Harvest of Empire is both a work of investigative journalism and a political statement, and it applies a critical lens to the history of United States intervention in Latin America. co-host, New York Times sic columnist. Harvest of Empire attempts to fill in the gaps, and the reasons dont include some naive notion about streets being paved with goldRaises a very important moral question, and one that rarely enters the immigration debate: If America is responsible for destabilizing a country, what is our role when the countrys citizens suffer as a result?, Rachel Saltz, N.Y. Times Harvest of Empire has a journalistic pedigree and a punch that comes from political advocacyThe filmmakers retain a touching faith that most Americans wont tolerate injustice when they know about it. 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. The original content of this program is licensed under a. Lehman Brothers had collapsed. Subscribe to receive our monthly updates. This is a rush transcript. to your inbox each morning. 18 Apr. Time Periods: All US History Obama made news again Friday when the White House said a new federal policy that grants some young immigrants temporary legal status to stay in the country will not make them eligible for health insurance under the new healthcare law. AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to a part of Harvest of Empire that deals with the assassination of Archbishop scar Romero on March 24th, 1980, in El Salvador. The last date is today's 2. The citation above will include either 2 or 3 dates. And as he read each one, I could say, That was Jean. And I said, Are you sure? Thatsmy book is kind of more of a history, and it delvesits kind of complicated, because it goes into every one of the different Latino groups in the country, how they came here, what drove them here. citizens of Puerto Rican descent in the United States and another 4 million, roughly, on the island of Puerto Rico. After initially struggling to find investors, Romney traveled to Miami in 1983 to win pledges of $9 million, 40 percent of Bains start-up money. California, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Coloradothis was all part of Mexico. And in a moment, were going to go to El Salvador to talk about what drove a lot of the migration here. I lived in what I call the little dictatorship, the little dictatorship of our house. online is the same, and will be the first date in the citation. What was going on there was the slaughter of the innocents. And we had read the real story in Juans book. Cuban immigrants have long been unique amongst Latin Americans as a result of their relatively positive reception from the government. AMY GOODMAN: That was Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney speaking during an interview on Univision last week. AMY GOODMAN: And so, explain your title, Harvest of Empire. The Latino-American population is growing and is already one-third of the American population. Don't worry, we'll never share or sell your information. AMY GOODMAN: An excerpt of Harvest of Empire, premiering this week in New York and Los Angeles, based on the book Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America by the award-winning journalist and Democracy Now! ", "I urge everyone who wants to understand how we got here to watch the powerful 2012 documentary Harvest of Empire (based on Juan Gonzlezs book of the same name), so that we can collectively remember the direct correlation between the United States interventions in Latin America and the injustices in our immigration system today. We do not accept funding from advertising, underwriting or government agencies. What have we done to the immigrants? is a 501(c)3 non-profit news organization. And you had the poultry industry in Arkansas, and you had the textile industry in North Carolina. We need to provide a long-term solution, and Ive described the fact that I would be in support of a program that said that people who served in our military could be permanent residents of the United States. Download the entire Harvest of Empire study guide as a printable PDF! : El Huracn over language and culture ; Free trade : the final conquest of Latin America ; Puerto Rico, U.S.A. : possessed and unwanted -- Epilogue -- Glossary Note: When citing an online source, it is important to include all necessary dates. %PDF-1.6
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In Harvest of Empire, Juan Gonzalez tells a sweeping history of Latinos in the United States, from the early colonial era to the present day. They were forced to, by a variety of reasons, leave their countries. Thats Dorothy. Gonzalez tells the story of the country through that person, personalizing the often bleak and tragic accounts of each country as each was transformed into an economic satellite of the United States. AMY GOODMAN: Now I want to get your comment on the current presidential candidates talking about immigration. In the midst of a historic fight over immigrant rights and the future of millions of Latino families, Latino Impact Media is proud to present Harvest of Empire, an award-winning documentary that takes an unflinching look at the connection between the long history of U.S. intervention in Latin America and the immigration crisis we face today. Juan Gonzlez is here, along with Eduardo Lpez. And I think thats one of the key parts of this film. Gonzalez argues that, contrary to popular opinion and despite their undervaluation, Latinos have been part of the United States since before the arrivals of Anglo colonists. And so, heres Junot Daz, whose life is completely changed because of our actions, yet all of us, as American citizens, know nothing of what we did in the Dominican Republic. eNotes Editorial. Description "A sweeping history of the Latinx experience in the United States. is an agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico designed to remove tariff barriers between the three countries. Humanities NY, Ford Foundation, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and individual donors. Juan Gonzlez? Meanwhile, appearing Sunday on ABCs This Week, conservative pundit Ann Coulter argued immigrant rights should not be considered civil rights. JACK CAFFERTY: Once again, the streets of our country were taken over today by people who dont belong here. AMY GOODMAN: The significance of the invasion of 1965, Juan? To me, its really unacceptable, when you look at theI believe it was around $9 million that he accepted as the investment money. Strachan writes, These Latin American friends have loyally rolled over investments in succeeding funds, actively participated in Bain Capitals May investor meetings, and are still today one of the largest investor groups in Bain Capital. I want to get your comment, then Juans. Democracy Now! And I feel that, as a country, were in a dream where there are no mistakes, there is no evil, we are always good, we hurt no one. Using rarely seen newsreel footage and interviews with prominent migrants from countries in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America, the film puts a human face on an issue too often reduced to vulgar stereotyping. In supporting United States businesses in Latin America, American administrations often supported ruthless dictators who, despite their horrific human rights abuses, were seen as reliable in supporting American companies. Canarsie, Shinecock, and Munsee peoples and challenges the harm that continues to
The entire Southwest of the United States was taken from Mexico in the Mexican-American War of 1846. I think if every immigrant child in this country was allowed to tell the real emotional truth of their experience here, people in the United States would discover that we actually make immigration a more horrific experience than it needs to be. France has an immigration problem. JUAN GONZLEZ: Yeah, it is, and I think its increasingly become an issue, not just in the big cities whereNew York, L.A., Miamibut in the heartland of America, and especially in the South, where in North Carolina, for instance, theres been a huge increase in the Latino population of North Carolina, but most people dont understand how those Latinos got there. AMY GOODMAN: Thats right. EDUARDO LPEZ: Exactly. JUAN GONZLEZ: There have been two major U.S. occupations of the Dominican Republic. 0W7H.m(]]JqA\Tl|{M~;Y(]r? AMY GOODMAN: Were spending the hour talking about a new film, given the significance of the issue of immigration in this country today. Those were precisely the former colonies of those empires. JUAN GONZLEZ: Well, I think that thethat sent a message throughout Latin America in that period of time that the United States, coming out of the Kennedy era, the Alliance for Progress era, that the United States now was the enemy of change, because obviouslyJuan Bosch was not a revolutionary by any stretch of the imagination; he was a liberal democrat who wanted to have land reform and wanted to have some basic changes in the lives of the Dominican people. As more immigrants arrive and as more people descended from Latin-American immigrants find their voices, they will be able to work together to advocate for better solutions. ", "With the immigration debate currently consuming much of the current political climate, there's no better time for the release of Harvest of Empire. And Rigoberta Mench is the person who most personifies that struggle of the Mayan people throughout that time. The first option involves the induction of Puerto Rico as a full-fledged state. The film is based on a book by Juan Gonzlez , Democracy Now! Eduardo Lpez is with us. And I think everybody here remembers where we were four years ago. refuge. They were just captured as a prize of war in the Spanish-American War, 1898, by the United States and declared citizens by Congress against the objectionsthe unanimous objection of the House of Delegates of Puerto Rico, which in 1917 rejected citizenship, voted unanimously against U.S. citizenship. which is why we all need to be part of the struggle for rights, equality and justice. So when the United States government basically backed the coup against Juan Bosch, it sent a message throughout Latin America that the government was going to beour government was going to be the enemy of real social change in the region. Last Updated on June 8, 2022, by eNotes Editorial. New York : Penguin Books, 2011. The current section is section II which is entitled as Branches (Las Ramas) goes more in-depth about Gonzalez's background and what made him the individual he is currently. In the wake of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks, the United States began enforcing much stricter immigration policies. 'Harvest of Empire' deals with the ignored reality of US-Latin American relations. And thats why I think they are struggling so much against it, just as they did back in 86 with the first comprehensive immigration reform. Gonzalez defines the colonial approach of the Spaniards as one of social inclusion and political exclusion, whereas the British and French maintained a more strict segregation in the North American colonies. Politicians promising to secure the borders against terrorism must figure out how to treat those who cross the border, legally or illegally. As Ambassador Robert White says in our film, when you arm a group of uniformed butchers, the people dont emigrate, they flee. The film examines how U.S. intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean forced millions of people to leave their homes to migrate to the United States. Every night you would hear very derogatory terms being used to describe us. JUAN GONZLEZ: From the very beginning, the West depended for its labor on Mexicans. GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Immigrant rights are not civil rights? The American governments exploitative activities across Latin America have resulted in several waves of Latino migration to the states; these consequences of imperialism are what Gonzalez calls the harvest of empire.. Based on the groundbreaking book by award-winning journalist and Democracy Now! Roots "Roots". AMY GOODMAN: Pulitzer Prize-winning Dominican-American writer Junot Daz in Harvest of Empire. You, yourself, are from El Salvador, an immigrant here in the United States. Gonzalez identifies the political instability caused by United States intervention as the cause for the increase in Latin American immigrants to the United States during the twentieth century. Its on 13th Street. E 2012. In 2013, the film received one of the most prestigious awards in Latino entertainment the Imagen Award as Best Documentary for Film or Television. When I finally saw a map in kindergarten of how far we had traveled, I remember being not only astonished but literally terrified. Then it came out again updated, and now its in a film. from places . It handpicked a former railway security officer, Rafael Trujillo, to lead that guard. Eduardo Lpez is the co-director and producer with Wendy Thompson-[Marquez] of the feature-length documentary, Harvest of Empire, which is based on Juan Gonzlezs book by the same title. 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