He's been twice named by Hispanic Business Magazine as one of the country's most influential Hispanics and has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, the National Council of La Raza, and the National Puerto Rican Coalition -- it's fair to say that New York Daily News journalist, Juan González, has been on a mission to represent Latinos and get their voices heard.

On Friday, Dec. 6, the Bronx Museum of the Arts in collaboration the National Institute of Latina Institute of Reproductive Health and Planned Parenthood of New York City Training Institute, featured a screening of Harvest Empire: A History of Latinos in America, a documentary based on González' book of the same name.

The film, "takes an unflinching look at how U.S. economic and military interests helped trigger an unprecedented wave of migration." Originally released in 2000 and then updated in 2011, the book explores the stories of Latinos from Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and El Salvador, among other countries in the region.

The screening was followed by a panel discussion to explore the connection with Latino immigration, U.S. policy, and reproductive health.

"The first new edition in ten years of this important study of Latinos in U.S. history, 'Harvest of Empire' spans five centuries-from the first New World colonies to the first decade of the new millennium. Latinos are now the largest minority group in the United States, and their impact on American popular culture-from food to entertainment to literature-is greater than ever," according to the publication's official description. "Featuring family portraits of real-life immigrant Latino pioneers, as well as accounts of the events and conditions that compelled them to leave their homelands, 'Harvest of Empire' is required reading for anyone wishing to understand the history and legacy of this increasingly influential group."

While on the panel González noted the absence of a more diversified Latino history in this country, where only a few groups are referenced, which is what he refers to as "the big three," Mexicans, Cubans and Puerto Ricans. He also pointed out Latinos' "common history of domination and oppresion" as well as a "common linguisitic history."

González, an award-winning journalist and Democracy Now! co-host, is one of the founders of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), one of the founding fathers of UNITY: Journalists of Color, said that his book provides the "narrative thread" for the documentary, but other components, such as historians and experts were added to the film.

"My book covers 500 years of Latin America and the U.S." González said at the conference. "I am most proud that the film (which cost $2 million to make) was done largely by Latino producers and was funded by Latinos."

Why did González decide to revisit these issues and update his book?

"Well, first of all, it has continued to be adopted by many colleges across the country in college courses, and my publisher felt that a lot of the data had sort of gotten outdated in terms of some of the studies that I had been citing. But I also think that the main reason is that the Latino presence in America continues to grow at an astounding level, and most Americans still feel remarkably insecure and lack knowledge as to why this is happening. And you can see it by all the right-wing shows that are constantly stoking anti-immigrant fervor against undocumented immigrants in the country, he told "Democracy Now!" back in 2011 during the book's re-release.

"And I think - I felt that it was necessary not only to update the figures, but to re-emphasize the enormous transformation that is occurring in the United States, that, for instance, the Census Bureau now projects that before 2050 one out of every three people living in the United States will be of Latino origin," he added. "And if the current trends continue, it is entirely possible that by the end of this century, by 2100, half of the entire population of the United States will trace its origins not to Europe, but to Latin America. This is an enormous transformation, when you consider that there were only a few million Latinos in the 1970s, representing about four percent of the population, and now you're talking about, by 2100, more than 50 percent of the entire nation."

The trend in immigration is happening all across the globe, González points out.

"The reality is that there's been an enormous transformation of the advanced countries of the world since World War II as the third world has come to the West. England doesn't know what to do about all the Indians, the Pakistanis and the Jamaicans. France doesn't know what to do about all the Algerians, Tunisians and Moroccans. Germany doesn't know what to do about all the Turks. The peoples of the colonial countries have come to the West since World War II, and they are transforming the very compositions of these nations, raising all kinds of questions about language and religion and culture. And in the United States, it's largely been the Latin Americans. As I show, between 1960 and 2008, more than 44 million people migrated to the United States, whether legally or illegally, and half of them were from Latin America, so that really the thrust of the immigration situation in the United States and the growth area is among the Latinos of the southern half of the hemisphere."

González has been a professional journalist for more than 30 years and a staff columnist at the New York Daily News since 1987. Born in Puerto Rico, he has lived in the United States for fifty of his fifty-one years. He is also a two-time recipient of the George Polk Award for commentary (1998 and 2010), and the first reporter in New York City to consistently expose the health effects arising from the September 11, 2001 attacks and the cover-up of these hazards by government officials.

During his term as NAHJ president, González created the Parity Project, an innovative program that creates partnerships between local communities and media organizations to improve coverage of the Latino community and recruit and retain more Hispanic journalists. He also spearheaded a movement among U.S. journalists to join other citizen groups in opposing the Federal Communications Commission's deregulation of media ownership restrictions.

He was also a founding member of the Young Lords Party in the 1970s and of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights in 1980s.

González has also written "Fallout: The Environmental Consequences of the World Trade Center Collapse," which documents cover-ups by Environmental Protection Agency and government officials with regard to health hazards at Ground Zero in New York, and "Roll Down Your Window: Stories of a Forgotten America." "News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media," co-authored by Joseph Torres, is a landmark narrative history of American media that puts race at the center of the story.