Are you a Citizen? Insights from Borderlands

Abstract

This paper explores the meaning of citizenship in a border town along the US-Mexico boundary. The central theme is to analyze how boundaries between nations and identities remain permeable and contested; and how such negotiations are reflected in state–citizen relations. The city of El Cenizo, a colonia, in other words, low-cost, low-service, and semi-legal housing in border areas, serves as the study area. The paper analyzes how the real life meanings of citizenship are constantly changing because of different government policies and socio-political norms of engagement. It applies Lefebvre's notion of space to analyze “citizenship” beyond its legalistic definition and understand how the systematic rules of inclusion and exclusion shape the rights and privileges of the residents of El Cenizo.

Keywords:

• Border
• citizen
• colonias

Notes

“Colonia” is a Spanish term for neighborhood or community. In Texas, colonia refers to a residential area along the Texas–Mexico border that may lack basic water and sewer systems, electricity, paved roads, and safe and sanitary housing. Colonias can be found in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, but Texas has both the largest number of colonias and the largest colonia population. Approximately 400,000 Texans live in colonias. There are more than 1400 Texas colonias, located primarily along the state's 1248 mile border with Mexico.

Neplanta denotes the “in-between situation” in which the Aztecs saw themselves in the sixteenth century, as they were placed between ancient Aztec wisdom and the ongoing Spanish colonization. In the twentieth century, the neplanta notion came to mean the double side of modernity/coloniality.

Aztlan is the mythical place of origin of the Aztec peoples. In Chicano folklore, Aztlan is often appropriated as the name for that portion of Mexico that was taken over by the United States after the Mexican–American War of 1846. In the current political context, Aztlan stands for a Hispanic separatist organization that romanticizes Mexican claims to the “lost territories” of the Southwestern United States and calls to liberate the land.

There are two checkpoints on the two major roadways in and out of Laredo (inside the city limit) where everyone is stopped and asked about his or her citizenship status. The author herself has to carry her passport at all times to show her work visa. Although the Border Patrol is not renowned for politeness, the number of offenses at these two checkpoints is far less than at the El Cenizo checkpoint, which was not monitoring people crossing the border but traveling back and forth between Laredo and El Cenizo.

Based on data from the US department of Justice; see www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cvict.htm.

The city of Nuevo Laredo was formed as a sister city of Laredo by the Mexican loyalists before the ratification of Texas. It is believed that the city fathers of Laredo appealed to both Mexican and American authorities to remain a part of Mexico, a request that was turned down.

Based on an interview with Oralia C. Reyes, present Mayor, in November 2003.

The “Don and Mike” radio show had called the City Hall at El Cenizo on 17 August 1999, and Ms. Flora Barton, a city commissioner, had picked up the call. The radio pair bullied Barton with vicious language, telling her to go back to Mexico. They broadcasted the whole conversation without prior permission, which is in violation of section 73.1206 of the commission's rules. In response to the complaints by Ms. Barton, the National Latino Media Council, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the radio station yanked the “Don and Mike” show from its airwaves and fined the Infinity Broadcasting for $4000.

Based on an interview with Noe A. Hernandez, present city commissioner, in November 2003.

Based on an interview with Oralia C. Reyes, present Mayor, in November 2003.

Based on an interview with Oralia C. Reyes, present Mayor, in November 2003.

Based on an interview with Aida Chavez, Science Department Chair and Student Council Sponsor, Lyndon B. Johnson South High School, in September 2004.