Introducing lividsnails

I should tell you that immigration and labor rights are relatively new fields for me.  I have a MA in International Relations and until now have focused more on US foreign policy.  (I've done human rights work in Colombia, housing studies with Habitat for Humanity in Chile and Costa Rica and solidarity work with Native Americans in Canada).  But advocating for the rights of farmworkers here in the US blurs the lines between international and domestic policy because the majority of farmworkers are immigrants and I believe they are some of the most exploited people in our country.  They harvest the food that keeps us alive and we spray them with pesticides, pay them crap wages, provide minimal –if any—housing and give them abysmally few protections under the law.  And all this happens right here under our very noses in this country we like to think brims with opportunity and freedom. 

It is shameful.

Because my new employers work in many of the same issue areas that this blog covers, and because I am their Communications person (!), in order to avoid any hint of uncertainty over who I am representing when I write here, I have decided to blog anonymously.  This is not my first choice but it does seem to be the wisest one at this point.  I hope you can forgive me my overdue introduction and what probably will be very infrequent posting but I will do the best I can!