U.S.--Mexico Borderlands: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

Martinez, Oscar J. (ed.). U.S.-Mexico Borderlands: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Wilmington, DE. Scholarly Resources, Inc. (Jaguar Books) 1996. 261 pp.

Oscar Martinez is eminently well-qualified to edit a book of this type. His family migrated from the interior of Mexico to the U.S. in the 1940s. He has spent most of his life on the U.S.-Mexican border. He has been Professor of History of the University of Arizona since 1988. Finally, he is a past-President of the Association of Borderlands Scholars. His is the eleventh of a thirteen-book series edited by William Beezley and Colin M. MacLachlan-the Jaguar Books on Latin America.

In a very real sense this is a seminal work-the culmination of a professional lifetime spent dealing with Borderlands issues. In it, the editor presents thirty-four articles or essays and documents dealing with over one hundred and fifty years of border issues. These range from such documents as the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo of 1848 and the Gadsden Treaty of 1854 dealing with the "Making of the Boundary" through Jos6 Vasconcelo's "A Mexican Schoolboy's Experience in Eagle Pass, Texas" and J.T. Canale's "Chicano Lawyer Blasts the Texas Rangers" dealing with the later period of border "interaction."

In general, the book is a fascinating collection of readings some of which are a bit more relevant and interesting than others. For instance the earlier portions of the book seem to have a heavier reliance on historical documents and articles/essays by Historians while the later sections rely more on wider range of social/cultural commentators and journalists. One article in particular No. 30 by Tom Miller entitled "The Borderblasters" talks about "shoddy entrepreneurs" who often used the other side of the border as "havens ... for broadcasting controversial messages ... or peddling bizarre wares." For example, there was a Dr. John Brinkley who became famous for his goat-gland clinic in Del Rio and a cowboy evangelist, Dr. Dallas Turner, whose special-sale item was "The legendary $2.98 autographed pictures of Jesus Christ."

Despite light-hearted accounts of this type, Professor Martinez does an excellent job of explaining the day-to-day realities of life in the "living laboratories" along the border that produce such human and business issues as maids and gardeners for rich Anglos who want the comfort but not the responsibilities involved in the interchange as well as the businessmen on both sides of the border who need the cheap labor that becomes available-under the Maquiladora situation, again without really wanting to shoulder the responsibilities of decent pay, housing, health care or education for these workers.

Perhaps the best summation of the book is in the final presentation and is a poem by Martinez himself.

It is the best and it is the worst,

la frontera, the borderlands,

a world of acute contradictions,

a place of pungent human drama.

One side dollar power, freeways,

skyscrapers, malls, radiant suburbs.

On the other boom and bust, gaudy tourism

maquiladora sprawl, shantytowns.

Yes, la frontera has them all:

those who live behind their cultural wall,

and those who wish to see it fall;

those who would keep foreigners out,

and those who want them all about;

those inclined to alienate,

and those who prefer to ameliorate;

those driven by a nationalistic bent,

and those committed to a global tent.

Paul L. Simon Xavier University (Ohio)

Copyright Association of Third World Studies, Inc. Fall 1997
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved