dr. maribel alvarez, university of arizona, september 2006 1 border identities project 2050 2006

Dr. Maribel Alvarez, University of Arizona, September 2006

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Border IdentitiesProject 2050

2006


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A border is……

“an imaginary line between

two nations, separating the

imaginary rights of one

from the imaginary rights

of another”

Ambrose Bierce


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An elastic geo-cultural landscape:

El Norte La Línea The Southwest Aztlán The Frontier Desert Country The Margin The Edge


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A meeting place of: Two countries Two cultures Two ways of life Two levels of

consumption Two infrastructures

Inherent inequalityInherent opportunity


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The border is both: “Hard” realities:

politics

economics

legislation

demographics

environment

law enforcement

national security


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“Soft” expressions:

language

emotions

rituals

art

work

memory

community

hope


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The Border is… “a tangible artifact imposed upon the human populations and the natural geography”


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The Border is… “an intercultural world unto itself”


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Views of the Border:

Romantic:“something falls off you when you cross the border into Mexico, and suddenly the landscape hits you with nothing between it, desert and mountains and vultures”

William Burroughs


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Harsh“On the US side everything was calm and reassuring, everything uniform….on the other side, a swarming mysterious world where furtive figures prowled on every corner of darkness and one sensed human heat, and gestures, and whispers.”

Georges Simenon


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Views of the Border:

Parody:“Americans have not looked for a Mexico in Mexico; they have looked for their obsessions, enthusiasms, phobias, hopes, interests---and these are what they have found”

Octavio Paz


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The border “happens” in and through State Power Imagination Desire Folk Life Work

GenderSexRaceClass


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The border produces…Millions of workers essential to the

economic machines of North American agriculture, tourism, and industry: farmworkers, low-tech labor, dishwashers, gardeners, maids…..

but also a military machine of low-intensity conflict: INS helicopters, Border Patrol agents, infrared cameras, detention centers, books of regulations…


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Border is also….a discourse of sadness

Violence and death are dimensions of everyday life in the border that receive a lot of attention

Women of JuarezDesert Crossers

Drug-related deathsToxic illnesses


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Factual Border Matters 2,000 mile stretch 4 U.S. states (CA, AZ, NM, TX)

6 Mexican states

(BC, SON, CH, COH, NL, TML)

60 mile zone from the line on each side

Natural barriers: Rio Grande, Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts


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Population 12 million people in border region On U.S. side: 19% below poverty line

(13% nationally) On U.S. side: 50% are “Hispanic” Mexico: border states’ poverty rate is

28% (37% nationally) In TX and NM: 300,000 people live in

1,300 “colonias” 12 million people living in US illegally Approximately 6.2 million (56%) are

from Mexico

Health problems:•Sanitation•Pollution

•Movement•Access


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Crossings

Most frequently crossed international border in the world:

350 million people cross legally every year --- 1 million cross illegally

45% agricultural workers in US are here illegally

12,000 trucks cross border daily (up 63% since 1994 when NAFTA was enacted)

•660, 000 people cross every day legally•35 points of entry•20% crossing into US are on foot•In 2004, pedestrian crossing in Texas alone was 20 million


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Economy US is Mexico’s # 1

trading partner Mexico is US’s # 2

trading partner $795 million traded

every day 2,7000 maquiladoras

in Mex. Border states Average maquiladora

salary: $45 per weekAverage maquiladora work week: 48 hours


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Historical Border:


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Chronology of a Fence:1819

Adams- Onis Treaty

between Spain and US

1821

Mexican Independence

Mexico permits Texas settlement

1836

Texas Independence

1846

Mexico-US War

1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo1853: Gadsden Purchase


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1849Gold discovered in CA

1882Chinese Exclusionary Act(railroad and mining workers)

1904Border Patrol established

1910Mexican Revolution begins

1921Immigration Act (Quotas)

1924Border stations established

1942Bracero Program

1948

Mexican-American GI Forum

1953

Operation Wetback deports 3.8 million

1962

Cesar Chavez organizes farm workers in Delano, CA


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1964First Maquiladoras (BIP)Bracero Program repealed

1965Immigration and Naturalization Act(family reunification / skills)

1982Peso devaluation crisis in MX

1986IRCA (hiring of illegal aliens a crime)

1994 NAFTA enactedZapatista Army rebellionOperation Gatekeeper

1996Immigration Reform Act

*BP agents: 11,000 (89% at US- Mex border)*Bush: at the end of 2008, 6,000 more agents*2005: 473 migrant deaths; 2,570 rescued*Surveillance includes: electronic sensors, night vision scopes, aircraft, ground vehicles*Current security contract RFP: $ 2 billion


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Major arguments Against Immigration

--Security

--Taxes

--Crime

--Welfare

--Jobs

--Ecology

--Language

--Culture


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Major arguments For Immigration

--Remittances (12 Billion)

--Globalization -Jobs

--Family

--Wealth Disparity

--History

--Exploitation/Crime

--Culture


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Words can’t hurt me…?

Illegal alien? (beaner?) Illegal immigrant? (wetback?) Undocumented worker? (greaser?)

OTM: “Other than Mexican”


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Effects of criminalization discourse: Create “class” of persons,

--legal

--illegal

Social reality vs. legal status Emphasis on control Rise of oppositional moral

discourse:--deserving v. undeserving

--just v. unjust deportations

Administrative apparatus to “unmake” illegalityMae Ngai:,

Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America


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The border is a place…but it is also an idea…

Some people think “border” is a perfect metaphor to talk about identity….

Some people think “border” is a perfect metaphor to talk about the conditions that frame life in the world today…


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Border v. Borderlands

“A border is a dividing line, a narrow strip along a steep edge….

A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary…”

Gloria Anzaldúa


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For Anzaldúa, there are two “border territories”

“The actual physical borderland that I am dealing with…is the US Southwest-Mexican border… The psychological borderlands, the sexual borderlands and the spiritual borderlands are not particular to the Southwest…..in fact….


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…the Borderlands are physically present wherever two or more cultures edge each other, where people of different races occupy the same territory, where under, lower, middle and upper classes touch, where the space between two individuals shrinks with intimacy…”

Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, 1987


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What is a “metaphor”?

A figure of speech Comparison of two

seemingly unrelated subjects/things

Uses forms of the verb “to be”

Does not use “like” or “as”

“Scratching at the window with claws ofpine, the wind wants in”

“He is a pig”

“What a thrill –my thumb instead of an onion…

A celebration this is…out of a gap

a million soldiers run, redcoats every one.”

“My house is a prison”


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Why metaphor? Metaphors are pervasive in everyday life Our ordinary conceptual system is fundamentally

metaphorical in nature One way to see this is by looking at language Metaphors structure how we perceive, think, act

*A Concept: argument*Conceptual Metaphor: argument is war*Everyday Language: “He attacked every point;” “I’ve never won an argument with you;” “She shot down all my points;” “His criticism was right on target”


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Metaphors…. Enliven ordinary language

Encourage interpretation

Maximum meaning with minimum words

Create new meanings Express things for

which there are no easy words


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Guillermo Gomez-Peña’s border metaphors:

“I live smack in the fissure between two worlds, in the infected wound…. ….”

Worksheet # 1:What meanings are conveyed

By G-P’s metaphors?


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Too much metaphor?

Anthropologist Alejandro Lugo thinks the phrase “border crossing” as a metaphor for identity has become “overly optimistic.”

“Border inspections” are actually more pervasive than “border crossings” in the lives of most people at the physical border.


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Luis Alfaro’s “border dilemmas”I am a Queer ChicanoA native in no landAn orphan of AztlanThe pocho son of farm worker parents

The Mexicans only want mewhen they want me totalk about MexicoBut what aboutMexican Queers in LA?

The Queers only want mewhen they needto add color add spicelike salsa picanteon the side

With one footon each sideof the bordernot the borderbetween Mexicoand the United Statesbut the border betweenNationality and SexualityI search for a home in bothyet neither one believesthat I exist.


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What kinds of “border inspections”

and “border crossings”

have you experienced?


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Can “the border” withstand being a buzzword for theories of power, struggle, and connection?


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Developing a critical conscience about uses of metaphor….

What kinds of issues are border metaphors useful for?

Are there instances in which this metaphor is not helpful?

dr. maribel alvarez, university of arizona, september 2006 1 border identities project 2050 2006

Documents

university of arizona

maribel alvarez

border regionon

border identitiesproject

border patrol agents

factual border matters2

border isan imaginary

poverty line