Narratives from the other side: the revelations and dynamics of a bi-national penpal program in border spaces

Abstract

This essay brings to life the way in which a binational penpal program between two fourth grade classrooms in an upper middle class San Diego suburban community and a poor, rural artisan community in Oaxaca served to illuminate the differential ways in which children do and do not engage with racial rhetoric and narratives of fear surrounding the ‘other’. The essay centers on three important issues: (1) Parents' fears of the Other that are embedded in narratives of otherness (Appadurai [2006]) that produce a belief in an impending invasion and subsequent degradation of their community and nation; (2) children's lack of engagement with the rhetoric and desire to engage across differences; and (3) the appreciation the children developed for another culture while also intensifying their sense of belonging to their own communities; and (4) the impact the program had on their lives a decade later.

Keywords:

• youth
• US–Mexico border
• racial discrimination
• othering
• migration