US immigration story is reflected in Lynn

LYNN – The story covers 500 years, millions of people and several major countries and their respective economic and political histories.But journalist Juan Gonzalez’ history of Latino immigrants in the United States also includes a little border town in Texas whose residents employ Mexican workers competing for jobs with General Electric factory workers in Lynn.”You cannot really understand the story of Latino immigrants in the United States without understanding the major migrations have come from countries that were most dominated by our government and our businesses,” Gonzalez told an audience of about 35 at Breed Middle School Sunday.Gonzalez is an award-winning investigative reporter and the author of the 2000 book “Harvest of Empire: A history of Latinos in America.” He visited Breed on Sunday as a guest of the New Lynn Coalition to screen a 2012 documentary based on the book as well as discuss his own experiences as a Puerto Rican immigrant growing up in Brooklyn and covering immigration issues at the New York Daily News and on Democracy Now! radio.Gonzalez told the audience he was inspired to write the book based on a question to which he has long sought an answer: “Why the hell are there so many Latinos in the United States?”It was a question that he said many people shared.”People in the United States have no idea why we came to this country,” Guatemalan immigrant Mariana Cabrera told the documentary cameras. “And if they do, it’s probably the wrong one.”Gonzalez answers this question by focusing on several major countries and/or regions of origin and the United States’ involvement in the countries which preceded the immigration waves. He finds that the story of the immigrants can be tied to the story of United States’ political, military and economic goals in that country/area of origin.For instance, Gonzalez noted that the United States took three places as prizes after the Spanish-American War in 1896: Cuba, the Philippines and Puerto Rico. The former two were released by the United States, while four sugar companies asserted control of Puerto Rico, Gonzalez told the audience.In 1917, the United States granted citizenship to Puerto Ricans and subsequently drafted 20,000 islanders to serve in World War I. Island leaders subsequently went “from welcoming Americans to anti-American,” as an uneasy relationship among the sugar companies dominating the economy, former service members eager to move to the mainland United States and islanders developed following both world wars.Gonzalez discusses the United States’ involvement in Guatemala as promoting business interests under the guise of Cold War politics. With 2 percent of the owners in the United Fruit Company owning 75 percent of the arable land, the U.S.-backed dictator was ousted in a 1944 revolution. The democratically elected president was painted as a communist and ousted by the CIA 10 years later, prompting a series of U.S.-backed regimes that tried to purge its enemies. Many Guatemalans sought refuge in the United States.Similar stories continue today.Carly McClain, Director of Organizing at the New Lynn Coalition, said that she was most impressed with a post-movie discussion about the American origins of why the so-called unaccompanied members came to the border last year fleeing gang violence in Central America. Gonzalez said the uptick in gang activity in Central America can be tied to the United States deporting undocumented residents following jail sentences. When the gang members returned, other Central Americans flee to the United States.”It’s this vicious cycle,” McClain said.But she said this was also an important story for local people to learn.”A lot of the conversation around immigration has been really heated and angry, and we wanted to create a space where we could show this movie but also create a dialogue that was grounded in facts,” McClain said. “I think that was what was cool about people who came, they were not just one segment of Lynn, but