In the early 1990s, AIDS was still formidable, frightening, and under-researched. The United States government and the Center for Disease Control maintained that being Haitian was a risk factor for HIV/AIDS. This policy was based upon racism and fear, not scientific evidence, but it influenced public perceptions of both the Haitian community and HIV/AIDS. And…

While uncovering the experience of Haitian unaccompanied minors held at Guantánamo Bay during the refugee crisis in the early 1990s, I found it difficult to face the unresolved legacy that the detention left these children. Many of refugee children suffered a range of psychological issues as a result of the traumas of their ordeal. Consequently,…

People fear what they do not understand. Few things were less understood or more feared in the late ’80’s than HIV. Though everyone knew that HIV killed, how it spread was still unclear to many Americans. How long it stayed dormant before turning into AIDS was still unknown to most doctors. So little was known…

Throughout my experience contributing to the Guantánamo Public Memory Project, I often found myself considering the contradictions of attempting to capture memories regarding a time and a place that many people who experienced it firsthand do not wish to remember. In discussing the guiding principles of the Guantánamo Public Memory Project, the project website asks…

Why and how is the U.S. Naval Station at Guantánamo, both historically and at present, relevant to Minnesota audiences?  In fall 2013, in anticipation of the opening of the GPMP exhibition at the Minnesota History Center, an interdisciplinary group of graduate students at the University of Minnesota created interactive digital public history projects that explore…

March 1, 2014: Former GTMO detainee Moazzam Begg was remanded in custody in the U.K., after being arrested on suspicion of providing terrorism training and funding in Syria. Begg spent three years at GTMO, and was released in 2005. Feb 28, 1992: The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to prevent the forced return…