New Narratives of United States-Mexico Relations: the Border, the Revolution, and Remittances

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

This panel takes on emblematic and well-known features in United States-Mexico relations—the border, the Revolution, and remittances—but tells a different story about each. We challenge these long-held maxims and seemingly commonsensical narratives: the border is militarized, the 1910 Mexican Revolution produced a fundamental conflict with the U.S., and remittances simply disappear into Mexico without a trace. Collectively, we argue that interpretations of U.S.-Mexico relations are profoundly influenced by a-historical/essentialist claims that, once revised, open the possibility for a new history and analysis. In fact, while undoubtedly conflict, policing, and unequal power are parts of the story, so are cooperation, pragmatism, and constant exchange. Thus, the panel challenges scholars of U.S.-Mexico relations, from historians to cultural analysts, to question words, interpretations, and assumptions that have become central to narratives of U.S.-Mexico relations and have stagnated the field. We believe that rewriting, expanding, and nuancing the history of U.S.-Mexico relations is not only possible, but necessary.

C.J. Alvarez takes a term that has been used too easily as a marker of inherent one sided and imposing power, “the militarization of the border,” in order to argue that this is, in fact, a rhetorical device that obfuscates the reality of the border and oversimplifies its history. In fact, Alvarez argues that the border has been militarized only twice, and thus “militarization” must be used carefully and with attention to empirics. Meanwhile, J. Luis Ramos argues that U.S-Mexico history is still largely understood through the lenses of the first Americans historians of the Revolution, 1920s anti-imperialists whose politics led them to focus on the conflictive aspects of the relationship despite a richly collaborative environment. Their influence on current historiography remains unchallenged. Lastly, Sarah Lopez argues that in order to understand the complexity and interdependence of U.S. and Mexican cultural forms and migration flows, one must “follow the money” and analyze what people build with remittances send from the United States to rural Mexico.

Sub Track

• History and Historiography

Session Organizer

• Jose L Ramos, Valparaiso University

Chair

• CJ Alvarez, University of Texas/Austin

Individual Presentations

• The Militarizations of the U.S.-Mexico Border - CJ Alvarez, University of Texas/Austin

• Interpreting U.S.-Mexico Relations: The Unchallenged Legacy of American Progressivism and the First Historians of the Mexican Revolution - Jose L Ramos, Valparaiso University

• The Remittance Landscape: A Built Environment Perspective on U.S.-Mexico Migration - Sarah L Lopez, University of Texas at Austin

Discussant

• Geraldo L Cadava, Northwestern University