JE #5

Violence that is directed against border dwelling peoples has been increasingly common occurrence. Along the Arizona border, the cases of migrant death have increased exponentially since the militarization of the border began. It has become so common that there is work being done by people everyday to recover these bodies and find out who the people who have died are. There is this loss of identity that happens at the border. Your name, your identity, your family, your wants and your desires don't matter when you're crossing the border. These things don't matter when the United States government continues to push for legislation that will increase security along the border and therefore will make more deaths certain.

In Kathleen Alcala's book, Flower in the Skull, the Opata Indians must leave Sonóra when their land is invaded by Mexicans. They suffer violence at the hands of those who were once colonized. Concha, when she was still called Shark's Tooth from the Sea, and her gente must leave their homeland to escape the violence from the fighting between the Yaqui and the Mexicans. Maybe it's all just a case of mistaken identity. The Mexicans really just want to go after the Yaqui and they kill the Opata as well in the process. The US just wants to go after the "bad guys" and that's why they are willing to perpetuate deadly conditions for the migrants crossing the border. Maybe it's a case of mistaken identity and the US really meant to go after themselves with these laws that militarize the border...