Oct 28
The Amazing Border: Images and Realities of the US-Mexican Borderlands
This presentation examines some of the theoretical underpinnings and assumptions about how the U.S.-Mexico border was formed, how it evolved, its problems and realities, and where it should go to today. The presentation claims that the overwhelmingly negative -and largely ignorant- images and information that portray the border region in the popular imagination (especially those centered on drugs and immigration) have obscured the fact that the Mexico-U.S. border is a remarkable example of cooperation and institution-building. There is extensive data to support this argument. Realities and discourses apart, the reason for the U.S.-Mexico success has to do with the historical evolution and construction of local-binational institutions and with the interweaving of personal relations and histories that have made the border asset and not a liability for the bi-national relation.