Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Welcome to “Americatown”

Could this be the future of U.S. immigration debate?

Will the economic crises force us all to flee the country and set up our own little villages filled with U.S. immigrants? HBO seems to think so, and just greenlit a drama series titled Americatown. But since most "towns" across the country are crammed with both truly authentic and incredibly commercialized representations of their countries of origin, what would an Americatown be filled with?

In Americatown, our financial crisis causes a mass exodus out of the Americas and into other countries. The new series takes places about 25-40 years in the future, and follows a group of newly evacuated immigrants in a big foreign city.

It may seem like a crazy though to imagine neighborhoods filled with tens of thousands of norteamericanos in San Salvador or Buenos Aires. (Pre-revolutionary Havana doesn’t count as a precursor). But with things like this going on perhaps the idea behind Americatown is not so far-fetched.

(Hat tip: fark.com).

Image- CBS News (Photo of immigrants arriving at Ellis Island, possibly early 20th-century).

Sources- The Latin Americanist, fark.com, io9,historyofcuba.com

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