The United States–Mexico Border

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. Alvarez
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Porous Membrane ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
Scarce Water ◽  
United States Mexico ◽  
Established Firm ◽  
The U.S

The region that today constitutes the United States–Mexico borderland has evolved through various systems of occupation over thousands of years. Beginning in time immemorial, the land was used and inhabited by ancient peoples whose cultures we can only understand through the archeological record and the beliefs of their living descendants. Spain, then Mexico and the United States after it, attempted to control the borderlands but failed when confronted with indigenous power, at least until the late 19th century when American capital and police established firm dominance. Since then, borderland residents have often fiercely contested this supremacy at the local level, but the borderland has also, due to the primacy of business, expressed deep harmonies and cooperation between the U.S. and Mexican federal governments. It is a majority minority zone in the United States, populated largely by Mexican Americans. The border is both a porous membrane across which tremendous wealth passes and a territory of interdiction in which noncitizens and smugglers are subject to unusually concentrated police attention. All of this exists within a particularly harsh ecosystem characterized by extreme heat and scarce water.

The Representation of the U.S.-Mexico Border in Television News: Textual Analysis on Bodies and Security Enforcement

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (29) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Gonzalez Hernandez
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Television News ◽  
The United States ◽  
Border Region ◽  
Local Network ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
United States Mexico ◽  
The U.S

This article analyzes how television news has enhanced the role of representation of the United States-Mexico border in themes such as immigration, theme represented in “spectacular” ways related to “warfare”. Using textual analysis on TV reports, my aim is to show how local television network news in the United States (NBC) and Mexico (Televisa) construct the representation of the U.S./Mexico border through a particular conflicting vision to account for border enforcements and interventions on both sides and with similar visual strategies. The analysis centers on actual “visual text” or television news reports, which tries to demonstrates how assumptions guide the activity of local network coverage, and how, at the same time, limits what is reported in news. This consequently contributes to the perpetuation of a representation related to ¨crisis¨ in the border region.

Racializing American Authenticity: Mexican Americans’ Perceptions of the Foreign Other

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-224
Author(s):  
Angela J. Silva ◽  
Aurelia Lorena Murga
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mexican Descent ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
White Racial Frame ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
The U.S

Anti-Mexican sentiment in the United States has long plagued the lives of people of Mexican descent. Since their incorporation, Mexican Americans have experienced processes of racialization as second-class citizens while a continuous anti-immigrant climate continues to impact them. This has influenced their use of a white racial frame resulting in their distancing of themselves from perceived foreign-ness. Drawing on 15 in-depth interviews with self-identified Mexican Americans along the U.S.-Mexico border, we find that divisions between the two nations have become embedded in the lived experiences of those residing in the borderland region. The themes raised by our respondents illustrate how Mexican Americans use notions of illegality, belonging to a nation, and the dangerous other to differentiate themselves from foreign-born Mexicans and the ways they address immigration. We argue that Mexican Americans living in a transnational border space navigate their everyday lives as racialized beings, resulting in their search for ways to situate themselves apart from the foreign other. We argue that the larger implications for understanding how Mexican Americans use the white racial frame is significant since their embedded ideas and beliefs are founded upon racist nativist differences that are used to create and support policies that target racialized others.

The US–Mexico War

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar Valerio-Jiménez
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mexican War ◽  
Mexican American War ◽  
The Us ◽  
Northern Territories ◽  
United States Mexico ◽  
The U.S

The United States–Mexico War was the first war in which the United States engaged in a conflict with a foreign nation for the purpose of conquest. It was also the first conflict in which trained soldiers (from West Point) played a large role. The war’s end transformed the United States into a continental nation as it acquired a vast portion of Mexico’s northern territories. In addition to shaping U.S.–Mexico relations into the present, the conflict also led to the forcible incorporation of Mexicans (who became Mexican Americans) as the nation’s first Latinos. Yet, the war has been identified as the nation’s “forgotten war” because few Americans know the causes and consequences of this conflict. Within fifteen years of the war’s end, the conflict faded from popular memory, but it did not disappear, due to the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War. By contrast, the U.S.–Mexico War is prominently remembered in Mexico as having caused the loss of half of the nation’s territory, and as an event that continues to shape Mexico’s relationship with the United States. Official memories (or national histories) of war affect international relations, and also shape how each nation’s population views citizens of other countries. Not surprisingly, there is a stark difference in the ways that American citizens and Mexican citizens remember and forget the war (e.g., Americans refer to the “Mexican American War” or the “U.S.–Mexican War,” for example, while Mexicans identify the conflict as the “War of North American Intervention”).

Concrete Biodeterioration in the U.S.-Mexico Border Region

2010 ◽  
Vol 1278 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. E. Rendon ◽  
M. E. Lara ◽  
S. K. Rendon ◽  
M. Rendon ◽  
X. Li
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Arid Region ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
The United States ◽  
Border Region ◽  
Hardened Concrete ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Sewage Systems

AbstractConcrete biodeterioration is defined as the damage that the products of microorganism metabolism, in particular sulfuric acid, do to hardened concrete. In Canada and in the northern part of the United States, sewer failures from concrete biodeterioration are almost unknown. In the southern part of the United States and in Mexico, however, it is a serious and expensive problem in sewage collection systems, which rapidly deteriorate. Also, leaking sewage systems result in the loss of groundwater resources particularly important in this arid region. Almost every city in the Mexican-American border region, who's combined population is more than 15 million people, faces this problem. The U.S. cities have made some provision to face these infrastructure problems, but the Mexican cities have made less effort. We recommend here the Mexican norm (NMX-C-414-ONNCCE-2004) [1] to be reviewed, or at least that a warning be issued as a key measure to avoid concrete biodeterioration.

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