Constructing a Border

      George J. Sanchez clearly and intriguingly describes the transition of the Mexican-American dividing line from a frontier to a border and the widespread change that came with this transition.  The history told in Becoming Mexican American starts with the divider between the United States and Mexico being a loosely defined line where people are able to cross back and forth freely, usually with economic goals as the motivation.  This included Americans traveling South to convince Mexican laborers to come work for them on the northern side of the border as well as Mexicans travelling north in order to find work in order to support their families still located in Mexico and to find a higher quality of life.  There was a fluid movement back and forth across the border as Mexicans would travel into the U.S. to work and earn extra money for their families and then eventually return to Mexico for some time before going back to the U.S. to repeat the cycle.  With this circular migration that was taking place, culture, customs,  and goods were also transported back and forth across the border.  During this time the line between the two countries can be viewed as a frontier where travel and discovery and economic opportunity were encouraged and pursued.
      Eventually, the border began to strengthen both literally and figuratively.  There were more restrictive policies enacted in order to better control the influx of people coming into the U.S. and fewer people began to return back to Mexico.  The line became less of a frontier with open possibilities and more of a border with clearly marked boundaries and prejudices.  As Sanchez states, "While "frontier" evokes an image of of expansive potentialities, "border" speaks to what is real and limiting between nations and peoples.  Somewhere within this transition period people coming from Mexico became more clearly defined not as Mexicans working in the United States but Mexican Americans.  This new identity had, and still today perhaps, has to be navigated carefully as the connections to Mexico became less concrete while connections to American society were still uncertain.  The Mexico that people left behind when traveling to the United States did not remain as they remembered, but continued to transform rapidly without them.  And the United States where the migrants were now living was not ready to fully accept them as much more than an econmoic asset.  As the physical border became more clearly defined and regulated between the two countries, the cultural divide within Mexican Americans became less clear.