Inside Siglo XXI

Inside Latin America’s Largest Immigration Detention Center

Belén Fernández

$27.99

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

OR Books
01 April 2023

Migration, immigration & emigration; Penology & punishment; Human rights; Immigration law

Much has been written In English about the experiences and treatment of immigrants from south of the Rio Grande once they have entered the United States. But this account, by the itinerant, effervescent and highly original journalist Belén Fernández, offers a different and wholly original take.

Belén Fernández shows us what life is like for would-be migrants, not just from the Mexican side of the border but inside Siglo XXI, the notorious migrant detention center in the south of the country.

Journalists are prohibited from entering Siglo XXI; Fernández only gained access because she herself was detained as a result of faulty paperwork when she attempted to return to the US to renew her passport. Once inside the facility, Fernández was able to speak with detained women from Honduras, Cuba, Haiti, Bangladesh, and beyond. Their stories, detailing the hardships that prompted them to leave their homes, and the dangers they have experienced on an often-tortuous journey north, form the core of this unique book. The companionship and support they offer to Fernández, whose antipathy to returning to the United States, the country they are desperate to enter, is a source of bemusement and perplexity, demonstrates a spirited generosity that is deeply moving.

In the end, the Siglo XXI center emerges as a strikingly precise metaphor for a 21st century in which poor people, effectively imprisoned by American political and economic policies, nevertheless display astonishing resilience.

By: Belén Fernández
Imprint: OR Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 177mm, Width: 127mm,
ISBN: 9781682193556
ISBN 10: 1682193551
Pages: 120
Publication Date: 01 April 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Belén Fernández, is a contributing editor at Jacobin, and has written for The New York Times, Al Jazeera, and Middle East Eye. She is the author of Exile: Rejecting America and Finding the World and The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work.

Reviews for Inside Siglo XXI: Inside Latin America’s Largest Immigration Detention Center

A chilling vision of the 'imperial fucking holding pen' in Mexico, where the US exportation of public misery meets Fernandez's penetrating critique. Precisely in a moment when we need more and better knowledge about how US policies perpetuate police death, mass incarceration and imperial femicide, Fernandez's unsettling book gives it to us. -Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera, Professor, Universidad de Puerto Rico-Mayaguez One of the most poignant, searing, and, at times, deadpan critiques of the United States and its mass media that I have ever read... An extraordinary and unorthodox travelogue. -The Los Angeles Review of Books on Fernandez's Exile This is a travel memoir like no other: incredibly funny, observant, humane, anarchic, politically incisive, sophisticated, and raffish. Belen Fernandez is a dangerously enchanting siren. -Francisco Goldman, author of Monkey Boy, on Fernandez's Exile