Univision to air “La Fuerza de Creer”

Univision Communications Inc. (UCI), in collaboration with Too Small to Fail, an early childhood initiative of The Opportunity Institute and the Clinton Foundation, is continuing its efforts in the Hispanic community about the importance of their young children’s early brain development with the broadcast of a new miniseries, “La Fuerza de Creer” (The Power of Believing). The dramatic miniseries –which includes two hour-long television episodes, three webisodes, as well as digital content– incorporates storylines that resonate with Hispanic America while providing resources from its long-running empowerment effort, Pequeños y Valiosos (Young and Valuable). Pequeños y Valiosos encourages Hispanic parents and caregivers to engage in language-rich activities, such as talking, reading, and singing with their young children (aged 0-5 years old) to boost early literacy, numeracy and social-emotional development. This marks the first time that Univision is utilizing dramatic storytelling to empower its audience and promote a social impact message.

In the miniseries, Dr. Roberto López (Guillermo Quintanilla), the founder of the Central Public Health Center, has served young patients for three decades, but now is considering retirement. His colleague David Ureña (Jean Paul Lerox) is a pediatric physician who seems more concerned about the center’s metrics and finances than optimizing patient care. That brings him into conflict with the newest team member, Dr. Laura Gómez (María de la Fuente), whose patience, empathy and sound advice have made her a favorite among patients despite a troubling incident in her past. But revenues are down, and the clinic is in danger of closing, and a jealous Dr. Ureña blames Dr. Gomez for changes she made to clinic procedures while he was away.

As the doctors deal with the clinic’s declining revenues and with personal challenges, parents continue to bring their children to the health center, where in addition to medical care, they receive advice on a range of early childhood development topics, including ways to boost early brain and language development; the benefits of bilingualism; the importance of fathers and other caregivers; and, healthy social-emotional development, among other topics.

 Episode 1 of “La Fuerza de Creer” will air on Univision at 7 p.m. ET/PT (6 p.m. CT) on Sunday, Sept. 3.

Episode 2 will air at 7p.m. ET/PT (6p.m. CT) on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017.