Dr. Erik Camayd-Freixas and the Postville Raid

detail of photo from USA Today, for link click here

Harvard trained Dr. Camayd Freixas has taken a risk and publicized his essay on  the Postville ICE raid.

Here is some background on him from Greg Siskind's blog: 

"Dr. Erik Camayd-Freixas was born in Cuba, received his Ph.D. from Harvard University, and is currently Associate Professor of Latin American literature at FIU. He is the author of the books Realismo mágico y primitivismo and Primitivism and Identity in Latin America, as well as a frequent contributor to literary journals of the Americas and Europe. Dr. Camayd has lectured around the world on topics in literary and cultural studies, ethnic narrative and poetics, historiography of Latin America and the Caribbean, and linguistic analysis of discourse."

below is an excerpt from Camayd-Freixas' essay:

...Driven single-file in groups of 10, shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles, chains dragging as they shuffled through, the slaughterhouse workers were brought in for arraignment, sat and listened through headsets to the interpreted initial appearance, before marching out again to be bused to different county jails, only to make room for the next row of 10. They appeared to be uniformly no more than 5 ft. tall, mostly illiterate Guatemalan peasants with Mayan last names, some being relatives (various Tajtaj, Xicay, Sajché, Sologüí…), some in tears; others with faces of worry, fear, and embarrassment. They all spoke Spanish, a few rather laboriously. It dawned on me that, aside from their nationality, which was imposed on their people in the 19th century, they too were Native Americans, in shackles. They stood out in stark racial contrast with the rest of us as they started their slow penguin march across the makeshift court...

for complete Camayd-Freixas essay at Sanctuary Soapbox click here