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In The Americas with David Yetman

IN THE AMERICAS WITH DAVID YETMAN takes a fresh look at the lands that make up much of the Western Hemisphere. The 10-part series showcases the landscapes, peoples and history of the Americas - from the stories of a small village of Japanese immigrants in the Amazon to descendants of poor Italians in Chile, from Mayan temples in Guatemala to ancient fortresses in Mexico, and from the frigid, glacier-carved barrens of northern Canada to the timeless villages of the altiplano in Peru. By raft, boat, ferry, horse and motorcycle, host David Yetman journeys to parts of Cuba mostly unknown to the outside world, the wild mountains of western Argentina, festivals in Columbia and the often ignored Great Lakes of the United States. Along the way, he meets people from all walks of life - natives and immigrants, islanders and mainlanders, pastoralists and city-dwellers - and hears their stories. David Yetman, longtime host of The Desert Speaks (also distributed through APT Exchange) works as a research social scientist at the Southwest Center of the University of Arizona. Yetman is also a nationally known author of numerous books and articles and an accomplished photographer.

In The Americas with David Yetman  
  • From Vaquejada to Jangada: Into Rural Ceara, Brazil
    Sunday, July 7
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    A small state in Brazil's dry northeast, Ceara is home to a variety of traditions not found in the rest of the vast country. The inland bush, called the sertao, is home to cowboys and and odd rodeo, while the coast supports fisherman whose wooden boats are little changed over the last several centuries. Ceara is home to Brazil's most important religious shrine, its last lace-weavers, and a startling array of tropical fruits.
  • Bogota to the Amazaon: A Trip Across Columbia
    Thursday, July 11
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    From the urban capital city of Bogota and its famous cicolvia dedicated to bicycles, this sprawling nation offers an unexpected variety of cultures and urban landscapes. David and his team hop from the mountains to the extreme southern tip of the country to see wildlife and to visit indigenous villages of the people who live in the heart of the Amazon jungle.
  • Bogota to the Amazaon: A Trip Across Columbia
    Sunday, July 14
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    From the urban capital city of Bogota and its famous cicolvia dedicated to bicycles, this sprawling nation offers an unexpected variety of cultures and urban landscapes. David and his team hop from the mountains to the extreme southern tip of the country to see wildlife and to visit indigenous villages of the people who live in the heart of the Amazon jungle.
  • Gift of the Andes: Mendoza, Argentina, and Its Wines
    Thursday, July 18
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    Argentina's nostalgic Ruta 40 passes along the base of the Cordillera of the Andes from the extreme north to the southernmost road in the nation. On its way Ruta 40 meets the famed wine capital of Mendoza, whose dedication to Malbec wine is recent, but whose win production dates to colonial times. David lingers in the vineyards and bodegas, sampling the varieties of Malbec and Argentine food. Farther south, Ruta 40 penetrates the northern reaches of Patagonia, a windswept desert boarded on the west by the incomparable Andes, and massive pre-Andean volcanoes.
  • Gift of the Andes: Mendoza, Argentina, and Its Wines
    Sunday, July 21
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Argentina's nostalgic Ruta 40 passes along the base of the Cordillera of the Andes from the extreme north to the southernmost road in the nation. On its way Ruta 40 meets the famed wine capital of Mendoza, whose dedication to Malbec wine is recent, but whose win production dates to colonial times. David lingers in the vineyards and bodegas, sampling the varieties of Malbec and Argentine food. Farther south, Ruta 40 penetrates the northern reaches of Patagonia, a windswept desert boarded on the west by the incomparable Andes, and massive pre-Andean volcanoes.
  • Coffee and Culture In Oaxaca
    Thursday, July 25
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    The state of Oaxaca is home to 16 different Indian groups among whom can be found more than 60 different languages. Each group retains much of its ancient culture. They visit a Zapotec market, navigate the mangrove watercourses on the coast, and participate in the harvesting, drying and roasting of coffee in the fog forest.
  • Coffee and Culture In Oaxaca
    Sunday, July 28
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    The state of Oaxaca is home to 16 different Indian groups among whom can be found more than 60 different languages. Each group retains much of its ancient culture. They visit a Zapotec market, navigate the mangrove watercourses on the coast, and participate in the harvesting, drying and roasting of coffee in the fog forest.
  • Favelas & Samba: Brazil
    Thursday, August 1
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    The shanty towns for which Rio Janeiro is famous (or notorious) play a pivotal role in the city's cultural history. Favelas, as they are known, rise precipitously from near the ocean far up the hillsides. Often bereft of minimal municipal services, they are home to a rich cultural life, their own social organization, and along the way in their history, have provided the artistic and dramatic talent for Brazil's most important international artistic contribution, Carnaval in Rio. David visits favelas and speaks with residents there.
  • Favelas & Samba: Brazil
    Sunday, August 4
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    The shanty towns for which Rio Janeiro is famous (or notorious) play a pivotal role in the city's cultural history. Favelas, as they are known, rise precipitously from near the ocean far up the hillsides. Often bereft of minimal municipal services, they are home to a rich cultural life, their own social organization, and along the way in their history, have provided the artistic and dramatic talent for Brazil's most important international artistic contribution, Carnaval in Rio. David visits favelas and speaks with residents there.
  • A Gaucho Gathering In Uruguay
    Thursday, August 8
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    Each year several thousand gauchos—Uruguayan cowboys—gather in the interior town of Tacuarembó for a festival and parade. David travels to a ranch deep in the interior and follows the gaucho life and their preparations for the parade.
  • A Gaucho Gathering In Uruguay
    Sunday, August 11
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Each year several thousand gauchos—Uruguayan cowboys—gather in the interior town of Tacuarembó for a festival and parade. David travels to a ranch deep in the interior and follows the gaucho life and their preparations for the parade.
  • Trinidad and Tobago: Where East Meets West
    Thursday, August 15
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    The island of Trinidad and its small companion, Tobago, form the most ethnically diverse nation in the Caribbean and are home to an extraordinary variety of wildlife species. David samples Trinidadian food with its strong East Indian roots, and is reminded of African traditions as he watches stilt walkers practicing and steel bands rehearsing. He hears the haunting calls of oilbirds and watches leatherback sea turtles excavating their massive beachside nests.
  • Trinidad and Tobago: Where East Meets West
    Sunday, August 18
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    The island of Trinidad and its small companion, Tobago, form the most ethnically diverse nation in the Caribbean and are home to an extraordinary variety of wildlife species. David samples Trinidadian food with its strong East Indian roots, and is reminded of African traditions as he watches stilt walkers practicing and steel bands rehearsing. He hears the haunting calls of oilbirds and watches leatherback sea turtles excavating their massive beachside nests.
  • Mexico City's Markets: A Millennium of Trade
    Thursday, August 22
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    The ancient Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlán was home to several great markets. As David and his team travels through Mexico City, which sits on the foundations of the ancient Aztec home, they make a night stop in the historic flower market, brave their way through the controversial market of witches, and contemplates a bewildering array of merchandise at a flea market. Finally, they follow the route of ancient canals and board a boat for a ride through the market's historic source, the floating gardens of Xochimilco.
  • Mexico City's Markets: A Millennium of Trade
    Sunday, August 25
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    The ancient Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlán was home to several great markets. As David and his team travels through Mexico City, which sits on the foundations of the ancient Aztec home, they make a night stop in the historic flower market, brave their way through the controversial market of witches, and contemplates a bewildering array of merchandise at a flea market. Finally, they follow the route of ancient canals and board a boat for a ride through the market's historic source, the floating gardens of Xochimilco.
  • Brazil's Pernambuco: The Forgotten Interior
    Thursday, August 29
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    Unlike much of Brazil, the interior of the northeastern state of Pernambuco is an arid semi-desert. Away from the great Río San Francisco, the countryside is called the sertão, an often drought-stricken scrubland. The inhabitants have fashioned their own culture and history, and still commemorate their fabled bandit-hero, Lampião. Their great interior market recapitulates this history.
  • Brazil's Pernambuco: The Forgotten Interior
    Sunday, September 1
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Unlike much of Brazil, the interior of the northeastern state of Pernambuco is an arid semi-desert. Away from the great Río San Francisco, the countryside is called the sertão, an often drought-stricken scrubland. The inhabitants have fashioned their own culture and history, and still commemorate their fabled bandit-hero, Lampião. Their great interior market recapitulates this history.
  • The Mata Atlantica: Brazil's Other Rainforest
    Thursday, September 5
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    One of the world's most diverse forests, the Mata Atlantica once covered Brazil's southeastern coast for over a thousand miles and still blankets the steep hills of Río de Janeiro. Now less than 10% remains, much of it in protected parks. Within the Mata, runaway slaves established their villages, some of which persist and can only be reached by boat.
  • The Mata Atlantica: Brazil's Other Rainforest
    Sunday, September 8
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    One of the world's most diverse forests, the Mata Atlantica once covered Brazil's southeastern coast for over a thousand miles and still blankets the steep hills of Río de Janeiro. Now less than 10% remains, much of it in protected parks. Within the Mata, runaway slaves established their villages, some of which persist and can only be reached by boat.
  • Blackfeet and Bison
    Thursday, September 12
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    For well over a thousand years, the Blackfeet people of Montana have made their home where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains in Glacier National Park. For them, the bison (or American buffalo, as they call it) has been central to their survival, their culture, and their way of life. David joins them as they seek to expand their once-threatened tribal herds of bison, and ventures inside the park to find out why the Blackfeet viewed it as sacred ground.
  • Blackfeet and Bison
    Sunday, September 15
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    For well over a thousand years, the Blackfeet people of Montana have made their home where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains in Glacier National Park. For them, the bison (or American buffalo, as they call it) has been central to their survival, their culture, and their way of life. David joins them as they seek to expand their once-threatened tribal herds of bison, and ventures inside the park to find out why the Blackfeet viewed it as sacred ground.
  • Chesapeake Bay: of Clams and Oysters
    Thursday, September 19
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    It is the largest bay on the Atlantic coast of the Americas, pivotal in the history of prehistoric, historic, and contemporary United States. Its tributaries drain a gigantic portion of the eastern U.S., including the Potomac River, home to Washington, D.C. Its fisheries have been depleted; its oyster and clam industries much reduced, and rising seas threaten its shores. Still, hardy residents cherish the bay and their efforts are restoring some of its ancient productivity.
  • Chesapeake Bay: of Clams and Oysters
    Sunday, September 22
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    It is the largest bay on the Atlantic coast of the Americas, pivotal in the history of prehistoric, historic, and contemporary United States. Its tributaries drain a gigantic portion of the eastern U.S., including the Potomac River, home to Washington, D.C. Its fisheries have been depleted; its oyster and clam industries much reduced, and rising seas threaten its shores. Still, hardy residents cherish the bay and their efforts are restoring some of its ancient productivity.
  • Colombia: Cartagena and a Hidden Palenque
    Thursday, September 26
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    Colombia's Caribbean coast was once a source of the wealth of the Caribbean. The city of Cartagena was the most important city in the entire region. Now a home to monuments a half millennium old, the city and coast are home to a wide variety of cultures, including a Palenque, or village founded by escaped slaves. They continue to practice a self-sufficient way of life.
  • Colombia: Cartagena and a Hidden Palenque
    Sunday, September 29
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Colombia's Caribbean coast was once a source of the wealth of the Caribbean. The city of Cartagena was the most important city in the entire region. Now a home to monuments a half millennium old, the city and coast are home to a wide variety of cultures, including a Palenque, or village founded by escaped slaves. They continue to practice a self-sufficient way of life.
  • Peoples of Oaxaca and the Arrival of Holy Week
    Thursday, October 3
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    The state of Oaxaca is home to more than sixty different ethnic groups. David visits several of them. The Coastal Mixtecs, whose textiles and masks set them apart from other groups, invite him to join them during Holy Week, when they enact ceremonies that set them off from other peoples.
  • Peoples of Oaxaca and the Arrival of Holy Week
    Sunday, October 6
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    The state of Oaxaca is home to more than sixty different ethnic groups. David visits several of them. The Coastal Mixtecs, whose textiles and masks set them apart from other groups, invite him to join them during Holy Week, when they enact ceremonies that set them off from other peoples.
  • The Brazilian State of Ceará
    Thursday, October 10
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    From dazzling beaches to verdant mountains to parched scrubland, Cear exhibits many of the attractions and also the contradictory currents that Brazilians face. David visits the old sections of the capital city of Fortaleza, a once-isolated beach town, the sweltering inland semi-desert, and the lush mountain range that forms the state's garden basket.
  • The Brazilian State of Ceará
    Sunday, October 13
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    From dazzling beaches to verdant mountains to parched scrubland, Cear exhibits many of the attractions and also the contradictory currents that Brazilians face. David visits the old sections of the capital city of Fortaleza, a once-isolated beach town, the sweltering inland semi-desert, and the lush mountain range that forms the state's garden basket.

 

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  • From Vaquejada to Jangada: Into Rural Ceara, Brazil
    Thursday, July 4
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    A small state in Brazil's dry northeast, Ceara is home to a variety of traditions not found in the rest of the vast country. The inland bush, called the sertao, is home to cowboys and and odd rodeo, while the coast supports fisherman whose wooden boats are little changed over the last several centuries. Ceara is home to Brazil's most important religious shrine, its last lace-weavers, and a startling array of tropical fruits.
  • The Salton Sea. Life and Death In An Inland Ocean
    Monday, July 1
    9:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    For more than a thousand years, the Salton Sink In southeastern California has been home to the largest body of water in the state. It is there because the San Andreas Fault is tearing southern California apart and the bottom is dropping out. Three hundred years ago, it was Lake Cahuilla, a freshwater lake, but changing geology, the whims of the Colorado River, and the negative side of extensive, industrial agriculture have resulted in a very salty and polluted sea. Once a booming tourist mecca, drought, agriculture, and failed development have produced a nearly dead body of water. All around the lake are fragments of broken dreams. One place, a most unusual one, continues to thrive.
  • Heart of the Wilderness: Wyoming's Wind River Rang
    Sunday, June 30
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    The Wind River Range in western Wyoming is the state's largest mountain range, nearly one hundred miles from north to south. With dozes of massive peaks, it is also home to the wildest country in the lower 48 states. Much of it is protected in wilderness, which David and his team commemorate on the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964. On arriving, they visit ancient foothill sites where Shoshone Indians left examples of their art, historic locations of Indian battles, and scars of mines and ghost towns before plunging deep into the wilds of the Wind Rivers - on foot.
  • Heart of the Wilderness: Wyoming's Wind River Rang
    Thursday, June 27
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    The Wind River Range in western Wyoming is the state's largest mountain range, nearly one hundred miles from north to south. With dozes of massive peaks, it is also home to the wildest country in the lower 48 states. Much of it is protected in wilderness, which David and his team commemorate on the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964. On arriving, they visit ancient foothill sites where Shoshone Indians left examples of their art, historic locations of Indian battles, and scars of mines and ghost towns before plunging deep into the wilds of the Wind Rivers - on foot.
  • The Northern Jaguar Preserve: Where the Great Cats Roam Freely
    Monday, June 24
    9:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    A little over one hundred miles south of the U.S-Mexico borders in the state of Sonora, international conservation groups have discovered the ideal habitat for jaguars, mountain lions, and ocelots. Through their efforts, former cattle ranches in some of the roughest country in North America now belong to these top predators, who leave their images on cameras that now document populations of the secretive beasts. The photographs reveal jaguars so at home in the region that researchers have given them names.
  • Argentina's Route 40: from the Steppes to the Lake
    Sunday, June 23
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Argentines maintain that Patagonia begins at the Rio Colorado in the Province of Neuquen. Traveling south, they cross that river on Ruta 40 (Route Forty) in a volcanic landscape amidst a vast desert, the majestic peaks of the Andes always present on the right. Within the slopes of the Andes are myriad lakes and towns constructed by European immigrants and expatriates, but never far from the arid, windswept steppes of Patagonia. More secluded are the Mapuches - Indians who resisted the European onslaught and today struggle to retain their culture. In Patagonia, all roads lead to San Carlos Bariloche, the crown jewel of Ruta 40, a Swiss-type resort on the shores of the great Lake Nahuel-Huapi. On a sailboat, David travels westward, passing from desert scrub on the shoreline to the lush rainforests and snows of the Andes.
  • Argentina's Route 40: from the Steppes to the Lake
    Thursday, June 20
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    Argentines maintain that Patagonia begins at the Rio Colorado in the Province of Neuquen. Traveling south, they cross that river on Ruta 40 (Route Forty) in a volcanic landscape amidst a vast desert, the majestic peaks of the Andes always present on the right. Within the slopes of the Andes are myriad lakes and towns constructed by European immigrants and expatriates, but never far from the arid, windswept steppes of Patagonia. More secluded are the Mapuches - Indians who resisted the European onslaught and today struggle to retain their culture. In Patagonia, all roads lead to San Carlos Bariloche, the crown jewel of Ruta 40, a Swiss-type resort on the shores of the great Lake Nahuel-Huapi. On a sailboat, David travels westward, passing from desert scrub on the shoreline to the lush rainforests and snows of the Andes.
  • The wild and explosive past of northwest New Mexico
    Monday, June 17
    9:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    For thousands of years, New Mexico's northwestern quadrant has been home to a wide variety of native peoples. The places they chose to live are a showcase of the powers of volcanoes and erosion. These natural monuments help define the territories these people have chosen and have become symbols for their homelands. Towering volcanic remnants shoot up from the earth while others record disruptive flows of lava that continue nearly to the present. Some formations defy normal human expectations.
  • Panama's Wild West
    Sunday, June 16
    12:31 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    An hour or so distant from Panama's burgeoning capital and its great canal, a broad peninsula juts into the Pacific Ocean. The Azuero Peninsula is home to traditions, landscapes, and people different from those of the capital and its suburbs. Residents of Azuero celebrate what sets them off from the rest of Panama. And they are huge fans of baseball.
  • Panama's Wild West
    Thursday, June 13
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    An hour or so distant from Panama's burgeoning capital and its great canal, a broad peninsula juts into the Pacific Ocean. The Azuero Peninsula is home to traditions, landscapes, and people different from those of the capital and its suburbs. Residents of Azuero celebrate what sets them off from the rest of Panama. And they are huge fans of baseball.
  • Ancient Peoples of the Colorado Plateau
    Monday, June 10
    9:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    More than a thousand years before the arrival of Europeans in the southwestern U.S. native peoples were establishing their occupation of the Colorado Plateau. They learned early how to derive a living in a dry climate where winters were bitter and summers torrid. And they left behind proof of their scientific and technological accomplishments in plain sight-with a little assistance from contemporary archaeologists.
  • Yakima: The Quest for Hops
    Sunday, June 9
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    The explosion of craft beer brewing across the United States has created a widespread interest in the process of beer making. A beer festival in Tucson, Arizona, leads to some local brewers and sends David on a quest to the origin of what makes beer different - hops. Nearly all of the hops in the U.S. are cultivated around Yakima, Washington where the team follows the annual harvest and sample as many products of hop production as possible.
  • Yakima: The Quest for Hops
    Thursday, June 6
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    The explosion of craft beer brewing across the United States has created a widespread interest in the process of beer making. A beer festival in Tucson, Arizona, leads to some local brewers and sends David on a quest to the origin of what makes beer different - hops. Nearly all of the hops in the U.S. are cultivated around Yakima, Washington where the team follows the annual harvest and sample as many products of hop production as possible.
  • Slickrocks and Monuments in the Four Corners
    Monday, June 3
    9:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Nowhere else in the world offers a more graphic view of deep forces of geology at work than the Four Corners portion the Colorado Plateau. The arid climate, the peculiar volcanoes, the powerful forces of erosion, and the clashes of Earth's tectonic plates makes for the highest concentration of national park features in the United States. We travel from wind-swept deserts to dense forests as we move through the spectacular formations. In the process we witness the slow death of a modern lake.
  • Reefs, Ruins, and Revivals: Belize's Melting Pot
    Sunday, June 2
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Belize has a decidedly different history and culture from the rest of Central America. English is the first language of this small nation, reflecting its British ancestry, yet Belize retains deep historic connections among its many residents of Mayan ancestry, and is proud of its strong African roots among the Garifuna people. Belize also has world-class archaeological sites, vast tracts of intact rain forest, and some of the world's richest marine treasures.