Why would someone travel hundreds of miles by foot and by bus, hopping freight trains, risking robbery and assaults only to traverse barren deserts with the prospect of dying of thirst or gunshot wounds as they cross the U.S. border?

Why would someone attempt to cross the Gulf of Mexico on a crowded raft, risking dehydration, starvation, and drowning only to arrive at a country that didn’t want them and be sent back to the place they were trying to leave?

Why would someone furtively cross country borders and unforgiving waterways to reach the shores of strange land whose language and customs are unknown?

For adventure? For better opportunities?

Or to escape desperate poverty and/or corruption and brutal tyranny in their homeland?

Juan Gonzalez, journalist and co-host of Democracy Now provides a concise history of Spanish and Angle colonization and the United States’ relationship and involved in South American Countries. He examines the different experiences of various Latino groups and the cause of Latino diasporas. 

Harvest of Empire, A History of Latinos In America is “A compelling – and enlightening – chronicle...offers an insider’s view of the rich and varied fabric of the people soon to be the largest minority in the United States.” The Miami Herald.

The movie and the book it is based on take an unflinching look at the role that U.S. economic and military interests played in triggering an unprecedented wave of migration that is transforming our nation’s cultural and economic landscape.

Harvest of Empire takes a balanced approach that manages to be highly informative and not too didactic, emotional without draining the viewer, and deeply critical of U.S. policy without vilifying a nation of people. Highly recommended. 4 out of 4 stars - www.clevelandmovieblog.com

The documentary film will be presented by the First Tuesday Social Justice Films on Sept. 3 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Oak Cliff, 3839 W. Kiest Blvd., Dallas. There is no admission charge.  Audience discussion follows.

Cosponsors for the film are the UUCOC’s Social Justice Ministry and the Dallas Peace Center dallaspeacecenter.org. For more information and schedules, visit the website at www.firsttuesdayfilms.org or www.facebook.com/firsttuesdayfilms.