Mixed Race Studies

Living in the Borderlands

EthicsDaily.com
2007-01-19

Miguel A. De La Torre, Professor of Social Ethics
Iliff School of Theology, Denver, Colorado

De La Torre La Torre says U.S.-Mexico border isn’t only barrier facing Latinos.

From Tijuana on the Pacific Ocean to Matamoros on the Gulf of Mexico runs a 1,833-mile border separating the United States from Latin America. Around the halfway point on this border is Ciudad Juárez. Flowing southeastwardly from Ciudad Juárez to Matamoros is the Rio Grande, literally the Big River.

Ironically, the word “grande” (big) is a misnomer. The river is narrow and shallow in several places, allowing for easy crossing for those who are impoverished and dream of simply surviving in “el Norte,” the North. 
 
The rest of the border, from Ciudad Juárez toward the west, comprises of little more than a line drawn upon the ground. Part of this line is demarcated by a 15 foot-high wall. Landing strips used during the First Iraqi War were recycled in 1994 by Immigration and Naturalization Service to construct this wall.
 
The hope of INS was to stem the flow of mainly Mexican immigrants through the San Diego area and Nogales, Ariz. But the flow continues, only now through miles of hazardous deserts where many fall victims to the elements.
 
This artificial line is more than just a border between two countries. Some Latino/as have called it a scar caused by where the First and Third World rub-up against each other…

…But the borderlands are more than just a geographical reality–they also symbolize the existential reality of U.S. Latina/os. Most Hispanics, regardless as to where they are located or how they or their ancestors found themselves in the United States, live on the borders.

Borders separating Latina/os from other Americans exist in every state, every city and almost every community, regardless as to how far away they may be from the 1,833 mile line. Borders are as real in Chicago, Ill., Topeka, Kan., Seattle, Wash., or Chapel Hill, N.C., as they are in Chula Vista, Calif., Douglas, Ariz., or El Paso, Texas.

To be a U.S. Hispanic is to constantly live on the border—that is, the border that separates privilege from disenfranchisement, that separates power from marginalization, and that separates whiteness from “colored.” Most U.S. Hispanics, regardless as to where they live, exist in the borderlands.
 
To live on the borders throughout the U.S. means separation from the benefits and fruits society has to offer its inhabitants. Exclusion mainly occurs because Hispanics are conceived by the dominant Euroamerican culture as being inferior. They are perceived as inferior partly due to the pervasive race-conscious U.S. culture. For centuries Euroamericans have been taught to equate nonwhites, specifically mixed-race persons, as inferior. Seen derogatorily as “half-breeds,” a mixture of races and ethnicities (Caucasian, African, Amerindian or any combination thereof) means limited access to education and social services.

But while U.S. Hispanics are treated with equal disdain, it would be an error to assume the U.S. Latina/os are some type of monolithic group. Quite the contrary, Hispanics are a mestizaje (mixture) or combination of ethnicities, a mestizaje of races, and a mestizaje of cultures…

Read the entire article here.