Rihan Yeh
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226511887
- eISBN:
- 9780226512075
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226512075.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Latin American Cultural Anthropology
Tijuana is the largest of Mexico’s northern border cities, and despite the US’s dramatic escalation of border enforcement, it remains deeply connected with California by one of the busiest ...
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Tijuana is the largest of Mexico’s northern border cities, and despite the US’s dramatic escalation of border enforcement, it remains deeply connected with California by one of the busiest international ports of entry in the world. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research, Passing probes the US-Mexico border’s influence on senses of self and collectivity here. Two publics, it argues, take shape in the shadow of the border. The clase media or “middle class” strives to enact the ideals of liberal publicity: informed, rational debate grounded in an upstanding “I.” The border, however, destabilizes this public profoundly, for as middle-class subjects seek confirmation of their status in the form of a US visa, they expose themselves to suspicions that reduce their projects of selfhood to interested attempts to pass inspection. In contrast, the pueblo, or “the people” as paradigmatically plebeian, imagines itself as composed of actual and potential “illegal aliens.” Instead of the “we” of liberal publicity, this public takes shape via the third person of hearsay: communication framed as what “they say,” what “everyone” knows and repeats. Passing tracks Tijuana’s two publics as they both face off and intertwine in demonstrations, internet forums, popular music, dinner table discussions, workplace banter, personal interviews, and more. Through close attention to everyday talk and interaction, it reveals how the promise of passage and the threat of prohibition together shape Tijuana’s public sphere, throwing into relief the conundrums of self and collectivity born of an age of at once increased transnational flows and fortified borders.Less
Tijuana is the largest of Mexico’s northern border cities, and despite the US’s dramatic escalation of border enforcement, it remains deeply connected with California by one of the busiest international ports of entry in the world. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research, Passing probes the US-Mexico border’s influence on senses of self and collectivity here. Two publics, it argues, take shape in the shadow of the border. The clase media or “middle class” strives to enact the ideals of liberal publicity: informed, rational debate grounded in an upstanding “I.” The border, however, destabilizes this public profoundly, for as middle-class subjects seek confirmation of their status in the form of a US visa, they expose themselves to suspicions that reduce their projects of selfhood to interested attempts to pass inspection. In contrast, the pueblo, or “the people” as paradigmatically plebeian, imagines itself as composed of actual and potential “illegal aliens.” Instead of the “we” of liberal publicity, this public takes shape via the third person of hearsay: communication framed as what “they say,” what “everyone” knows and repeats. Passing tracks Tijuana’s two publics as they both face off and intertwine in demonstrations, internet forums, popular music, dinner table discussions, workplace banter, personal interviews, and more. Through close attention to everyday talk and interaction, it reveals how the promise of passage and the threat of prohibition together shape Tijuana’s public sphere, throwing into relief the conundrums of self and collectivity born of an age of at once increased transnational flows and fortified borders.
Steven W. Bender
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814789520
- eISBN:
- 9780814789537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814789520.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
Vice tourism by U.S. residents into Mexico precedes the Prohibition era. Dating back to the early twentieth century, U.S. residents regularly traveled south of the border to partake in activities ...
More
Vice tourism by U.S. residents into Mexico precedes the Prohibition era. Dating back to the early twentieth century, U.S. residents regularly traveled south of the border to partake in activities illicit in the United States but permitted, or at least more readily available, in Mexico. Alcohol (and gambling) was especially a lure for U.S. residents and celebrities visiting Mexican border towns during the Prohibition era. The lower and relatively unenforced drinking age in Mexico more recently drew underage U.S. visitors to party in border towns such as Tijuana on weekends, at least until drug violence exploded in the borderlands, and continues to draw U.S. youth to coastal Mexican resorts over spring break, where debauchery reigns.Less
Vice tourism by U.S. residents into Mexico precedes the Prohibition era. Dating back to the early twentieth century, U.S. residents regularly traveled south of the border to partake in activities illicit in the United States but permitted, or at least more readily available, in Mexico. Alcohol (and gambling) was especially a lure for U.S. residents and celebrities visiting Mexican border towns during the Prohibition era. The lower and relatively unenforced drinking age in Mexico more recently drew underage U.S. visitors to party in border towns such as Tijuana on weekends, at least until drug violence exploded in the borderlands, and continues to draw U.S. youth to coastal Mexican resorts over spring break, where debauchery reigns.
Kathryn Talalay
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195113938
- eISBN:
- 9780199853816
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195113938.003.0035
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
Philippa left Europe after her discovery of the surprise pregnancy. She called her mother's nephew and he gave her a number of someone in California who knew a doctor from Mexico. She flew to the ...
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Philippa left Europe after her discovery of the surprise pregnancy. She called her mother's nephew and he gave her a number of someone in California who knew a doctor from Mexico. She flew to the West Coast and spent a restless night in San Diego and the next morning she awoke gripped with apprehension that the Mexican doctor might not help her. Her contact was a Senora Guinar, in Tijuana, and this doctor agreed to carry out the abortion. Afterwards Philippa returned to New York to pick up the pieces of her life and there she met Georges again and told him the story of her unborn child.Less
Philippa left Europe after her discovery of the surprise pregnancy. She called her mother's nephew and he gave her a number of someone in California who knew a doctor from Mexico. She flew to the West Coast and spent a restless night in San Diego and the next morning she awoke gripped with apprehension that the Mexican doctor might not help her. Her contact was a Senora Guinar, in Tijuana, and this doctor agreed to carry out the abortion. Afterwards Philippa returned to New York to pick up the pieces of her life and there she met Georges again and told him the story of her unborn child.
Josh Kun
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199735921
- eISBN:
- 9780199918607
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199735921.003.0012
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music, History, American
This study of 1960s Tijuana rock scene puts in evidence the globalized character of a city that, although often criticized by both American and Mexican discourses of identity, has often provided a ...
More
This study of 1960s Tijuana rock scene puts in evidence the globalized character of a city that, although often criticized by both American and Mexican discourses of identity, has often provided a musical answer to the desires for cosmopolitanism of Mexican youngsters throughout the country. By tackling recordings by American and Mexican musicians, Kun examines how the development of an American “Tijuana Sound” helped in the development of an American imaginary of the border and how it overshadowed the musical practices of young tijuanenses who were resignifying American rock from a border perspective. Kun's narrative style, based on the historical contextualization of a number of well-known and obscure LPs, is a model of how to approach recordings as documents that illuminate transnational cultural practices and discourses at specific historical moments.Less
This study of 1960s Tijuana rock scene puts in evidence the globalized character of a city that, although often criticized by both American and Mexican discourses of identity, has often provided a musical answer to the desires for cosmopolitanism of Mexican youngsters throughout the country. By tackling recordings by American and Mexican musicians, Kun examines how the development of an American “Tijuana Sound” helped in the development of an American imaginary of the border and how it overshadowed the musical practices of young tijuanenses who were resignifying American rock from a border perspective. Kun's narrative style, based on the historical contextualization of a number of well-known and obscure LPs, is a model of how to approach recordings as documents that illuminate transnational cultural practices and discourses at specific historical moments.
Christy Mag Uidhir and Henry John Pratt
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199609581
- eISBN:
- 9780191746260
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199609581.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics, Moral Philosophy
If the primary purpose of pornography is sexual arousal through sexually explicit representations, and if ‘prototypical pornography’ is best able to fulfil that purpose through the adoption of a ...
More
If the primary purpose of pornography is sexual arousal through sexually explicit representations, and if ‘prototypical pornography’ is best able to fulfil that purpose through the adoption of a maximally realistic depictive style, then why do not all works of pornography aspire to prototypical status? There are quite a few non-standard pornographic genres, including Tijuana Bibles, hentai manga, and slash fiction, that possess certain depictively or fictively oriented properties that appear at least prima facie incompatible with prototypical pornography. These give rise to two issues that any viable analysis of pornography must address. First, the Depictive Question: How might issues in depictive realism bear, if at all, upon such works being pornographic? Second, the Fiction Question: How might the conditions for being a work of fiction, whether slash fiction or otherwise, fit, if at all, with the conditions for being a work of pornography? By addressing these questions, this chapter offers a clearer picture of the aims of pornography and the reasons for which significant subgenres of pornography might diverge from the prototypical ideal.Less
If the primary purpose of pornography is sexual arousal through sexually explicit representations, and if ‘prototypical pornography’ is best able to fulfil that purpose through the adoption of a maximally realistic depictive style, then why do not all works of pornography aspire to prototypical status? There are quite a few non-standard pornographic genres, including Tijuana Bibles, hentai manga, and slash fiction, that possess certain depictively or fictively oriented properties that appear at least prima facie incompatible with prototypical pornography. These give rise to two issues that any viable analysis of pornography must address. First, the Depictive Question: How might issues in depictive realism bear, if at all, upon such works being pornographic? Second, the Fiction Question: How might the conditions for being a work of fiction, whether slash fiction or otherwise, fit, if at all, with the conditions for being a work of pornography? By addressing these questions, this chapter offers a clearer picture of the aims of pornography and the reasons for which significant subgenres of pornography might diverge from the prototypical ideal.
Alejandro L. Madrid
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195326376
- eISBN:
- 9780199851652
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326376.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
At the dawn of the 21st century, the Nor-tec phenomenon emerged from the border city of Tijuana and through the Internet, quickly conquered a global audience. Marketed as a kind of “ethnic” ...
More
At the dawn of the 21st century, the Nor-tec phenomenon emerged from the border city of Tijuana and through the Internet, quickly conquered a global audience. Marketed as a kind of “ethnic” electronic dance music, Nor-tec samples sounds of traditional music from the north of Mexico, and transforms them through computer technology used in European and American techno music and electronica. Tijuana has media links to both Mexico and the United States, with peoples, currencies, and cultural goods—perhaps especially music—from both sides circulating intensely within the city. Older residents and their more mobile, cosmopolitan-minded children thus engage in a constant struggle with identity and nationality, appropriation and authenticity. Nor-tec music in its very composition encapsulates this city's struggle, resonating with issues felt on the global level, while holding vastly different meanings for the variety of communities that embrace it. With a hybrid of musicology, ethnomusicology, cultural and performance studies, urbanism, and border studies, this book offers insights into the cultural production of Nor-tec as it stems from nortena, banda, and grupera traditions. The book also offers detailed accounts of Nor-tec music's composition process.Less
At the dawn of the 21st century, the Nor-tec phenomenon emerged from the border city of Tijuana and through the Internet, quickly conquered a global audience. Marketed as a kind of “ethnic” electronic dance music, Nor-tec samples sounds of traditional music from the north of Mexico, and transforms them through computer technology used in European and American techno music and electronica. Tijuana has media links to both Mexico and the United States, with peoples, currencies, and cultural goods—perhaps especially music—from both sides circulating intensely within the city. Older residents and their more mobile, cosmopolitan-minded children thus engage in a constant struggle with identity and nationality, appropriation and authenticity. Nor-tec music in its very composition encapsulates this city's struggle, resonating with issues felt on the global level, while holding vastly different meanings for the variety of communities that embrace it. With a hybrid of musicology, ethnomusicology, cultural and performance studies, urbanism, and border studies, this book offers insights into the cultural production of Nor-tec as it stems from nortena, banda, and grupera traditions. The book also offers detailed accounts of Nor-tec music's composition process.
Sergio Chávez
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199380572
- eISBN:
- 9780199380619
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199380572.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies), Urban and Rural Studies
Based on observations and in-depth interviews, Border Lives tells the story of how diverse groups of individuals came to establish roots in Tijuana, beginning shortly after the termination of the ...
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Based on observations and in-depth interviews, Border Lives tells the story of how diverse groups of individuals came to establish roots in Tijuana, beginning shortly after the termination of the Bracero Program (1942–64) and ending in the present. It describes how these different groups of migrants and residents adapt to a dynamic borderlands economy and draw on the border as a resource to construct their livelihoods. The book details the consequences of border-enforcement and immigration restrictions over several decades, documenting the ways in which policies create precarious situations for those who cross the border and come in contact with them on a regular basis. The book shows how individuals have used the border as a resource in the past, and how current residents are forced to seek ways to access the opportunities that the border offers in the future. Yet for all of these border crossers—former, current, and future—the border itself figures significantly, not only in their livelihood strategy but also in their lifestyle, shaping their knowledge, action, and their relationships, controlling their time, and allowing them to convert US wages into a Mexican standard of living, without losing the social and cultural comforts of Tijuana-as-home.Less
Based on observations and in-depth interviews, Border Lives tells the story of how diverse groups of individuals came to establish roots in Tijuana, beginning shortly after the termination of the Bracero Program (1942–64) and ending in the present. It describes how these different groups of migrants and residents adapt to a dynamic borderlands economy and draw on the border as a resource to construct their livelihoods. The book details the consequences of border-enforcement and immigration restrictions over several decades, documenting the ways in which policies create precarious situations for those who cross the border and come in contact with them on a regular basis. The book shows how individuals have used the border as a resource in the past, and how current residents are forced to seek ways to access the opportunities that the border offers in the future. Yet for all of these border crossers—former, current, and future—the border itself figures significantly, not only in their livelihood strategy but also in their lifestyle, shaping their knowledge, action, and their relationships, controlling their time, and allowing them to convert US wages into a Mexican standard of living, without losing the social and cultural comforts of Tijuana-as-home.
Alejandro L. Madrid
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195326376
- eISBN:
- 9780199851652
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326376.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This chapter traces the history of electronic music in Tijuana in an attempt to understand the Nor-tec myth of origin as a historical contingency that gave meaning to a series of cultural ...
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This chapter traces the history of electronic music in Tijuana in an attempt to understand the Nor-tec myth of origin as a historical contingency that gave meaning to a series of cultural manifestations and artistic pursuits in that city at the end of the 1990s. It shows the individual and collective aspirations implicit in the production and consumption of Nor-tec, and investigates how memory is performed and how imaginaries of tradition and modernity are articulated in Nor-tec's myth of origin.Less
This chapter traces the history of electronic music in Tijuana in an attempt to understand the Nor-tec myth of origin as a historical contingency that gave meaning to a series of cultural manifestations and artistic pursuits in that city at the end of the 1990s. It shows the individual and collective aspirations implicit in the production and consumption of Nor-tec, and investigates how memory is performed and how imaginaries of tradition and modernity are articulated in Nor-tec's myth of origin.
Alejandro L. Madrid
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195326376
- eISBN:
- 9780199851652
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326376.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This chapter aims to show local cultural practices that appropriate the city and its mythology in novel ways that empower local individuals. It traces the issue of impermanence in the city's ...
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This chapter aims to show local cultural practices that appropriate the city and its mythology in novel ways that empower local individuals. It traces the issue of impermanence in the city's architectural history as a point of departure to explain the continuous re-signification of the city's urban landscapes by tijuanenses. It explores the relationships among musicians, fans, and the changing urban landscape of their city, including concert venues, clubs, bars, and dancing locales. It also uses Nortec music and videos as metaphors for the ambiguity of cultural meaning and discourse in a city like Tijuana. Its goal is to show that Nor-tec and Nor-tec-related expressive culture offer young tijuanenses alternative ways to territorialize and reterritorialize public spaces as well as hegemonic discourses of race, class, morality, and belonging in Tijuana.Less
This chapter aims to show local cultural practices that appropriate the city and its mythology in novel ways that empower local individuals. It traces the issue of impermanence in the city's architectural history as a point of departure to explain the continuous re-signification of the city's urban landscapes by tijuanenses. It explores the relationships among musicians, fans, and the changing urban landscape of their city, including concert venues, clubs, bars, and dancing locales. It also uses Nortec music and videos as metaphors for the ambiguity of cultural meaning and discourse in a city like Tijuana. Its goal is to show that Nor-tec and Nor-tec-related expressive culture offer young tijuanenses alternative ways to territorialize and reterritorialize public spaces as well as hegemonic discourses of race, class, morality, and belonging in Tijuana.
Jon Burlingame
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199863303
- eISBN:
- 9780199979981
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199863303.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, Popular, History, American
Producer Charles K. Feldman (who held the rights to the first Fleming Bond novel) makes his own Bond movie, a big-budget, all-star sendup starring David Niven, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, Orson ...
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Producer Charles K. Feldman (who held the rights to the first Fleming Bond novel) makes his own Bond movie, a big-budget, all-star sendup starring David Niven, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, Orson Welles and original Bond girl Ursula Andress. Hit songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David pen several songs for the film, most of which are jettisoned by the time they see the final cut. The “Casino Royale” song, with satirical lyrics, is sung Noel Coward-style by an uncredited Mike Redway; Johnny Rivers flew to London to sing it over the titles but disliked the song and refused; Herb Alpert, of Tijuana Brass fame, later played trumpet over the instrumental track and that wound up over the opening titles. Bacharach and David write “The Look of Love” at the last minute in London for a love scene with Sellers and Andress; Dusty Springfield sang it and it became the first Oscar-nominated Bond song.Less
Producer Charles K. Feldman (who held the rights to the first Fleming Bond novel) makes his own Bond movie, a big-budget, all-star sendup starring David Niven, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, Orson Welles and original Bond girl Ursula Andress. Hit songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David pen several songs for the film, most of which are jettisoned by the time they see the final cut. The “Casino Royale” song, with satirical lyrics, is sung Noel Coward-style by an uncredited Mike Redway; Johnny Rivers flew to London to sing it over the titles but disliked the song and refused; Herb Alpert, of Tijuana Brass fame, later played trumpet over the instrumental track and that wound up over the opening titles. Bacharach and David write “The Look of Love” at the last minute in London for a love scene with Sellers and Andress; Dusty Springfield sang it and it became the first Oscar-nominated Bond song.
Michelle Téllez and Cristina Sanidad
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479898992
- eISBN:
- 9781479806799
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479898992.003.0012
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
This chapter examines the activism of women's organizations along the San Diego–Tijuana border region, who are seeking to redress the injustices that workers experience in assembly factories, also ...
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This chapter examines the activism of women's organizations along the San Diego–Tijuana border region, who are seeking to redress the injustices that workers experience in assembly factories, also known as maquiladoras. It focuses on the strategies, structure, and coalition-building efforts of three grassroots groups: the Colectiva Feminista Binacional (Binational Feminist Collective), CITTAC (Centro de Información para Trabajadores y Trabajadoras Acción Comunitaria; Support Center for Workers), and the San Diego Maquiladora Worker Support Network. Collectively these organizations address short-term needs while, at the same time, build networks and skills for the long term. Identifying their strategies offers insight to the possibilities for and implications of their work in producing a transnational space for organizing centered on relationship building and the construction of a counterhegemonic identity along the US–Mexico border.Less
This chapter examines the activism of women's organizations along the San Diego–Tijuana border region, who are seeking to redress the injustices that workers experience in assembly factories, also known as maquiladoras. It focuses on the strategies, structure, and coalition-building efforts of three grassroots groups: the Colectiva Feminista Binacional (Binational Feminist Collective), CITTAC (Centro de Información para Trabajadores y Trabajadoras Acción Comunitaria; Support Center for Workers), and the San Diego Maquiladora Worker Support Network. Collectively these organizations address short-term needs while, at the same time, build networks and skills for the long term. Identifying their strategies offers insight to the possibilities for and implications of their work in producing a transnational space for organizing centered on relationship building and the construction of a counterhegemonic identity along the US–Mexico border.
Shlomi Dinar and Ariel Dinar
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520283077
- eISBN:
- 9780520958906
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520283077.003.0005
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
This chapter assesses the mechanisms introduced in Chapter 4 by considering actual cases and evaluating how the mechanism or strategy used contributed to cooperation. In addition to mechanisms such ...
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This chapter assesses the mechanisms introduced in Chapter 4 by considering actual cases and evaluating how the mechanism or strategy used contributed to cooperation. In addition to mechanisms such as issue-linkage, side-payments and compensation as well as benefit-sharing, the chapter also examines foreign policy considerations and reciprocity as mechanisms or strategies for promoting cooperation. Mechanisms and strategies such as these aim to incentivize cooperation and shift the payoff structure so that it favors a mutually beneficial outcome.Less
This chapter assesses the mechanisms introduced in Chapter 4 by considering actual cases and evaluating how the mechanism or strategy used contributed to cooperation. In addition to mechanisms such as issue-linkage, side-payments and compensation as well as benefit-sharing, the chapter also examines foreign policy considerations and reciprocity as mechanisms or strategies for promoting cooperation. Mechanisms and strategies such as these aim to incentivize cooperation and shift the payoff structure so that it favors a mutually beneficial outcome.
Rihan Yeh
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226511887
- eISBN:
- 9780226512075
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226512075.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Latin American Cultural Anthropology
The introduction begins with the problem of passing: a general issue of subjectivity’s dependence on external recognitions, but that Tijuana’s border location drastically exacerbates. Here, the ...
More
The introduction begins with the problem of passing: a general issue of subjectivity’s dependence on external recognitions, but that Tijuana’s border location drastically exacerbates. Here, the equivocations of passing suffuse not just individual subjectivities but collective ones: the “we”s that pose city or nation as groups and locate the speaker within them. As the introduction sketches middle-class and popular articulations of we-ness in Tijuana, it builds a theoretical and methodological framework for grasping the formation of publics in linguistic practice. Publics suffused with the desires and disavowals of passing, though, require a further analytic accounting. The introduction relies on the concept of the fetish both to unpack the border’s importance for Mexican senses of national collectivity broadly and to rethink liberal publicity in relation to colonial and quasi-colonial histories like the border’s. This discussion renders some of Passing’s more profound implications: the productive instability of middle-class publics, however strong their commitments to liberal publicity, and the ethics that the hearsay public builds in the face of transnationally compounded exclusions—in the last instance, in face of the risk of death run in unauthorized border crossing.Less
The introduction begins with the problem of passing: a general issue of subjectivity’s dependence on external recognitions, but that Tijuana’s border location drastically exacerbates. Here, the equivocations of passing suffuse not just individual subjectivities but collective ones: the “we”s that pose city or nation as groups and locate the speaker within them. As the introduction sketches middle-class and popular articulations of we-ness in Tijuana, it builds a theoretical and methodological framework for grasping the formation of publics in linguistic practice. Publics suffused with the desires and disavowals of passing, though, require a further analytic accounting. The introduction relies on the concept of the fetish both to unpack the border’s importance for Mexican senses of national collectivity broadly and to rethink liberal publicity in relation to colonial and quasi-colonial histories like the border’s. This discussion renders some of Passing’s more profound implications: the productive instability of middle-class publics, however strong their commitments to liberal publicity, and the ethics that the hearsay public builds in the face of transnationally compounded exclusions—in the last instance, in face of the risk of death run in unauthorized border crossing.
Steven W. Bender
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814789520
- eISBN:
- 9780814789537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814789520.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
Vice tourism by U.S. residents into Mexico precedes the Prohibition era. Dating back to the early twentieth century, U.S. residents regularly traveled south of the border to partake in activities ...
More
Vice tourism by U.S. residents into Mexico precedes the Prohibition era. Dating back to the early twentieth century, U.S. residents regularly traveled south of the border to partake in activities illicit in the United States but permitted, or at least more readily available, in Mexico. Alcohol (and gambling) was especially a lure for U.S. residents and celebrities visiting Mexican border towns during the Prohibition era. The lower and relatively unenforced drinking age in Mexico more recently drew underage U.S. visitors to party in border towns such as Tijuana on weekends, at least until drug violence exploded in the borderlands, and continues to draw U.S. youth to coastal Mexican resorts over spring break, where debauchery reigns.Less
Vice tourism by U.S. residents into Mexico precedes the Prohibition era. Dating back to the early twentieth century, U.S. residents regularly traveled south of the border to partake in activities illicit in the United States but permitted, or at least more readily available, in Mexico. Alcohol (and gambling) was especially a lure for U.S. residents and celebrities visiting Mexican border towns during the Prohibition era. The lower and relatively unenforced drinking age in Mexico more recently drew underage U.S. visitors to party in border towns such as Tijuana on weekends, at least until drug violence exploded in the borderlands, and continues to draw U.S. youth to coastal Mexican resorts over spring break, where debauchery reigns.
Michelle Téllez
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037573
- eISBN:
- 9780252094828
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037573.003.0013
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
This chapter examines how women border dwellers are responding to transnational processes and the effects of neoliberal policies, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), by focusing ...
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This chapter examines how women border dwellers are responding to transnational processes and the effects of neoliberal policies, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), by focusing on woman-centered activism projects as well as innovative forms of political organizing and community formation at the U.S./Mexico border. Building on the idea of transfronterismo, or transborderness, the chapter suggests that the actual border should be seen not just as a site of passage but also as a site for gendered transformation where a politicized transfronteriza identity can emerge. It looks specifically at the transborder space of the twin cities of Tijuana and San Diego and the work of the La Colectiva Feminista Binacional (Binational Feminist Collective, CFB). It probes the lives and experiences of the men and women of the maquiladora industry and shows that the construction of a politicized transfronteriza identity is determined by three factors: a shared geographical space, a collective consciousness based on mutual experiences and solidarity, and a feminist politics that looks at women's rights as fundamental to challenging the system.Less
This chapter examines how women border dwellers are responding to transnational processes and the effects of neoliberal policies, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), by focusing on woman-centered activism projects as well as innovative forms of political organizing and community formation at the U.S./Mexico border. Building on the idea of transfronterismo, or transborderness, the chapter suggests that the actual border should be seen not just as a site of passage but also as a site for gendered transformation where a politicized transfronteriza identity can emerge. It looks specifically at the transborder space of the twin cities of Tijuana and San Diego and the work of the La Colectiva Feminista Binacional (Binational Feminist Collective, CFB). It probes the lives and experiences of the men and women of the maquiladora industry and shows that the construction of a politicized transfronteriza identity is determined by three factors: a shared geographical space, a collective consciousness based on mutual experiences and solidarity, and a feminist politics that looks at women's rights as fundamental to challenging the system.
Troy Rondinone
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037375
- eISBN:
- 9780252094668
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037375.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sport and Leisure
This chapter discusses the background of Gaspar “Indio” Ortega. Perhaps the oldest aphorism of boxing is that poverty breeds pugilists. This is certainly the case for Ortega. His story begins in the ...
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This chapter discusses the background of Gaspar “Indio” Ortega. Perhaps the oldest aphorism of boxing is that poverty breeds pugilists. This is certainly the case for Ortega. His story begins in the dusty border town of Tijuana, which sits perched on the edge of the wealthiest nation in the world. From atop the hill above his neighborhood of Colonia Morelos, Tijuana, a young Gaspar Benitez at midcentury could gaze out across the border and over the sprawling farmlands beyond and wonder what life was like in Los Estados Unidos. Gaspar developed an interest in boxing in his teens. In 1950 he turned pro; he was fourteen years old. In 1953 Indio met American manager Nick Corby who would change his life forever.Less
This chapter discusses the background of Gaspar “Indio” Ortega. Perhaps the oldest aphorism of boxing is that poverty breeds pugilists. This is certainly the case for Ortega. His story begins in the dusty border town of Tijuana, which sits perched on the edge of the wealthiest nation in the world. From atop the hill above his neighborhood of Colonia Morelos, Tijuana, a young Gaspar Benitez at midcentury could gaze out across the border and over the sprawling farmlands beyond and wonder what life was like in Los Estados Unidos. Gaspar developed an interest in boxing in his teens. In 1950 he turned pro; he was fourteen years old. In 1953 Indio met American manager Nick Corby who would change his life forever.
Miroslava Chávez-García
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469641034
- eISBN:
- 9781469641058
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641034.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Chapter five traces the experience of Paco Chavez’s friend Rogelio Martínez Serna— and that of his male peers—across the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and attempts to achieve his hopes and dreams for an ...
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Chapter five traces the experience of Paco Chavez’s friend Rogelio Martínez Serna— and that of his male peers—across the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and attempts to achieve his hopes and dreams for an economically, physically, and emotionally stable family life. To do so, the chapter opens by examining Rogelio’s effort to migrate lawfully. It shows that his motivation for migration was stoked by Paco’s recent successful settlement in California. Like his peers, Rogelio imagined Paco earning pockets full of dollars, attracting women with his convertible car, and enjoying new adventures. Life was much more difficult for Rogelio, living in the Mexican border. Inspired by his friend Paco, and not easily defeated, Rogelio developed ingenious plans to achieve his purpose: migrating to California to save enough money for an economically secure life as a “man” who could support a household in Mexico. Despite his setbacks, he never lost sight of his aims, especially with peers providing support for how to lead the life of a successful male Mexican migrant with his masculinity and manhood intact. As Rogelio’s experiences show, migrants relied on social networks to achieve lawful migration, employment, housing, and companionship, facilitating their settlement in and transition to the new environment.Less
Chapter five traces the experience of Paco Chavez’s friend Rogelio Martínez Serna— and that of his male peers—across the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and attempts to achieve his hopes and dreams for an economically, physically, and emotionally stable family life. To do so, the chapter opens by examining Rogelio’s effort to migrate lawfully. It shows that his motivation for migration was stoked by Paco’s recent successful settlement in California. Like his peers, Rogelio imagined Paco earning pockets full of dollars, attracting women with his convertible car, and enjoying new adventures. Life was much more difficult for Rogelio, living in the Mexican border. Inspired by his friend Paco, and not easily defeated, Rogelio developed ingenious plans to achieve his purpose: migrating to California to save enough money for an economically secure life as a “man” who could support a household in Mexico. Despite his setbacks, he never lost sight of his aims, especially with peers providing support for how to lead the life of a successful male Mexican migrant with his masculinity and manhood intact. As Rogelio’s experiences show, migrants relied on social networks to achieve lawful migration, employment, housing, and companionship, facilitating their settlement in and transition to the new environment.
Sergio Chávez
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199380572
- eISBN:
- 9780199380619
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199380572.003.0007
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies), Urban and Rural Studies
The epilogue revisits the lives of several key actors almost a decade after the initial fieldwork. It asks whether border livelihoods were sustainable in a region that has experienced a sharp ...
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The epilogue revisits the lives of several key actors almost a decade after the initial fieldwork. It asks whether border livelihoods were sustainable in a region that has experienced a sharp increase in border enforcement and immigration restriction over the years. The epilogue provides several surprises, finding that some respondents had lost their legal documents to cross the border. One migrant was finally able to obtain legal documents after years of trying and strategizing. The epilogue stresses that for border residents who are legally and economically vulnerable, sustaining a binational life becomes an especially daunting task to maintain over their life course. Thus, the agency of migrants must be studied longitudinally and ethnographically to understand why people are able to overcome political and economic structures at certain times but not others.Less
The epilogue revisits the lives of several key actors almost a decade after the initial fieldwork. It asks whether border livelihoods were sustainable in a region that has experienced a sharp increase in border enforcement and immigration restriction over the years. The epilogue provides several surprises, finding that some respondents had lost their legal documents to cross the border. One migrant was finally able to obtain legal documents after years of trying and strategizing. The epilogue stresses that for border residents who are legally and economically vulnerable, sustaining a binational life becomes an especially daunting task to maintain over their life course. Thus, the agency of migrants must be studied longitudinally and ethnographically to understand why people are able to overcome political and economic structures at certain times but not others.
