abUSed: The Postville Raid

On October 14th, I attended an experience event that discussed the current problems of immigration. Filmmaker, Luis Argueta came to talk about the raids in the United States involving immigrants. He showed us his documentary that featured the town of Postville and the people that lived there. He interviewed many families and people that were affected by this raid. Ultimately, this documentary and presentation is about how we should be questioning human rights and the treatment of others, especially immigrants.

This presentation made me think about what immigrants go through just to provide for their families and mostly, to survive. They come to the United States looking for success and happiness that the United States claims to have. I think that it is unfair the way the government handles the situation dealing with the immigrants.

What I found most shocking to me were the conditions in which some of the illegal immigrants had to work in. A lot of them worked in factories receiving little to no pay and forced to work long hours. It was especially hard for women because some were even raped. Children were also forced to work in these factories. The people that ran these factories would overlook the fact that some of the immigrants were young, children.

This documentary forces one to think about whether or not the way the government handles the issue of illegal immigrants fairly. I think that it is unfair the way the government treats illegal immigrants. I think that something should be done to try and help some of these immigrants. Because ultimately they are looking for a new beginning and a better opportunity in the United States. Many immigrants have jobs that people who live in the United States wouldn't normally want to have.

Overall, I thought this presentation was very interesting. Luis Argueta did an excellent job documenting real people who told their side of the story. This film will hopefully show the viewers that there is another view point to the immigration issue.

abUSed: The Postville Raid

Last week I attended the "abUSed: The Postville Raid" 

experience event.  It involved a film directed by Luis 

Argueta which documented an immigration raid that

took place in Postville, Iowa this past year. There, 

police authorities captured hundreds of illegal 

immigrants working in a factory, most of which were 

of Guatemalan decent. As a result, these people were 

either sent back to their country or forced to remain 

in the US and wear a GPS device around their ankle 

that could not be removed.  

It was absolutely devastating to hear the immigrants' 

reaction towards the raid. While many may believe 

justice was served by the raid, it certainly was not.  

Many of the immigrants that got caught were 

interviewed in the film, and revealed the horrible 

situations that they were in. Even while working at 

the factory, the immigrants were treated in horrendous

ways whether due to the dangerous conditions, 

extremely long hours, little or no pay, or their age.  

Some of the immigrants were no older than fourteen!  

Not to mention, when they were caught, many of the 

family members were separated and till this day have 

not been able to see their loved ones.  

This film lead me to think about my view towards 

immigrants. I was so appalled to see how these 

victims were treated when ultimately, they were just

trying to make a better life for their families and 

themselves. In some situations parents were able to

leave their children behind if they were born in the 

US, in hopes that maybe their children would have a 

better life. I cannot begin to imagine how hard that 

must have been. One thing I found interesting was the 

fact that there are only a few thousand visas available 

for immigrants worldwide to work in the US. I was so 

surprised because in my opinion, that definitely does 

provide enough opportunity for the rest of world. 

Unless we do something to increase jobs in other 

countries, I think America should rethink their 

immigration laws and solve this problem, because 

something needs to be done.

abUSed: The Postville Raid

Tonight I went to the abUSed: The Postville Raid by Luis Argueta, and I was amazed by how affected I was. The subject was about immigration and how on 2008 over 100 illegal immigrants in Postville Iowa were captured and sent back to either Mexico and Guatemala.
Many of these illegal immigrants came for a better life, than what they had in their country. The documentary included interviews from actual victims of the raid. Women, men, children, and teenagers were all affected by the raid. Many parents were separated from their children, and some children, even if they were US citizens, went back to their parents countries. Those children suffered because in Guatemala there are no jobs, and this means the parents could not afford to buy food.
I was very inspired by this film. I know the some of the reasons immigrants come here, because my parents were also immigrants too. They are legal, but it was a long journey to get here. They had to fill out many papers, and go through racial boundaries.
The director, Luis Argueta, had some good point when he was discussing the film afterward. He asked us "Why do you think people come here and suffer"? In response to that, I think that people come here for a better life. They want their children to have a better life too. The reason many of these people come illegally is because getting a visa requires time, and money. Sometimes people are denied visas.
This presentation was very good. I actually want to see the rest of the film when it is done.

choral concert

On October 10th I attended the "Pops" concert which consisted of the several choirs at Albright. Each being concert choir, Albright angels, mane men, and woman's ensemble. Each had its own unique sound and being that I am an experienced vocalist I listen very carefully to different things that not everyone else might listen too. In all I thought it was a very brief concert much shorter than anyone that I have performed before. I liked the selection of music and will be attending more in the future for experience credit as well I love the culture of music. Also after attending I got the program to make me aware of the band and string concerts that are upcoming. I think Albright has a good program here in Fine Arts department and only can get even than they already are.

Darwin Lecture

On October 1st, I attended the experience event: Darwin and the Split between Natural and Sexual Selection; with the guest speaker, Dr. Elizabeth Grosz. It was held in the Klein Lecture Hall, not only did it reach its maximum capacity but it more then exceeded it. I was forced to stand in the back of the lecture hall without a seat. Not only was I forced to stand uncomfortably against a wall, the mic was not operating properly. I had to stand for an hour and listen to muffled sounds because Dr. Grosz was extremely soft spoken and throughout the entire speech, I could not make out a word. I was not the only irritated person in the room. The group of students surrounding me were frustrated as well, and actually wound up leaving before the lecture was over.

Dr. Grosz seemed to be very educated in the area that she was discussing. Although I could not hear everything that she was saying, I could make out some of it. I was able to acknowledge that she would spend a lot of time elaborating on a specific topic. I am sure that the lecture was very interesting since people asked a lot of questions during the open discussion session. Everybody that asked questions were in the front of the hall and were educators of some sort. Generally, the students seemed uninterested in the topic at hand. I wish that I would have been able to hear because it really was something that I was interested in.

acre presentation

Recently I attended the acre presentation, which involve scientific studies on a certain area of interest. Not all the studies were science based though one was about the FACES that Dr. Pankratz does here at Albright. A couple of years ago a student and Dr. Pankratz decide since they were at school over the summer and there was not many people in school to journey into reading a see those faces. In addition to having all of those faces there was poetry that went along people gave brief statements about their view of Reading then and now and the student composed a very good collage of all the statements and I was fascinated of how it turned out. I found that the most interesting, because the rest were heavily scientific. For example had research on finding cyclodextrin which is to the best of my interpretation the vitamin k trying to escape from the water. Another was the acid base reaction and oxidation-reduction and seeing the reactant to this atom; which were aminium ions and pyridine. Another presenter was a theory of a type of cruelty toward animals and how there were cultural difference in different places that were explored. In my personal opinion I liked the second wave of presenters. I the program ran for about two and half hours and there was a slight intermission and then the continuation of the program. There was definitely a more of attention grabber in all presenters after the intermission. In all I did like the program I would try to attend the following one 10-8, but if gives a lot of information lot you may not experience in the classroom or other places. I was also after seeing the presentation more interested conducting my own research/acre project.