After fleeing homophobia and threats to her life in her native El Salvador, ‘Carla’ was detained for two years inside the Buffalo Federal Detention Center. Her letters provide a powerful and unique account of a queer woman’s experience inside America’s asylum system.
Letters from Inside a U.S. Detention Center reconstructs Carla’s story from the correspondence between Carla and Jane Juffer, a professor at Cornell University, and from excerpts from the legal decisions made while she was being held in immigration detention. Contextualised with explanation and analysis of detention in the United States, the book examines how detention exacerbates the trauma many migrants experience and becomes another site of fear, intimidation, and uncertainty. Carla’s narrative is a powerful story, and one that illustrates grievous injustices in the U.S. immigration and asylum system.
The book will be of immense value to immigration activists and scholars alike, especially in feminist studies, queer studies, and those studying the intersections of prisons and detention centres.
Table of Contents:
Preface: A Conversation Between Two Accomplices
1: Introduction: The Time and Space of Immigrant Detention
2: Carla’s Letters
3: Can the Detained Speak? From the Classroom to Detention, and Back: Student Activism and Carla’s Release
4: In the Courtroom: How to Tell One’s Story, and the Pressure of the Linear Narrative
About the Author :
Jane Juffer holds a joint appointment at Cornell University with the Department of Literatures in English and the program of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, where she is also director. She works in the areas of cultural studies, feminist theory, and Latinx studies and is the author of four books: Don't Use Your Words! Children's Emotions in a Networked World (2019); Intimacy Across Borders: Race, Religion, and Migration in the U.S. Midwest (2013); Single Mother: The Emergence of the Domestic Intellectual (2006); and At Home with Pornography: Women, Sexuality, and Everyday Life (1998). She is also the editor of Millennial Feminism at Work: Bridging Theory and Practice (2021).
Jane Juffer tiene una cita conjunta en la Universidad de Cornell con el Departamento de Literaturas en Inglés y el Programa de Estudios Feministas, de Género y Sexualidad, donde también es directora. Trabaja en las áreas de estudios culturales, teoría feminista y estudios latinos y es autora de cuatro libros: Don’t Use Your Words! Children’s Emotions in a Networked World (2019); Intimacy Across Borders: Race, Religion, and Migration in the U.S. Midwest (2013); Single Mother: The Emergence of the Domestic Intellectual (2006); y At Home with Pornography: Women, Sexuality, and Everyday Life (1998). También es editora de Millennial Feminism at Work: Bridging Theory and Practice (2021).
Carla was born and raised in a small town in El Salvador; she is a devoted daughter, sister, and aunt. She is a cook, artist, and activist who loves music, animals, and football.
Carla nació y creció en un pequeño pueblo de El Salvador; ella es una hija, hermana, y tía devota. Es una cocinera, artista, y activista que ama la música, los animales, y el fútbol.
John Kennedy Godoy is a second-generation Guatemalan American scholar and writer. A former Public Humanities Fellow at Humanities New York, he is currently a Fulbright-Hays DDRA Fellow who researches migration from Central America and Mexico. His work is forthcoming or published in The Global South and The Latin American Literary Review, and is featured in Harper’s Bazaar and LA Times.
