalization is a kind of history that deserves to be well known in the United States in all its aspects Martinez pointed.

“Within the tools which are given to us Latinos to fight discriminatory assaults in the USA, like for example the SB1070 law in Arizona, the power to express our heritage and who we are can be very enlighten, concluded Ruben Martinez.