Border Reader

Gilberto Rosas is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Latina/o Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and author of Barrio Libre: Criminalizing States and Delinquent Refusals of the New Frontier and Unsettling: The El Paso Massacre, Resurgent White Nationalism, and the US-Mexico Border.Mireya Loza is Associate Professor of History at Georgetown University and author of Defiant Braceros: How Migrant Workers Fought for Racial, Sexual, and Political Freedom.

“International borders are abjection machines capable of dazzling violence. They elude easy understanding; their fungibility signals each state’s intrinsic dependence upon them. They require, therefore, a multipronged analysis that The Border Reader provides by bringing together foundational essays tackling the border as both a material force and an imaginary site. This kaleidoscopic approach reveals the density of the border and its lingering wake.” - Mary Pat Brady, author of (Scales of Captivity: Racial Capitalism and the Latinx Child) “The Border Reader is an outstanding collection of essays on the political complexities, identities and cultures, and futures of the US-Mexico border region. The editors have brilliantly organized the volume into key themes including borders and the politics of empire building, identity formation, gender relations, migrant crossings, and border imaginaries. With its emphasis on the work of Latinx scholars, The Border Reader is an important intervention in current debates about security, migration, and the future of borders.” - Miguel Díaz-Barriga, coauthor of (Fencing in Democracy: Border Walls, Necrocitizenship, and the Security State)

• Introduction: On Theories from the Ends / Gilberto Rosas and Mireya Loza  3Part I: Locating the Border1. Empire and the Origins of Twentieth-Century Migration from Mexico to the United States / Gilbert G. GonzÁlez and RaÚl FernÁndez  132. Legal Violence: Immigration Law and the Lives of Central American Immigrants / Cecilia MenjÍvar and Leisy J. Abrego  453. Necro-Subjection: On Borders, Asylum, and Making Dead to Let Live / Gilberto Rosas  874. Reimagining Culture and Power against Late Industrial Capitalism and Other Forms of Conquest through Border Theory and Analysis / Alejandro Lugo  1085. Tijuana Cuir / Sayak Valencia Triana  136Part II: Documenting Identities6. The United States, Mexico and Machismo / AmÉrico Paredes  1497. The Spanish Settlement of Texas and Arizona / Martha Menchaca  1688. A Place Called Home: A Queer Political Economy of Mexican Immigrant Men’s Family Experiences / Lionel CantÚ  1999. Migrations / Patricia Zavella  222Part III: En/Gendering Borders10. Changing Chicano Narratives / Renato Rosaldo  26511. Feminism on the Border: From Gender Politics to Geopolitics / Sonia SaldÍvar-Hull  28212. Trans-migrations: Agency and Confinement at the Limits of Sovereignty / Martha Balaguera  30113. Carne, Carnales, and the Carnivalesque / JosÉ E. LimÓn  324Part IV: Othering Spaces, Othering Bodies14. The Erotic Zone: Sexual Transgression on the U.S.-Mexican Border / RamÓn GutiÉrrez  34515. Medicalizing the Mexican: Immigration, Race, and Disability in the Early-Twentieth-Century United States / Natalia Molina  35516. “Looking Like a Lesbian”: The Organization of Sexual Monitoring at the U.S.–Mexican Border / Eithne LuibhÉid  37217.  Migrant Melancholia: Emergent Discourses of Mexican Migrant Traffic in Transnational Space / Alicia Schmidt Camacho  402Part V: Border Crossings18. “Awakening to a Nightmare”: Abjectivity and Illegality in the Lives of Undocumented 1.5-Generation Latino Immigrants to the United States  / Roberto G. Gonzales and Leo R. Chavez  43119. Regions of Refuge in the United States: Issues, Problems, and Concerns for the Future of Mexican-Origin Populations in the United States / Carlos G. VÉlez-IbÁÑez  46620. The Battle for the Border: Notes on Autonomous Migration, Transnational Communities, and the State / NÉstor RodrÍguez  50021. Yo Era IndÍgena: Race, Modernity and the Transformational Politics of Transnational Labor / Mireya Loza  518Part VI: New Border Imaginaries22. Tijuana: Hybridity and Beyond:  A Conversation with NÉstor GarcÍa Canclini / Fiamma Montezemolo  56323. The Art of Witness / Rosa-Linda Fregoso  58524. Amnesty or Abolition? Felons, Illegals, and the Case for a New Abolition Movement / Kelly Lytle HernÁndez  60825. How to Tame a Wild Tongue / Gloria AnzaldÚa  62826. “Wavering on the Horizon of Social Being”: The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo and the Legacy of Its Radical Character in Ámerico Paredes’s George Washington GÓmez / MarÍa Josefina SaldaÑa-Portillo  639Contributors  671Credits  673Index  677