[2] In 1996, Haas earned a master's degree in bilingual and bicultural studies from La Salle University.
[3] Haas worked in the media for over 20 years for outlets including Telemundo,[4] where she was marketing director for the Philadelphia station WWSI-TV,[1] and as a pledge host for WYBE-TV.
[1] Inspired by a visit to Acapulco, Mexico with her grandmother as a child[4] and her time studying abroad in Seville, Spain during college, the show featured Black people's contributions to Spanish-speaking countries, out of her wish to see more Afro-Latino representation on television.
[5] While Haas had initially pitched the show around 2009 to public television in Miami, it took several years for her to get funding[2] and for tourism boards to sign on.
Its first two episodes were set in San José and Limón in Costa Rica and focused on Jamaican immigrants in the country,[5] in particular their role in building its railroad.