Tijuana es Historia de Familias: Oral Histories and Place Making in the 20th Century

• In Event: Borderless Narratives: Resisting Empire Through Memory, Movement, and Marginalized Spaces

Abstract

How can our academic methods be modes of resistance? How can they help us think through ideas that shift our ideas about places like “the border”? This paper considers how working-class communities shape Tijuana, Mexico, as a place. After arriving in the border region, migrants shaped Tijuana as a place through their anchoring modes, including work, play, and social relationships. Their mobilities, everyday actions, and connections to other locations shape Tijuana and contribute to a global sense of place. Specifically, I focus on workers, customers, and community members whose lives intersect at the urban anchor, La Vuelta del Rodeo restaurant. In addition, I examine ethnic studies methodologies as tools to disrupt dominant narratives, go beyond archival limitations, and weave in the personal. Tijuana is my object of study and my way of seeing the world. My way of looking comes from my experiences as a border person: I grew up in Tijuana- Chula Vista, crossing the border at least once a week. My lived experience is a key part of my scholarship.

Author

• Maria J Plascencia, University of San Diego