Creosote

I To fall like dry leaves, to rot on my topsoil, and be called by no name except “deportees.” Everyone knows about the plane wreck at Los Gatos by now, but there is a detail: once harvested by the braceros being sent back to the Mexican border, oranges were packed in creosote dumps to render … More Creosote

Sonia Johnson

Once upon a time I was sitting in a coffeehouse reading, as strands of conversation from another table wafted over to me. Under discussion was Israel’s right to exist. I was very young at the time and had not heard the phrase before. That is it, I said to myself. That is what I am … More Sonia Johnson

Marjane Satrapi

La Changeseeker explica por qué tenemos todos que leer a Marjane Satrapi. A continuación reproducimos unos trozos de la entrevista con Satrapi que cita la Changeseeker: Satrapi: If I have any advice, it’s that every day that you wake up, don’t say, ‘This is normal.’ Every day, wake up with this idea that you have … More Marjane Satrapi

Bandera Tricolor E

FOR EXPLANATION AND SOURCE SEE BANDERA TRICOLOR “The Department of Labor does basically nothing,” says Jeff West of LLS. “It’s up to us,” he says, to insure workers are not mistreated. The effectiveness of this voluntary system depends on the whims of contractors. LLS managers–who charge workers a relatively low $165 fee–know many recruits by … More Bandera Tricolor E

Bandera Tricolor D

FOR EXPLANATION AND SOURCE SEE BANDERA TRICOLOR With thousands of new guest workers pouring into the Gulf Coast in the wake of Rita and Katrina, such conflicts have multiplied as the region has become a test case for the use of foreign temporary labor. If Congress passes an expanded guest-worker program, some labor experts believe, … More Bandera Tricolor D

Bandera Tricolor C

FOR EXPLANATION AND SOURCE SEE BANDERA TRICOLOR “Where we are there’s very little work,” Ana Maria Méndez, 25, tells me. She and a cousin made the eighteen-hour car trip from their small town in Veracruz, where most people subsist on homegrown corn and beans. Now Méndez fidgets nervously on a chair in the LLS waiting … More Bandera Tricolor C

Bandera Tricolor B

FOR EXPLANATION AND SOURCE SEE BANDERA TRICOLOR While unfamiliar to most Americans, the program has become the template for an expanded guest-worker program now being hotly debated in Congress. Proponents of the plan argue that temporary labor visas give immigrants greater rights and protections while providing employers with a reliable labor force. Yet workers, labor … More Bandera Tricolor B

Bandera Tricolor A

 FOR EXPLANATION AND SOURCE SEE BANDERA TRICOLOR It’s late afternoon at the Latin Labor Solutions recruitment office in Monterrey, Mexico, and hundreds of prospective workers are crammed into the narrow alleyway between the office and the building next door, waiting restlessly in the 90-degree heat. They perch on duffel bags or lean against the stucco … More Bandera Tricolor A

Bandera Tricolor

While unfamiliar to most Americans, the [existing guest-worker] program has become the template for an expanded . . . program now being hotly debated in Congress. Proponents of the plan argue that temporary labor visas give immigrants greater rights and protections while providing employers with a reliable labor force. Yet workers, labor organizers, lawyers and … More Bandera Tricolor

AAUP Censure

This is the news (as reported by AP), and this is what Ashley Morris says about it. Morris’ post includes a copy of Tulane President Scott Cowan’s comments on the matter. Cowan says Tulane followed its Faculty Handbook very closely. But I have read Tulane’s Faculty Handbook (in its pre-Katrina version). It was a very … More AAUP Censure