Episode list

Through an original narrative, this documentary presents the biography of Antonio López de Santa Anna, a key figure in Mexican political life during the first half of the nineteenth century. Santa Anna led the battle that brought the loss of half of the nation's territory to the United States. His military valor and his charisma did not manage to eclipse the profound damage that he and followers did to the nation.

Bold and visionary, Mexican businessmen from the beginning of the twentieth century were able to challenge their surroundings and transform it in order to construct the future of a still-young nation. Thanks to them, Mexico begins to modernize, its industries multiply and its society adapts to the fast pace that the this new growth demands. Businessmen, modern captains, guide industry through the uneven passage of placing the country and Mexican citizens in step with their century.

I am proud of being from the north is something that seems to be said by the rustic mountains that surround one of the most notable cities of Mexico: Monterrey. Domesticating its savage and free lands, which are extreme to the point of being capricious, the people of the region made adversity their ally. Today this northern capital is at the front of national industry, projecting itself beyond our borders in order to show the world the reality and the potential of Mexican businesses. What are these businesses, who leads them, how did they conquer challenges and face the future? The feat of Monterrey is the story of women and men who wagered tenacity and hard work in order to etch out, day by day, a present full of promises for the future.

A director of more than 47 movies, Roberto Gavaldón was a severe man who dedicated 30 years of his life to create work in which his great ability for balancing commercial interests of the film industry with his restlessness for creating quality films can be observed. This can be seen in ''Pito Pérez'', ''Los hijos que yo soñé (The Sons Whom I Dreamed)'', ''Días de otoño (Days of Autumn)'', ''Miércoles de ceniza (Ash Wednesday)'', ''Aquí está Heraclio Bernal'' and ''Historia de un amor (Love Story)''.

The director Luis Alcoriza was one of the many artists exiled from the Spanish Republic who brought his talent to Mexico. Younger than Buñuel, and more bohemian, Alcoriza would create a series of original and innovative films that offered a new and daring direction for Mexican cinema, especially in his masterpiece, Mecánica Nacional (National Mechanic), which broke many taboos and represented an assertion of the rights of the individual.

In offering the possibility for exile to the Spanish film maker Luis Buñuel, Mexico welcomed not only a distinguished guest but also an artist who contributed to the transformation of Mexican cinema. This program presents the experiences and creations that this important film maker gave and at the same time received from Mexico, his adopted homeland.

This programs explores the life and music of Agustín Lara, one of Mexico's gifts to the world. The compositions from his intimate collection ''Flaco de Oro'' have remained recorded in popular memory. His melodies and lyrics, his voice and his unforgettable personality reveal the fruits of an extraordinarily gifted man who was completely dedicated to music, to beauty, to the love of women and to pleasure. This is an homage to that great romantic with a pirate's soul.

This program is a journey through the life and work of one of the most prolific and representative composers of Mexican popular music. It starts at the beginning, with his breaking into radio and record companies, and proceeds to his overwhelming success as a singer of passions on fire and of heartaches. At a moment almost forty years from his death, his children tell us their anecdotes and remember the most peculiar characteristics of his personality.

This program is a testimonial of the time of the works undertaken by Manuel Gamio, Alfonso Caso, Alberto Ruiz, Ignacio Bernal, Román Piña Chan, to the universe of impassioned contemporary archaeologists, who more than ever, are dedicated to seeing the pre-hispanic past. From the recognition of a cultural greatness hidden in ruins which have been barely been explored or understood, such as Teotihuacán, Monte Albán, Tajín, Palenque Xochicalco, Cantoná, the program moves on to consider the construction of the National Anthropology Museum and the Museum of the Templo Mayor (Great Temple). Finally, there is a consideration of the enormous contributions of an academic discipline which succeeds at seeing and distinguishing in order to continue understanding the mysteries of these past cultures which are buried in the ground.

As a child, Roberto Gómez Bolaños dreamed of being a soccer player or an engineer; acting seemed ridiculous to him. But with the passing of time he discovered his true vocation. First as a writer and then as an actor, he gave life to various characters, including two of the most popular in the history of Mexican television.

Aztec Stadium is the largest soccer stadium in the world. This program helps us to live and relive the most memorable moments of both national and international football that have been played out in the bosom of this venue. Special attention is also paid to the memory of other sports, massive concerts and the emotive visit paid by Pope John Paul II.

This program is a lively presentation of the character and art of the charro, the Mexican horseman and man of the country. It explores the values that are associated with the development of equestrian abilities and traditional rural labor. It displays the discipline that at one time contributed to the creation of an idea of Mexico for the rest of the world. And it continues to do so, although the sport in and of itself and its effects on the country have changed over the course of time.

A close-up look at the condition of children in Mexico since pre-Hispanic times, focusing on the traditions and ideologies that have encircled education and the treatment of children within the family and in society. The program also considers the wide range of opportunities that have divided the childhood population along the lines of socio-economic origin. Straight from the mouths of children themselves, the program provides opinions and ideas about their reality and future.

An exploration of the diverse expressions of Mexicans' emotional lives. Prejudices, myths, traditional values, typical and atypical characteristics of their love relationships are discussed as well as the exuberant erotic imagination that conforms to that very particular way of loving ''Mexican style''.

In this program, the way that death is lived in Mexico is presented, and an attempt is made to understand the bonds that fuse old attitudes and new one, such as joking, fear and stoicism: the very peculiar cultural mix which each Mexican faces at the inevitable end of life.

Within a cultural framework that is typically characterized by its machismo and archaic values, the Mexican woman has made great strides toward independence and self-sufficiency. This documentary narrates the history of social changes that Mexican women have generated over the course of the twentieth century.

Through a wide variety of first-hand testimonies, Mexican women express their aspirations, experiences and dilemmas. On the one hand, they venture into new careers, professions and projects while on the other, they face the pressures of the past. The inversion of traditional roles, and the responsibilities that this demands, have modified many social structures. Today it can be said that the liberation of women also implies the liberation of men.

Starting with the founding of the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP) in 1921, and above all with the implementation of the educational project of José Vasconcelos, education in Mexico became a reality that reached almost every corner of the country. However, after the test of time, among other setbacks, our population suffers from extremely low levels of education, a growing illiteracy rate, especially in the adult population, and a very poor diffusion of education, all of which is accentuated in the poorest communities of the country. Reverting this situation seems to be one of the greatest challenges of the country as the new millennium begins.

In Mexico, only around 20 percent of the nation's youth enroll in higher education and attend some form of college or university. This percentage is very low when compared to the 30 to 50 percent of students that enroll in higher education in other countries. The lack of state support and true educational reforms, as well as the necessity to give the opportunity the greatest number of students possible, are some of the challenges that our institutions of higher education face. Not even the proliferation of private schools is a solution, given the low quality of many of these institutions, or the high tuition rates that they charge in order to ensure a better level of education.

Mario Moreno Reyes, the creator of one the most outstanding comic characters in Mexico during the twentieth century, gave a voice to Cantinflas, the unique little poor guy from the neighborhood who, perfecting the art of not saying anything, achieved, better than anybody, true communication with the audience.