Earlier this month, John Leguizamo (recently known for voicing Bruno in Disney’s Encanto) launched his new series: Leguizamo Does America. Part documentary, part history, and part activism, the program is a showcase of how Latinos have made their mark on major U.S. cities like New York, Chicago, and Miami.

For the series’ third episode, which airs on MSNBC on Sunday, April 30, Leguizamo and his team came to D.C. – a place Leguizamo says might be the most American city in the United States.

But, he argues, the first thing that comes to mind for most people when they picture D.C. is “dead white guys” like George Washington or Thomas Jefferson. So for his new show, Leguizamo wants viewers to recalibrate that view – and does so by highlighting Latino contributions throughout the District – including in Mount Pleasant.

“Latinos have been here every step of the way!” says Leguizamo in the show’s opening.

Coming to D.C. was an easy call, according to executive producer Carolina Saavedra. “It’s one of the most important cities to head up in terms of Latin American representation.”

In the episode, Leguizamo lays out how Latinos are the fastest-growing demographic in the U.S. He stops by the office of Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York’s 15 District, the first openly gay, Afro-Latino in Congress, for a conversation about getting more Latinos to run for office. Then, he meets with experts about the need to get more Latinos registered to vote.

While the episode touches on Capitol Hill, and even makes mention of the Smithsonian’s upcoming Museum of the American Latino (of which Leguizamo is a known supporter), the showrunners and Leguizamo made an effort to dedicate a chunk of their time to the community that’s often left in the shadow of the federal government.

“We also wanted to talk about the city as a whole,” says Saavedra. “So that’s where the segments that were not politically based [came from]. We wanted to highlight people in the community doing incredible things.”

Along with actress Diane Guerrero, who’s known for her role as Maritza on Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black, they stopped by La Cosecha for a taste of La Casita Pupuseria and Peruvian Brothers. For Chef Iris Veronica Jimenez, who was born in D.C. to immigrants from El Salvador, it was something of a full-circle moment to be able to showcase the contributions of her community – which make up one of the largest populations of Salvadorans in the U.S.

“It’s so cool that we got to actually feature the pupusa in this episode because that, to us, was the most significant thing that we could have featured that would represent our culture and my personal experience the best,” Jimenez told DCist/WAMU.

Meanwhile, Giuseppe Lanzone says it was an honor for him and his brother Mario to serve Leguizamo their ceviche, pan con chicharrón, and pisco sour slushies. He says it was a great experience to use their dishes as a way to show how immigrants are what truly make D.C. a special place.

“From what we saw, he loved it,” Lanzone told DCist/WAMU. “The beautiful thing about D.C. is it is filled with immigrants. Filled with immigrants from all over the world, not only in Latin America but anywhere in the world.”

Later on, Leguizamo guides viewers through the historically Latino neighborhood of Mount Pleasant. Through the use of archival footage and interviews with local poets and artists, he breaks down how it was established and where it stands today. He also talks about the fallout of the 1991 riots, and how the neighborhood is still a hub for Latinos today.

“Think of [Mount Pleasant] as an unofficial embassy of culture. It was all here: businesses, shops, art, and poetry,” says Leguizamo.

For his last stop, Leguizamo visits the Gala Hispanic Theatre during a workshop with Latino youth. As an immigrant from Colombia himself, who also got his start in performance arts, he hears how local teens deal with the experience of arriving in the U.S. from their home countries. According to Saavedra, who is an immigrant from Chile, that was particularly meaningful for them to do.

“That was an important story for him to tell also,” says Saavedra. “I think it’s one of my favorite segments in the entire series. Seeing these kids express their pain, seeing these kids express the amount of safety that this organization is giving them. It really allowed us to also applaud the people who are doing this right, the people who are actually bothering to create those safe spaces for these kids.”

You can watch Leguizamo Does America on MSNBC or through the network’s streaming service Peacock.