Reimagining Borderscapes

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Reimagining Borderscapes

Rogers, Patrick

URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10429/2182

Date: 2021-05-19

Abstract:

This thesis argues that the Mexican-American Border is defined by two essential structures: the physical barriers along the border and the influx of people trying to cross the border, and that re-imagining the liminal spaces along the border can transform the border into a place of multiculturalism and transborder conviviality. This argument is developed in three parts. First, the thesis analyzes borders by introducing a number of border philosophies including viapolitics, transborderism, and liminality. These philosophies are in turn used to develop a concept of ríopolitics which orients us to understand the Mexican-American border as a conflict between the border’s physical barriers and the people trying to cross through them. Second, the thesis zooms in to the San Luis Borderscape to analyze how the people there experience the border and how the liminal spaces animate the border. Third, the thesis re-imagines the liminal spaces in San Luis to be strategic sites of multiculturalism and transborder conviviality, culminating in various final products called ríoscapes.

Description:

The Mexican-American Border is defined by two essential structures: the physical barriers along the border and the influx of people trying to across the border (Ríopolitics). Re-imagining the liminal spaces along the border can transform the border into a place of multiculturalism and transborder conviviality (Ríoscapes). Border conflicts and mass migrations around the world have inspired philosophers and scholars to investigate the nature of borders. These border philosophies are useful in showing how people experience borders, but they are not universal in that they cannot be applied the same way to every border. This thesis synthesizes several border theories and folds them into a new concept: ríopolitics. Ríopolitics is defined as the geopolitical scenario shaped by the viapolitics and liminality of the Mexican-American border, the physical barriers along the Mexican-American border (e.g., Río Grande, Río Colorado) and the influx of people who cross the border (e.g. un río de gente). Conceptualizing the Mexican-American border under this umbrella term allows us to analyze “present-day” ríopolitics and then prescribe what a future ríopolitics will be. This thesis argues that liminal border spaces can be a place to re-imagine the border as a scene, or -scape, of multiculturalism and transborder conviviality. This thesis first begins by asking what are borders? Four types of borders are then identified: gated communities, firewalls, political borders, and the global border. Further investigations reveal that borders are experienced by daily travelers, migrants, and through international trade, at land ports of entry. The concepts discussed above constitute how these travelers experience borders. This thesis is set in the San Luis borderscape, a cross-border city consisting of San Luis AZ and San Luis Rio Colorado SO. This setting was chosen since more well-known border crossings such as San Ysidro CA and El Paso TX are already very popular places of investigation. Therefore, the setting of San Luis gives this thesis a better opportunity of providing a unique contribution to the field of border scholarship. After preliminary research about the facts and people of San Luis was done, in-depth research of the liminal spaces was performed. Eidetic operations revealed the nature of the liminal spaces and how those natures reflected the border concepts mentioned earlier. Finally, the thesis concludes by using the same methods used to perform the eidetic operations, but instead re-imagines the border in new ways. The results hopefully provoke viewers into challenging any previously held views or biases relating to borders.

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