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Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis
An epic, heartbreaking, and deeply reported history of the disastrous humanitarian crisis at the southern border told through the lives of the migrants forced to risk everything and the policymakers who determine their fate, by New Yorker staff writer Jonathan Blitzer
Everyone who makes the journey faces an impossible choice. Hundreds of thousands of people who arrive every year at the US-Mexico border travel far from their homes. An overwhelming share of them come from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, although many migrants come from farther away. Some are fleeing persecution, others crime or hunger. Very often it will not be their first attempt to cross. They may have already been deported from the United States, but it remains their only hope for safety and prosperity. Their homes have become uninhabitable. They will take their chances.
This vast and unremitting crisis did not spring up overnight. Indeed, as Blitzer dramatizes with forensic, unprecedented reporting, it is the result of decades of misguided policy and sweeping corruption. Brilliantly weaving the stories of Central Americans whose lives have been devastated by chronic political conflict and violence with those of American activists, government officials, and the politicians responsible for the country’s tragically tangled immigration policy, Blitzer reveals the full, layered picture for the first time.
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here is an odyssey of struggle and resilience. With astonishing nuance and detail, Blitzer tells an epic story about the people whose lives ebb and flow across the border, and in doing so, he delves into the heart of American life itself. This vital and remarkable story has shaped the nation’s turbulent politics and culture in countless ways—and will almost certainly determine its future.
Everyone who makes the journey faces an impossible choice. Hundreds of thousands of people who arrive every year at the US-Mexico border travel far from their homes. An overwhelming share of them come from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, although many migrants come from farther away. Some are fleeing persecution, others crime or hunger. Very often it will not be their first attempt to cross. They may have already been deported from the United States, but it remains their only hope for safety and prosperity. Their homes have become uninhabitable. They will take their chances.
This vast and unremitting crisis did not spring up overnight. Indeed, as Blitzer dramatizes with forensic, unprecedented reporting, it is the result of decades of misguided policy and sweeping corruption. Brilliantly weaving the stories of Central Americans whose lives have been devastated by chronic political conflict and violence with those of American activists, government officials, and the politicians responsible for the country’s tragically tangled immigration policy, Blitzer reveals the full, layered picture for the first time.
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here is an odyssey of struggle and resilience. With astonishing nuance and detail, Blitzer tells an epic story about the people whose lives ebb and flow across the border, and in doing so, he delves into the heart of American life itself. This vital and remarkable story has shaped the nation’s turbulent politics and culture in countless ways—and will almost certainly determine its future.
544 pages, Hardcover
First published January 30, 2024
About the author
Jonathan Blitzer
3 books34 followersJonathan Blitzer is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He has won a National Award for Education Reporting as well as an Edward R. Murrow Award, and was a 2021 Emerson Fellow at New America. He lives with his family in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 319 reviews
February 16, 2024
This is the kind of book that wins Pulitzers. It is deeply researched and has great storytelling. It gives people who are normally ignored as individuals by media the full presidential treatment. It tells the story of humans, places, and policies. It is really good, but in all the detail it goes on too long.
March 3, 2024
I’ve just finished and am at a loss for words. In just shy of 500 pages Blizter has crafted such a cohesive look at the last 40 years of the US relationship with immigration and Central America (mainly El Salvador with later sections focusing on Guatemala and Honduras.) I learned something on every page, I laughed, I cried, I gasped aloud.
Weaving together the personal narratives of people seeking asylum and those creating asylum legislation, Blitzer attempts to show the intricate and ever-evolving relationship between the United States and Central America. After every chapter (written so accessible for the amount of detail and politics they contain) I would call my Dad or friends to ask if they knew about different policies, facts, or movements.
This is a great read for anyone who is trying to educate themselves on a topic that is at the forefront of our news cycle especially in an election year.
Thank you so much Penguin Press for sending this my way and to the author for documenting this so concisely.
Weaving together the personal narratives of people seeking asylum and those creating asylum legislation, Blitzer attempts to show the intricate and ever-evolving relationship between the United States and Central America. After every chapter (written so accessible for the amount of detail and politics they contain) I would call my Dad or friends to ask if they knew about different policies, facts, or movements.
This is a great read for anyone who is trying to educate themselves on a topic that is at the forefront of our news cycle especially in an election year.
Thank you so much Penguin Press for sending this my way and to the author for documenting this so concisely.
February 1, 2024
This was such an important, all-encompassing, fascinating and heartbreaking book. This whole region is such a mess, in large part thanks to us. There are no good answers as to how to fix anything, but it's clear from this book how much damage has been done.
September 10, 2024
Blitzer knows his subject matter. He shows the throughline of America's stance on various regimes and movements in Central America during the 1960's and beyond to the crisis we are witness to today.
The best part of the book is that he follow individual's stories impacted by military states, dwindling resources, gang violence and death threats. Humanizing the narrative of what some call an "invasion" is paramount.
One such individual is Juan, a man studying to be a doctor, when he is kidnapped and torturned by the military in El Salvador. Juan's hands are maimed to ensure he can never practice medicine - his passion and his calling. Juan ends up in the United States for twenty-five years before he returns home. He describes it as a cassette being put on pause. He had no intention of staying in the United States, but his presence here had purpose and created community. He built bridges between newly arrived Saladorans in the uncertain community of Baltimore where they were not just language barriers, but cultural barriers.
I guess my point is that it is important to know why people flee one area to another. The interesting part is how the government played God when determining who was allowed in and who wasn't. Most of those undocumented individuals from Central America were denied sanctuary and sent back to faminine and violence the likes America has not seen.
All in all, this one packed a real punch for me. It's one that will stay with me for a while. There is so much I learned when reading this one.
The best part of the book is that he follow individual's stories impacted by military states, dwindling resources, gang violence and death threats. Humanizing the narrative of what some call an "invasion" is paramount.
One such individual is Juan, a man studying to be a doctor, when he is kidnapped and torturned by the military in El Salvador. Juan's hands are maimed to ensure he can never practice medicine - his passion and his calling. Juan ends up in the United States for twenty-five years before he returns home. He describes it as a cassette being put on pause. He had no intention of staying in the United States, but his presence here had purpose and created community. He built bridges between newly arrived Saladorans in the uncertain community of Baltimore where they were not just language barriers, but cultural barriers.
I guess my point is that it is important to know why people flee one area to another. The interesting part is how the government played God when determining who was allowed in and who wasn't. Most of those undocumented individuals from Central America were denied sanctuary and sent back to faminine and violence the likes America has not seen.
All in all, this one packed a real punch for me. It's one that will stay with me for a while. There is so much I learned when reading this one.
January 22, 2024
I absolutely and completely recommend this book as a must read. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to read an advanced copy, I have been blown away by this book!
Jonathan Blitzer so brilliantly and with great care shows the hows and whys that led to the US’s present immigration crisis. It’s such an in depth look with epic fact checking of history, great sources & such respect for the stories he presents to us.
Honestly, this book means so much to me as many of the stories mirror what so much of my family and friends have endured in migrating to the US from the Americas. This is so important and like Juan Romagoza says “una cucharita de justicia”, a spoonful of justice, is what I want for us too!
Please read this book! It’s so crucial in understanding where we are now!
#goodreadsgiveaway #goodreadsgiveaways
Jonathan Blitzer so brilliantly and with great care shows the hows and whys that led to the US’s present immigration crisis. It’s such an in depth look with epic fact checking of history, great sources & such respect for the stories he presents to us.
Honestly, this book means so much to me as many of the stories mirror what so much of my family and friends have endured in migrating to the US from the Americas. This is so important and like Juan Romagoza says “una cucharita de justicia”, a spoonful of justice, is what I want for us too!
Please read this book! It’s so crucial in understanding where we are now!
#goodreadsgiveaway #goodreadsgiveaways
February 5, 2024
The issues of the infamous ‘Southern Border’ come to life through intimate portrayals of the lives of several who have been through the trials and tribulations both at their point of origin in Central America and their various journeys to the US. In all honesty I would rather have read more detail about the higher level political reasons in the US and the other American countries that have contributed to this hot button issue but the personal side of course lends itself to having a better affinity for those who are very personally affected by the vagaries of the US immigration system, such as it is.
March 27, 2024
I heard part of an interview with the author on NPR and thought the book sounded compelling, so I picked it up. The "old" history of Central America pre-2000s I already knew. But man, it's awful. The more recent stuff really shows how US foreign policy and immigration are intertwined. There were a lot of hard parts to read... I think one of the worst was when the US spread COVID around Central America via deportation flights 🙁
June 21, 2024
Good book overall. Longish review ahead because it is a work worthy of discussion.
We'll start with the good. I, like most Americans, am not really aware of the origin of the immigration crisis that has been a mainstay in American politics since ~2014. This book does a good job of explaining the origins of the evil governments of Central America in the 70s and 80s (major surprise to no one: American support holding up fascist dictators with death squads) causing the destabilization of the region. Once America started deporting people who fled from these evil governments to America back to their origin en masse, the systems in these countries collapse and we essentially have situation we have today. The sections of the book where the author is quoting government sources in both the United States and Central America while summarizing events is the strongest part of this book.
Now for the bad. This is written by a journalist and you can tell. The number of names and different people introduced in this book is astounding, and Blitzer expects you to remember and recall them all. The point of this is ostensibly to show the impact of the policies of the American government on individuals and to force you to empathize. The downside is that I was getting people confused as the deluge of names made different people indistinguishable from each other. Additionally, empathy is a finite resource. I simply didn't have it in me to care about very single one of the 150+ people that are in this book. The book really didn't need long sections about the activities of the activists working in the United States; I understand the Blitzer wants to recognize the people who helped him write this book but this book really could have been much much shorter. Finally, the characterization of several of the people in the book, both smaller and larger characters, made me say "stop the glazing" at times and was downright cringe in several spots.
Overall, don't want to take away from this achievement as I learned a lot and I truly think this is an essential book if you want to understand immigration at the Southern border today. You could probably put the book down after the Trump section though.
We'll start with the good. I, like most Americans, am not really aware of the origin of the immigration crisis that has been a mainstay in American politics since ~2014. This book does a good job of explaining the origins of the evil governments of Central America in the 70s and 80s (major surprise to no one: American support holding up fascist dictators with death squads) causing the destabilization of the region. Once America started deporting people who fled from these evil governments to America back to their origin en masse, the systems in these countries collapse and we essentially have situation we have today. The sections of the book where the author is quoting government sources in both the United States and Central America while summarizing events is the strongest part of this book.
Now for the bad. This is written by a journalist and you can tell. The number of names and different people introduced in this book is astounding, and Blitzer expects you to remember and recall them all. The point of this is ostensibly to show the impact of the policies of the American government on individuals and to force you to empathize. The downside is that I was getting people confused as the deluge of names made different people indistinguishable from each other. Additionally, empathy is a finite resource. I simply didn't have it in me to care about very single one of the 150+ people that are in this book. The book really didn't need long sections about the activities of the activists working in the United States; I understand the Blitzer wants to recognize the people who helped him write this book but this book really could have been much much shorter. Finally, the characterization of several of the people in the book, both smaller and larger characters, made me say "stop the glazing" at times and was downright cringe in several spots.
Overall, don't want to take away from this achievement as I learned a lot and I truly think this is an essential book if you want to understand immigration at the Southern border today. You could probably put the book down after the Trump section though.
March 26, 2024
A strong contender for “nonfiction book that will make you cry the most.” More imperative now than ever.
September 30, 2024
This book must have taken a lot of work!
It goes through the last ~4 decades of US immigration policy & history, and in parallel follows the lives of specific people that were affected.
The biggest wtf about the history is the US being absolute scumbags and interfering to pick and choose leaders in Central America for questionable reasons, then giving military aid to those governments who were in many cases committing terrible human rights abuses. Who knows how safe or non-corrupt those countries would be if we hadn’t done that, but we certainly made things worse.
Lost one star for being kind of a slog to get through despite being interesting.
I don’t remember exactly why this was on my Want to Read - I think it was from seeing it in the newspaper, a good title, a subject I didn’t know a lot about, and then lots of good reviews
It goes through the last ~4 decades of US immigration policy & history, and in parallel follows the lives of specific people that were affected.
The biggest wtf about the history is the US being absolute scumbags and interfering to pick and choose leaders in Central America for questionable reasons, then giving military aid to those governments who were in many cases committing terrible human rights abuses. Who knows how safe or non-corrupt those countries would be if we hadn’t done that, but we certainly made things worse.
Lost one star for being kind of a slog to get through despite being interesting.
I don’t remember exactly why this was on my Want to Read - I think it was from seeing it in the newspaper, a good title, a subject I didn’t know a lot about, and then lots of good reviews
October 30, 2024
this was excellent. i think the author made such a smart choice in tackling this complex, far-reaching topic through a very human lens, following individuals who have been most affected by US foreign policy and immigration policy in central america. i feel that this issue is widely misunderstood by the american public on both sides of the political aisle, and i highly recommend picking this book up if you want to educate yourself.
February 20, 2024
Riveting, incredibly detailed and wonderfully explanatory! Author Blitzer gives us several protagonists from real life to help us understand the insanely complex story of one immigration crisis after another. Central American history is inextricably linked to all the US administrations since Kennedy’s. In attempt after attempt to circumvent the influence of Russia and communism, we’ve ended up giving gobsmacking amounts of arms, money, military training, and excuses/passes to dictators and autocrats. The people who flee El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras aren’t looking for a better economic future, they are trying to LIVE. Gangs have been a horrific problem and we exacerbated it incredibly quickly by deporting hardened criminals from our jails to Central American countries with impunity and dire consequences.
I cried several times at passages that depict the torture of innocent people, the deliberate separation of children from their families with less than no regard for how to reunite them, and the hideous rapes and killings of missionary women.
It’s A LOT and I fully understand if you have to put this book aside from the evil. But if you can stick with it, you’ll have a decent understanding of what actually brings desperate people here and the lack of mercy they often encounter. These people Blitzer fleshes out for us are heroic (especially Juan, Eddie, and Keldy) and worthy of our attention.
I cried several times at passages that depict the torture of innocent people, the deliberate separation of children from their families with less than no regard for how to reunite them, and the hideous rapes and killings of missionary women.
It’s A LOT and I fully understand if you have to put this book aside from the evil. But if you can stick with it, you’ll have a decent understanding of what actually brings desperate people here and the lack of mercy they often encounter. These people Blitzer fleshes out for us are heroic (especially Juan, Eddie, and Keldy) and worthy of our attention.
February 13, 2024
This book was gutting in how it laid bare the cyclical nature and incredible cruelty of the U.S. immigration system, and how callously people's lives have been upended for the sake of political calculus. It was also amazingly well-reported--Blitzer takes an issue that spans multiple decades, two continents and millions of people and and still manages to show the intimate details of individual people's lives.
July 14, 2024
A friend recommended this book after I read Solito. It is a very good book but it was intense and at times difficult to read. It is impossible to understand why people risk everything to reach the US from Central America without understanding the countries’ histories, our role in those histories, and the dire circumstances of those countries today. This is an important, well-written book and I’m glad I read it.
October 3, 2024
A sweeping and important book about several decades' worth of Central American economic and immigration policy and its devastating consequences. I had a fair sense of the US' manipulative involvement in the politics of the region from reading Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent (highly recommended, btw), but Blitzer seems to covers all that and more.
I found EVERYONE WHO IS GONE IS HERE most effective when it was closely following the journeys of several of its key "characters"--such as Juan, the Salvadoran doctor whose life story opens and closes the books, or Keldy, the mother whose children were taken from her in her attempt to enter the US. This framing added a clear emotional element to the otherwise dense tome covering everything from intra-national political upheaval to the machinations of the members of various US residents' Cabinets.
However, I did end up feeling like there was a little too much of everything in this book. I was riveted by Juan's story--until Blitzer abruptly moved away from Juan to introduce another person, Eddie, who had an entirely different story. It was like that throughout the book: just when you thought you had a grasp on which aspect of the crisis Blitzer was talking about, the book flips into the next chapter to talking about something completely different.
Overall, I'm glad I read this book (although I somewhat regret listening to the audiobook instead of reading it; not even André Santana's determinedly effusive narration could make me ignore the fact that I felt overwhelmed by names, details, and issues), but almost wish it had been two, or even three, separate books, so that each strand of Blitzer's argument could have been more thematically and structurally tight.
I found EVERYONE WHO IS GONE IS HERE most effective when it was closely following the journeys of several of its key "characters"--such as Juan, the Salvadoran doctor whose life story opens and closes the books, or Keldy, the mother whose children were taken from her in her attempt to enter the US. This framing added a clear emotional element to the otherwise dense tome covering everything from intra-national political upheaval to the machinations of the members of various US residents' Cabinets.
However, I did end up feeling like there was a little too much of everything in this book. I was riveted by Juan's story--until Blitzer abruptly moved away from Juan to introduce another person, Eddie, who had an entirely different story. It was like that throughout the book: just when you thought you had a grasp on which aspect of the crisis Blitzer was talking about, the book flips into the next chapter to talking about something completely different.
Overall, I'm glad I read this book (although I somewhat regret listening to the audiobook instead of reading it; not even André Santana's determinedly effusive narration could make me ignore the fact that I felt overwhelmed by names, details, and issues), but almost wish it had been two, or even three, separate books, so that each strand of Blitzer's argument could have been more thematically and structurally tight.
October 7, 2024
As would be expected of a New Yorker writer, Blitzer tells this st, interspersing the stories of three focal individuals with the narrative of US policy engagement with Central America. The individuals give us reasons to care about the policy changes, humanising a big picture narrative, while the policy detail tries to explain the whole mess.
The book is ambitious in scope - starting under Carter and finishing under Trump, and covering primarily El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, with Nicaragua always lurking in the wings. The scope is one of the best parts of the book - tight enough to detail what happened in these countries, but broad enough to give a glimpse of how the whole picture fits together. Blitzer also succintly covers the political weirdness of US immigration enforcement, making it easier to understand some of the Obama and Trump years.
There are unfortunate gaps in Blitzer's analysis - while he certainly covers US decisions around the region, he tends to imply electoral needs and ideology primarily drive these - the book lacks a focus on the role of US/Canadian/Multinational exploitation of the region (or in fact any economic analysis, including the role of migration criminalisation in keeping a low-wage pool of workers in the US). But there is nevertheless plenty here to get angry about, and any writer seeking to connect the dots between US foreign policy and the desperate plight of Central American refugees is a welcome addition to reading lists.
The book is ambitious in scope - starting under Carter and finishing under Trump, and covering primarily El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, with Nicaragua always lurking in the wings. The scope is one of the best parts of the book - tight enough to detail what happened in these countries, but broad enough to give a glimpse of how the whole picture fits together. Blitzer also succintly covers the political weirdness of US immigration enforcement, making it easier to understand some of the Obama and Trump years.
There are unfortunate gaps in Blitzer's analysis - while he certainly covers US decisions around the region, he tends to imply electoral needs and ideology primarily drive these - the book lacks a focus on the role of US/Canadian/Multinational exploitation of the region (or in fact any economic analysis, including the role of migration criminalisation in keeping a low-wage pool of workers in the US). But there is nevertheless plenty here to get angry about, and any writer seeking to connect the dots between US foreign policy and the desperate plight of Central American refugees is a welcome addition to reading lists.
July 8, 2024
While I appreciated a look into the lives of specific immigrants, or those attempting to immigrate, and how their experience differed I found the narrative too rich on the personal and too lean on the political. I know personal is political, but when you zoom in too close on the experience of one you can lose sight of the larger forces that are the ‘why’ behind the experience. The last section of the book is a bit better about it, offering a LOT of details about political forces and pressures, but still not to the level I expected.
This is not the first book I have read about the experience of immigrants trying or successfully making it to the US and all of them make me feel uneasy. I do not know if it is the stories that writers choose to better grip the reader or if it is a common experience, but it always feels so uncertain and unsettled. It is as if they are always living with the expectation that someone will come to their door and tell them they cannot stay here anymore, regardless of their immigration status. And they think that because it has happened in the past to others.
I feel like I should stop reading books about ‘how the sausage is made’. Because I keep hearing politicians and common people say things like “That’s not who we are” but then who is doing these terrible things and letting these terrible things happen? Maybe we are those terrible people and we just find comfort in lying ourselves that we are not. Maybe I too can find comfort in being ignorant of terrible things that happen around me as learning about them is no comfort at all.
This is not the first book I have read about the experience of immigrants trying or successfully making it to the US and all of them make me feel uneasy. I do not know if it is the stories that writers choose to better grip the reader or if it is a common experience, but it always feels so uncertain and unsettled. It is as if they are always living with the expectation that someone will come to their door and tell them they cannot stay here anymore, regardless of their immigration status. And they think that because it has happened in the past to others.
I feel like I should stop reading books about ‘how the sausage is made’. Because I keep hearing politicians and common people say things like “That’s not who we are” but then who is doing these terrible things and letting these terrible things happen? Maybe we are those terrible people and we just find comfort in lying ourselves that we are not. Maybe I too can find comfort in being ignorant of terrible things that happen around me as learning about them is no comfort at all.
October 1, 2024
"A sense of community pervaded his body. The dead were alive and with him. 'So many scars in El Salvador, and we have the privilege to show ours,” he thought. 'Everyone who is gone is here.'"
"The US was propping up a war machine in El Salvador, she told them; it had long treated the region as a geopolitical laboratory. The CIA had overthrown the Guatemalan government in 1954 at the behest of an American corporation that, among other things, wanted bigger tax breaks abroad. Honduras had come to be known in the region as the USS Honduras, a de facto American military installation. For years, the US’s man in Nicaragua was a dictator. In Castillo’s circles, as the saying went, El Salvador is Spanish for Vietnam."
"'The capital of the world' is what Juan called Washington; or, more emphatically, 'the capital of the empire that drove me from my home.'"
I decided to tackle Everyone Who is Gone is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Border Crisis by Jonathon Blitze because I wanted to gain a better understanding of one of the biggest topics in American politics: immigration/the border crisis. This book covers several important pieces of the puzzle of how we got to the humanitarian crisis at the border today. It is a lesson on Central American governments (including some very brutal U.S.-backed regimes and devastating civil wars) and U.S. foreign relations within that region, and also offers a crash course in the evolution of U.S. immigration policy over the last fifty years. Although I found this all to be very interesting, my favorite aspect of the book was the inclusion of the stories of individual migrants who fled unfamothable violence and torture in the Northern Triangle and their ensuing decades-long struggles to survive and prosper.
I learned so much from this book, but I would say that the biggest and most crucial take-aways from reading a book like this are: A) an increased sense of empathy for immigrants, borne out of an increased understanding of the circumstances that drive them from their homes and B) simply being able to acknowledge the overwhelming complexity of the subject and understanding that there is no easy solution that is humane, moral, and politically uncontroversial. For these reasons, I strongly urge you to read Everyone Who is Gone is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Border Crisis , instead of blindly buying into the hateful rhetoric that is being so vilely used as political vitriol. It just might make you a better human and will certainly make you a more informed (but likely more conflicted) one.
"The US was propping up a war machine in El Salvador, she told them; it had long treated the region as a geopolitical laboratory. The CIA had overthrown the Guatemalan government in 1954 at the behest of an American corporation that, among other things, wanted bigger tax breaks abroad. Honduras had come to be known in the region as the USS Honduras, a de facto American military installation. For years, the US’s man in Nicaragua was a dictator. In Castillo’s circles, as the saying went, El Salvador is Spanish for Vietnam."
"'The capital of the world' is what Juan called Washington; or, more emphatically, 'the capital of the empire that drove me from my home.'"
I decided to tackle Everyone Who is Gone is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Border Crisis by Jonathon Blitze because I wanted to gain a better understanding of one of the biggest topics in American politics: immigration/the border crisis. This book covers several important pieces of the puzzle of how we got to the humanitarian crisis at the border today. It is a lesson on Central American governments (including some very brutal U.S.-backed regimes and devastating civil wars) and U.S. foreign relations within that region, and also offers a crash course in the evolution of U.S. immigration policy over the last fifty years. Although I found this all to be very interesting, my favorite aspect of the book was the inclusion of the stories of individual migrants who fled unfamothable violence and torture in the Northern Triangle and their ensuing decades-long struggles to survive and prosper.
I learned so much from this book, but I would say that the biggest and most crucial take-aways from reading a book like this are: A) an increased sense of empathy for immigrants, borne out of an increased understanding of the circumstances that drive them from their homes and B) simply being able to acknowledge the overwhelming complexity of the subject and understanding that there is no easy solution that is humane, moral, and politically uncontroversial. For these reasons, I strongly urge you to read Everyone Who is Gone is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Border Crisis , instead of blindly buying into the hateful rhetoric that is being so vilely used as political vitriol. It just might make you a better human and will certainly make you a more informed (but likely more conflicted) one.
July 14, 2024
Long and tough but definitely a must read and will probably think about it every day thank you for the several recommendations re last status <3
This book made me…
wish I was still a student and could take the southern border geography cross listed espm class again
cry
extra angry & scared about this election
feel like you should have to read it to vote
feel sick (intense graphic descriptions of torture and terror)
feel actually less like American Dirt is so torture-porn and maybe actually just really deeply researched? *see RF Kuang’s recent interview on what stories authors can tell interesting food for thought
never want to go into politics
miss Obama… the “I stay up all night worrying about children in XYZ place” (loose quote), queue dread about November again
really miss California & the Bay in particular
This book made me…
wish I was still a student and could take the southern border geography cross listed espm class again
cry
extra angry & scared about this election
feel like you should have to read it to vote
feel sick (intense graphic descriptions of torture and terror)
feel actually less like American Dirt is so torture-porn and maybe actually just really deeply researched? *see RF Kuang’s recent interview on what stories authors can tell interesting food for thought
never want to go into politics
miss Obama… the “I stay up all night worrying about children in XYZ place” (loose quote), queue dread about November again
really miss California & the Bay in particular
March 15, 2024
Lately it seems like entire populations of Central American are arriving at the southern US border to request asylum. Most migrants have made a perilous trip through Mexico desperate to escape corruption, violence, and instability. Immigration is a hot political issue being discussed with rancor almost without any grasp of history. This book attempts to set the record straight.
The United States has much to atone for in its relations with Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. During the Reagan years our government provided support to military death squads terrorizing and murdering civilians in those countries. Jonathan Blitzer not only reminds us of those US sponsored atrocities, he also tells the personal stories of four of its victims. The tales of torture are extremely difficult to read. They are the subject of nightmares.
Through the postwar years the US government has used central american states as though they were a personal fiefdom. No single administration has been without fault. United States political objectives have frequently interfered with central american sovereignty to the detriment of its ordinary citizens. And the most recent atrocity - committed by the Trump administration - was to separate migrant parents from their children. They even failed to keep documentation making it almost impossible to reunite families.
These actions are not compatible with a nation that considers itself to be lawful and just. It is painful and necessary to remember this shameful history.
The United States has much to atone for in its relations with Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. During the Reagan years our government provided support to military death squads terrorizing and murdering civilians in those countries. Jonathan Blitzer not only reminds us of those US sponsored atrocities, he also tells the personal stories of four of its victims. The tales of torture are extremely difficult to read. They are the subject of nightmares.
Through the postwar years the US government has used central american states as though they were a personal fiefdom. No single administration has been without fault. United States political objectives have frequently interfered with central american sovereignty to the detriment of its ordinary citizens. And the most recent atrocity - committed by the Trump administration - was to separate migrant parents from their children. They even failed to keep documentation making it almost impossible to reunite families.
These actions are not compatible with a nation that considers itself to be lawful and just. It is painful and necessary to remember this shameful history.
October 15, 2024
This is the best researched and written book I’ve ever read - at moments it reads like an action novel because the details of people’s stories feel too insane to be real, and I had to remind myself these are the stories of real people who could be patients at my clinic. In fact, one of the main subjects of the book is the doctor who founded the clinic I work at!!! I have been raving about this book since I started reading it and I have a feeling I’m not gonna stop anytime soon.
June 9, 2024
I don't usually read books this closely connected to my work in my free time, but this book was really excellent. And even though I have been very familiar with this content professionally, personally, and academically, I still learned a ton of new things and gained a deeper understanding of the back-and-forth migrant flows over the southern border over the last 40 years. If you want a deep understanding of the roots of migration and the decades of interconnection between the U.S. and Central America, this book is worth every page.
Read
October 18, 2024I ran out of time on the Libby loan 😩
September 1, 2024
It is an election year so "everybody" is talking about the border!
But...what do you actually know about this hot issue?
Well, leave it to Jonathan Blitzer (staff writer at The New Yorker)
to make this topic so intersting and more importantly readable!
#Must Read
But...what do you actually know about this hot issue?
Well, leave it to Jonathan Blitzer (staff writer at The New Yorker)
to make this topic so intersting and more importantly readable!
#Must Read
October 2, 2024
This book focuses on how US foreign policy in Central America starting in the 80s created the immigration crisis of today. Blitzer follows four people from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras as they try to escape from death squads and rampant gangs. He also dives into how US administrations since Reagan's have dealt with the crisis, and the evidence is damning. The writing is sometimes choppy with jarring transitions, but the topic is so important that I felt it was worth 5 stars.
October 11, 2024
One of my favorite books I’ve ever read. I knew there was nothing new under the proverbial immigration Sun, but I had no idea how cyclical our immigration history has become. I knew our immigration crisis was manufactured in part by the U.S, but I had no idea how much blood we had on our hands. Pretty sure this one is gonna win a Pulitzer.
June 7, 2024
This book was actually the most interesting book I’ve read for school so far. The journalistic and storytelling style of the writing kept me wanting to read more. The stories of these immigrants were extremely eye opening to the conditions and immigration policies throughout history.
July 7, 2024
One of the best books I will read all year. Grand in scale and detailed in specificity. The story of immigration is one of necessity, heartbreak, and a close examination of our shared history. Where there is despair there is also hope. Introspection and empathy must go hand in hand with policy. What a book!
May 17, 2024
Are you confused and perplexed by the ongoing border crisis? Read this book to understand that the confusion and perplexity have been decades in the making.
Alarmed by various news reports you hear on the topic? Read this book to understand that the latest reports haven’t just arrived out of nowhere.
Tempted by some politician’s simple solution to the issue? Read this book to learn about how the unintended consequences of the “simple solutions” of the past help explain where we are now.
A side benefit for me in this book: it does an excellent job describing every day life for regular people under a paramilitary regime: the daily indignities, the stifling loss of opportunities, the constant shadow of fear. When there is no accountability for the government, no one is safe and sooner or later every normal person wonders where they can go to live a normal life.
Alarmed by various news reports you hear on the topic? Read this book to understand that the latest reports haven’t just arrived out of nowhere.
Tempted by some politician’s simple solution to the issue? Read this book to learn about how the unintended consequences of the “simple solutions” of the past help explain where we are now.
A side benefit for me in this book: it does an excellent job describing every day life for regular people under a paramilitary regime: the daily indignities, the stifling loss of opportunities, the constant shadow of fear. When there is no accountability for the government, no one is safe and sooner or later every normal person wonders where they can go to live a normal life.
March 13, 2024
If you want to understand why we are continuing to struggle with immigration and the border you must read this book! Jonathan Blitzer has written a masterful book on the subject which is well worth your time! I couldn’t put it down! A must read!
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