06/13/22 06/13/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! juan: with the failure of last week summit of the americas for president biden and with new caravans of migrants heading north in mexico to the u.s. border, it has become more evident than ever that the harvest of empire is still with the united states. we will not be able to confront

the growing migration crisis as other european countries also have migration crises until the countries of the west and the united states come to a reckoning with their centuries of colonial domination of the peoples of asia, africa, and latin america. amy: today, democracy now! cohost, journalist, professor, and author juan gonzalez on "harvest of empire: a history of latinos in america." he has jusupdated his vessel and book that is in hundreds of classrooms and universities across the country and of lives the sort of people like the guatemalan activist rigoberta menchu who helped publicize the plight of atemala's indigenous peoples under the brutal u.s.-backed government. >> canopy we will not be victims

of genocide? i do not have any guarantees. if what exists in guatemala's persecution, murder, killing is what you have is insecurity, then i prefer to cross the border and go to a place with more security. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. a bipartisan group of senators has reached a watered-down agreement on gun safety that could lead to some new federal gun restrictions as well as increased funding for mental health and school security. the plan would also provide funding to states to create red flag laws that would prohibit some people from owning firearms. the deal, however, does not

include a ban on assault weapons or raise the age required to buy assault weapons to 21. it also does not establish universal background checks. in a statement, president biden said -- "it does not do everything that i think is needed, but it reflects important steps in the right direction, and would be the most significant gun safety legislation to pass congress in decades." the deal was reached by 20 senators, 10 democrats and 10 republicans. negotiations began after the recent mass shooting in uvalde, texas, where 19 fourth graders and two teachers were shot dead and the massacre in buffalo when a white supremacist attacked a grocery store, shooting dead 10 people -- all of whom were black. both shooters were 18 years old. on sunday, christian heyne, vice president of the gun control group brady, praised the bipartisan deal. >> i have not seen the likes of a framework like what we see in

this package for the last 30 years. and i think it is significant not only becau of how th can have real impact, but to me it feels like a moment in time and a sign of things to come. this sort of testing ground that we can pass bipartisan gun laws in the sky won't fall. and for all of those reasons, i think this agreement is really important. amy: the bipartisan senate deal on gun safety was announced a day after hundreds of thousands of people across the country to to the streets to and gun violence. thousands rallied in parkland florida where a gunman shot dead 17 students at marjory stoneman douglas high school in 2018. speakers in parkland included 16-year-old zoe weissman, the president of march for our lives parkland. four years later, we still have

to march. we still have to fight for the safety, to go grocery shopping or work or concert or home without being shot. today survivors and activists stand before you as we demand change. i am so proud of our community. thank you for joining as to fight for world without gun violence. thank you. amy: on sunday, over a thousand people gathered in orlando, florida, to mark six years since 49 people were shot dead at pulse, a popular latinx lgbt nightclub in orlando. heavy fighting is continuing in the eastern ukrainian city of severodonetsk as russia moves closer to seizing all of the lugansk region. just one bridge remains connecting severodonetsk to other areas still under ukrainian control. this comes as amnesty international has accused russia of using indiscriminate shelling and cluster munitions to kill hundreds of civilians in the

northeastern ukrainian city of kharkiv. as ukraine continues to press western nations for more advanced weapons, russia is claiming it struck a large arms depot on sunday in western ukraine where ukraine had been storing weapons sent by the united states and allies. 22 people were reportedly injured in the strike. in other news related to t war, a new report by the centre for research on energy and clean air estimates russia earned nearly $100 billion in fossil fuel exports during the first 100 days after it invaded ukraine. the stockholm international peace research institute, or sipri, is warning the risk of nuclear war is higher today than at any time since the height of the cold war. in its annual report, sipri says the global stockpile of nuclear weapons is expected to soon rise for the first time since the -- in decades as the united states, russia, china, france,

and the united kingdom move to expanded or modernize their arsenals. the u.s. and russia possess about 90% of the world's nuclear warheads. the house committee investigating the january 6 capitol insurrection is holding its second public hearing today. witnesses scheduled to testify include donald trump's 2020 campaign manager bill stepien and chris stirewalt, a former top editor at fox news. during its first hearing on thursday, the panel accused donald trump of staging an attempted coup in an effort to overturn the 2020 election. democracy now! will be streaming today's hearing at democracynow.org beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. the next hearings are wednesday and thursday. democracy now! will livestream all of the january 6 committee hearings. in related developments, "the washington post" is reporting ginni thomas, the wife of

supreme court justice clarence thomas, pressed at least 29 republican state lawmakers in arizona to help overturn joe biden's victory in the state. meanwhile, trump's former personal attorney rudy giuliani is facing new ethics charges from the district of columbia bar for spreading lies about alleged voter fraud in an effort to overturn biden's election victory in the state of pennsylvania. a court in bolivia has sentenced former president jeanine anez to 10 years in prison after finding her guilty of orchestrating the 2019 coup that ousted president evo morales, bolivia's first indigenous president. after the coup, anez served as bolivia's president for one year until november 2020. anez, who is a former right-wing nator, was convicted of making decisions contrary to the constitution. a former police commander also sent to jail for the role in the coup. meanwhile, at the summit of the

americas in los angeles, a protester interrupted a presentation last week by luis almagro, the head of the organization of american states, over his support for the 2019 bolivian coup. >> you have blood on your hands! there is a coup in bolivia! that dictatorship that you help massacre 36 people. 36 innocent people. the restoration of independence of their country -- protesting peacefully. amy: president biden spoke on friday on the closing day of the summit of the americas in los angeles. he unveiled a new plan to address migration. pres. biden: 20 countries coming

together to launch the los angeles declaration on migration and protection. with this declaration, we are transforming our approach to managing migration in the americas. each of us is signing up to commitments that recognize the challenges we all share in the responsibility that pacts on all of our nations. amy: the summit of the americas was marred by biden's decision to exclude the leaders of cuba, nicaragua, and venezuela. the mexican president andrés manuel lópez obrador boycotted the summit in response. the leaders of bolivia, guatemala, and el salvador also skipped the gathering. in france, president emmanuel macron is fighting to keep his parliamentary majority after a strong showing by a left-wing alliance led by jean-luc mélenchon. during the first round of voting and parliamentary elections, the blocs led by macron and mélenchon received around a

quarter of the vote each. marine le pen's far-right party came in third with just under 19% of the vote. voters will return to the polls next sunday for a second and final round of voting. syria has suspended all flights at the damascus international airport after an israeli attack damaged the airport's runway and observation tower. israel reportedly launched a volley of missiles from the occupied golan heights early friday morning. syria, iran, and russia condemned the attack. in recent years, israel has quietly carried out hundreds of strikes inside syria targeting syrian forces as well as iranian-backed fighters. in brazil, a search team has found items belonging to the missing indigenous expert bruno pereira and british journalist dom phillips. brazilian federal police said sunday they found a backpack, laptop, clothes in the javari valley, a remote portion of the amazon where the were conducting two research.

the area is one of brazil's largest indigenous territories and is home to drug trafficking, poaching, and illegal fishing networks. this comes after police reported finding traces of blood in the boat of a fisherman who was arrested last week in connection with their disappearance. and news on the covid pandemic, chinese authorities have begun testing 5 million people in the most populist section of beijing after a new covid outbreak at a bar that had just reopened from earlier restrictions had been lifted. beijing officials have postponed reopening schools in parts of the city and placed numerous people under lockdown. in other pandemic news, the food and drug administration said pfizer bound text three dose vaccine for children under the age of five is safe and effective. the fda appears poised to soon authorize vaccines by both pfizer and moderna for young children. in idaho, 31 members of the patriot front, a white

supremacist neo-nazi group, were arrested saturday in the city of coeur d'alene ahead of a gay pride event. police say the men were found packed into a u-haul truck armed with riot gear. a tipster had called police saying they had seen a "little army" being loaded into the truck at a nearby hotel. at a news conference, coeur d'alene police chief lee white said the members of the patriot front were arrested on charges of conspiracy to riot. >> they were wearing arm patches. one of them said patriot front. the majority of them had logos on their hats consistent with the patriot front group you would see online. there were wearing khaki pants and everyone was dressed exactly the same, similar. if you go online and look at patriot front, that is how these individuals dressed. amy: the food and drug administration has acknowledged for the first time that nine children may have died after consuming contaminated baby

formula made by abbott labs at the largest baby formula manufacturing plant in the nation in sturgis, michigan. up until friday, the fda had only acknowledged the deaths of two children linked to the contamination outbreak at an abbott plant in michigan. it whistleblower at the plant sent the fda a report detailing safety and sanitation violations by avid as early as february 2021, but it took the fda year to take action and close the plant. meanwhile, baby formula shortages are still increasing in parts of the country, especially in the south and southwest. olympian simone biles and almost 100 other sexual abuse survivors have sued the fbi over its failure to properly investigate larry nassar, the former team usa gymnastics doctor. the fbi first received reports of sexual abuse by nasser in

2015 but the agency failed to act for a full year, leaving dr. nasser free to continue has sexual abuse. in 2017, nasser pled guilty to sexual assault, chopper larvae, and evidence covering charges and sentenced over 40 years in jail. samantha roy said -- "if the fbi had simply done its job, nassar would have been stopped before he ever had the chance to abuse hundreds of girls, including me." google has agreed to pay $118 million to over 15,000 female workers to settle a class-action gender discrimination lawsuit. the lawsuit had accused google of systematically underpaying women in california in violation of state law. meanwhile, female employees at the software company oracle are facing a new setback in their lawsuit against the company. on friday, a judge stripped them of their class-action status. and retired marine four-star general john allen has resigned as the president of the brookings institute.

the fbi recently seized allen's electronic data of as part of a probe into whether he lied about his role in secretly lobbying for the government of qatar. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. when we come back, we look at what many are calling the failed summit of americas which it did friday and i los angeles. we will also look at the migrant caravan making its way to the u.s.-mexico border and so much more with democracy now! cohost juan gonzalez, who has just updated his landmark book "harvest of empire." stay with us.

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this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. some 7000 people in migrant caravan heading to the united states were dispersed by mexican authorities this weekend as they approached mexico city. some of those seeking asylum told human rights watch they had sought protection in mexico but were dissuaded from seeking refugee status and were pressured to accept voluntary returns to their home countries. many are from central america, venezuela, and haiti. some had children with them. in the united states, president biden wrapped up the summit of the americas friday in los angeles by unveiling a new plan

to address migration in the western hemisphere that includes a series of so-called bold actions. this is biden. pres. biden: coming together to launch the los angeles declaration on migration and protection. with this declaration, we're transforming an approach to managing migration in the americas. each of us is signing up to commitments that recognizes the challenges we all share and responsibility that impacts on all of our nations will stop los angeles declaration is built around four pillars. first, stability and assistance. making sure community's that are welcoming refugees can afford to care for them. educate them. medical care, shelter, and job opportunities. second, increasing pathways for legal migration throughout the region as well as protections

for refugees. third, working together to implement a more humane and coordinated border management system. and finally, making sure we are working together to respond to emergencies. amy: the agreement was signed by over a dozen countries in the region, including mexico, el salvador, honduras even though there presidents did not attend the summit. the only central american country that refused to sign was nicaragua, which was excluded from the gathering by the biden administration along with cuba and venezuela. the plan includes a commitment from the united states to resettle 20,000 refugees over the next two years even if authorities say more than 200,000 migrants and refugees approach the southern border each month. customs and border protection reports a record 234,000 migrants and asylum-seekers arrived at the u.s.-mexico border in april alone. more than a quarter of the world's migrants are in the

americas. some 73 million people. even of hemisphere accounts for only 12% of the worlds population. this accordingo the international organization for migration. millions are displaced in their own countries by poverty and violence. for more, we spend the hour with juan gonzalez, democracy now! cohost, journalist, professor at rutgers university. longtime broadcast and investigative journalist. on tuesday, he releases his revised edition of his landmark book "harvest of empire: a history of latinos in america." it was originally published in 2001. already required reading and hundreds of colleges and high school courses. juan, congratulations on the reissue of your book. it is great to spend the hour with you, not as cohost, but as a primary guest of today's show with this epic work that you have added so much to in this latest edition, beginning on the

issue of migration and how the u.s. treats migrants, asylum-seekers, refugees on the southern border. take it from there. juan: thank you, amy, for the opportunity to go a little in-depth into this new edition of the book as well as to remind folks about what was in the earlier versions. i think the biggest thing we have to understand is that this country has been grappling with what to do about immigration policy now for about 30 years. and has not been able to come up with a refashioned immigration system in united states. and every few years and every administration promises they're going to do something about an orderly flow of migrants into the country, but the reality is, there is resistance and a huge

battle over how migration will be governed in the 21st century because we are really talking about who gets to be an american in the 21st century. so it really is an issue of who can legally come into the country and have an opportunity to be a citizen and a voter. i think what has happened is we really have not come to grips come as the title of my book says, the harvest of empire. that the reason there are so many latinos and people from latin america coming into the united states is that latin america was the start of the american empire. it is where the first overseas colonies of the united states came into existence. it is where the united states constantly was intervening with its military forces, where most of the major multinational

companies began to grow -- companies like the united fruit company and others. latin america was the incubator of the american empire. we are in a position, and we have an after decades and decades since, really, the end of world war ii, in the same position the french are in regards to north africans, that the british are in relationship to their former colonial empire, jamaica and germans are in their tiny empire that they have developed for the end of the 19th century and in the middle east. that all of these former colonial powers are trying to figure out what to do about the fact that 70 people from their former colonies have come to the metropolis, and that is the fundamental issue that all of these western countries are facing, the actual change in the

composition of their countries. when it comes to latin americans, it is astounding. i started writing this book in the 1990's. even i have been astounded by the continued growth of the latino population of the united states. the latest census says there are 62 million latinos in the united states. the 2020 census. that is about 18.7% of the population. but even the census bureau acowledged that is an undercount, that they undercounted about 3 million more latinos that they should have counted, the largest undercount of any group in the senses. and that does not cap the 3.2 million people in puerto rico, which is not considered part of the united states but is under the u.s. flag. if you at the 3 million from puerto rico in the 3 million unrcount, are talking about 70 million people of latin american descent under the u.s. flag.

that is about one in five people in the entire country. so this increased -- when you look at the young people, that is where the real stunner is. california is about 40% latino but the public schools of california are 54% latino today. schools in texas, 52% are latino. the public schools of arizona, 45% latino today. when you go to the southern states, georgia, the latino population is 10% by the population of the public schools is 16%. in north carolina, it is 18%. the latino public school population. this is the future of the country. i don't think we have yet grasped how the impact, the unintended harvest of the american empire, is coming to roost right here in our own

country. and that is why the political leaders are having so much trouble trying to figure out how to develop a comprehensive immigration and humane immigration policy. amy: juan, you begin your book by saying in june 2018, media reports revealed u.s. border patrol agents had detained hundreds of latino children inside chain-link cages at a warehouse in the southern texas border city of mcallen. the disturbing images of terrified toddlers wailing for their parents provoked the worldwide condemnation. i want to play that audio, just a few seconds of it, that propublica released. [crying] amy: that crying rocked the world.

and at the time, the trump administration policy, 0 -- the policy of zero-tolerance. yet we are under the biden administration. talk about what happened then and what has changed. juan: there's been some slight changes of the biden administration, especially in the attempt by the trump administration to shut down legal immigration or asylum -- there have been some changes. but the problem is, there still is no framework, legal framework for dealing with the migration situation today. we're not just talking about the issue of undocumented versus documented. we're talking about visas for guestworkers. we are talking about asylum

numbers, which united states should rightfully increase substantially the numbers it permits of asylum or refugees into the country. so that we don't have a clear framework to deal with the current conditions of migration in the hemisphere and in the world. but i think the even worse part of it, and this is where in my updated edition -- again, my last edition came out in 2011. so this really deals with all of the changes -- and there are many changes that have occurred in the latino experience in america over the last 10 years. it updates those. let me just give you one startling fact i came across in doing my new research. in 1998, two thirds of all arrests by federal government

agencies in the united states were of u.s. citizens. two thirds were of u.s. citizens. 20 years later in 2018, two thirds of all of the arrests of federal agencies in our country were of noncitizens. the entire federal law enforcement bureaucracy has been turned into the persecution operation for noncitizens. in 2018 alone, the federal government arrested more mexicans than it did american citizens. they arrested more mexicans than they did american citizens. that is an extraordinary change in the operation of the federal government. the budgets. the u.s. fiscal year 2021 spent

$26 billion in immigration enforcement. in the budgets of ice and of customs and border enforcement. $26 billion. that is more money that is spent in all its other federal law enforcement agencies. the dea, the fbi, the atf, u.s. marshals service, and the secret service. all of those agencies spend less money than did customs and border enforcement and ice. so the entire federal government apparatus has been turned over the last 10, 15 years into an apparatus hunting down, deporting, locking up immigrants. and we're not just talking about and documented, because there are all of the people who were

legally in the united states but they were convicted of what the government called aggravated a felony and then deported. there is a repression and deportation machine that has developed at the federal level against -- and mostly people from latin america. there is another startling fact i came across in my research. between 2010-2017, the united states deported 1.5 million people who were either legally in the united states or and documented in their convicted of a crime from an aggravated felony -- we're talking about almost anything. a dui under the clinton -- penal code reforms was an aggravated felony. one point finally people deported. of those people, 93% came from

only four countries stuck mexico, honduras, guatemala, and el salvador. 93% of the 1.5 million people deported came from four countries. the rest of the world with the -- was the other 7%. even the people from those four countries only represented about one third of all of the noncitizens in the u.s.. that is racial profiling. how do you come up with 93% of all of the people you deported because they committed a crime come from only four countries. the entire apparatus is geared to kicking out latin americans. and no one is doing anything about it. amy: and you have the summit of the americas right now, juan were all sorts of controversies, widely considered a failed summit, where the president's spokesperson says he won't meet with autographs, won't meet with

nicaragua, been as well, cuba, ends up in los angeles with bolsonaro, the autocratic ruler of his ill, who is already preparing another brazilian military is preparing to say the elections there will not be legitimate. there is this breaking news that is coming out of brazil right now. we have been reporting on the indigenous advocate and journalists who have been missing in brazil post of reuters just broke this information that the bodies of the british journalist dom phillips and bruno pereira have been missing for more than a week in brazil's amazon jungle were found monday, according to phillip's wife. so he meets with bolsonaro and mexico, as you are talking about

amlo, refuses to attend because of u.s. imposing who can come to the summit of the americas and who can't. those presidents don't come either. juan: i think this summit of the americas is really the complete failure of the biden administration to be able to show a united front in latin america. it is really a reflection of what has changed geopolitically in latin america. in my new addition, i touch on that somewhat, which is that latin america is no longer the u.s. backyard. it used to be. it used to be during the days of teddy roosevelt and gun belt

diplomacy and even into the 1930's and 1940's and even in the 1960's with president kennedy and the alliance of grass, but latin america has changed dramatically. one of the big changes has been the rise of popular movements outside of the established political structures that long right in these countries and the movements of indigenous peoples and marginalized people in these societies and the working class in the societies. at the other big change has been the rise of china as a major force in latin america. while united states was off fighting wars in afghanistan and iraq and trying to maintain oil supplies in dealing with syria, china was investing in infrastructure in latin america,

building huge multibillion-dollar dams and tunnels and ports and providing low interest loans to many latin american governments. so these governments no longer feel they have to do what the united states says. an increasingly, the region is no longer a region dominated by one power. and as a result, now many of these governments feel they can reject loans from the united states or demands of the world bank because there is an alternative source of funding. of course, china has its own desires in terms of its grabbing hold of future sources of raw materials, but the chinese aim does not come with all of the military threat and all of the insistence that things be done

china's way that the united states has practice for so long in latin america. as a result now, there is room to maneuver along the leaders of the latin american countries. and you cite happen at the summit of the americas last week -- saw it happen at the summit of the amicus last week. amy: and you have the hill reporting china, which by now is held three china heaven latin america mr. ariel forms at the level of foreign ministers has called out the united states for discriminating among latin american countries, pointing out washington is stuck in a cold war mindset. juan: yes. absolutely. we are seeing it in venezuela. we had a ridiculous situation that washington still recognized juan guaido, the opposition leader in venezuela, as the

legitimate -- his legitimate president of venezuela when the reality is, for several years now, it has been clear whatever criticisms there may be of majuro is the president of venezuela -- and there are many -- the venezuelan opposition is so fractured and so impotent that it has no capacity or ability to run venezuelan society and -- of course, the united states now because of the war in ukraine, is even trying to create new chances for negotiations with maduro to secure more oil supplies for the u.s. -- well, not so much for the u.s. but certainly for western europe because of the war in ukraine. amy: we are going to go to break and then come back to this discussion. juan gonzalez, democracy now!

cohost, but also professor at rutgers university. longtime broadcast two-time , winner of the george polk award, and one of the cofounders of the young lords. author of a number of books. his book "harvest of empire" originally published in 2001. its second revised edition will be released on tuesday. back in a moment. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. our guest for the hour is our cohost democracy now! cohost juan gonzalez. professor at rutgers university, longtime journalist, award-winning investigative journalist, author of a number of books. his latest coming out tomorrow

is "harvest of empire: a history of latinos in america." you may well have been one of the high school or college or university graduate school classrooms that have used this book, but it's revised edition is being released tuesday. this is his first major broadcast interview on the latest book. juan, and your introduction, you talk about the use of the term latinx. juan: yes. as we know and on democracy now! we use the term what often. latinx has increasingly grown as a term to define the people of latin american populations here in united states. but the reality is, a 2019 poll shows only 3% of all latinos

used the term that year and only 23% had even heard of it. there was a similar battle that arose some years back, more than a decade ago, over whether it was more appropriate to use the term latino or hispanic. i took the position and that i thought these discussions about the most appropriate term were more debates among the intellectual class than they were among the masses of the people. the masses of the people generally refer to themselves by whatever nationality their parents were. and of course, in the case of indigenous people, by their own native heritage. and the reality, though, is that both latino and hispanic come i

began to use interchangeably, and of course, given latinx addresses the gender binary that i thought it was definitely a welcome term to use, but i continued to use them -- all three of them interchangeably. in fact, i say in that introduction, i just want to see if i can find it for a second to explain. i say, moreover, most migrants from latin america still prefer to identify themselves by the particular country of origin or in the cases of indigenous peoples, by their native heritage. there u.s.-born and raised children, grandchildren, and great grain children, will increasingly adopt different views most of ethnic identity after all is a social construct. much like racial identity that requires a dynamic and fluid

approach, not a static and rigid one. with every generation to reimagine and redefine its own place inociety. though the actual economiand social conditions of any community should always take precedence over labels and intellectual descriptions. so i use all three terms, latinx , latino, and hispanic interchangeably. none of them are precise and accurate. all of them are acceptable in my perspective. and the most important thing, it is not the term or the label, it is understanding the class and racial and social condition of the masses of the people and how they can improve their lot and society. amy: you also have new information about, well, about culture and how latinos,

latinos, latinx people are pretrade in this country. he referred to lin-manuel miranda. last night were the tony awards in the latinx actor, composer, writer honored stephen sondheim. i want to go to him at the tony's in 2016 because june 12, sunday, mark sixth anniversary of the 2016 pulse nightclub shooting florida where 49 people were killed. pulse was in lgbtq+ club. most of the shooting victims were latinx. lin-manuel miranda delivered a sonnet about the orlando attacks at those 2016 tony awards. his broadway hit "hamilton" had won 11 tony awards that year. >> when senseless acts of tragedy remind us that nothing here is promised, not one day,

this shows proof that history remembers we live through times when hate and fear seemed stronger, remembrance that hope and love last longer. love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside. telling her story that fills the world with music, love, and pride. thank you so much. amy: that was lin-manuel miranda in 2016, also spoke last night of tony awards. juan, talked about how latinos ,latinas, latinx people are pretrade in the media, in culture, in movies, and shaping the perspective of this come the largest minority community in the united state. juan: amy, there is no doubt

that probably the largest impact that latinos have had in the country is in the realm of culture, whether it is in the music that we listen to, in the books that we read -- in the case of lin-manuel, most single-handedly began to revolutionize the american theater. and i think this sudden infusion -- i often say that lin-manuel miranda is probably the biggest jobs producer for african-americans and latinos in the theater in history of the united states because his two seminal works "in the heights" and "hamilton," as they are produced in regional theaters around the country, end up employing huge numbers of actors

in all of these places and often for long runs. so he has become a jobs creator just because of the popularity of those two shows and the impact it has had on the class composition of theatergoers is phenomenal. not to mention the fact he has must help to revolutionize how you teach american history to public school children. so i think -- but then men well is just one of many -- lin-manuel is just one of many performers and artists that are really transforming american culture because to the degree that latinos become more of society and intermarriage occurs between venezuelans and cubans marrying in miami and their children have this new latino identity whether it is salvadoreans or mexicans in a los angeles or puerto ricans and

dominicans in new york, the intermarriage and the amalgamation of these various latino cultures and then the tino's also marrying and intermarrying with african-americans and white americans, or convert -- creating a whole new amalgamated culture in america and with a strong latinx infusion that i think is enriching the culture and diversifying the culture in ways that we really have not grasped yet. i think lin-manuel is probably the prime example of someone who is leading the transformation of american culture. amy: juan, i want to go back to a clip of the 2012 documentary based on your book "harvest of empire" that talks about the history of u.s. imperialism. in this clip, the involvement of the u.s. in the dominican

republic, where many of the immigrants here in new york city hail from. the clip prominently features the dominican-born pulitzer prize-winning author junot diaz. the american nations cannot, must not, and will not permit the establhment of another communist government in the western hemisphere. >> i'm here because the united states invaded my country in 1965, an illegal invasion, completely trumped-up excuse to invade the dominican republic and crush our democratic hopes. we've lived the consequences of that illegal invasion politically, economically, and in the bodies of the people who were wounded, in the bodies of the people who were killed. we've been living it for over 40 years.

juan: there have been two major u.s. occupations of the dominican public. the first was in 1916. the u.s. army trained a new dominican national guard. it handpicked a former railway security officer, rafael trujillo, to lead that guard. and trujillo then uses the power of the military to seize control of the goverent. >> he was like the most horrific imagination of this terrifying dictator. he would disappear dominican and american citizens and kill them with impunity. juan: he basically ruled the dominican republic for 30 years with absolute, total control. he routinely kidnapped and assaulted the wives, even of his

supporters, and throughout his career made it extremely easy for american companies to do business in the dominican republic but was a savage, savage dictator. eventual, even the united statesovernmencould not stomach his methods of operation, so the cia joined with disgruntled military officers to ba his assassination. >> for the first time in 30 years, the people of the dominican republic are breathing the sweet air of liberty, and the streets are jammed in celebration. amy: 1965. from the 2012 documentary based on juan gonzalez's book "harvest of empire" but i want to also go to a second clip.

this features the indigenous guatemalan nobel peace prize winning rigoberta menchu. >> guatemala was unbelvable. 200,000 ad we haaccounte r. 50,000 disappeed. % of theisappear and ecuted were mans. i leftuatemalafter the burn my fath ali in the embassy spain.

amy: that was indigenous leader rigoberta menchu. juan, we have about three

minutes left from dominican republic to guatemala to el salvador to honduras, take us out with this history that is so -- that so few people in this country understand. juan: especially instructive seeing this clip on the dominican republic because that is in invasi, u.s. invasion that most americans don't know about or were never taught about. it was critical in the shaping of that nation -- it was actually the second u.s. invasion of the dominican. there was one in the early 20th century. it is especially instructive since were now in the period when everyone is concerned about the war in ukraine. what was happening in the dominican republic's leaders had come to power, or trying to overthrow a military dictatorship, and the united states perceive them to be aligned with another block as resident johnson said, the communist bloc. and that was a threat, even

though the dominican republic itself was no threat to the united states. in repeatedly, our troops have gone into latin america to overthrow governments or to stop popular revolutions only because we did not like what was happening there. not because those countries re a threat. and yet here we are criticizing russia for daring to invade ukraine because it's leadership wants to be closer to another block to the west. the same logic our country has used over and over and over again throughout thhistory of latin america. i think it is instructive for us to understand this great power imperialism has -- really was trademarked and established, a motto was established in latin america by the united states, and that is why as i say and i my book, this is the unintended

harvest of the empire. the empire expected just to take resources and wealth. never expected so many of the people of this country it was exploiting to come to the metropolis. that is why we need to fashion an immigration system that takes into account that history, the wealth inequality that we have fostered and the violence and the arms that we have supplied to those countries, and trying to fashion a more humane immigration policy for the future in the united states. amy: juan, congratulations on this epic sweeping work that looks at centuries have latin america in history and relates it directly to what we experience in the united states today, particularly around the issue of immigration. we thank you so much, juan, for

all of your work. juan gonzalez, democracy now! cohost, author of many books including the landmark now issued and out on tuesday "harvest of empire: a history of latinos in america." it is the second revised edition. democracy now! is looking for feedback from peopleñcñcñcñc

♪ hello. welcome back to "nhk newsline." i'm takao min orie in new york. ukrainian president volodomyr zelenskyy says forces struggling over a strong hold in the east are fighting for every meter. his troops are desperate to hold on to the city of severodonetsk, but russian soldiers surround them and try to solidify their grip on the eastern region of donbas. the russians have driven into