TV & VIDEO - Feb. 6, 1989

Old and New Worlds will meet again when the Smithsonian Institution and a consortium of Spanish investors will jointly produce a TV series commemorating the quincentenary of Columbus’ encounter with the Americas in 1492. Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes will write the $5-million five-parter titled “El Espejo Enterrado” (“The Buried Mirror”) exploring New World indigenous civilizations, the Spanish and Portuguese conquests and the new peoples and cultures created from the synthesis. Alicia Gonzalez, the Smithsonian’s director of quincentenary programs, expects “Mirror” to set the tone for the Institution’s approach to the quincentenary in 1992: “The Smithsonian’s celebrations are going to have a resounding effect. They are going to lay the foundation for the Smithsonian’s first, in-depth response to Latin American, Caribbean and hemispheric issues.”