Border Thinking, Borderland Diversity, and Trump’s Wall

Abstract

Donald Trump’s agenda to build a “big” and “beautiful” border wall continues to raise alarms for anyone concerned with social justice and environmental well-being throughout the Mexico–U.S. borderlands. In this article, I examine how the border wall and its surrounding debates raise multiple issues central to political ecological and human geographic scholarship into governance across the organic spectrum. I focus particularly on a comparison of the different kinds of “border thinking” that frame these debates and that provide synergy for those coalitions dedicated to the preservation of diversity throughout the ecological and social landscapes of the Mexico–U.S. borderlands. Key Words: biodiversity, decolonial, feminist, Mexico–U.S. borderlands, neoliberal.

唐纳德．特朗普在边境筑起一座“大而美”的高牆之议程, 对关注美墨边境的社会正义与环境福祉的任何人而言持续发出警报。我于本文中检视边境城牆及其相关辩论, 如何将政治生态学与人文地理学中的多重核心议题, 带入横跨生物光谱的治理议题之中。我特别聚焦比较不同种类的“围牆思考”, 这些思考框架了上述辩论, 并对致力于保存美墨边境的生态与社会地景之联盟提供了协同作用。 关键词： 生物多样性, 去殖民, 女权主义, 美墨边境, 新自由主义。

La agenda de Donald Trump para levantar un muro fronterizo “grande” y “hermoso” sigue prendiendo las alarmas entre quienes se preocupan por la justicia social y el bienestar ambiental a lo largo de la frontera México-EE.UU. En este artículo examino el modo como el muro fronterizo y los debates que lo rodean despiertan múltiples interrogantes que son centrales en la erudición político-ecológica y humana a través del espectro orgánico en términos de gobernanza. Me enfoco en particular en la comparación de las diferentes clases de “pensamiento fronterizo” que enmarcan estos debates y que suministran sinergia a las coaliciones dedicadas a preservar la diversidad a través de todos los paisajes ecológicos y sociales de las áreas limítrofes entre México y EE.UU.

Palabras clave:

• biodiversidad
• descolonial
• feminista
• neoliberal
• tierras fronterizas

Acknowledgments

I am especially grateful to Guadalupe D’Anda for her insights over the years on the topics I discuss here. I also owe enormous thanks to Dr. Rosalba Robles and other participants in a 2017 border studies seminar at the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez and also to the participants in my border geographies seminar at the Centro de Estudios Superiores de México y Centroamérica (CESMECA), in 2014, in San Cristóbal de las Casas. My understanding of border thinking across the Americas deepened through these important encounters. I am also indebted to Dr. Hector Padilla, Dr. Juanita Sundberg, and Leobardo Alvarado, with whom I worked on a collaborative project on militarization along the Mexico–U.S. border from 2010 to 2016. I am solely responsible for any errors.

Notes

1 References to this evolving history were common to my discussions with environmental and immigrant rights organizations throughout the borderlands in 2008.

2 I have intermittently studied or been in involved in a variety of community efforts in El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, over the last thirty years, which are interests stemming from the political convictions of my youth and family in the area. Most specifically, from 1993 to 1996, I was active in community efforts in El Paso to oppose the building of barriers and further militarization of the borderlands under the Clinton administration. Then, in 2006 and 2007, during the initial implementation of the 2006 Secure Fence Act, I conducted a study into the meaning of this project for border residents in both Ciudad Juárez, where I was living that year, and in El Paso, Texas. In the subsequent year, I conducted a several-week field study, with funding from Penn State’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and with companionship from Guadalupe D’Anda (and our young daughter), into the perspectives of border residents regarding the 2006 Act and who were involved in progressive social and environmental coalitions in the borderlands. We initiated the project in San Diego and Tijuana in May 2008 and conducted interviews in key urban areas along both sides of the border until concluding the fieldwork in the Brownsville and Matamoros area. From 2010 to 2016, I collaborated on a project on border militarization with Dr. Hector Padilla, Dr. Juanita Sundberg, and Leobardo Alvarado. Although our focus was not directly on the border walls or barriers, our discussions regarding border governance and militarization have helped me in innumerable ways as I work through these ideas. More recently, I have chaired seminars in border studies at both the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (in 2017) and at the Centro de Estudios Superiores de México y Centroamérica (CESMECA), in 2014, in San Cristóbal de las Casas. My understanding of border thinking and decolonial feminist thought across the Americas deepened through these important encounters.

Additional information

Funding

This project has received funding from the National Science Foundation under award number 1023266. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. I am also grateful to the Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences for funding the initial study.

Notes on contributors

Melissa W. Wright

MELISSA W. WRIGHT is Professor in the Department of Geography and in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include social movements, feminism, resistance to state terror, and transnational coalitions throughout Mexico and the Mexico–U.S. borderlands.