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Quote by Warren Eyster

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The Goblins of Eros

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Warren Eyster

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“Loss in Vietnam radicalized a generation of veterans, pushing many into the ranks of white-supremacist groups. Ronald Reagan, as the standard bearer of an ascendant New Right, effectively tapped into this radicalization, which helped lift him to victory in his 1980 presidential campaign. Once he was in office, Reagan's re-escalation of the Cold War allowed him to contain the radicalization, preventing it from spilling over (too much) into domestic politics. Anti-communist campaigns in Central America—a region Reagan called "our southern frontier"—were especially helpful in focusing militancy outward. But Reagan's Central American wars (which comprised support for the Contras in Nicaragua and death squads in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) generated millions of refugees, many, perhaps most, of whom fled to the United States. As they came over the border, they inflamed the same constituencies that Reagan had mobilized to wage the wars that had turned them into refugees in the first place.”

RacismImmigrationCold WarRefugeesCentral AmericaReagan
Book:The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America
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“For intellectuals and elites, invisibilizing and forgetting are a way of creating blissful ignorance that allows them to enjoy their privilege without acknowledging its basis in exploitation. Forgetting allows them to avoid the shame that would come from seeing.”

PoliticsHistoryShameExploitationCentral AmericaPriviledge
Book:Central America's Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration
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“The church wanted souls; the government wanted subjects and taxes; the conquistadors wanted gold. In each case, they needed people, and they needed people identified as Indian. But they each sought to remake Indigenous peoples to fit their own desires. The church claimed rights to evangelize Indigenous peoples, the Crown to tax them, and the conquistadors to enslave them. As they jostled for control, they subjected Indigenous forms of religion, governance, and labor to their sometimes-competing objectives.”

HistoryIndigenousColonizationCentral America
Book:Central America's Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration
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“Participate in your dreams today. There are unlimited opportunities available with this new day. Take action on those wonderful dreams you've had in your mind for so long. Remember, success is something you experience when you act accordingly.”

LifeInspirationTodayActionSuccessMotivationDreamsOpportunitiesNew DayParticipate
Book:Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience
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“Large-scale Central American migration to the United States dates to the civil wars of the 1980s and came primarily from El Salvador and Guatemala. Most came fleeing political violence, and their presence became politically very inconvenient for the Reagan administration, which was seeking to justify its support for these countries’ governments. Others were economic refugees. Either way, the refugees gave the lie to Reagan’s claims of the governments’ legitimacy and right to US support.”

HistoryImmigrationCentral America
Book:Central America's Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration
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“Very few US Americans can name a single political leader in Central America. We have the privilege of “forgetting” about these countries. Yet US political leaders, parties, and policies are the stuff of everyday conversation in Central America. People there don’t have the luxury of ignoring or forgetting what is going on in the United States, because they know that US presidential elections, policy decisions, and economic developments are likely to deeply affect them.”

PoliticsForeign PolicyCentral AmericaPriviledge
Book:Central America's Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration
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“One of the conceits of forgetting in the United States is the idea that colonialism ended in 1776 when the new country declared independence. Central American countries, too, celebrate their independence heroes and wars as historical milestones. But in both regions, the colonial roots ran deep and profoundly shaped the new countries. In the United States, independence meant a surge of settler colonial expansion that incorporated Central America into its sights. In Central America, colonial racial hierarchies shaped the new nations even as the United States imposed new forms of neocolonial rule.”

HistoryUnited StatesColonialismCentral America
Book:Central America's Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration
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