In his newly released book, Everyone Who is Gone is Here, Jon Blitzer weaves the powerful human narrative of the relationship between the US and Central America, policy, and the impacts on immigration in the U.S. He sheds light on the complexities and human cost, how these struggles came to be, why they persist, and what we might do now to address tensions and bring humanity to our current situation.

Blitzer takes readers on a decades long journey through the compelling lives of a few central characters, featuring Juan Romagoza, one of La Clinica’s founding Directors prominently. Through the pages of this book, we see that even through incredible and persistent personal hardship, Juan Romagoza repeatedly responds to suffering around him by organizing community to treat the medical and mental health needs of those caught up in and fleeing devastating conflict. In the 1980’s he led efforts to form La Clínica del Pueblo to meet the needs of Central American immigrants here in our capitol. Over forty years later, La Clínica continues in that same spirit as we respond to the issues and challenges faced by Latin American immigrants and their families – and community has always been at the heart of that response.