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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  
  • Brazil's Land of Sand
    Sunday, April 21
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Vast sand dunes, some of them the size of small mountains, line long stretches of Brazil's northeast coast. Their color, shape, and composition, and their relationship with wind, provide a striking variety of landscapes, each with its own ecological character.
  • Lake Superior: Circling The Sweet Water Ocean
    Thursday, April 25
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    Straddling the U.S.-Canadian border, the largest lake in the world supports thousands of residents along its forested shores. Its icy waters also harbor a remote national park, Isle Royale. David learns about the vibrant indigenous cultures that lived there long before the arrival of Europeans.
  • Lake Superior: Circling The Sweet Water Ocean
    Sunday, April 28
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Straddling the U.S.-Canadian border, the largest lake in the world supports thousands of residents along its forested shores. Its icy waters also harbor a remote national park, Isle Royale. David learns about the vibrant indigenous cultures that lived there long before the arrival of Europeans.
  • Nicaragua: Land of the Shaking Earth Emerges
    Thursday, May 2
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    For 200 years, Nicaragua endured both earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and military and political interventions. Today, a democratic Nicaragua promotes its diversity of cultures, Spanish colonial heritage and natural wonders, including its lakes, forests and volcanoes. Miskito Indians from the Caribbean coast and the descendants of Aztecs still flourish within the country.
  • Nicaragua: Land of the Shaking Earth Emerges
    Sunday, May 5
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    For 200 years, Nicaragua endured both earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and military and political interventions. Today, a democratic Nicaragua promotes its diversity of cultures, Spanish colonial heritage and natural wonders, including its lakes, forests and volcanoes. Miskito Indians from the Caribbean coast and the descendants of Aztecs still flourish within the country.
  • Pernambuco: Brazil's Other Carnival
    Thursday, May 9
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    The megapolis of Recife, Brazil's fifth largest city, lies within the state of Pernambuco. Recife's carnival, along with celebrations in its colonial suburb Olinda and in the cities of Bezerros and Nazarene da Mata, features a flamboyant, joyous, boisterous week of elaborate parades, dances and costumes.
  • Pernambuco: Brazil's Other Carnival
    Sunday, May 12
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    The megapolis of Recife, Brazil's fifth largest city, lies within the state of Pernambuco. Recife's carnival, along with celebrations in its colonial suburb Olinda and in the cities of Bezerros and Nazarene da Mata, features a flamboyant, joyous, boisterous week of elaborate parades, dances and costumes.
  • Cuetzalan: The Celebration of San Francisco
    Thursday, May 16
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    More than 500 years ago, Franciscan priests journeyed to the remote city of Cuetzalan in Puebla State. Although less remote now, the traditions and languages continue in a town where they venerate fiestas and perpetuate ancient rituals like the acrobatic voladores.
  • Cuetzalan: The Celebration of San Francisco
    Sunday, May 19
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    More than 500 years ago, Franciscan priests journeyed to the remote city of Cuetzalan in Puebla State. Although less remote now, the traditions and languages continue in a town where they venerate fiestas and perpetuate ancient rituals like the acrobatic voladores.
  • Alaska: The Wilderness of the Volcanoes
    Thursday, May 23
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    In this episode, David visits two of Alaska's vast national parks, Lake Clark and Katmai, each with a heritage of volcanic activity. Their thriving ecosystems illustrate nature's ability to recover from cataclysmic events. The villages of Native Americans continue as well, along with their traditions.
  • Alaska: The Wilderness of the Volcanoes
    Sunday, May 26
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    In this episode, David visits two of Alaska's vast national parks, Lake Clark and Katmai, each with a heritage of volcanic activity. Their thriving ecosystems illustrate nature's ability to recover from cataclysmic events. The villages of Native Americans continue as well, along with their traditions.
  • Reefs, Ruins, and Revivals: Belize's Melting Pot
    Thursday, May 30
    3:30 am 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

 

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  • Brazil's Land of Sand
    Thursday, April 18
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    Vast sand dunes, some of them the size of small mountains, line long stretches of Brazil's northeast coast. Their color, shape, and composition, and their relationship with wind, provide a striking variety of landscapes, each with its own ecological character.
  • Wrangell-St. Elias National Park: Wilderness of Ice, Salmon, and Human History
    Monday, April 15
    9:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    It's our largest national park larger than New England and one-third of it is ice. One glacier is 137 miles long. The park contains active volcanoes. Its rivers of icemelt are home to salmon runs that have supported native peoples for thousands of years. Yet the glaciers are melting, and forests are drying. The park has become an enormously important natural laboratory.
  • Sierra Nevada and the Making of California
    Sunday, April 14
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    The product of earthquakes, the mighty Sierra Nevada mountain range influences much of California's weather and produces most if its water. Tectonic geologist Eldridge Moores helps host David Yetman decipher the mysteries of the range's origins and describes the Sierras' importance.
  • Sierra Nevada and the Making of California
    Thursday, April 11
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    The product of earthquakes, the mighty Sierra Nevada mountain range influences much of California's weather and produces most if its water. Tectonic geologist Eldridge Moores helps host David Yetman decipher the mysteries of the range's origins and describes the Sierras' importance.
  • The Lower Colorado River: Dwindling Lifeblood of the Southwest
    Monday, April 8
    9:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Forty million people rely on water released from Lake Mead, on the Colorado River not far from Las Vegas. That booming city, renowned for vice, is also a world leader in water conservation. Far downstream huge canals de-water the river, as farmers look to technology to maintain their productivity, Californians deliver water to their vast population and farmland, and Mexico receives its entitlement. The once-great river and vast wetlands face a dried-out channel.
  • Colombia: Capital & Coffee
    Sunday, April 7
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Bogota serves as Colombia's capital and its social, cultural and economic center. To help decrease traffic congestion and air pollution, Bogotans created an extremely effective mass transit system called Cyclovia: each Sunday they cordon off their downtown and turn it over to bicyclists and pedestrians. While traveling to Zona Cafetera, the source of most Colombian coffee, David explores the history of the world's most popular beverage.
  • Colombia: Capital & Coffee
    Thursday, April 4
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    Bogota serves as Colombia's capital and its social, cultural and economic center. To help decrease traffic congestion and air pollution, Bogotans created an extremely effective mass transit system called Cyclovia: each Sunday they cordon off their downtown and turn it over to bicyclists and pedestrians. While traveling to Zona Cafetera, the source of most Colombian coffee, David explores the history of the world's most popular beverage.
  • The Depths of the Canyon and Its Offspring
    Monday, April 1
    9:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Phantom Ranch, midway through the Grand Canyon and accessible only by trail, is the sole permanent settlement within the canyon. From there west, the canyon narrows and darkens as the Colorado River relentlessly carves its way through rock that is the oldest in the Southwest. From the north and south sides, canyons so narrow they are known as "slots" reach the churning river. Finally, the canyon the world's greatest geological wonder ends and the tamed river meets the placid waters beyond. Water experts give their take on the river and what it and its waters mean.
  • Bahian Reconcavo of Brazil: Quilombos, Candomble, and the Mata Atlantica
    Sunday, March 31
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    The region known as Reconcavo supports a distinct culture and heritage. Over the centuries, slaves escaped their owners and founded their own towns. They, along with other colonists, shaped the local society and exploited its tropical riches. Recently, a local company took on the challenge of preserving and restoring the once-great Atlantic Forest, the Mata Atlantica.
  • Bahian Reconcavo of Brazil: Quilombos, Candomble, and the Mata Atlantica
    Thursday, March 28
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    The region known as Reconcavo supports a distinct culture and heritage. Over the centuries, slaves escaped their owners and founded their own towns. They, along with other colonists, shaped the local society and exploited its tropical riches. Recently, a local company took on the challenge of preserving and restoring the once-great Atlantic Forest, the Mata Atlantica.
  • Lee's Ferry and into the depths of the Grand Canyon
    Monday, March 25
    9:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Boating through the Grand Canyon with a group of water experts provides a setting for reflection on the Colorado River its power, its accomplishments, and its vulnerabilities. We put in at Lee's Ferry and immediately are introduced to rapids and the evolution of the world's greatest geological spectacle.
  • Abc Islands: The Dutch Legacy in the Caribbean
    Sunday, March 24
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    The last vestiges of the once-mighty Dutch empire live on in the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. David visits Curacao, now independent, and wanders the streets of Willemstad, its capital city. In its colonial buildings, he finds hints of a past glory made possible by the slave trade. In Bonaire, still a colony, he dons Scuba gear to mingle with its incomparable marine life. Then, he witnesses the extraction of tons of salt from Bonaire's tidal flats. Finally, David treks into a national park home to dense groves of tall cacti, hordes of lizards and tranquil flamingos.
  • Abc Islands: The Dutch Legacy in the Caribbean
    Thursday, March 21
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    The last vestiges of the once-mighty Dutch empire live on in the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. David visits Curacao, now independent, and wanders the streets of Willemstad, its capital city. In its colonial buildings, he finds hints of a past glory made possible by the slave trade. In Bonaire, still a colony, he dons Scuba gear to mingle with its incomparable marine life. Then, he witnesses the extraction of tons of salt from Bonaire's tidal flats. Finally, David treks into a national park home to dense groves of tall cacti, hordes of lizards and tranquil flamingos.
  • Colombia's Guardians of the Homelands
    Monday, March 18
    9:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Homelands of the Arhuaco and the Wayuu people of northern Columbia offer sharp contrasts. Arhuaco occupy the southern slopes of the gigantic and isolated Sierra Marta, while the Wayuus live in the semiarid Guajira Peninsula in the Sierra's rain shadow. Both suffer from relentless incursions of outsiders, each responding with its own brand of resistance.
  • 1492: Americans Discover Europe
    Sunday, March 17
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Americans, perhaps thirty million strong, did not submissively accept the rule of Europeans. Their resistance and reception of the foreigners varied greatly. We visit Dominican Republic, where Columbus established a beachhead and then to the Mexican port of Veracruz where Hernan Cortes landed 28 years later. We follow his route across lofty mountain chains to Tenochtitlan of the Aztecs, today's Mexico City, where the final showdown took place. Along the way we show some of what Cortes encountered.
  • 1492: Americans Discover Europe
    Thursday, March 14
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    Americans, perhaps thirty million strong, did not submissively accept the rule of Europeans. Their resistance and reception of the foreigners varied greatly. We visit Dominican Republic, where Columbus established a beachhead and then to the Mexican port of Veracruz where Hernan Cortes landed 28 years later. We follow his route across lofty mountain chains to Tenochtitlan of the Aztecs, today's Mexico City, where the final showdown took place. Along the way we show some of what Cortes encountered.
  • Drought and New Realities in the Southwest
    Monday, March 11
    9:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    The Southwestern United States has suffered under lingering drought more than any other region. We track the dwindling Colorado River from its source through the once brimming reservoirs that generated electricity and stored water for millions of users. Now the realities of drought and dwindling water confront forty million users. We follow the river and speak with those affected by the changes in climate and water supply.
  • Christopher Columbus, His Time and His Plans
    Sunday, March 10
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Columbus spent nearly a decade in Spain lobbying for his expedition. More than anywhere else, he remained in Huelva, a port on Spain's southwestern coast. With him on his voyages he brought the heritage of his surroundings and their many assumptions. His quest shaped his mission and the sailors he chose were of critical importance to the success or failure of his mission. Understanding them and their times helps clarify the influence- and the destruction they would heap on the Americas.
  • Christopher Columbus, His Time and His Plans
    Thursday, March 7
    3:30 am on UEN-TV 9.1
    Columbus spent nearly a decade in Spain lobbying for his expedition. More than anywhere else, he remained in Huelva, a port on Spain's southwestern coast. With him on his voyages he brought the heritage of his surroundings and their many assumptions. His quest shaped his mission and the sailors he chose were of critical importance to the success or failure of his mission. Understanding them and their times helps clarify the influence- and the destruction they would heap on the Americas.
  • Under The Shadow of the Volcanoes
    Monday, March 4
    9:00 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Guatemala has more active volcanoes than any other country in North America. This portion of the famed "Rim of Fire" has left an indelible imprint on the landscape and on the cultures of the nation. With volcanoes come earthquakes and no city illustrates a greater heritage of both than Antigua. And no volcano has left a finer landscape than Lake Atitlan. Volcanoes destroy, however, and we visit a town recently overwhelmed by a nearby volcano.
  • Colon's Spain and the Quest for Western Lands
    Sunday, March 3
    12:30 pm on UEN-TV 9.1
    Christopher Columbus set out from Huelva, on Spain's southwest coast, in 1492 in a quest to chart unknown lands with hoped-for riches. With him he brought three ships and a cultural impact that changed the world forever in the space of thirty years. Huelva and its surrounding area reveal a wealth of cultural and historical influences, from Romans through Moors to Spaniards, from technology to disease, through Italians and (perhaps) Portuguese ancestry that Columbus and subsequent would-be conquerors carried with them. They would transform the Americas into a European province.