Becoming Mexican American: Concept of the Border

The concept of the border between countries is a tricky one to understand, especially concerning the border the divides the United States from Mexico. The borderlines that we seen drawn on the map or globe do not physically exist but as just imaginary buffer line between different nations that often wax and wane in either direction over the course of history. This has most definitely been the case of the US-Mexico border. The land that we now refer to as California, Texas, New Mexico (haha), and Arizona, once had not just one but two prior owners before the US: Spain and Mexico. However, with the blessings of Manifest Destiny those lands become a part of the growing empire, excuse, I meant nation called America.

While reading Sanchez' Becoming Mexican American, it was fascinating to learn how this border's existence was both ignore and enforced based on the agenda of the US economy. Since white labor didn't want jobs in agriculture, farmers and railroad kingpins looked to Mexico to meet their demand for labor. However, when demand for labor decreased the border line separating Mexico and the US seem to grow bolder and more defined. As if like a faucet the US government turned on the spigot when their own labor supply was dry and turned it off when that demand was met. George Sanchez writes, "The pull factors represented by a burgeoning southwestern economy and a federal government willing to allow undocumented migration through a policy of benign neglect were factors which contributed to mass migration across the border during the early years of the twentieth century." The enforcement of this US-Mexico borderline depended on whether its existence was convenient for the US economy. So then I ask, is this border real? What purpose does it actually serve if its existence is occasionally enforced?