David Spener

The U.S.-Mexico Border: Transcending Divisions, Contesting Identities

Exploring the construction of spatial lines and zones in physical, social, and academic terms, this volume presents the US-Mexico border as a site from which to survey both the social and economic networks and the issues of identity and symbolism that surround borders.

Se Batalla Mucho: Border Enforcement and the Story of Hilda and Julián

This chapter relates the migratory experiences of Hilda and Julian, a young married couple from a small village in the rural northwestern section of the state of Guanajuato. Julian made his first trip to the USA in 1994, at the age of 21, just as he and Hilda were beginning their romance. He went back and forth between Guanajuato and Dallas, Texas for the next couple of years before returning to marry Hilda at the end of 1996. They returned to Dallas together to live and work early in 1997. Although their first border-crossing together went relatively smoothly, when they attempted to return with their baby daughter after a visit home at the beginning of 2000, they suffered tremendously. Hilda and Julian’s second sojourn in Dallas was marked by a series of economic and emotional setbacks that led them to question whether it made sense for them to remain together in Dallas, especially since it was nearly impossible for Hilda to work after having two more children there. Finally, in mid-2003 they decided it would be best for Hilda to return to Guanajuato with their children. Even though it was getting more difficult and dangerous every year, Julian continued to go back and forth across the border to work. The suffering experienced by the couple in their migratory experiences is analyzed in terms of Galtung’s concepts of structural and cultural violence.