03/08/2021
Historian Chomsky (Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal) delivers a searing examination of how colonial oppression, Indigenous resistance, and political and economic turmoil have fueled migration from Central America to the U.S. She begins by sketching the Spanish conquests and colonial structures of the 17th and 18th centuries, then details how Central America’s “long and tortured relationship” with the U.S. has been characterized by repeated interventions, including the CIA-backed overthrow of Guatemala’s democratically elected president and institution of a military dictatorship in the 1950s. Chomsky also documents how the Reagan administration sought to suppress leftist uprisings in El Salvador and Guatemala and waged a “covert war” against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government in the ’80s, and examines how neoliberal economic policies lowered wages, weakened workplace and environmental regulations, and contributed to the rise of the drug trade and gang violence the’90s and 2000s. Delving into each country’s specific experiences, Chomsky places recent migrant caravans from Central America in their historical context, and discusses how the act of remembering can reframe the immigration debate in the U.S. Though lay readers may find the deep dives into regional politics overwhelming, this is a persuasive and well-conceived reminder that the seeds of Central America’s crises were sown by foreign powers. (Apr.)
A fiery, revelatory survey of Central America under U.S. domination...Chomsky challenges readers to acknowledge that Donald Trump’s policies were 'only the most recent iteration of over a century of U.S. domination and exploitation of Central Americans.' A compelling historical synthesis, told with style and moral clarity.”
—Library Journal, starred review
“A convincing case that much of Central America’s violent unrest can be laid at the feet of US leaders.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“A searing examination of how colonial oppression, Indigenous resistance, and political and economic turmoil have fueled migration from Central America to the U.S.”
—Publishers Weekly
“This is a text that is sorely needed, and there is nothing like it available, a brilliant, deeply researched, and concise ‘forgotten’ history, not only of Central America but also of US military occupations and interventions that have created the refugees at the US-Mexico border.”
—Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States
“Aviva Chomsky’ Central America’s Forgotten History is essential reading, an antidote to mainstream coverage that ignores the larger context of the crisis. Its roots, as Chomsky concisely and convincingly reveals, are deep, and many of them snake back to Washington, to a century of catastrophic security and economic policies.”
—Greg Grandin, author of The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America
“In this breathtaking book, Aviva Chomsky chronicles Indigenous organizing and international solidarity movements that should guide contemporary efforts to reform US foreign policies vis-à-vis the Global South.”
—Paul Ortiz, author of An African American and Latinx History of the United States
“For decades, policy makers and the public have grappled with the problem of undocumented immigrants and have at the same time ignored the reasons why so many Central Americans, in particular, are fleeing in caravans of thousands to the US. . . . Until we understand the US’ role and continued complicity in perpetuating these conditions, a true solution to the immigration ‘problem’ will remain out of reach. Professor Chomsky’s book illuminates this willfully forgotten history.”
—Patricia Montes, executive director, Centro Presente
“With rich detail and accessible analysis, Aviva Chomsky demonstrates how the colonial crucible itself is ultimately a fight over how history is remembered—and why such history is so important for advancing popular struggle.”
—Steve Striffler, author of Solidarity: Latin America and the US Left in the Era of Human Rights
“I have been waiting for Central America’s Forgotten History for the past decade. This thorough and thought-provoking book revives the history that has long been severed from the Central American experience in US discourse, especially around immigration.”
—Todd Miller, author of Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security
“[Central America’s Forgotten History] gives insight to a history that we never really look at in school. It was very informative and I would recommend!”
—Kylee-Ryan Hodnett, student, Salem State University
“Aviva Chomsky delivers a detailed account of the untold history of Central America. This book is a wonderful read for those searching to further their knowledge on the United States’ hand in shaping the policies and governments in Central America and the effects it had on the people.”
—Kerry Williams, student, Salem State University
“Professor Chomsky, in the great tradition of speaking truth to power, provides a detailed account of the often-forgotten neighbors to our south. It is necessary to know and understand this history, as the crises brought on by the neoliberal model continue to amass.”
—J Lyons, student, Salem State University
“Professor Chomsky truly highlights the history of Central America and its people. She reminds us all that forgetting is a clear injustice to such a vibrant culture that has continuously been squashed throughout history.”
—Molly Clark, student, Salem State University
“Aviva Chomsky does the work of helping us unforget the pillage, plunder, and violence rained on Central America by the United States. In-depth research and good storytelling do much to resurrect the devastating stories and history beneath the immigration headlines dominating our news cycle. A necessary and timely contribution.”
—Roberto Lovato, author of Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas
★ 04/01/2021
Chomsky (history, Salem State Univ.; Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal) has crafted a fiery, revelatory survey of Central America under U.S. domination. In Chomsky's telling, the region's chronicles form a grim catalogue of extractive economies, anti-Communist dirty wars, and neoliberal austerity and privatization, often at the behest or with the support of the United States. Centuries of Spanish colonialism and decades of U.S.-backed oppression and exploitation kept the region fractured and impoverished. Blowback took the form of mass migration to the United States, as mostly Indigenous peasants fled poverty and narco-violence for better lives in el Norte. Chomsky focuses on Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua; she touches also on Costa Rica and Panama, which escaped the brunt of the suffering that afflicted neighboring countries. She explores how Catholic liberation theology galvanized left-wing opposition and how Mestizo people in power sought to erase Indigenous cultures. Above all, she issues a corrective to hollow critiques of hardline U.S. immigration policies. Chomsky challenges readers to acknowledge that Donald Trump's policies were "only the most recent iteration of over a century of U.S. domination and exploitation of Central Americans." VERDICT A compelling historical synthesis, told with style and moral clarity.—Michael Rodriguez, Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs
2021-01-26
A closely argued overview of a region long torn by war and exploitation.
Historian Chomsky, coordinator of Latin American studies at Salem State University, writes that in Central America, “forgetting is layered upon forgetting.” Against a backdrop of jungles, volcanoes, and agricultural fields, the people there proved victims to generation after generation of foreign resource extractors: first the Spanish, who brutally subjugated Native populations and imposed a castelike system of governance; then European companies that kept the elites in their pockets, building an export economy of coffee and fruit that expropriated land; then U.S. military intervention. The latter is scarcely known to most Americans (and indeed, in its details, to many Central Americans), but it set in motion forces that finally led to the civil wars of the 1970s and 1980s in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador—the latter two propped up by the Reagan administration, which averred that the governments were committed to human rights along with anti-communism. The latter was surely true, but, as Chomsky notes, the flood of refugees to El Norte “gave the lie to Reagan’s claims of the governments’ legitimacy and right to US support.” Even Jimmy Carter pledged that after the fall of the Somoza regime in Nicaragua, “he would not allow another social revolution to occur in Central America.” The failed policies of the Trump administration were in line with a system that imposed and promulgated neoliberal policies on what were de facto colonies, but even the wall-builders could do nothing about the resulting exodus. As Chomsky notes, in 1970 the U.S. census counted 114,000 Central American immigrants; as of 2017, there were nearly 3.5 million. Of course, “the real figures are likely higher…because immigrants, especially those who are undocumented, are notoriously undercounted”—and in keeping with her provocative thesis, forgotten as well by “almost all our political leaders, mainstream media, and educational system.”
A convincing case that much of Central America’s violent unrest can be laid at the feet of U.S. leaders.
