WEBVTT

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From Pacifica, this is Democracy Now!

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[You cannot]

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understand the enormous Latino presence
in the United States

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unless you understand America’s role
in Latin America,

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and in fact
that the Latino presence in the country

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is the harvest of the empire.

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Harvest of Empire:

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The Untold Story of Latinos in America.

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A new documentary opens this week
based on Democracy Now!

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Juan González’s landmark book,

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examining how U.S. intervention
in Latin America

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forced millions of people
to move to the United States.

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We’ll speak with Juan,
as well as co-director Eduardo López

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and air excerpts of the film.

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The American nation cannot, must not,

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and will not permit the establishment
of another communist government

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in the Western Hemisphere.

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I’m here because the United States
invaded my country in 1965,

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an illegal invasion,

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completely trumped-up excuse
to invade the Dominican Republic

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and crush our democratic hopes.

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All that and more, coming up.

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Welcome to Democracy Now!,
democracynow.org,

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The War and Peace Report.

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I’m Amy Goodman.

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At least five people have been killed
in a U.S. drone strike inside Pakistan.

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A pair of missiles

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reportedly struck a village
in the region of North Waziristan.

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It is unclear
if any civilians were killed.

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A new study is backing claims
that the United States

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has killed far more civilians

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in its Pakistan drone strikes
than publicly acknowledged.

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Researchers at New York University
and Stanford University

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say the drone strikes
"terrorize men, women,

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and children,

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giving rise to anxiety and psychological
trauma among civilian communities.

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Those living under drones

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have to face the constant worry

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that a deadly strike may be
fired at any moment,

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and the knowledge that they are
powerless to protect themselves."

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The study also concludes that most
of the militants killed in the strikes

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have been low-level targets

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whose deaths have failed
to make the United States any safer.

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Just 2 percent of drone attack victims
are said to be top militant leaders.

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Rebels in Syria have carried out
a new bombing targeting the regime

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of Bashar al-Assad in the capital
of Damascus.

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Earlier today a bomb struck a school
building occupied by state forces,

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wounding at least seven people.

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It was one of the boldest attacks

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in the Assad regime’s stronghold

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since a suicide bomber
killed Assad’s brother-in-law

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and defense minister in July.

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In his first briefing
to the U.N. Security Council,

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U.N.-Arab League mediator

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Lakhdar Brahimi said he sees no signs
of progress toward negotiations.

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Lakhdar Brahimi: "The situation
is indeed extremely difficult.

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You know, there is a stalemate.

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There is no prospect
for today or tomorrow to move forward.

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But I also told the council that,

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paradoxically, now that I have found out

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a little bit more
about what is happening in the country

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and the region,

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I think that we will find an opening
in the not-too-distant future.

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I refuse to believe
that reasonable people

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do not see that you cannot go backward."

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Two U.S. marines will be court-martialed

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for allegedly urinating on the corpses
of Afghans and posing for pictures

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with the bodies.

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Staff Sergeants Joseph Chamblin

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and Edward Deptola are the first
to face criminal charges

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after a video was released
in January showing four marines

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in full uniform urinating on the bodies
of suspected Taliban fighters.

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Lighter administrative penalties

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were announced
against three other marines last month.

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Republican presidential nominee

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Mitt Romney has opened up a new attack
on President Obama’s foreign policy

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just over a week
before the two hold their first debate.

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Campaigning on Monday in Colorado,

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Romney criticized Obama for referring
to the latest Middle East unrest

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as "bumps in the road."

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Romney also vowed a foreign policy

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that he said
would "shape" Middle East politics,

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not just react to it.

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Mitt Romney: "'Bumps in the road'?

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We had an ambassador assassinated.

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We had a Muslim Brotherhood member
elected to the presidency of Egypt.

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Twenty thousand people
have been killed in Syria.

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We have tumult in Pakistan.

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And of course Iran is that much closer
to having the capacity

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to build a nuclear weapon.

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This is time for a president

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who will shape events
in the Middle East,

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not just be merciful or be at mercy
of the events in the Middle East.

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I will get America on track
to have the kind of leadership

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we need so we can shape the future
of this part of the world

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and keep America strong."

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In an interview with 60 Minutes,

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President Obama made what could be
his most public rejection

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of the Israeli government to date.

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Asked about unrelenting Israeli pressure
for a military attack on Iran,

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Obama suggested that such talk
is "noise" that he ignores.

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Steve Kroft: "You’re saying
you don’t feel any pressure

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from Prime Minister Netanyahu

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in the middle of a campaign

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to try and get you to change your policy
and draw a line in the sand?

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You don’t feel any pressure?"

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President Obama: "When it comes
to our national security decisions,

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any pressure that I feel is simply to do
what’s right for the American people,

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and I am going to block out any noise
that’s out there."

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A new study is warning a wave

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of restrictive voting laws could deny
more than 10 million Hispanics

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the right to vote this November.

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The Advancement Project says 23 states
have passed laws

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that could affect
the Latino-American vote,

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potentially deciding the outcome
of the entire election.

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The laws include voter purges
in 16 states ostensibly targeting people

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suspected of not being citizens

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and photo identification laws
in nine states,

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all of which carry heavy burdens
of documentation and identification

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that many people
do not have the time or money to meet.

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The laws could be pivotal for votes
in the swing states

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of Nevada, Colorado and Florida,

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where President Obama

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enjoys a vast majority of support
from Latinos over Mitt Romney.

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A federal appeals court
has reversed its own decision

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finding the Army Corps of Engineers
partially liable for the flooding

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that devastated New Orleans
during Hurricane Katrina

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seven years ago.

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In March, the Court of Appeals
for the Fifth Circuit

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upheld a 2009 ruling
that "monumental negligence"

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by the Army Corps of Engineers

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led to the severe flooding
that ravaged New Orleans

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in the aftermath of the storm.

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The ruling marked the first time

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the government had been held
responsible for any of the flooding

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that devastated New Orleans

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and could have paved the way

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for legal action
on behalf of thousands of residents.

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But on Monday,
the Court of Appeals changed course,

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ruling that the government
is immune from liability.

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A group of environmental activists
in northeast Texas

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say they have scaled 80-foot trees

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and are vowing to remain in an effort
to block tree-clearing equipment

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that is making way for the controversial
Keystone XL oil pipeline.

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On Monday, the eight protesters held
a banner reading, "You Shall Not Pass,"

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and said they will remain in the way

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until the controversial pipeline
is stopped for good.

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The action is the latest in a series
of protests by pipeline opponents

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who say the project
will poison local communities

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and damage the climate
through increased greenhouse gases.

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The Keystone XL pipeline would carry oil
from the Alberta tar sands

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to Gulf Coast refineries.

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President Obama has delayed
a final decision on the pipeline

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until after the November election.

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An undocumented immigrant from Guatemala

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who only recently learned he was
a survivor of a 1982 massacre

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has been granted political asylum
in the United States.

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Oscar Ramírez Castañeda
was just three years old

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when a U.S.-backed death squad
killed some 250 civilians

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in the Guatemalan village of Dos Erres.

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While Ramirez’s mother
and eight siblings all died,

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he survived the slaughter
when a commanding officer

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abducted him and went
on to raise him as one of his own.

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Now a father of four living near Boston,

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Ramírez learned of his real past
just last year.

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He has since been reunited
with his biological father,

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who survived the attack

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because he was traveling
when the massacre occurred.

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The European Court of Human Rights
has given final approval

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to the extradition
of Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri

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to the United States.

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Al-Masri has spent years in prison
in Britain on a conviction

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of inciting racial hatred
and soliciting murder.

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A federal grand jury
indicted him in 2004

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on allegations of supporting al-Qaeda
and aiding a fatal kidnapping in Yemen.

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His lawyers had appealed his extradition
to the United States

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by citing European statutes barring
inhumane and degrading treatment.

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Leaders from across the globe
are gathering in New York City

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for today’s opening
of the U.N. General Assembly.

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Visitors include
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,

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who will make his last address
to the assembly

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before his term expires next year.

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At a United Nations forum on Monday,

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Attorney General Eric Holder

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said the United States is committed
to upholding the rule of law worldwide.

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Attorney General Eric Holder: "In recent
days, we have been reminded

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in the most painful and tragic of ways
of just how vital the rule of law

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is to enduring freedom,
opportunity, justice and to peace.

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I’m here not only to pledge the United
States’ commitment to these principles,

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but also our support
for the United Nations’ robust efforts

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to strengthen the rule
of law worldwide."

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Dozens of people rallied in Saudi Arabia

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on Monday in two separate protests

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urging the U.S.-backed monarchy
to release their jailed relatives.

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A number of protesters were detained
after being confined to a desert area

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and kept without food or water
for a day.

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An anti-Islam advertisement
referring to Muslims as savages

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has been posted in 10 subway stations
around New York City.

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The ad reads:

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"In any war between the civilized man

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and the savage,
support the civilized man.

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Support Israel/Defeat Jihad."

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The ad was sponsored

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by the pro-Israel group
American Freedom Defense Initiative,

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which is also known
for opposing the creation

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of a Muslim community center
near Ground Zero.

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On Monday, Cyrus McGoldrick of the
Council on American-Islamic Relations

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visited a New York subway station
where the ads were being displayed.

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Cyrus McGoldrick: "Of course
I have mixed feelings about it.

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You know, it’s disgusting.

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It’s despicable.

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I have to laugh, as well.

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You know, the use of the word 'savage

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' is just so like
classically colonialist and everything,

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that she [American Freedom Defense
Initiative head Pamela Geller]

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really does a lot more harm
to her cause than good.

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Really, us being out here,

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just being, you know, public and proud
of our faith and our people

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and our city, we’re trying
to unify rather than divide,

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to replace ignorance with information,

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because the war
is not between the civilized

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and the savage, the war
is between ignorance and understanding,

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it’s between beauty and ugliness.

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And we’re trying to be
on the right side of that."

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The New York City Transit

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Authority had attempted to block the ad,

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but a federal judge
deemed it protected speech.

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The ads come amidst mass global protests
over a U.S.-made anti-Islam film

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that mocks the Prophet Muhammad.

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New evidence has emerged in the case
of a Pennsylvania death row prisoner

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convicted
of murdering his sexual abuser.

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Terrance "Terry" Williams
is scheduled to be executed next week

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for the 1984 murder of Amos Norwood.

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Norwood had sexually abused Williams
over a number of years

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up until the night before Williams
took revenge by ending Norwood’s life.

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Williams had been convicted
of third-degree murder

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in a separate killing because the victim
had also sexually abused him.

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But in the Norwood case,
Williams had been sentenced to death

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because prosecutors had alleged he was
committing a robbery that went wrong.

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In a new evidentiary hearing,

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Andrea Foulkes,

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the prosecutor who oversaw the case
against Williams three decades ago,

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was confronted with her own notes

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showing the mother
of another of Norwood’s abuse victims

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had told her
that Norwood molested her son.

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For years,
Foulkes has rejected the argument

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that Williams had a motive
of seeking revenge against Norwood

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for sexual abuse.

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And those are some of the headlines
this is Democracy Now,

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Democracynow.org,
the War and Peace Report.

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I’m Amy Goodman.

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AMY GOODMAN: A new report
by the National Hispanic Media Coalition

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has found media portrayals
of Latinos and immigrants

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00:13:25.910 --> 00:13:30.100
are fueling rampant negative stereotypes
among the general population.

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The organization called
on the Federal Communications Commission

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00:13:33.250 --> 00:13:36.470
to study the impacts
of hate speech in the media.

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This comes at a time
when immigration has become a key issue

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in the 2012 presidential race.

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Both President Obama
and his Republican challenger

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Mitt Romney answered tough questions
about immigration and deportation

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when they appeared
on the Spanish-language network

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00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:53.000
Univision last week.

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Obama made news again Friday

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when the White House
said a new federal policy

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that grants some young immigrants
temporary legal status

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to stay in the country will not make

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them eligible for health insurance
under the new healthcare law.

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Meanwhile, appearing Sunday on ABC’s
This Week,

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conservative pundit Ann Coulter

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00:14:11.860 --> 00:14:15.580
argued immigrant rights
should not be considered civil rights.

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00:14:15.580 --> 00:14:18.810
Host George Stephanopoulos
asked Coulter about her claim.

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00:14:19.490 --> 00:14:21.090
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Immigrant rights
are not civil rights?

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00:14:22.690 --> 00:14:25.160
ANN COULTER: No, I think civil rights
are for blacks.

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00:14:25.160 --> 00:14:27.080
ROBERT REICH: See,
this is essentially the problem.

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And the Republicans don’t understand—

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ANN COULTER: What did we—can I just say,
what have we done to the immigrants?

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We owe black people something;

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we have a legacy of slavery.

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Immigrants haven’t even been
in this country.

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AMY GOODMAN: Well, at this time
of this heated and divisive debate

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over immigration,

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we turn to a new documentary
out this week:

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Harvest of Empire:

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00:14:43.680 --> 00:14:46.770
The Untold Story of Latinos in America.

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00:14:47.340 --> 00:14:51.490
The film is based on a book
by Juan González, Democracy Now!

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00:14:51.490 --> 00:14:53.710
co-host, New York Times sic columnist.

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The film examines how—

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New York Daily News columnist.

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00:14:57.830 --> 00:15:01.990
The film examines how U.S. intervention
in Latin America and the Caribbean

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00:15:01.990 --> 00:15:04.330
forced millions of people
to leave their homes

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to migrate to the United States.

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We’ll be joined by Juan
and the film’s co-director in a minute,

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but first a clip
from the trailer for Harvest of Empire.

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UNIDENTIFIED: We are all proud
to be American today!

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Fly your flag with pride!

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JACK CAFFERTY: Once again,
the streets of our country

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were taken over today
by people who don’t belong here.

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DAVID BROOKS: But when the immigrants
come,

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they come with a culture of criminality.

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00:15:28.400 --> 00:15:29.550
It’s out of control.

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GLENN BECK: They put a strain
on our Social Security, our education,

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our healthcare.

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00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:38.610
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: They never teach us
in school that the huge Latino presence

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00:15:38.610 --> 00:15:41.470
here is a direct result
of our own government’s actions

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in Mexico, the Caribbean

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00:15:42.650 --> 00:15:45.000
and Central America over many decades.

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00:15:46.460 --> 00:15:49.370
Thousands upon thousands
of Puerto Ricans were actually recruited

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to come work here in the United States.

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00:15:51.800 --> 00:15:53.450
MELVIN GOODMAN: The feeling was
we could very easily

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00:15:53.450 --> 00:15:55.050
overthrow this progressive government

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and make it a lot easier
for the United Fruit Company

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and other American businesses
to operate in Central America.

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JUAN GONZÁLEZ: From the very beginning,

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00:16:03.960 --> 00:16:08.260
the West
depended for its labor on Mexicans.

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REPORTER: Are you a communist, Fidel?

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FIDEL CASTRO: Wait for the history.

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The history will say what we are.

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00:16:16.250 --> 00:16:18.960
FATHER ROY BOURGEOIS: I had never seen
anything like El Salvador.

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00:16:18.960 --> 00:16:21.370
I was more frightened
there than Vietnam.

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00:16:21.370 --> 00:16:25.150
What was going on there was
the slaughter of the innocents.

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00:16:31.320 --> 00:16:36.460
ROBERT WHITE: When you finance
and train a gang of uniformed butchers

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00:16:36.460 --> 00:16:39.420
and they begin wholesale killing,

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00:16:39.420 --> 00:16:41.410
the people don’t emigrate,

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they flee.

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00:16:44.200 --> 00:16:47.730
UNIDENTIFIED: The instability that we
have contributed to creates the kind

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00:16:47.730 --> 00:16:51.130
of chaos and disarray
that leads to more immigration.

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00:16:52.300 --> 00:16:55.620
PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN: I believe
in the idea of amnesty for those

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who have put down roots,

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00:16:56.910 --> 00:16:59.030
even though they
may have entered illegally.

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00:17:01.900 --> 00:17:04.920
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: The reality
is that America is changing.

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00:17:04.920 --> 00:17:08.470
By the end of this century,
a majority of the people

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will trace their origins
not to Europe but to Latin America.

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00:17:12.570 --> 00:17:15.420
DR. ALFREDO QUIÑONES-HINOJOSA: We’re all
humans. We all have the same abilities.

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We all have the same potential.

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00:17:17.180 --> 00:17:20.690
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: America has always been
a nation in the process of becoming,

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00:17:20.690 --> 00:17:22.110
in process of change.

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00:17:22.110 --> 00:17:23.210
It is an immigrant nation.

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AMY GOODMAN: An excerpt
of Harvest of Empire,

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00:17:25.910 --> 00:17:28.650
premiering this week
in New York and Los Angeles,

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00:17:28.650 --> 00:17:30.610
based on the book Harvest of Empire:

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00:17:30.610 --> 00:17:32.590
A History of Latinos in America

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00:17:33.390 --> 00:17:35.190
by the award-winning journalist

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00:17:35.190 --> 00:17:37.230
and Democracy Now!
co-host Juan González.

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00:17:37.230 --> 00:17:38.600
Juan, again, a co-host,

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00:17:38.600 --> 00:17:40.890
with the New York Daily News,
author of three other books,

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00:17:40.890 --> 00:17:42.350
including News for All the People:

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00:17:42.350 --> 00:17:44.880
The Epic Story
of Race and the American Media,

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00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:47.280
which is also just out in paperback,

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and founder and past president

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00:17:48.950 --> 00:17:51.880
of the National Association
of Hispanic Journalists.

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00:17:51.880 --> 00:17:55.350
We’re very pleased that Juan is with us
here in the New York studio,

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00:17:55.350 --> 00:17:58.380
not in his usual guest chair but as—

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00:17:59.740 --> 00:18:02.160
not in his usual host chair
but as a guest today,

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00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:05.490
and along with the film’s co-director,
Eduardo López.

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00:18:05.490 --> 00:18:07.280
We welcome you both to Democracy Now!

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00:18:07.280 --> 00:18:08.040
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Thanks, Amy.
EDUARDO LÓPEZ: Thank you very much.

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00:18:08.040 --> 00:18:09.990
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: It’s a different
perspective on this side of the table.

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00:18:09.990 --> 00:18:13.740
AMY GOODMAN: That’s right.
So, you wrote this book years ago, Juan.

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00:18:13.740 --> 00:18:15.580
Then it came out again updated,

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00:18:15.580 --> 00:18:17.050
and now it’s in a film.

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00:18:17.050 --> 00:18:18.800
Why have you chosen to go this route?

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00:18:19.380 --> 00:18:21.120
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well,
it wasn’t my choice, really.

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00:18:21.120 --> 00:18:24.820
It was the producers
who came to me several years ago.

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00:18:24.820 --> 00:18:28.160
They have actually been
working on this film for about—

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00:18:28.160 --> 00:18:29.860
I think it’s seven years now?
EDUARDO LÓPEZ: Seven years.

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00:18:29.860 --> 00:18:32.890
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah,
and they came to me several years

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00:18:32.890 --> 00:18:35.410
ago that they really were excited
about the perspective

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00:18:35.410 --> 00:18:38.480
that my book had—was putting out.

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00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:41.530
My book actually came out
in 1999 initially,

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00:18:41.530 --> 00:18:43.270
and it’s now, I think,

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00:18:43.270 --> 00:18:46.160
used in about 200 college courses
around the country

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00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:49.460
as sort of an introductory survey text

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00:18:49.460 --> 00:18:51.830
on the Latino community
in the United States.

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00:18:51.830 --> 00:18:55.010
And they said they wanted
to make it into a film.

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00:18:55.010 --> 00:18:56.340
And I said, "Are you sure?" That’s—

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00:18:56.340 --> 00:18:58.510
my book is kind of more of a history,

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00:18:58.510 --> 00:18:59.850
and it delves—

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00:18:59.850 --> 00:19:00.930
it’s kind of complicated,

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00:19:00.930 --> 00:19:02.320
because it goes into every one

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00:19:02.320 --> 00:19:04.590
of the different Latino groups
in the country,

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how they came here,

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00:19:05.780 --> 00:19:07.310
what drove them here.

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00:19:07.310 --> 00:19:10.310
But they said they thought
they had a way to do it.

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00:19:10.310 --> 00:19:11.460
AMY GOODMAN: Eduardo, the way?

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00:19:12.660 --> 00:19:15.770
EDUARDO LÓPEZ: Well, the way
was quite difficult,

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00:19:15.770 --> 00:19:18.650
because it was a seven-year journey
between the time

387
00:19:18.650 --> 00:19:23.520
we first met with Juan
about the book and today.

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00:19:23.520 --> 00:19:27.880
And I really would not be sitting here
with you if it wasn’t for the hard work

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00:19:27.880 --> 00:19:31.410
and sacrifice of the producer
of the film, Wendy Thompson-Marquez.

390
00:19:31.410 --> 00:19:36.220
And with her,
we felt in 2005 that the kind

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00:19:36.220 --> 00:19:39.660
of language that was being used
to describe immigrants,

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00:19:39.660 --> 00:19:43.150
and specifically Latino immigrants,
in the media was just unacceptable.

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00:19:44.430 --> 00:19:46.590
Every night you would hear

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00:19:46.590 --> 00:19:49.860
very derogatory terms
being used to describe us.

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00:19:49.860 --> 00:19:51.680
And we being—

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00:19:51.680 --> 00:19:53.630
both of us being Latino immigrants—

397
00:19:53.630 --> 00:19:56.010
Wendy from Peru and me from El Salvador—

398
00:19:56.010 --> 00:19:57.880
we knew the real story.

399
00:19:57.880 --> 00:20:00.070
And we had read the real story
in Juan’s book.

400
00:20:00.070 --> 00:20:03.320
And we just felt compelled
to take action,

401
00:20:03.320 --> 00:20:06.170
because we really felt
that the United States,

402
00:20:06.170 --> 00:20:07.240
that our fellow citizens

403
00:20:07.240 --> 00:20:11.010
needed to know why Latinos
had come to the United States,

404
00:20:11.010 --> 00:20:12.750
the real reasons, the roots—

405
00:20:12.750 --> 00:20:14.780
the root causes of immigration.

406
00:20:15.360 --> 00:20:18.500
And in just about all the cases
when you look at history,

407
00:20:18.500 --> 00:20:21.170
you see very clearly,
as Juan explains in the book,

408
00:20:21.170 --> 00:20:26.150
that our different waves
of migration are connected to actions

409
00:20:26.150 --> 00:20:28.410
that the United States
took in our countries,

410
00:20:28.410 --> 00:20:29.470
in different times

411
00:20:29.470 --> 00:20:30.960
for different reasons,

412
00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:33.100
but it’s very consistent
throughout history,

413
00:20:33.100 --> 00:20:35.950
this connection
between our foreign policy

414
00:20:35.950 --> 00:20:37.200
and immigration.

415
00:20:38.160 --> 00:20:40.680
AMY GOODMAN: And so, Juan, now—

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00:20:40.680 --> 00:20:43.480
I mean, the first day
of the Democratic convention

417
00:20:43.480 --> 00:20:51.140
in Charlotte, a bus pulled up
in front of the gates, the UndocuBus,

418
00:20:51.140 --> 00:20:55.730
and scores of people got out
chanting "No papers, no fear!"

419
00:20:55.730 --> 00:20:57.920
Ten got arrested in the pouring rain

420
00:20:57.920 --> 00:20:59.750
as the police poured in.

421
00:21:00.880 --> 00:21:04.220
Immigration is one of the key issues
of this election year,

422
00:21:04.220 --> 00:21:08.400
and yet you don’t have
presidential candidates

423
00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:11.630
who have a vastly different approach
to it.

424
00:21:11.630 --> 00:21:14.240
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, it is, and I think
it’s increasingly become an issue,

425
00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:17.160
not just in the big cities
where—New York,

426
00:21:17.160 --> 00:21:19.070
L.A., Miami—

427
00:21:19.070 --> 00:21:21.250
but in the heartland of America,

428
00:21:21.250 --> 00:21:22.960
and especially in the South,

429
00:21:22.960 --> 00:21:25.700
where in North Carolina, for instance,

430
00:21:25.700 --> 00:21:29.510
there’s been a huge increase in
the Latino population of North Carolina,

431
00:21:29.510 --> 00:21:33.490
but most people don’t understand
how those Latinos got there.

432
00:21:33.490 --> 00:21:36.570
It’s a largely Guatemalan migration,

433
00:21:36.570 --> 00:21:40.100
and it’s largely people
who were recruited in the ’80s and ’90s

434
00:21:40.100 --> 00:21:46.350
to come and work in the textile mills
of North Carolina, because—

435
00:21:46.350 --> 00:21:48.080
part of what I try to show in the book

436
00:21:48.080 --> 00:21:51.590
is the enormous connection
between the needs of capital

437
00:21:51.590 --> 00:21:54.940
of American expanding industries
in the United States

438
00:21:54.940 --> 00:21:58.380
and this recruitment of labor.

439
00:21:58.380 --> 00:22:00.390
So, what happened basically is,
in the '80s,

440
00:22:00.390 --> 00:22:02.720
as more and more Salvadorans
and Guatemalans

441
00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:04.530
were fleeing into the United States

442
00:22:04.530 --> 00:22:07.440
as a result of the civil wars
in their countries

443
00:22:07.440 --> 00:22:09.010
and the repression in their countries,

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00:22:09.010 --> 00:22:11.670
they came here to the United States,

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00:22:11.670 --> 00:22:15.970
and there were industries
that needed cheap labor.

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00:22:15.970 --> 00:22:19.310
And so, you had the meat-packing
industry in the Midwest,

447
00:22:19.310 --> 00:22:22.930
began recruiting many Mexicans
to come to Dodge City

448
00:22:22.930 --> 00:22:24.280
and to come to Des Moines

449
00:22:24.280 --> 00:22:25.520
and to come to all of these—

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00:22:25.520 --> 00:22:26.890
the meat center of the country.

451
00:22:26.890 --> 00:22:30.120
And you had the poultry industry
in Arkansas,

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00:22:30.120 --> 00:22:33.400
and you had the textile industry
in North Carolina.

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00:22:33.400 --> 00:22:35.900
And they usually went by nationality.

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00:22:35.900 --> 00:22:40.590
So you had a large Guatemalan population
that developed in North Carolina.

455
00:22:40.590 --> 00:22:44.410
So, I think that's part
of what I try to show in the book.

456
00:22:45.710 --> 00:22:50.120
And to a large measure, the film
captures this process of migration:

457
00:22:50.650 --> 00:22:54.450
the push of the repression
that occurs in the countries,

458
00:22:54.450 --> 00:22:55.670
in the sending countries,

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00:22:55.670 --> 00:22:59.630
and the pull of American businesses
seeking cheap labor.

460
00:22:59.630 --> 00:23:01.840
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to break
and then come back to this discussion.

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00:23:01.840 --> 00:23:05.350
Juan González is here,
along with Eduardo López.

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00:23:05.350 --> 00:23:07.820
Their film, Harvest of Empire:

463
00:23:07.820 --> 00:23:11.570
The History of Latinos in America,
based on Juan’s book.

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00:23:11.570 --> 00:24:15.820
We’ll be back in a minute.

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00:24:15.820 --> 00:24:20.570
[break]

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00:24:20.570 --> 00:24:24.420
AMY GOODMAN: Our guests
are Juan González and Eduardo López.

467
00:24:24.420 --> 00:24:26.090
Juan’s book Harvest of Empire,

468
00:24:26.090 --> 00:24:30.910
required reading
in so many schools in this country,

469
00:24:30.910 --> 00:24:36.010
and Eduardo López
deciding to make this film,

470
00:24:36.940 --> 00:24:38.670
together with the producer,

471
00:24:38.670 --> 00:24:39.770
Harvest of Empire,

472
00:24:39.770 --> 00:24:41.380
that’s airing this week.

473
00:24:41.380 --> 00:24:43.510
I want to play a clip
from Harvest of Empire

474
00:24:43.510 --> 00:24:44.700
that talks about the history

475
00:24:44.700 --> 00:24:47.150
of U.S. involvement
in the Dominican Republic,

476
00:24:47.150 --> 00:24:50.680
where many of the immigrants
here in New York City hail from.

477
00:24:50.680 --> 00:24:51.830
The clip prominently

478
00:24:51.830 --> 00:24:56.040
features the Dominican-born Pulitzer
Prize-winning author Junot Díaz.

479
00:24:57.750 --> 00:25:02.930
PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON: The American
nations cannot, must not,

480
00:25:05.500 --> 00:25:11.750
and will not permit the establishment
of another communist government

481
00:25:13.710 --> 00:25:15.030
in the Western Hemisphere.

482
00:25:15.030 --> 00:25:20.110
JUNOT DÍAZ: I’m here because
the United States invaded my country

483
00:25:20.110 --> 00:25:23.480
in 1965, an illegal invasion,

484
00:25:23.480 --> 00:25:27.290
completely trumped-up excuse
to invade the Dominican Republic

485
00:25:27.290 --> 00:25:29.180
and crush our democratic hopes.

486
00:25:31.190 --> 00:25:39.520
We’ve lived the consequences
of that illegal invasion politically,

487
00:25:39.520 --> 00:25:40.600
economically,

488
00:25:40.600 --> 00:25:42.660
and in the bodies
of the people who were wounded,

489
00:25:43.170 --> 00:25:44.670
in the bodies of the people
who were killed.

490
00:25:45.900 --> 00:25:47.760
We’ve been living it for over 40 years.

491
00:25:53.180 --> 00:25:55.650
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: There have been
two major U.S. occupations

492
00:25:55.650 --> 00:25:56.660
of the Dominican Republic.

493
00:25:57.890 --> 00:25:59.680
The first was in 1916.

494
00:26:00.210 --> 00:26:03.970
The U.S. Army
trained a new Dominican National Guard.

495
00:26:05.240 --> 00:26:11.830
It handpicked a former railway security
officer, Rafael Trujillo,

496
00:26:11.830 --> 00:26:12.850
to lead that guard.

497
00:26:12.850 --> 00:26:18.220
And Trujillo then uses the power
of the military

498
00:26:18.220 --> 00:26:19.540
to seize control of the government.

499
00:26:20.760 --> 00:26:23.360
JUNOT DÍAZ: He was like the most
horrific imagination

500
00:26:23.360 --> 00:26:24.800
of this terrifying dictator.

501
00:26:25.540 --> 00:26:28.610
He would disappear Dominican
and American citizens

502
00:26:28.610 --> 00:26:29.980
and kill them with impunity.

503
00:26:32.690 --> 00:26:36.160
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: He basically ruled
the Dominican Republic for 30 years

504
00:26:36.160 --> 00:26:43.540
with absolute, total control.

505
00:26:43.540 --> 00:26:47.810
He routinely kidnapped and assaulted
the wives, even of his supporters,

506
00:26:51.350 --> 00:26:57.040
and throughout his career
made it extremely easy

507
00:26:57.040 --> 00:26:59.630
for American companies to do business
in the Dominican Republic

508
00:27:01.160 --> 00:27:04.730
but was a savage, savage dictator.

509
00:27:08.140 --> 00:27:09.400
Eventually,
even the United States

510
00:27:09.400 --> 00:27:12.070
government could not stomach
his methods of operation,

511
00:27:12.070 --> 00:27:15.470
so the CIA joined
with disgruntled military officers

512
00:27:15.470 --> 00:27:17.220
to back his assassination.

513
00:27:21.290 --> 00:27:23.540
NEWSREEL: For the first time
in 30 years, the people

514
00:27:23.540 --> 00:27:26.820
of the Dominican Republic
are breathing the sweet air of liberty,

515
00:27:26.820 --> 00:27:28.790
and the streets
are jammed in celebration.

516
00:27:31.330 --> 00:27:48.060
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: In 1963,
you have the election of Juan Bosch.

517
00:27:48.060 --> 00:27:51.380
He was a liberal, a social democrat,

518
00:27:51.380 --> 00:27:54.590
who attempted to institute
new social reforms.

519
00:27:55.910 --> 00:27:58.560
But the Bosch government
didn’t last for very long.

520
00:27:58.560 --> 00:28:01.950
Only a few months
into his term in office,

521
00:28:01.950 --> 00:28:04.190
there was a military coup.

522
00:28:04.190 --> 00:28:07.630
That military coup in turn
spurred a popular insurrection

523
00:28:07.630 --> 00:28:12.490
that led to the U.S. invasion
of the Dominican Republic in 1965.

524
00:28:16.340 --> 00:28:19.080
When the rebels finally
agreed to lay down their arms,

525
00:28:19.080 --> 00:28:22.060
the United States government
scheduled new elections,

526
00:28:22.060 --> 00:28:29.740
but it also allowed the right-hand man
of Trujillo, Joaquín Balaguer,

527
00:28:29.740 --> 00:28:31.870
to run in those elections for president.

528
00:28:33.500 --> 00:28:35.160
Balaguer won that election.

529
00:28:36.120 --> 00:28:41.430
The problem was that there was enormous
repression against the Bosch forces,

530
00:28:41.430 --> 00:28:43.560
killings on an almost daily basis.

531
00:28:47.740 --> 00:28:53.930
So the United States then began allowing
large numbers of Dominican former rebels

532
00:28:53.930 --> 00:28:57.620
to come to the United States
as a way, again,

533
00:28:57.620 --> 00:29:00.180
of using migration as a safety valve.

534
00:29:01.310 --> 00:29:04.960
Thousands of Dominicans
started coming to New York City.

535
00:29:07.220 --> 00:29:09.760
AMY GOODMAN: An excerpt
of Harvest of Empire.

536
00:29:09.760 --> 00:29:12.370
The Pulitzer Prize-winning
Dominican-American writer

537
00:29:12.370 --> 00:29:14.940
Junot Díaz talks
about coming to this country

538
00:29:14.940 --> 00:29:18.700
shortly after the United States
then began allowing large numbers

539
00:29:18.700 --> 00:29:21.680
of Dominican former rebels
to migrate here.

540
00:29:26.610 --> 00:29:28.730
JUNOT DÍAZ: Well, they said,
"We’re coming to the United States."

541
00:29:28.730 --> 00:29:30.150
Whatever that meant.

542
00:29:30.150 --> 00:29:33.000
I thought we were just going up the road
to some mystical place.

543
00:29:34.180 --> 00:29:37.790
When I finally saw a map in kindergarten
of how far we had traveled,

544
00:29:37.790 --> 00:29:41.470
I remember being not only astonished
but literally terrified.

545
00:29:41.470 --> 00:29:47.330
My father was the standard kind
of crazy Latino military guy

546
00:29:47.330 --> 00:29:50.970
who would check his children’s hands
and their shoes and their clothes

547
00:29:50.970 --> 00:29:53.410
and their hair before we left the house.

548
00:29:53.410 --> 00:29:55.990
I mean, we had to tie our shoes
a certain way.

549
00:29:55.990 --> 00:29:58.620
I lived in what I
call "the little dictatorship,"

550
00:29:58.620 --> 00:30:00.890
the little dictatorship of our house.

551
00:30:02.080 --> 00:30:06.550
When I immigrated to New Jersey,
it was a very crazy time.

552
00:30:06.550 --> 00:30:11.270
I immigrated in 1974,
a few months before the fall of Saigon.

553
00:30:11.770 --> 00:30:14.440
This was not a place
that was very welcoming.

554
00:30:15.300 --> 00:30:19.820
I found myself facing a tremendous
amount of racism and bigotry,

555
00:30:19.820 --> 00:30:22.070
but not just from like white Americans,

556
00:30:22.070 --> 00:30:23.940
from black Americans and from Latinos.

557
00:30:26.220 --> 00:30:30.220
I think if every immigrant child
in this country was allowed

558
00:30:30.220 --> 00:30:33.610
to tell the real emotional truth
of their experience here,

559
00:30:33.610 --> 00:30:36.900
people in the United States
would discover that we actually

560
00:30:36.900 --> 00:30:40.190
make immigration
a more horrific experience

561
00:30:40.190 --> 00:30:41.440
than it needs to be.

562
00:30:45.920 --> 00:30:47.290
And I feel that, as a country,

563
00:30:47.290 --> 00:30:49.940
we’re in a dream
where there are no mistakes,

564
00:30:49.940 --> 00:30:52.540
there is no evil, we are always good,

565
00:30:52.540 --> 00:30:53.650
we hurt no one.

566
00:30:55.780 --> 00:30:58.310
You know, you can’t grow
if you admit no mistakes.

567
00:30:59.140 --> 00:31:02.310
AMY GOODMAN: Pulitzer Prize-winning
Dominican-American writer Junot Díaz

568
00:31:02.310 --> 00:31:03.870
in Harvest of Empire.

569
00:31:03.870 --> 00:31:05.440
Juan, the Dominican Republic?

570
00:31:06.160 --> 00:31:09.180
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, and interestingly,
Junot appears on the front page

571
00:31:09.180 --> 00:31:11.530
of the New York Times Book Review
this week with—

572
00:31:11.530 --> 00:31:14.520
this past Sunday with his new book.

573
00:31:15.300 --> 00:31:19.120
Yes, it’s—the Dominican Republic
really is one of the many examples,

574
00:31:19.120 --> 00:31:23.370
but there are others,
of Salvador, Guatemala and Cuba,

575
00:31:23.370 --> 00:31:27.190
as well, in terms of the effect
of American foreign policy

576
00:31:27.190 --> 00:31:28.490
on the migration.

577
00:31:28.490 --> 00:31:32.270
And I think that’s a key issue
that I have in my book

578
00:31:32.270 --> 00:31:35.680
and that the film
tries to provide with new examples,

579
00:31:35.680 --> 00:31:37.410
because my examples are older.

580
00:31:37.410 --> 00:31:41.770
They’ve actually been able to get
quite a few prominent Latinos,

581
00:31:41.770 --> 00:31:44.100
as well as ordinary people,

582
00:31:44.100 --> 00:31:45.420
who went through enormous changes

583
00:31:45.420 --> 00:31:47.390
that people don’t know much about.

584
00:31:47.390 --> 00:31:54.050
But I think the Dominican Republic
really, in terms of this idea

585
00:31:54.050 --> 00:31:57.490
not just of U.S. intervention
in the '60s,

586
00:31:57.490 --> 00:31:59.800
but going back
earlier in the 20th century,

587
00:31:59.800 --> 00:32:02.850
that the United States
has always really dictated a lot

588
00:32:02.850 --> 00:32:05.620
of what goes
on in the Dominican Republic.

589
00:32:05.620 --> 00:32:08.810
And I think that the—once again,

590
00:32:08.810 --> 00:32:13.810
whether it was the sugar companies
earlier on and,

591
00:32:13.810 --> 00:32:16.000
more recently, the maquilas

592
00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:20.590
and the sweatshops
of the Caribbean Basin,

593
00:32:20.590 --> 00:32:22.660
they've always had enormous impact

594
00:32:22.660 --> 00:32:26.220
on the standard of living
in these countries,

595
00:32:26.220 --> 00:32:30.230
as well as the push that forces people

596
00:32:30.230 --> 00:32:34.420
to look somehow or other to survive
by coming to the United States.

597
00:32:34.420 --> 00:32:37.960
AMY GOODMAN: Eduardo López,
you have remarkable footage

598
00:32:37.960 --> 00:32:41.260
that has never been
seen before in this country throughout.

599
00:32:41.260 --> 00:32:43.110
And in a moment,
we’re going to go to El Salvador

600
00:32:43.730 --> 00:32:47.270
to talk about what drove a lot
of the migration here.

601
00:32:47.780 --> 00:32:49.350
Where did you get it?

602
00:32:50.490 --> 00:32:52.340
EDUARDO LÓPEZ: Many, many sources,

603
00:32:52.340 --> 00:32:55.980
and there’s a lot of footage
that’s never been seen,

604
00:32:55.980 --> 00:32:57.710
that hasn’t been seen in decades.

605
00:32:59.030 --> 00:33:02.420
And this, again, is a testament
to the team that created this.

606
00:33:02.420 --> 00:33:05.860
Our editor,
Catherine Shields, is amazing,

607
00:33:06.530 --> 00:33:08.750
and so is our co-director,
Peter Getzels.

608
00:33:08.750 --> 00:33:10.850
But I have to say
about the Dominican Republic,

609
00:33:10.850 --> 00:33:12.510
I’d really like to make a point,

610
00:33:13.590 --> 00:33:15.250
that one of the main reasons

611
00:33:15.250 --> 00:33:19.930
we made this film
is really personified by Junot Díaz,

612
00:33:19.930 --> 00:33:23.800
who is now contributing
as one of our great American writers.

613
00:33:24.350 --> 00:33:25.520
But his whole life

614
00:33:25.520 --> 00:33:31.210
was changed dramatically by our invasion
of the Dominican Republic in 1965

615
00:33:31.210 --> 00:33:33.460
with 23,000 marines,

616
00:33:33.460 --> 00:33:35.210
something that most Americans

617
00:33:35.210 --> 00:33:38.200
know nothing about
because all of this history

618
00:33:38.200 --> 00:33:40.980
is never taught
in our schools and our colleges.

619
00:33:41.600 --> 00:33:45.570
And so, for Latinos
whose life is turned upside down

620
00:33:45.570 --> 00:33:48.290
by our own government’s actions
in Latin America

621
00:33:48.290 --> 00:33:50.820
that many times we’re unaware of,

622
00:33:52.450 --> 00:33:53.680
what happens is,

623
00:33:53.680 --> 00:33:55.930
there is this tremendous disconnect.

624
00:33:55.930 --> 00:33:57.070
And this is, I believe,

625
00:33:57.070 --> 00:34:00.010
one of the reasons
why so much of the ignorant rhetoric

626
00:34:00.010 --> 00:34:02.070
about immigrants
takes hold in our country,

627
00:34:02.070 --> 00:34:03.180
because we don’t know.

628
00:34:03.850 --> 00:34:05.200
And so, here’s Junot Díaz,

629
00:34:05.200 --> 00:34:08.260
whose life is completely changed
because of our actions,

630
00:34:08.260 --> 00:34:10.190
yet all of us, as American citizens,

631
00:34:10.190 --> 00:34:12.860
know nothing of what we did
in the Dominican Republic.

632
00:34:12.860 --> 00:34:15.270
And I think that’s one of the key parts
of this film.

633
00:34:15.270 --> 00:34:18.780
AMY GOODMAN: The significance
of the invasion of 1965, Juan?

634
00:34:19.280 --> 00:34:20.990
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, I think that the—

635
00:34:20.990 --> 00:34:24.970
that sent a message
throughout Latin America

636
00:34:24.970 --> 00:34:26.330
in that period of time

637
00:34:26.330 --> 00:34:30.400
that the United States,
coming out of the Kennedy era,

638
00:34:30.400 --> 00:34:32.020
the Alliance for Progress era,

639
00:34:32.560 --> 00:34:36.730
that the United States now
was the enemy of change,

640
00:34:37.260 --> 00:34:40.830
because obviously—Juan Bosch

641
00:34:40.830 --> 00:34:42.750
was not a revolutionary

642
00:34:42.750 --> 00:34:44.330
by any stretch of the imagination;

643
00:34:44.330 --> 00:34:47.180
he was a liberal democrat
who wanted to have land reform

644
00:34:47.180 --> 00:34:50.520
and wanted to have some basic changes
in the lives of the Dominican people.

645
00:34:50.520 --> 00:34:52.600
So when the United States government

646
00:34:52.600 --> 00:34:55.810
basically backed the coup
against Juan Bosch,

647
00:34:55.810 --> 00:34:59.200
it sent a message
throughout Latin America

648
00:34:59.200 --> 00:35:00.870
that the government was going to be—

649
00:35:00.870 --> 00:35:04.970
our government was going to be the enemy
of real social change in the region.

650
00:35:04.970 --> 00:35:07.850
And that lasted really until the ’90s,

651
00:35:07.850 --> 00:35:12.080
until this whole new era
that has developed in Latin America

652
00:35:12.080 --> 00:35:15.590
of socially progressive governments
being elected to power,

653
00:35:15.590 --> 00:35:20.330
getting rid of old dictatorships,
old rule by the military,

654
00:35:20.330 --> 00:35:26.700
and giving the popular will
a chance to be expressed

655
00:35:26.700 --> 00:35:30.090
and to bring more progressive leaders
to power.

656
00:35:30.090 --> 00:35:33.200
But that really
was from the ’60s into the ’90s,

657
00:35:33.820 --> 00:35:35.910
you had throughout Latin America

658
00:35:35.910 --> 00:35:39.110
the rule of these dictators
and military leaders

659
00:35:39.110 --> 00:35:42.050
that were largely backed
by the United States.

660
00:35:42.050 --> 00:35:45.050
AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to a part
of Harvest of Empire

661
00:35:45.050 --> 00:35:47.090
that deals with the assassination

662
00:35:47.090 --> 00:35:51.680
of Archbishop Óscar Romero
on March 24th, 1980,

663
00:35:51.680 --> 00:35:53.000
in El Salvador.

664
00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:56.420
This clip features the voices
of Sister Pat Murray,

665
00:35:56.420 --> 00:36:00.120
former U.S. Ambassador
to El Salvador Robert White,

666
00:36:00.120 --> 00:36:03.280
and Sister Terry Alexander,
Maryknoll missionary.

667
00:36:04.500 --> 00:36:11.980
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: His assassination—

668
00:36:11.980 --> 00:36:14.690
in church—stunned the entire nation.

669
00:36:17.920 --> 00:36:19.920
SISTER PAT MURRAY: As the crowd
started to grow,

670
00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:24.960
they realized that this was going
to be a very difficult time.

671
00:36:27.890 --> 00:36:30.830
And we could see all the Guardia
that were on all the roofs.

672
00:36:33.430 --> 00:36:37.590
All of a sudden, there was a shot fired.

673
00:36:38.940 --> 00:36:40.450
And then the bomb went off.

674
00:36:42.370 --> 00:36:43.570
Everybody just scattered.

675
00:36:45.870 --> 00:36:47.970
Then, the Guardia opened fire.

676
00:36:47.970 --> 00:37:08.600
Oh, Lord.

677
00:37:08.600 --> 00:37:13.530
It’s important that the world
know that we stood behind him.

678
00:37:19.090 --> 00:37:20.500
ROBERT WHITE: For the first time,

679
00:37:20.500 --> 00:37:23.560
someone had faced
down the Salvadoran military

680
00:37:23.560 --> 00:37:29.110
and said, "You people are killing
the people you are sworn to protect."

681
00:37:34.400 --> 00:37:39.360
SISTER TERRY ALEXANDER: Father Paul
Schindler had received a telephone call

682
00:37:39.360 --> 00:37:53.870
saying this farmer had seen the bodies
of four women, very definitely American.

683
00:37:55.880 --> 00:38:01.240
He began reading a description
of the four women.

684
00:38:01.240 --> 00:38:03.550
And as he read each one, I could say,

685
00:38:03.550 --> 00:38:05.960
"That was Jean.

686
00:38:05.960 --> 00:38:10.700
That’s Jean. That’s Dorothy.

687
00:38:12.730 --> 00:38:14.300
That’s Ita.

688
00:38:15.220 --> 00:38:19.130
" Three of us knelt down there to pray.

689
00:38:19.130 --> 00:38:21.130
And I guess my prayer was,

690
00:38:21.130 --> 00:38:24.500
like Moore had said once before,
"How long, O God,

691
00:38:24.500 --> 00:38:28.240
how long must this continue to happen?"

692
00:38:28.890 --> 00:38:30.100
AMY GOODMAN: That was Sister Terry

693
00:38:30.100 --> 00:38:31.930
Alexander, Maryknoll missionary.

694
00:38:31.930 --> 00:38:33.140
Juan González?

695
00:38:33.880 --> 00:38:35.560
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, the footage

696
00:38:35.560 --> 00:38:39.590
that they’ve been able to capture
there is really amazing,

697
00:38:39.590 --> 00:38:44.630
the actual footage
not only of the military shooting

698
00:38:44.630 --> 00:38:49.170
down the people
at Bishop Romero’s funeral,

699
00:38:49.170 --> 00:38:53.190
but then actually of the nuns
of the church,

700
00:38:53.190 --> 00:38:57.010
women being dragged up,
their dead bodies.

701
00:38:57.680 --> 00:39:01.540
This is what I’ve really been amazed at,
in each of these countries,

702
00:39:01.540 --> 00:39:02.640
whether it’s Guatemala,

703
00:39:02.640 --> 00:39:09.480
the footage of the actual coup
against Árbenz in 1954,

704
00:39:09.480 --> 00:39:12.510
and this incredible footage

705
00:39:12.510 --> 00:39:15.140
that’s never been seen
in the United States.

706
00:39:15.140 --> 00:39:17.500
Rigoberta Menchú
was interviewed in the film,

707
00:39:18.010 --> 00:39:22.410
and she talks about the killing
of her father in the Spanish embassy,

708
00:39:22.410 --> 00:39:24.080
when the Guatemalan government

709
00:39:24.080 --> 00:39:27.270
burned down the embassy
that was full of dissidents

710
00:39:27.270 --> 00:39:29.900
who had taken refuge there,
including her father.

711
00:39:29.900 --> 00:39:33.950
And they’ve actually been able
to find images in the archives

712
00:39:33.950 --> 00:39:40.280
of Guatemala of that day and the people
being burned and the crowds

713
00:39:40.280 --> 00:39:42.860
outside of the Spanish embassy that day.

714
00:39:42.860 --> 00:39:45.000
AMY GOODMAN: Eduardo López,
Rigoberta Menchú, of course,

715
00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:47.950
the Nobel Peace Prize winner.
EDUARDO LÓPEZ: Yes.

716
00:39:47.950 --> 00:39:51.130
We were very happy
that she participated,

717
00:39:51.130 --> 00:39:54.990
because I think that she really
communicates something that,

718
00:39:54.990 --> 00:39:57.540
again, as Americans, we were never told.

719
00:39:58.440 --> 00:40:03.610
In the story of Guatemala,
it’s amazing that we had a time

720
00:40:03.610 --> 00:40:07.080
when in the United States
we had one brother who was the head

721
00:40:07.080 --> 00:40:10.690
of the CIA and another brother
who was a secretary of state,

722
00:40:10.690 --> 00:40:14.390
and because they had received complaint
from one company,

723
00:40:14.390 --> 00:40:15.920
the United Fruit Company,

724
00:40:15.920 --> 00:40:18.560
they decided that in order
to help this company,

725
00:40:18.560 --> 00:40:21.760
they were going to take out
a democratically elected government.

726
00:40:21.760 --> 00:40:23.520
AMY GOODMAN: Allen Dulles
and John Foster Dulles.

727
00:40:23.520 --> 00:40:24.680
EDUARDO LÓPEZ: Exactly.

728
00:40:24.680 --> 00:40:30.050
And our actions in 1954 in Guatemala
taking down the Árbenz government

729
00:40:30.050 --> 00:40:33.330
unleashed decades of civil war
in that country

730
00:40:33.330 --> 00:40:36.410
that ended up
killing more than 200,000 people.

731
00:40:36.410 --> 00:40:40.720
And Rigoberta Menchú is the person
who most personifies that struggle

732
00:40:40.720 --> 00:40:43.640
of the Mayan people
throughout that time.

733
00:40:44.310 --> 00:40:45.670
And so, these, again,

734
00:40:45.670 --> 00:40:50.330
are all kinds of situations
that our own country is not aware of.

735
00:40:51.870 --> 00:40:56.490
And this is another reason why we just
felt really compelled to make this film

736
00:40:56.490 --> 00:41:01.790
and to work through the seven years
in order to bring this to fruition.

737
00:41:01.790 --> 00:41:06.070
AMY GOODMAN: Juan,
Ann Coulter’s comments on This Week

738
00:41:06.070 --> 00:41:08.480
when she said, "I think
civil rights are for blacks.

739
00:41:08.480 --> 00:41:09.870
... What have we done to the immigrants?

740
00:41:09.870 --> 00:41:11.200
We owe black people something;

741
00:41:11.200 --> 00:41:12.750
we have a legacy of slavery.

742
00:41:12.750 --> 00:41:16.040
Immigrants haven’t even been
in this country."

743
00:41:16.040 --> 00:41:18.440
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Ann Coulter

744
00:41:18.440 --> 00:41:23.690
neglects to deal with the reality
of U.S.-Mexican history.

745
00:41:23.690 --> 00:41:26.580
The entire Southwest
of the United States

746
00:41:26.580 --> 00:41:31.820
was taken from Mexico
in the Mexican-American War of 1846.

747
00:41:31.820 --> 00:41:35.410
California, Texas, New Mexico,
Arizona, Colorado—

748
00:41:35.410 --> 00:41:37.320
this was all part of Mexico.

749
00:41:37.320 --> 00:41:39.750
And there were actually Mexicans
living on the land

750
00:41:39.750 --> 00:41:45.010
when the United States took it over
in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

751
00:41:45.010 --> 00:41:49.490
You know, so Mexicans often say,
the original—the descendants

752
00:41:49.490 --> 00:41:51.120
of those original settlers,

753
00:41:51.120 --> 00:41:52.320
"We didn’t cross the border.

754
00:41:52.320 --> 00:41:54.600
The border crossed us."
And, of course,

755
00:41:54.600 --> 00:41:58.220
she neglects to deal with the reality
of the Puerto Rican existence

756
00:41:58.220 --> 00:41:59.290
in the United States.

757
00:41:59.870 --> 00:42:05.180
There are nearly five million,
4.6 million, Puerto Ricans—

758
00:42:06.830 --> 00:42:08.760
U.S. citizens of Puerto Rican descent

759
00:42:08.760 --> 00:42:12.710
in the United States
and another 4 million, roughly,

760
00:42:12.710 --> 00:42:14.120
on the island of Puerto Rico.

761
00:42:14.650 --> 00:42:18.500
And the Puerto Ricans
never went anywhere.

762
00:42:18.500 --> 00:42:23.300
They were just captured as a prize
of war in the Spanish-American War,

763
00:42:23.300 --> 00:42:27.000
1898, by the United States
and declared citizens by Congress

764
00:42:27.000 --> 00:42:28.580
against the objections—

765
00:42:28.580 --> 00:42:33.910
the unanimous objection of the House
of Delegates of Puerto Rico,

766
00:42:33.910 --> 00:42:38.310
which in 1917 rejected citizenship,

767
00:42:38.310 --> 00:42:41.230
voted unanimously
against U.S. citizenship.

768
00:42:41.230 --> 00:42:44.880
And yet it was imposed on the Puerto
Ricans by the United States Congress.

769
00:42:44.880 --> 00:42:47.590
So that when Ann Coulter says, you know,

770
00:42:47.590 --> 00:42:50.680
"What have we done to the immigrants?"

771
00:42:50.680 --> 00:42:52.340
Mexicans and Puerto Ricans

772
00:42:52.340 --> 00:42:56.440
are the two largest groups
of Latinos in the United States.

773
00:42:56.440 --> 00:42:58.240
And that’s no accident.

774
00:42:58.240 --> 00:42:59.890
It’s a direct result

775
00:42:59.890 --> 00:43:02.820
of the history of the United States
with these two countries.

776
00:43:02.820 --> 00:43:06.580
AMY GOODMAN: And so,
explain your title, Harvest of Empire.

777
00:43:06.580 --> 00:43:07.820
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well,

778
00:43:07.820 --> 00:43:10.420
the harvest of the empire,

779
00:43:10.420 --> 00:43:13.790
as I explain in both the book
and in the movie,

780
00:43:13.790 --> 00:43:19.280
is that the—starting at the end
of World War II, really,

781
00:43:20.130 --> 00:43:24.600
the people of the third world
started coming to the West,

782
00:43:25.450 --> 00:43:30.420
and they came precisely
to those countries

783
00:43:30.420 --> 00:43:33.290
that had once been
their colonial masters,

784
00:43:33.860 --> 00:43:37.760
so that, in France, they don’t know
what to do about all the Algerians

785
00:43:37.760 --> 00:43:39.750
and the Tunisians and the Moroccans;

786
00:43:39.750 --> 00:43:43.180
in England, they don’t know what to do
about all the Indians and the Pakistanis

787
00:43:43.180 --> 00:43:44.380
and the Jamaicans;

788
00:43:44.380 --> 00:43:45.410
in the United States,

789
00:43:45.410 --> 00:43:47.710
they don’t know what to do
about all the Latin Americans.

790
00:43:47.710 --> 00:43:51.930
Those were precisely the former colonies
of those empires.

791
00:43:51.930 --> 00:43:56.910
And once the—
with the ending of World War II

792
00:43:56.910 --> 00:43:58.940
and with the independence movements

793
00:43:58.940 --> 00:44:04.600
that developed throughout Asia
and Africa and Latin America,

794
00:44:04.600 --> 00:44:09.710
the peoples of those former colonial
countries are coming to the metropolis,

795
00:44:09.710 --> 00:44:13.880
and they’re changing, transforming
the very composition of those nations,

796
00:44:13.880 --> 00:44:16.320
and so that, for us, the United States,

797
00:44:16.320 --> 00:44:17.440
it’s not even an—

798
00:44:17.440 --> 00:44:19.770
we’re not dealing with this immigration,

799
00:44:19.770 --> 00:44:21.930
quote, "problem"
alone.

800
00:44:21.930 --> 00:44:23.320
England has an immigration problem.

801
00:44:23.320 --> 00:44:24.760
France has an immigration problem.

802
00:44:24.760 --> 00:44:26.390
Germany has an immigration problem.

803
00:44:26.920 --> 00:44:31.490
And it is the harvest of the empires
that made those countries so wealthy.

804
00:44:31.490 --> 00:44:34.860
Well, the capital came,
but now the people are coming,

805
00:44:34.860 --> 00:44:36.000
as well.

806
00:44:36.000 --> 00:44:38.520
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to break
and then come back to this discussion

807
00:44:38.520 --> 00:44:44.310
and what it means in 2012 with
the elections here, immigration policy.

808
00:44:44.310 --> 00:44:49.120
The film is premiering in Los Angeles
at the Laemmle Theater in Pasadena

809
00:44:49.120 --> 00:44:52.660
and at the Quad theater
here in New York beginning on the 28th,

810
00:44:52.660 --> 00:44:56.520
on Friday, right through the 4th,
here at the Quad theater.

811
00:44:56.520 --> 00:44:57.820
It’s on 13th Street.

812
00:44:57.820 --> 00:44:59.660
Eduardo López is our guest,

813
00:44:59.660 --> 00:45:03.630
co-director and producer
along with Wendy Thompson-Marquez,

814
00:45:03.630 --> 00:45:05.190
and Juan González, well,

815
00:45:05.950 --> 00:45:08.090
co-host on Democracy Now!,

816
00:45:08.090 --> 00:45:10.250
a columnist
with the New York Daily News,

817
00:45:10.250 --> 00:45:12.980
and author of Harvest of Empire,

818
00:45:12.980 --> 00:45:14.610
on which this film is based.

819
00:45:14.610 --> 00:45:18.050
And he appears in the film throughout.

820
00:45:18.050 --> 00:45:20.590
We’ll continue this discussion
in a moment.

821
00:45:20.590 --> 00:46:12.260
[break]

822
00:46:12.260 --> 00:46:39.900
AMY GOODMAN: We’re spending the hour
talking about a new film,

823
00:46:39.900 --> 00:46:44.510
given the significance of the issue
of immigration in this country today.

824
00:46:44.510 --> 00:46:46.110
The film is called Harvest of Empire.

825
00:46:46.110 --> 00:46:49.750
It is opening at the Laemmle Theater
in Pasadena in California

826
00:46:49.750 --> 00:46:52.840
and at the Quad theater
here in New York on 13th Street

827
00:46:52.840 --> 00:46:55.140
on Friday through October 4th.

828
00:46:55.140 --> 00:46:56.550
Eduardo López is with us.

829
00:46:56.550 --> 00:47:00.750
He is co-director and producer,
along with Wendy Thompson-Marquez,

830
00:47:00.750 --> 00:47:02.350
of this remarkable film

831
00:47:02.350 --> 00:47:06.500
that’s based on co-host
Juan González’s book Harvest of Empire:

832
00:47:06.500 --> 00:47:08.520
A History of Latinos in America.

833
00:47:09.070 --> 00:47:13.580
Eduardo, the last clip
we played was of Archbishop Romero.

834
00:47:13.580 --> 00:47:15.340
March 24th, 1980,

835
00:47:15.340 --> 00:47:20.200
he is assassinated in El Salvador
by a U.S.-backed death squad.

836
00:47:20.200 --> 00:47:25.350
You, yourself, are from El Salvador,
an immigrant here in the United States.

837
00:47:26.500 --> 00:47:27.620
EDUARDO LÓPEZ: This is, again,

838
00:47:27.620 --> 00:47:30.850
one of the reasons
why we produced this film

839
00:47:30.850 --> 00:47:32.960
and why we feel so strongly about it,

840
00:47:32.960 --> 00:47:34.240
because,

841
00:47:34.240 --> 00:47:39.370
as Juan points out in his book
and in the film, El Salvador

842
00:47:39.370 --> 00:47:43.150
is really maybe the latest
and one of the clearest examples

843
00:47:43.150 --> 00:47:45.840
of this direct connection
between our foreign policy

844
00:47:45.840 --> 00:47:47.090
and immigration.

845
00:47:47.810 --> 00:47:53.210
In the census of 1980, there were
less than 100,000 Salvadorans listed,

846
00:47:53.210 --> 00:47:55.420
and just 32 years later,

847
00:47:55.420 --> 00:47:59.360
we are poised to become
the third-largest Latino population

848
00:47:59.360 --> 00:48:00.660
in the United States.

849
00:48:00.660 --> 00:48:02.630
You have to remember El Salvador

850
00:48:02.630 --> 00:48:05.640
is the smallest country
in all of the Americas.

851
00:48:05.640 --> 00:48:08.350
And yet, how is it
that in only 32 years

852
00:48:08.350 --> 00:48:12.710
we are about to become the third-largest
Latino population in the United States?

853
00:48:13.740 --> 00:48:16.470
If all of the rhetoric
about immigration was true,

854
00:48:16.470 --> 00:48:20.140
and it’s this poverty
or our dysfunctional governments,

855
00:48:20.140 --> 00:48:22.860
if that were really the cause
of immigration,

856
00:48:22.860 --> 00:48:26.510
you would have had people
coming from El Salvador forever.

857
00:48:27.100 --> 00:48:28.680
But that’s not the case.

858
00:48:28.680 --> 00:48:32.650
People started coming in 1980
because of the war,

859
00:48:32.650 --> 00:48:36.420
and specifically because of
our own country’s actions in the war.

860
00:48:36.420 --> 00:48:37.580
In the film,

861
00:48:37.580 --> 00:48:42.760
we talk about the School of the Americas
and how most of the human rights abuses

862
00:48:42.760 --> 00:48:45.080
and the massacres, including the killing

863
00:48:45.080 --> 00:48:48.780
of the nuns and the murder
of Archbishop Romero,

864
00:48:48.780 --> 00:48:50.710
was really done by people

865
00:48:50.710 --> 00:48:54.710
trained at the School of the Americas
by our own country.

866
00:48:55.410 --> 00:49:01.600
And so, this is a clear example
of how disconnection continues to exist.

867
00:49:01.600 --> 00:49:04.860
It’s not something
that just happened 150 years ago.

868
00:49:04.860 --> 00:49:06.130
It continues to happen.

869
00:49:06.130 --> 00:49:08.790
AMY GOODMAN: And, of course,
you have the latest presidential link,

870
00:49:08.790 --> 00:49:12.300
this remarkable story surrounding Bain,

871
00:49:12.300 --> 00:49:16.880
how Mitt Romney
helped found Bain Capital

872
00:49:16.880 --> 00:49:18.080
with investments

873
00:49:18.080 --> 00:49:20.320
from Central American links—

874
00:49:20.870 --> 00:49:24.740
Central American elites linked
to the death squads in El Salvador.

875
00:49:24.740 --> 00:49:27.700
Now, this is something we reported on
and discussed on Democracy Now!

876
00:49:27.700 --> 00:49:30.350
After initially struggling
to find investors,

877
00:49:30.350 --> 00:49:35.130
Romney traveled to Miami in 1983
to win pledges of $9 million,

878
00:49:35.130 --> 00:49:37.990
40 percent of Bain’s start-up money.

879
00:49:37.990 --> 00:49:40.740
Some investors had extensive ties
to death squads

880
00:49:40.740 --> 00:49:45.480
responsible for a vast majority
of the deaths in Salvador in the 1980s.

881
00:49:45.480 --> 00:49:48.340
The investors
include the Salaverria family,

882
00:49:48.340 --> 00:49:51.380
whom the former U.S. ambassador
to El Salvador, Robert White,

883
00:49:51.380 --> 00:49:55.680
previously accused of directly funding
the Salvadoran paramilitaries.

884
00:49:55.680 --> 00:49:58.700
In his memoir,
former Bain executive Harry Strachan

885
00:49:58.700 --> 00:50:02.760
writes Romney pushed aside
his own misgivings about the investors

886
00:50:02.760 --> 00:50:04.980
to accept their backing.

887
00:50:04.980 --> 00:50:07.380
Strachan writes, "These Latin
American friends

888
00:50:07.380 --> 00:50:10.410
have loyally rolled
over investments in succeeding funds,

889
00:50:10.410 --> 00:50:13.690
actively participated
in Bain Capital’s May investor meetings,

890
00:50:13.690 --> 00:50:14.810
and are still today

891
00:50:14.810 --> 00:50:18.380
one of the largest investor groups
in Bain Capital."

892
00:50:18.380 --> 00:50:20.590
I want to get your comment, then Juan’s.

893
00:50:20.590 --> 00:50:22.790
EDUARDO LÓPEZ: I think
that if Governor Romney

894
00:50:22.790 --> 00:50:26.370
had ever bothered
to meet one of the torture victims

895
00:50:26.370 --> 00:50:29.410
of the death squads
or one of the family members

896
00:50:29.410 --> 00:50:32.990
of the people who were brutally killed
during that time,

897
00:50:32.990 --> 00:50:35.890
maybe he would have thought twice
about accepting that blood money.

898
00:50:36.950 --> 00:50:38.900
To me, it’s really unacceptable,

899
00:50:38.900 --> 00:50:42.540
when you look at the—
I believe it was around $9 million

900
00:50:42.540 --> 00:50:45.690
that he accepted
as the investment money.

901
00:50:46.200 --> 00:50:50.610
But where this money came from
and the people who gave it to him is

902
00:50:50.610 --> 00:50:54.450
something that he really should have
looked at much more closely,

903
00:50:54.450 --> 00:50:58.880
because it is related
to the most terrible atrocities.

904
00:50:59.780 --> 00:51:02.690
As Ambassador Robert White
says in our film,

905
00:51:03.460 --> 00:51:07.120
when you arm a group
of uniformed butchers,

906
00:51:07.120 --> 00:51:10.290
the people don’t emigrate, they flee.

907
00:51:10.960 --> 00:51:13.760
And, to me, it’s unbelievable
that now Governor Romney

908
00:51:13.760 --> 00:51:18.600
talks about immigrants
with derogatory terms like "illegals,"

909
00:51:18.600 --> 00:51:21.720
and yet he profited from the funding

910
00:51:21.720 --> 00:51:24.960
that actually caused so much
of the immigration to the United States

911
00:51:24.960 --> 00:51:25.960
from El Salvador.

912
00:51:25.960 --> 00:51:29.230
AMY GOODMAN: In fact, Mitt Romney talks
about people should self-deport.

913
00:51:29.230 --> 00:51:31.920
Juan González?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, well,

914
00:51:31.920 --> 00:51:34.970
I think that throughout Central America—

915
00:51:34.970 --> 00:51:38.280
in Salvador, in Nicaragua, in Honduras—

916
00:51:38.280 --> 00:51:40.940
there’s always been a very small elite

917
00:51:41.520 --> 00:51:46.290
that has benefited
from being a comprador group,

918
00:51:46.290 --> 00:51:50.380
basically facilitating the exploitation

919
00:51:50.380 --> 00:51:54.050
of their own countries
by American businesses, largely.

920
00:51:54.600 --> 00:51:57.670
And I think that the—

921
00:51:58.300 --> 00:52:03.560
that Romney was so closely tied
to some of the Salvadoran compradors

922
00:52:03.560 --> 00:52:06.840
is really astounding in terms of,

923
00:52:06.840 --> 00:52:10.270
as Eduardo says,
his stance on immigration.

924
00:52:10.270 --> 00:52:11.470
And in the film,

925
00:52:11.470 --> 00:52:13.030
they actually have an incredible—

926
00:52:13.030 --> 00:52:17.950
one of the most powerful portions
of the film is the testimony of one

927
00:52:17.950 --> 00:52:19.780
of the Salvadoran torture victims,

928
00:52:19.780 --> 00:52:23.910
who became an immigrant
or a refugee here in the United States.

929
00:52:23.910 --> 00:52:27.530
And she talks in vivid terms
about the kinds of torture

930
00:52:27.530 --> 00:52:30.780
that she went through
and how somehow managed to survive.

931
00:52:31.450 --> 00:52:32.550
And I think that it’s—

932
00:52:33.730 --> 00:52:39.270
that Romney got his start in Bain

933
00:52:39.820 --> 00:52:43.900
through this investment
by some of these Salvadoran elites

934
00:52:43.900 --> 00:52:45.930
is really telling in itself.

935
00:52:45.930 --> 00:52:47.740
AMY GOODMAN: Now I want to get
your comment

936
00:52:47.740 --> 00:52:52.390
on the current presidential candidates
talking about immigration.

937
00:52:52.390 --> 00:52:56.480
In an appearance on the Spanish-language
network Univision last Thursday,

938
00:52:56.480 --> 00:52:59.790
President Obama faced tough questions
over his immigration policies,

939
00:52:59.790 --> 00:53:02.850
including his failure
to fulfill a campaign promise

940
00:53:02.850 --> 00:53:06.940
to enact comprehensive immigration
reform during his first year in office.

941
00:53:06.940 --> 00:53:09.230
Obama called the lack
of immigration reform

942
00:53:09.230 --> 00:53:10.980
the biggest failure of his presidency

943
00:53:10.980 --> 00:53:15.320
but attempted to shift blame
for the failure to Republicans.

944
00:53:15.320 --> 00:53:18.730
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: When we
talked about immigration reform

945
00:53:18.730 --> 00:53:19.800
in the first year,

946
00:53:19.800 --> 00:53:23.190
that’s before the economy
was on the verge of collapse.

947
00:53:23.190 --> 00:53:25.000
Lehman Brothers had collapsed.

948
00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:26.640
The stock market was collapsing.

949
00:53:27.980 --> 00:53:30.320
And so, my first priority

950
00:53:30.320 --> 00:53:33.170
was making sure that we prevented us
from going into a great depression.

951
00:53:33.900 --> 00:53:37.690
And I think everybody here remembers
where we were four years ago.

952
00:53:37.690 --> 00:53:40.360
What I confess
I did not expect,

953
00:53:40.920 --> 00:53:44.800
and so I’m happy to take responsibility
for being naïve here,

954
00:53:45.440 --> 00:53:47.170
is that Republicans

955
00:53:47.170 --> 00:53:51.170
who had previously supported
comprehensive immigration reform—

956
00:53:51.170 --> 00:53:52.640
my opponent in 2008

957
00:53:52.640 --> 00:53:56.120
who had been a champion of it
and who attended these meetings—

958
00:53:56.990 --> 00:53:58.220
suddenly would walk away.

959
00:53:58.980 --> 00:54:00.540
AMY GOODMAN: President Obama’s comments

960
00:54:00.540 --> 00:54:03.550
come as his administration
faces scrutiny for deporting

961
00:54:03.550 --> 00:54:06.750
and detaining a record number
of undocumented people.

962
00:54:06.750 --> 00:54:11.720
Nearly 400,000 immigrants were deported
during the last fiscal year.

963
00:54:11.720 --> 00:54:15.180
Republican presidential nominee
Mitt Romney also fielded questions

964
00:54:15.180 --> 00:54:18.470
about immigration during a Wednesday
appearance on Univision.

965
00:54:18.470 --> 00:54:21.070
Romney attacked Obama’s
deferred action policy

966
00:54:21.070 --> 00:54:24.130
that allows
some young undocumented people

967
00:54:24.130 --> 00:54:26.480
to remain in the country temporarily,

968
00:54:26.480 --> 00:54:28.840
saying
a more permanent solution was needed.

969
00:54:28.840 --> 00:54:30.970
Romney was accused during the appearance

970
00:54:30.970 --> 00:54:34.420
of avoiding specific details
about a possible permanent solution

971
00:54:34.420 --> 00:54:37.040
and asked to respond with a yes or no

972
00:54:37.040 --> 00:54:39.530
on whether he would deport
undocumented youth.

973
00:54:40.030 --> 00:54:41.970
MITT ROMNEY: We’re not going to—
we’re not going to round up people

974
00:54:41.970 --> 00:54:43.360
around the country and deport them.

975
00:54:43.360 --> 00:54:44.600
That’s not—

976
00:54:44.600 --> 00:54:46.590
I said during my primary campaign,

977
00:54:46.590 --> 00:54:48.720
time and again, we’re not going
to round up 12 million people,

978
00:54:48.720 --> 00:54:50.270
that includes the kids and the parents,

979
00:54:50.270 --> 00:54:51.640
and have everyone deported.

980
00:54:51.640 --> 00:54:53.740
Our system isn’t to deport people.

981
00:54:53.740 --> 00:54:56.150
We need to provide a long-term solution,

982
00:54:56.150 --> 00:54:59.120
and I’ve described the fact
that I would be in support of a program

983
00:54:59.120 --> 00:55:01.770
that said that people
who served in our military

984
00:55:01.770 --> 00:55:03.880
could be permanent residents
of the United States.

985
00:55:03.880 --> 00:55:06.550
Unlike the president,
when I’m president,

986
00:55:06.550 --> 00:55:08.220
I will actually do what I promised.

987
00:55:08.220 --> 00:55:11.590
I will put in place an immigration
reform plan that solves this issue.

988
00:55:12.990 --> 00:55:15.120
AMY GOODMAN: That was
Republican presidential nominee

989
00:55:15.120 --> 00:55:18.630
Mitt Romney speaking during an interview
on Univision last week.

990
00:55:18.630 --> 00:55:22.600
In fact, he got much louder applause
than President Obama did. Juan González?

991
00:55:22.600 --> 00:55:24.610
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, yes,
he did, because,

992
00:55:24.610 --> 00:55:26.520
as some of the reports
came out afterwards,

993
00:55:26.520 --> 00:55:28.870
he actually trucked in supporters.

994
00:55:28.870 --> 00:55:32.300
The original agreement
was that Romney would be given tickets

995
00:55:32.300 --> 00:55:36.080
to disperse to young Republicans
on the University of Miami campus,

996
00:55:36.080 --> 00:55:38.910
but they apparently could not find
enough students

997
00:55:38.910 --> 00:55:42.100
on the University
of Miami campus to fill the theater,

998
00:55:42.100 --> 00:55:46.450
so they insisted on busing in supporters
from outside the university,

999
00:55:46.450 --> 00:55:48.180
who were a lot more rowdy, I think,

1000
00:55:48.180 --> 00:55:50.310
than the students would have been.

1001
00:55:50.900 --> 00:55:55.700
But, you know,
I think that one of the things

1002
00:55:55.700 --> 00:55:56.910
that I think it’s important

1003
00:55:56.910 --> 00:56:00.790
to understand about the current
immigration debate in the country,

1004
00:56:00.790 --> 00:56:03.570
as I mentioned in the film,

1005
00:56:04.070 --> 00:56:07.820
the last, quote, "amnesty"
or attempt

1006
00:56:07.820 --> 00:56:10.610
at comprehensive immigration reform
in this country

1007
00:56:10.610 --> 00:56:13.320
came under the most
conservative president

1008
00:56:13.320 --> 00:56:15.640
in our lifetime,
which was Ronald Reagan.

1009
00:56:15.640 --> 00:56:19.400
It was Reagan
who approved the—who signed into law

1010
00:56:19.400 --> 00:56:24.200
the Simpson-Rodino bill
that provided the opportunity

1011
00:56:24.200 --> 00:56:26.170
for about three million people

1012
00:56:26.170 --> 00:56:28.160
who were then in the country,

1013
00:56:28.160 --> 00:56:32.000
undocumented, to legalize their status.

1014
00:56:32.850 --> 00:56:37.200
We’re now talking
about 11 to 12 million people

1015
00:56:37.200 --> 00:56:39.940
that are undocumented
in the United States.

1016
00:56:39.940 --> 00:56:42.610
And I think that the extreme—

1017
00:56:42.610 --> 00:56:47.890
the most extreme right
of the Republican Party

1018
00:56:47.890 --> 00:56:51.480
understands that if 11
to 12 million people

1019
00:56:51.480 --> 00:56:56.840
are able to legalize their status
and become voters,

1020
00:56:56.840 --> 00:57:00.310
it will change the political landscape
of America for decades to come.

1021
00:57:01.270 --> 00:57:06.650
They understand that it could spell
the doom of the Republican Party

1022
00:57:06.650 --> 00:57:08.420
for a generation to come.

1023
00:57:08.420 --> 00:57:12.240
And that’s why I think
they are struggling so much against it,

1024
00:57:12.240 --> 00:57:18.910
just as they did back in ’86 with the
first comprehensive immigration reform.

1025
00:57:18.910 --> 00:57:21.660
So I think that there is
a political reason

1026
00:57:21.660 --> 00:57:23.580
for this vehement opposition

1027
00:57:24.220 --> 00:57:27.420
to basically adjusting the status
for folks

1028
00:57:27.420 --> 00:57:30.890
that really,
for the most part, are not criminals.

1029
00:57:30.890 --> 00:57:32.130
They’re hard-working people.

1030
00:57:32.700 --> 00:57:36.870
They were forced to, by a variety
of reasons, leave their countries.

1031
00:57:36.870 --> 00:57:41.710
And they’re contributing
to the prosperity of the United States,

1032
00:57:41.710 --> 00:57:45.460
so that—and especially the DREAMers,
the young folks.

1033
00:57:45.460 --> 00:57:48.090
So I think that that’s
what’s at stake here,

1034
00:57:48.090 --> 00:57:52.400
is that not only a humanitarian gesture
to the people that are here,

1035
00:57:52.400 --> 00:57:54.280
but also the political repercussions

1036
00:57:54.280 --> 00:57:55.770
that will come about as a result.

1037
00:57:55.770 --> 00:57:58.750
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Juan and Eduardo,
thank you so much for being with us.

1038
00:57:58.750 --> 00:58:02.970
Eduardo López is the co-director
and producer with Wendy Thompson-

1039
00:58:02.970 --> 00:58:05.350
[Marquez]
of the feature-length documentary,

1040
00:58:05.350 --> 00:58:06.920
Harvest of Empire,

1041
00:58:07.580 --> 00:58:11.520
which is based on Juan González’s book
by the same title.

1042
00:58:11.520 --> 00:58:12.600
We thank you so much.

1043
00:58:12.600 --> 00:58:15.490
At the Laemmle Theater
on Friday night in Pasadena,

1044
00:58:15.490 --> 00:58:18.030
here in New York
at the Quad theater on 13th Street

1045
00:58:18.030 --> 00:58:20.180
in New York through October 4th.

1046
00:58:20.180 --> 00:58:22.610
This is a film certainly worth seeing.

1047
00:58:22.610 --> 00:58:24.670
What a remarkable education.

1048
00:58:24.670 --> 00:58:27.420
Well, our 100-city
Silenced Majority Tour

1049
00:58:27.420 --> 00:58:29.430
continues on Wednesday
in Storrs, Connecticut,

1050
00:58:29.430 --> 00:58:31.840
University of Connecticut
Student Union Theater at 7:30;

1051
00:58:31.840 --> 00:58:33.770
then on Thursday in Arlington, Virginia,

1052
00:58:33.770 --> 00:58:37.320
at George Mason University’s Founder’s
Hall, Room 125, at 7:30;

1053
00:58:37.320 --> 00:58:38.630
on Friday night in Charlottesville,

1054
00:58:38.630 --> 00:58:41.680
Virginia, at 7:00 p.m. at the Nau
Auditorium South Lawn Commons,

1055
00:58:41.680 --> 00:58:43.570
University of Virginia; then on Saturday

1056
00:58:43.570 --> 00:58:45.810
at 1:00 p.m. at the Green Festival
in Washington, D.C. ;

1057
00:58:45.810 --> 00:58:47.650
the Baltimore Book Festival at 7:00;

1058
00:58:47.650 --> 00:58:49.290
and on Sunday
at noon, Richmond, Virginia ;

1059
00:58:49.290 --> 00:58:50.790
at 7:00 p.m., Norfolk, Virginia .

1060
00:58:50.790 --> 00:58:53.140
Then we wrap up on Monday
at Virginia Tech .

1061
00:58:53.140 --> 00:58:55.470
Go to our website,
tour.democracynow.org .