The Mexico-US borderlands through two decades

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Notes

1. This essay draws on many sources given in the references but not cited in text. Only a select few sources are cited in the narrative to credit specific data or quotation.

2. See Association for Borderlands Studies http://www.absborderlands.org/2about.html;Frontera NorteSur http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/; H-Borderlands http://www.h-net.org/~border/.

3. This has not deterred me in trying to come to terms with a geographical understanding about the border because while data saturation is certainly upon us, I find satisfaction in the goal of seeing for myself as well as learning from others. As a regional cultural geographer, I've held steady to the notion that going into the field, collecting one's own data, and sifting those observations, documentations and interviews permit an individual scholarly creation that is mine alone. In this regard I adhere closer to Meinigian (Meinig 1983) and Relphian (Relph 1984) philosophies about geographic creativity than to so-called social science or critical human geographic perspectives.

4. Two Korean student researchers—Nam-Sik Hong and Seo-Young Kim—who are native speakers interviewed the Korean merchants as part of the survey.

5. The American Border Patrol (2009) web site, Border Wall as Architecture, posts a series of detailed sector maps that enable one to view the range and type of fence and vehicle barrier construction along the entire boundary. The maps are linked to selected aerial views of sites along each sector.

6. The Wall Documentary/ Viva Zapata Productions 2006 [online]. Available from: http://thewalldocumentary.com/. [Accessed 4 March 2010.]

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Notes on contributors

Daniel D. Arreola

Daniel D. Arreola is Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-5302, USA