Susan Neate

Reflection 3

9/17/07

Campbell’s “Borderlining: An Introduction” gives readers a snapshot of what life can be like living in a border town. I can identify when Campbell states, ”the influence of the United States is felt intensely throughout Mexico” from my experiences living in Brazil, in addition to the stories many of my students have relayed to me. American popular culture, such as movies and music, is received all over the world. More times than not, when I went to a movie theater or video store in Brazil, the movie was in English with Portuguese subtitles. Also, TV shows popular in the U.S. had been borrowed for the Brazilian primetime network. My students from Ghana, Kenya, and Sudan many times told me of the town getting together to watch an American movie outside on a Friday evening. Each girl still retains that passion for the cinema. Music is another aspect of popular culture that has been integrated into global culture. Two popular music acts in Brazil were the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Eminem. Picture the American culture as intertwining and being integrated into the countries’ existing culture, rather than replacing it. 

Other examples of influenced culture are economic venues. For example, Campbell mentions the fast food restaurant. My McDonalds experiences in Brazil and Spain gave me the nostalgia of chicken McNuggets, but hardly the taste. Other things like American soft drinks and personal hygiene products could often be spotted at the local corner store. Yes, it is hard to deny that American culture can be globally ignored, let alone in Mexico.

 I love how Campbell talks about the intersection of languages. I have a good friend that recently moved to Texas; he tells me of life where he is constantly surrounded by individuals speaking Spanglish, where an abundance of TexMex food is readily available. I can only imagine equal mixes of the cultures on both sides of the border.

 I can also identify with Kurtz-Phelan’s “Invisible Men.” Last year, I worked very closely with a family that had come from Honduras. Only, it wasn’t the father that had come to secure a life for the family, it was the mother. Mercedes left her two children, one now in third and the other in seventh, to come to America seeking a better way of life for her family. I never had the opportunity to ask her specifics about her journey here, only that it was very dangerous crossing through Central America. When she arrived, she met a man who had legally become a citizen, and they had a baby, who is now entering Kindergarten. Frequently, many women do this, so they can have a reason to stay in the United States. These babies are called “anchor babies.” She continued to stabilize herself, while her kids stayed continued to live with grandma back in Honduras. Four years later, Paola and Enrique came to enjoy American life with their mother. The whole family includes some of the happiest individuals I have ever encountered; they genuinely appreciate all life has to offer. 

Many times over, I have witnessed families sleeping in tight quarters, as Kurtz-Phelan describes occurs in Fair Haven. The circumstances he portrays in “Invisible Men” seem so far away from our padded, comfortable live, yet they are closer than you think. I adore how Kurtz-Phelan addresses “the stereotypes of undocumented workers as lowly and uneducated.” One of the women that have formerly participated in Crossing the Border obtained her high school diploma and was an executive secretary in Mexico, a feat for females in her hometown. I had another student from Cuba whose mother was a doctor and father was a lawyer. As their degrees are not recognized here in the States, the father works at a glass company and mom owns a hair salon. Other jobs my student’s parents had in their native countries were fine jewelry businesses, governmental positions, and psychologists. Now the majority of the parents work in construction positions, hotels, and restaurants. They send money back to their families, so they can afford food and medicine. I myself have wired money to starving family members in Africa.

The “Economist” portrays the hardships many border-crossers face on their journey to America. I can describe one family that had three children. Two of the children were born in Mexico, and one of the children was born here in Roanoke. In school you could see a profound difference between the children. The oldest child was very timid. She rarely spoke up in class and continually struggles with academics. The second child was so traumatized from the border crossing that he didn’t speak for the first three years of his life. He continues to have speech problems in English, as well as Spanish. The third child is at the top of her class and flourishes in her academic progress. It is difficult to speculate what atrocities those children must have faced in their early years, but it may impede them for the rest of their lives.

The last article discussing heightened security after 9-11 baffles me. It seems that rather than beefing up border patrol, the government would use its money to study the tactics of gun and drug smugglers. In addition, the government may need to reform Visa policies of those coming from terrorist nations. It also amazes me at how much concentration is put at our southern border in comparison to that of the northern border. I once read that most people who try to enter the U.S. from the Eastern hemisphere fly to Canada and enter through the U.S.-Canadian border. The heightened security is detrimental to trade, and surrounding nations’ economies are depending on that trade. My mother went on a bus trip this summer to Canada. She said it took them five minutes to cross into Canada, but it took five hours to cross back into America! Can you imagine? I really liked the idea of having “a fortress North America” rather than having Mexicans and Canadians suffer from Middle Eastern actions. 

In response to Dr. T-L’s post, I want to become a world traveler, and I would love to experience more cultures outside of the United States; however, I do have a constant fear running into situations where Americans are treated with the same hostility she experienced. 

My questions are as follow:

What do we fence in when we fence out others with our hardened borders?

In what ways can we relate to Michel de Cetteau’s contention that “Life is a constant crossing of borders.”?

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