Question

In The Harvest of Empire, author Juan Gonzalez contends that the immigration crisis we face today is a direct consequence of the long history of U.S. intervention in Latin America. What does he mean by this?

Answer 1

According to Juan Gonzalez, immigration crisis today lasts from the 90's. In the 90's and the first decade of the 21St century, the U.S used to ship young Latinos who have been raised in this country but gotten into criminality like drugs,robbery, gangs etc back to their countries of origin. There were daily, weekly flights for people who were shipped to their own country as soon as they were out of prison.

People used to leave their own country due to wars, oppression or economic globalization. Immigration crisis today is directly related to the history of economic, political and military interventions by U.S. The Latin Americans currently in the United States are people that have come in the last 40-50 years. The reason there are so many Latin America in the U.S is because Latin America was the incubator of the American Empire where all of the multinationals first went. It was were the military first stretched to occupy the lands. People are coming from these lands! At that time, nobody expected that it would eventually result in the immigration crisis we are facing today.

Juan Gonzalez states that, Latino presence in the U.S is the harvest of American empire. It was never expected to be that way and is unintended harvest.