Juan Gonzalez: Harvest of Empire

Those of us who are addicted to Democracy Now! know Juan Gonzalez as Amy Goodman's insightful co-host. Gonzalez has a new book, Harvest of Empire, in which he takes on the history of Latinos in the United States.

Gonzalez tells us Mexicans are the second largest immigrant group in U.S. history, behind only Germans. More than Irish, Italian, French, even English.

Living in the South, I have always thought it was amazing how Southerners still have very personal feelings about the Civil War (or, as we like to call it, the "War of Northern Aggression"); but it's truly stunning that the Mexican-American War still raises tensions in California. I just listened to a caller on KPFA's Living Room work himself into an absolute tizzy about how Mexico started the war, and we kicked their butts all the way back to Mexico City, and how America is a great place because you can buy a gun and our elections are fair. Not what you expect to hear from a Berkeley-area resident.