Migration from the Northern Triangle: "They Are Here Because We Were There"

The multiple factors that have driven a migrant exodus from Central America over the past 10 years will be considered at Windham World Affairs Council's talk with Latin America expert Dr. Sarah Osten on Thursday, March 21st at 6:30 PM, at 118 Elliot, 118 Elliot St., Brattleboro, Vermont 05301. This event is free to the public but a $10 donation is suggested, registration is encouraged at https://WWACmigration.eventbrite.com. If unable to attend live, Zoom link is available upon registering.

The event is co-sponsored by CASP, the Community Asylum Seekers Project. Executive Director Liv Berelson describes CASP as " a nonprofit founded in 2016 that supports asylum seekers in the Brattleboro area. We provide lodging, food, healthcare, employment placement, and legal support to newly arrived asylum seekers. More than half of CASP's clients are from the Northern Triangle region." According to Berelson, a former student of Dr. Osten, "Sarah deeply understands the complex and interwoven factors behind why people from this region are seeking asylum in and migrating to the US, and the US' role in creating these factors." Homemade empanadas will be available made by a CASP client who came from Honduras with her children several years ago. She hopes to one day have her own restaurant or food truck, and enjoys cooking and baking.

To understand why so many people in the Northern Triangle region of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have chosen to flee to the US, this talk examines long term political and social histories of the region, which have included US interventionism, and the long-term social, political and economic legacies of violent Cold War conflicts that Central Americans are still living with today. Among others, these include the effectively unchecked spread of organized crime and street gangs in the region, themselves the products of an earlier migrant exodus to the US, and then a mass deportation.

This event will explore the stories of refugees & asylum seekers in order to humanize the experiences of immigrants to the US and Vermont today.

Dr. Osten is a historian of Latin America and an associate professor at the University of Vermont, specializing in 20th century Mexico. She is the director of graduate studies in the UVM history department, as well as the director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies program. In recent years she has served as a Spanish-English interpreter for detained asylum seekers as well as a Mexico country conditions expert for asylum cases. She holds a PhD in history and a MA in Latin American and Caribbean Studies , both from the University of Chicago. Her BA is from Brown University.

Sarah Osten teaches on a wide variety of Latin American topics and countries, from the ancient world to the present. In addition to introductory courses on Latin American history, she teaches courses on topics including revolutions, authoritarianism, indigenous history, history and memory, drugs and drug trafficking, and modern Mexican history. Her newest teaching project is a new, interdisciplinary immigration justice program and course sequence.

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