The
Texas borderlands are one of the nations most complex borders of the United
States. In particular, the El Paso region has endured numerous historical
events that give rise to the current states of identity crisis experienced by
its multicultural residents. The Mexican majorities having the longest presence
in the region still feel the wrath of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Mexican
Revolution and the infamous Bath Riots today. In comparison to their Anglo
counterparts and other racial groups, whose relation to the U.S.-Mexico border
has fluctuated throughout history.
In
1882 the United States passed anti-Chinese legislation, known as the Chinese
Exclusion Act. This Act was the nations first major law restricting immigration
to the United States. At the time many folks concerned with foreigners, were
not so much focused on Mexicans south of the Border. Instead what lead to the
passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act, was a response to the economic fears of
rising unemployment for native-born Americans. Chinese workers were blamed for
declining wages and seen as racially inferior. This anti-immigrant legislation
gave way for anti-foreigner rhetoric that is in much of today’s immigration
policies.
An
important historical amnesia event to address is that during this time at the
El Paso border region, Mexicans were not being policed for documentation.
Mexicans freely came in and out of U.S. and Mexico territories. United States
agribusinesses continued the hiring of Mexicans for their cheap labor, inviting
them north for better wages. While many Chinese laborers fled anti-Chinese
legislation to the fields of Mexico to work in U.S. and Mexican owned farms in
the Mexicali Valley. Ironically, as the concern for employment rose in the U.S.
alongside anti-immigrant legislation, Eithne Lubhéid in Entry Denied:
Controlling Sexuality at the Border, states
that “European laborers were still permitted to enter the United States,
provided they had not secured jobs in advance to their arrival”(58). The lack
of surveillance normalized a privileged benefit that was only afford to white
European immigrants.
When
the Mexican Revolution broke out shortly after in 1884, David Romo's Ringside
Seat to a Revolution illustrates that in El Paso, Texas for some Anglo business
people, being so close to the Mexican border was a form of entertainment. Many
businessmen would pay 25 cents to climb up to the rooftop of the El Paso
Laundry Building to watch the bloody Battle of Juarez.
It is estimated that as many as one million Mexicans fled to
the United States by the end of the war. The Mexican Revolution brought the
border that much closer to the United States. While for many Mexican families
this permanently displaced them from their homes and for many Anglos their
ringside seat to the revolution was just a spectacle. Several Americans made
profits from the Mexican revolution, selling tours, special viewing glasses,
and rooftop viewing.
It
was not until 1917 that Mexicans crossing the border into the United States
were considered “illegal”. Some of the imposed barriers for entry required a
literacy test and tax fee. During World War I, deep feelings of anti-foreigner
patriotism began gaining support. This same year the Bath Riots broke out at
the El Paso-Juarez Border, where U.S. Customs officials conducted over 100,000
baths with kerosene and vinegar to Mexicans attempting to cross into El Paso,
Texas. The Bath Riots occurred at the Santa Fe International Bridge into El
Paso, Texas. At the bridge customs officials asked 17 year-old Carmelita Torres
to exit the trolley and take a bath in the disinfecting gasoline. Carmelita
courageously refused, as she convinced an additional 30 women to demonstrate
the opposition to this humiliation process. By 8:30am the El Paso, Texas border
had been blocked by over 200 women.
The
three historical events mentioned above, have been displaced historical events
hidden from the mainstreams psyches. In creating cultural schizophrenia that is
suppressed by traditionalists who at the time justified their heinous acts
under the cloak of racial cleansing and population control tactics. This has
resulted in the misunderstandings of the Mexican culture and has further
propelled stereotypes and misperceptions.
A
presentation of both Anglo and Mexican Tejanos histories must be made present.
In order to attempt and cure El Paso’s Historical Amnesia that is still
actively in the curing phases by continuously dispelling majoritorian
narratives. Majoritorian ideologies that are readily made available today in
public schools, in mainstream communication outlets and deeply embedded in
anti-immigrant sentiments. The fundamental disconnect between Anglo El Paso and
the El Paso of the Mexican majority is in the lack of understanding the
intersections of race, class, nationality and politics that continue to
marginalize Mexicanos on the land that they once called Mexico.
In
a larger scope, the anti-immigrant policies of the United States directly
affected the lives of non-white populations. These policies are a legal
reflection built by the social rejections of foreigners who are of specific
phenotypes. The accumulation of these historical events continue to contribute
to El Paso’s identity crisis and the understanding of the current repercussions
Mexican live in, due to the legislative humiliation and displacement perpetuate
by the United States constituents.
How many more will continue to sit at the bench of Historical Amnesia?
And which way is out?
How did the photos in this section of the book
communicate this sense of cultural schizophrenia? Discuss at least two photos at length (be sure to state the page
number and describe the photo before you analyze it). What shocked you or
surprised you the most about this section?
Pg. 236
I
was shocked to see her there. I attempted to look away, but her eyes demand
contact. They softly asked me if I could see her? She is far from anything that
resembles home, far from her mother’s tired feet and her father’s calluses
hands. She does not want to be here, she wishes that our eyes would of never
met. So I could never ponder her displaced existence on the border. Borders
that are guarded by the same hands that inspect her body and humiliate her
core. The room seems to be getting smaller by the four walls of men that cage
her existence. She cannot find comfort in anything she is seeing; her empty
eyes see no future. Her dry and stiff mouth has no room for hope or optimism.
She hopes to never see me again, but it’s too late. I have already seen her and
know too much. This kerosene fire cannot be extinguished.
Side note: This image caught my eye, in seeing that she was
the only woman among all the Mexican and Anglo men. A clear representation of
the unforgiving conditions in which Mexican women were constantly exposed to
and the cruel treatment endured.
Pg. 238-39
In
one uniformed formation of nudity, Mexican men stand together in solitude.
White doctors meticulously inspect the brown body as a place of negotiated
stereotypes, tongues and control. The white sheet that covers their manhood,
cannot whitewash the discrimination of race for population control. A control
justified under the guise of public health and safety. This was a public
institutional collective humiliating and degradation of Mexican immigrants at
the U.S.-Mexico Border.
Side note: In all the faces of these men, I saw multiple
generations of Mexican men seeking the American dream. A dream that today is
tainted by every heath inspection, kerosene bath and death at the border. This
is a cultural schizophrenia that extends from the physical to the meta-physical
borders of Mexicans and Anglos.
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