Overview

Much has been written In English about the experiences and treatment of immigrants from south of the Rio Grande once they have entered the United States. But this account, by the itinerant, effervescent and highly original journalist Beln Fernndez, offers a different and wholly original take. Beln Fernndezshows us what life is like for would-be migrants, not just from the Mexican side of the border but inside Siglo XXI, the notorious migrant detention center in the south of the country. Journalists are prohibited from entering Siglo XXI; Fernndezonly gained access because she herself was detained as a result of faulty paperwork when she attempted to return to the US to renew her passport. Once inside the facility, Fernndezwas able to speak with detained women from Honduras, Cuba, Haiti, Bangladesh, and beyond. Their stories, detailing the hardships that prompted them to leave their homes, and the dangers they have experienced on an often-tortuous journey north, form the core of this unique book. The companionship and support they offer to Fernndez, whose antipathy to returning to the United States, the country they are desperate to enter, is a source of bemusement and perplexity, demonstrates a spirited generosity that is deeply moving. In the end, the Siglo XXI center emerges as a strikingly precise metaphor for a 21st century in which poor people, effectively imprisoned by American political and economic policies, nevertheless display astonishing resilience.

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9781682193556

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One of the most poignant, searing, and, at times, deadpan critiques of the United States and its mass media that I have ever read... An extraordinary and unorthodox travelogue. - The Los Angeles Review of Books on Fernandez's Exile This is a travel memoir like no other: incredibly funny, observant, humane, anarchic, politically incisive, sophisticated, and raffish. Belen Fernandez is a dangerously enchanting siren. - Francisco Goldman, author of Monkey Boy, on Fernandez's Exile

A chilling vision of the 'imperial fucking holding pen' in Mexico, where the US exportation of public misery meets Fernandez's penetrating critique. Precisely in a moment when we need more and better knowledge about how US policies perpetuate police death, mass incarceration and imperial femicide, Fernandez's unsettling book gives it to us. -Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera, Professor, Universidad de Puerto Rico-Mayaguez One of the most poignant, searing, and, at times, deadpan critiques of the United States and its mass media that I have ever read... An extraordinary and unorthodox travelogue. -The Los Angeles Review of Books on Fernandez's Exile This is a travel memoir like no other: incredibly funny, observant, humane, anarchic, politically incisive, sophisticated, and raffish. Belen Fernandez is a dangerously enchanting siren. -Francisco Goldman, author of Monkey Boy, on Fernandez's Exile

Author Information

Beln Fernndez, is a contributing editor atJacobin, and has written forThe New York Times, Al Jazeera, andMiddle East Eye. She is the author ofExile: Rejecting America and Finding the WorldandThe Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work.

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