LA FRONTERA

 

  1. Opening text: (Olivia Cadaval, Smithsonian):

 

Borderlands have often been the locale of major folk cultural achievements, from the outlaw ballads of the Scottish-English border to the heroic "corridos" of south Texas. Energized by the lives of heroes and others, borderlands continue to spark themes of frontier lawlessness, national pride, rebellion against injustice, and a community hero's stand against all odds. What is it about a border that triggers these and other cultural forms, such as souvenirs, duty-free liquors, retaining walls made of automobile tires, and "maquiladora" assembly plants? Is the border a particular kind of region or social environment? If so, does the border tend to produce a particular kind of culture? And what is the relationship between this environment and its culture?

A line drawn in various ways, a border marks the place where adjacent jurisdictions meet. This combined conjunction and separation of national laws and customs creates a zone in which movements of people and goods are greatly regulated, examined, discussed, and hidden. Commerce attains a higher importance in border society as does dialogue about the identities of its peoples. Smuggling, the myriad signs in border towns, legal and illegal immigration, and the use of unneighborly names between neighbors are parts of this picture of accentuated concern with the trade in goods and the flow of people.

The border is an environment of opportunity. Individuals find work enforcing or avoiding the laws that regulate movement. Companies use national differences in labor and environmental regulations to pursue their advantage. Border society thrives on difference, and people and institutions come there to exploit niches in its environment.

 

 

    1. Today, going to talk about the Border and look at the ways that people find and use the niches in its environment. How do people play off difference to make a living on the border?
  1. Who lives on the border?
    1. Defining the border (map)
      1. US Mexican border settled with treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 and the Gadsden Purchase of 1853.
      2. Much of the border is the Rio Grande, also known as Rio Bravo.
    2. Early settlers of the border region:
      1. Native American people
        1. Yaqui and O'odham
      2. Spaniards
        1. Came and got land grants from the Spanish crown under the encomienda system
      3. Early US emigrants:
        1. After Mexican American war of 1850, Eastern and Midwestern cattle barons and agriculturalists come to begin agricultural trade across the border
        2. Begin seizing lands under manifest destiny policy
        3. Create a culture of conflict that endures today.

       

    3. Migrants
      1. Jewish community: people from central Mexico escaping persecution emigrated here in the 18th century
      2. Kickapoo and Seminole people invited by Mexican govt. to settle there in 19th century to defend the territory against Apache raids
      3. Chinese laborers: come to Imperial Valley towns like Mexicali to work on the farms. After the damming of the Colorado, Anglo landowners lease the fertile valley land to Chinese managers from California who smuggle labor in from China. "Coolie labor"
      4. Braceros:
        1. Bracero program of 1942-64 attracted workers for seasonal ag work in the US. Under the terms of the program, the braceros had to go back to Mexico in the off season, but many of them did not go back to their homes in central Mexico. They stayed in the border region.
      5. Mixtecs
        1. Indigenous people from southern Mexico and Guatemala.
        2. Migrating north since the 1970s, many to escape the Guatemlan civil war
        3. Make living off the tourist trade. Make small crafts and sell, mostly soft rag dolls dressed as peasants.
        4. (Picture of guy with front teeth missing is a Mixtec)
    4. Border has always been a pretty diverse place.

     

  2. Industries on the Border
    1. Agriculture
      1. Extremely dry climate
        1. Average annual rainfall is under three inches, in June it has only rained twice since 1914.
        2. The Colorado River is only source of irrigation
        3. Heavily used: often, by the time it gets to the sea, there is no water left at all.
      2. Agriculture in Imperial Valley
        1. One of the big diversions is on the California side of the border
          1. Imperial Irrigation District diverts water through the "All American Canal."
          2. Diverts 1/5 of Colorado's total flow, over 3 million acre-feet of water
            1. What is an acre-foot? About 325,000 gallons, or enough to cover an acre of land a foot deep in water.
          3. 90% of it goes to fields
          4. High-intensity water-hungry crops like alfalfa (notorious water hog crop), onions, broccoli, carrots, garlic.
            1. Field crops like alfalfa are used for the beef industry.
          5. Mexican farmers across the border get much less water: only 1.5 million acre feet, much of which has to be used to support the dense population on the Mexican side instead of going to the fields.
        2. US farmers trying to achieve an ECONOMY OF SCALE. That takes a lot of land, and a lot of labor.
        3. Skilled labor from US, temp Labor comes from Mexico
          1. Crops are labor intensive
            1. Lettuce takes 37 labor hours per acre BEFORE harvest.
    2. Much harvest of veg is done by hand. Asparagus, for example, has to be cropped by hand.
          1. Most of the 15,000 to 18,000 seasonal farm workers employed during the peak harvest season in January-February live in Mexicali and commute daily to Imperial Valley farm jobs. Farm labor contractors recruit these daily commuters at the port of entry early each day, and take workers to the fields in buses between 5 and 6 am.
          2. Machine operators and other skilled labor tend to live on the US side and earn much higher wages. Many own homes.
    3. Emigration
      1. People waiting to cross into the US to work, or who are engaged in circular migrations
      2. Bracero program 1942-64
        1. People came to the United States as farmworkers.
        2. Originally invited in because so many US citizens, who had been working on the farms (which are getting bigger and bigger, remember) were drafted into the war effort as soldiers or to work in war materials factories.
        3. Plan was for Mexicans to be a flexible labor force, coming when needed and returning to Mexico when not.
        4. Doing hard work: the "short hoe" means bending over in the hot sun all day to thin sugar beets.
      3. Braceros stayed, other immigrants flooding in to work in California and Texas
        1. Began by working in ag, now in factory labor.
        2. Migrating north. (Colorado a center of Mexican immigration, but also Chicago!)
        3. Since 1965, 27 million Mexican migrants have entered the US, both legally and illegally
          1. Longest and biggest wave of immigration in US history.
          2. In 1980 the U.S. was 80 percent Anglo--that is, non-Hispanic white. It is now 72 percent Anglo, and by 2050, according to Census Bureau projections, it will be 53 percent.
          3. California and New Mexico are now slightly less than half Anglo, and by 2015 Texas will also be a minority Anglo state.
          4. Worries about language and culture. How will this affect US culture and politics
            1. Bush giving speeches in Spanish indicates the rising political influence of migrants.
        4. Illegal immigration
          1. A little under half of all Mexican migrants come here illegally
          2. Tight border controls make it tougher to get in, and people take more risks.
            1. Used to come in through cities like Tijuana or Ciudad Juarez, now must go through less patrolled rural areas.
          3. Trip is very dangerous: migrants wade the river, get hypothermia and die in the desert at night
          4. Often use "coyotes," or human traffickers, to smuggle them in in trucks
            1. Expensive
            2. March 17, 2002: Border patrol arrests a truck in which 117 people are suffering from heat exhaustion.
            3. Appears to be decreasing: people are learning of the dangers and aware of more border enforcement.
      4. Not all migration across the border is Mexican: Central American immigrants fleeing wars in Colombia, Guatemala and El Salvador coming north and waiting on the border

       

    4. Maquiladoras
      1. 1961-65 Mexican National Border Economic Development Program
      2. 1965 by the Industrialization Program of the Border, which introduced the maquiladora assembly plants to the region.
      3. The 1965 program set up SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES
      4. Tax incentives for US corporations to set up assembly plants across the border to take advantage of low wage workers.
      5. Maquiladoras:
        1. Facts
          1. 4000 factories on the border
          2. Employ over 1 million workers
          3. Value added of the goods they make is over 7 billion dollars (1997 figure).
          4. Mainly textiles and electronics
          5. Concentrated in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez/El Paso.
        2. Why do US factories come?
          1. In 1995, hourly labor costs in manufacturing were $17.20 in the United States, $7.71 along the US border, and $1.51 in Mexico. Average worker makes about $7 per day.
          2. Approaching low costs of SE Asia.
          3. AlliedSignal's top executive, Lawrence Bossidy, personally took home a bigger paycheck than the company's entire Mexican workforce. He made 6,765 times as much as the average maquiladora worker -- and 1,000 times more than the average US factory worker.
        3. Transmigrants come from throughout Mexico to work in the factories.
        4. Conditions, as you can imagine, are pretty bad
          1. Housing is ramshackle at best. Many workers make their own houses.
            1. Sarah Hill: people living on a garbage dump who make own houses out of what is there.
          2. Rare that workers can make ends meet for entire family on own salary. Must live communally.
  3. Issues on the border
    1. Social issues
      1. Fair wages and working conditions for maquiladora workers
        1. The old trade off: higher wages for fewer jobs?
      2. Less border control
        1. To make border crossing freer
          1. Having labor mobility match capital mobility, so people can move to good jobs
          2. Making border crossing safer
          3. Immigration reform on the agenda?
            1. Bush promised yes, and Fox was very happy about this. Remember, Fox was elected with support from the poor and those opposed to corporation, including the Zapatistas but also the maquila workers.
            2. Post Sept 11: has been pushed off the table. But may reappear.
    2. Environmental issues
      1. Many US corporations come to the Mexican side of the border not only for low wages but for laxer environmental laws.
      2. Air pollution
      3. Hazardous waste management
      4. Water treatment issues
        1. Vastly increased rates of amebiasis (about 800 cases per 100,000 people on the Mexican side of the border, vs. US rate of about 1.3 cases per 100,000. Typhoid Fever at 36 cases vs. less than 1 in US)
        2. Pesticide runoff.
      5. Growth issues related to influx of labor
        1. Pollution from cars
        2. Human waste management: trash and sewage
    3. Shared air and aquifers means we need coordinated trans-border policies for environmental regulation
      1. Would reduce the drive of US corporations to go there, reduce jobs.

Today's take home points

The border is a diverse area, economically and socially

US corporations and farmers set up businesses on the border to take advantage of low wages

Migrants come from all over Mexico to get agricultural and maquiladora jobs

The increased industrialization and population growth on the border is stressing the social and natural environments. Coordinated transborder policy is needed.