S.t. Rita
border The New Yorker
The making and unmaking of various kinds of borders affects everyone (C. Fox 1999)
In the fall of 2011, During "Thanks Giving" or “thanks taking” the editors of the New Yorker published an image of five pilgrims crossing the US/Mexico border. The images of five pilgrims running across the border fence, this was perceived as the US/Mexican border in Arizona. The direction that the pilgrims were running, I presumed was from Mexico to the norte, the US Southwest. The image of pilgrims helps moves the image of the border beyond the constraining effects of Western epistemology’s categories of knowledge and the explanatory macronarratives that have structured both the emergence of state power and the resistance to it (Mignolo 2000). The New Yorker image can open the door for a “Western” critique of the west.
The frontal image of pilgrims crossing the southern border demonstrates to me how borders have become naturalized and at the same time popularized in the US public discourses, but also sets the stage to question citizenship regimes, nation state as a modern colonial project, thus placing the border as a space to renew questions of citizenship and sovereignty. The political context of the New Yorker image is timely; it was published during a difficult year for all immigrants, especially for Mexican undocumented migrants. Even thou the image represents only the US liberal leftist elite magazine opinions, the political significance and massage cannot be taken for granted. The New Yorker’s image exposes the border as par of a historical hypocrisy. It shows the connection between ethnicity, racialization, and immigration to empire building (Paredes 1958, Gutierrez-Jones 1995; Saldivar 1997), the US continues to suffer from an economic recession, and historically these moments of frustration and distress help create anti-immigrant legislation that end up becoming racial laws (Alabama to Arizona), discrimination of people based on the color of their skin or ethnicity. The New Yorker’s image points out that it is noting new for people to cross borders and its part of the history of the US as a country. The image of the pilgrims crossing the border also speaks to a place of encounters and of critical thinking. The “illegal” is whitened by the image of the “pilgrims,” the pilgrim is at the root of the US racial state mythology. The image of pilgrims crossing the border in the 21th century forces us to rethink and question, not just the history of the US, but also question why it was ok in the 17th century to cross an ocean, but not ok now to cross a fence or a river in the 21th century.
The New Yorkers’ image points at the hypocrisy and paradox of the contemporary discourse on “illegal” versus legal immigrants.“ The border entails a shift in perspectives, to thinking beyond borders (Norma Alarcon 1996). The historical production of the US as a “nation of migrant” or settler colonialism, and Native American people that did not crossed borders (Gloria Anzaldua & Moraga 1981), but rather crossed epistemologies, where people of different races occupy the same territory, where, lower, middle, and upper classes touch, where the space between two individuals shrinks.
The term “border” and the idea of “border thinking” grow in popularity among mainstream media (New Yorker 2011). What does this mean? This does not signify the end of the nation racial state or the border it self. But rather the opposite; in the KEYWORDS book by Hendler & Burgett the author demonstrates how “The ongoing violence of national borders around the world, particularly in regions immediately affected by the break up of the Soviet Union, the Palestinian Israeli conflict, the continuing impact of anticolonial struggles, and regional economic recessions. The U.S. government has prepared to militarize its border with Mexico. (Mary Pat Brady, 2011 p. 29), this has come to represent in the contemporary what a border signifies. The metaphors of borders, border-crossings, and borderlands (Guillermo Gomez-Peña 1990; Nestor Garcia Canclini 1995; and Homi K. Bhabha 1994), a place where hybridizing intercepts with homogeneous interest. This is what The New Yorker attempts to stimulate a type of questioning of the US elite right wing hegemony of power--they are “Border thinking” from the perspective of the left and being innovative.
border The New Yorker
The making and unmaking of various kinds of borders affects everyone (C. Fox 1999)
In the fall of 2011, During "Thanks Giving" or “thanks taking” the editors of the New Yorker published an image of five pilgrims crossing the US/Mexico border. The images of five pilgrims running across the border fence, this was perceived as the US/Mexican border in Arizona. The direction that the pilgrims were running, I presumed was from Mexico to the norte, the US Southwest. The image of pilgrims helps moves the image of the border beyond the constraining effects of Western epistemology’s categories of knowledge and the explanatory macronarratives that have structured both the emergence of state power and the resistance to it (Mignolo 2000). The New Yorker image can open the door for a “Western” critique of the west.
The frontal image of pilgrims crossing the southern border demonstrates to me how borders have become naturalized and at the same time popularized in the US public discourses, but also sets the stage to question citizenship regimes, nation state as a modern colonial project, thus placing the border as a space to renew questions of citizenship and sovereignty. The political context of the New Yorker image is timely; it was published during a difficult year for all immigrants, especially for Mexican undocumented migrants. Even thou the image represents only the US liberal leftist elite magazine opinions, the political significance and massage cannot be taken for granted. The New Yorker’s image exposes the border as par of a historical hypocrisy. It shows the connection between ethnicity, racialization, and immigration to empire building (Paredes 1958, Gutierrez-Jones 1995; Saldivar 1997), the US continues to suffer from an economic recession, and historically these moments of frustration and distress help create anti-immigrant legislation that end up becoming racial laws (Alabama to Arizona), discrimination of people based on the color of their skin or ethnicity. The New Yorker’s image points out that it is noting new for people to cross borders and its part of the history of the US as a country. The image of the pilgrims crossing the border also speaks to a place of encounters and of critical thinking. The “illegal” is whitened by the image of the “pilgrims,” the pilgrim is at the root of the US racial state mythology. The image of pilgrims crossing the border in the 21th century forces us to rethink and question, not just the history of the US, but also question why it was ok in the 17th century to cross an ocean, but not ok now to cross a fence or a river in the 21th century.
The New Yorkers’ image points at the hypocrisy and paradox of the contemporary discourse on “illegal” versus legal immigrants.“ The border entails a shift in perspectives, to thinking beyond borders (Norma Alarcon 1996). The historical production of the US as a “nation of migrant” or settler colonialism, and Native American people that did not crossed borders (Gloria Anzaldua & Moraga 1981), but rather crossed epistemologies, where people of different races occupy the same territory, where, lower, middle, and upper classes touch, where the space between two individuals shrinks.
The term “border” and the idea of “border thinking” grow in popularity among mainstream media (New Yorker 2011). What does this mean? This does not signify the end of the nation racial state or the border it self. But rather the opposite; in the KEYWORDS book by Hendler & Burgett the author demonstrates how “The ongoing violence of national borders around the world, particularly in regions immediately affected by the break up of the Soviet Union, the Palestinian Israeli conflict, the continuing impact of anticolonial struggles, and regional economic recessions. The U.S. government has prepared to militarize its border with Mexico. (Mary Pat Brady, 2011 p. 29), this has come to represent in the contemporary what a border signifies. The metaphors of borders, border-crossings, and borderlands (Guillermo Gomez-Peña 1990; Nestor Garcia Canclini 1995; and Homi K. Bhabha 1994), a place where hybridizing intercepts with homogeneous interest. This is what The New Yorker attempts to stimulate a type of questioning of the US elite right wing hegemony of power--they are “Border thinking” from the perspective of the left and being innovative.