By Yoji Cole

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Latino-advocacy organizations are angry that "The War," a seven-part documentary that tells the story of World War II, only features 28 minutes of interviews from Latinos and that producers screened a copy without the additional Latino footage.

"The War," which will air on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Sept. 23, is being directed and produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, who have 14.5 hours of footage including interviews with World War II veterans and their families from towns across the nation. Not enough of that footage includes Latinos, say Latino leaders.

PBS's web site features two clips of Burns' footage. Out of eight interviews, the two clips feature only one person of color, a Japanese American.

"Since the issue was first raised earlier this year, PBS and Ken Burns have met and corresponded with a range of organizations from the Latino community ... We are pleased that [Burns], HACR [Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility], and the American GI Forum were able to reach an agreement in May about the new content. PBS feels that Ken's willingness to add content after the completion of his production is highly commendable," said Lea Sloan, vice president of communications for PBS.

In addition to HACR, Latino groups such as the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Defend the Honor and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) in January criticized Burns and PBS for the absence of Latinos in the series. The issue appeared resolved, however, in April when NCLR announced Burns would include footage from a Latino World War II documentarian.

But the issue was not resolved. Defend the Honor, a group that seeks to preserve the legacy of Latinos in World War II, reported Monday that "key Latino organizations and leaders across the country today publicly announced that the issue is far from resolved and that they will continue pressing for a respectful resolution."

"It's just two interviews ... we want to see how they have interwoven that into the overall documentary and see what else they have done to represent the Latino experience," said Gus Chavez, a member of Defend the Honor's core group and a retired administrator of San Diego State University.

Defend the Honor is also upset because it says Burns has been dismissive of the arguments that the inclusion of Latinos is about historical accuracy rather than political correctness.

"In the political world, where I don't exist, people use rhetoric and yell at each other. I wanted to be above that. Politics, for me, has always been a small p. I like to see the larger, more complicated thing," said Burns to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"It is unfortunate that Ken Burns continues to see this issue as one of politics and rhetoric that he must rise above," said Maggie Rivas-Rodríguez, co-chair of Defend the Honor. "It has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with historical accuracy and inclusion."

Defend the Honor says Burns and PBS did not allow them or representatives from the Television Critics Association (TCA) to review the additional footage. TCA critics were provided an advance copy of the series; however, it came without the new material that includes Latino interviews and one Native American interview.

"Without access to the new material, television critics could not evaluate it and ask questions in open forum at their meeting with Ken Burns, associate producer Lynn Novick and PBS CEO and President Paula Kerger," read a statement from Defend the Honor.

Sloan's statement, however, reports that "The War" was screened with the Latino footage included.

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