The U.S.-Mexican War: 1846-1848
A Landmark National Television Documentary Series
1996-1998 marks the 150th anniversary of the U.S.-Mexican War. Although most Mexicans are aware of the war, most Americans know little if anything about it. The outcome changed the destiny of both countries. After sixteen months of fierce fighting, from Texas to California and all the way south to Mexico City, the war ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico lost nearly half of its territory. The United States gained more than half a million square miles of land -- the present states of New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, California, and parts of Oklahoma, Colorado and Wyoming.
Now, for the first time, the story of this significant conflict will be told on national television in the United States and Mexico. The U.S.-Mexican War:
1846-1848 is a binational multi-media education project produced in both English and Spanish. The project's centerpiece is a three-hour prime time television series, produced for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) by Dallas/Fort Worth public television station KERA-TV The U.S.-Mexican War, scheduled for broadcast during the 1996-1997 television season, will be an important contribution to the understanding of U.S.-Mexican relations. This series will examine the historical, social and cultural forces that shaped th~s pivotal period during which two neighboring countries struggled for land, national identity and power. The U.S.-Mexican War marks the first time that prominent historians from both countries have collaborated on such a project. The series and accompanying educational materials -- designed for use in secondary schools and colleges -- will be valuable classroom resources for years to come. The U.S.-Mexican War is a production of KERA/Dallas, Texas. KERA has distinguished itself with many critically acclaimed documentaries for national PBS broadcast, including The West of the Imagination, LBJ for The American Experience, Your Toxic Trash, For A Deaf Son and After Goodbye: An AIDS Story, which won the 1995 National Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational or Cultural Program. The award-winning production team for The U.S.-Mexican War is headed by Sylvia Komatsu, Vice President and Director of Television Production, who will serve as project director and executive producer. The Senior Producer on the series is Paul Espinosa who has produced and written many award-winning programs for PBS including The Lemon Grove Incident, The Hunt for Pancho Villa and ...and the earth did not swallow him.