Oscar Martinez knew that in order to report first-hand the treacherous journey immigrants were making from South America to the United States he would need to experience it himself. Martinez actually rides “the beast”, the train that travels from places such as Guatemala and Honduras to Mexico. But the train ride is not what it appears to be as the people do not ride in the train as passengers, but rather on top of the train. The should cause one to pause as we are talking about a human person, perched precariously on top of a train that is traveling at speeds up to 75 miles per hour, holding on for dear life for days with nothing to do except to not fall off and die. Martinez brings his book to life through actual people that dared to ride the beast and lived to tell their tale, giving the story a humanistic style.

Todd Miller also reports his story in a narrative style of having first-hand experience with crossing borders, but not just from Mexico or South America but also in other parts of the world. Miller addresses the global “empire of borers” and how much money is at stake in the scramble for countries to secure their borders, especially the U.S. It would almost seem as if the global demand to provide a physical barrier to separate countries has become a multibillion dollar industry itself with the U.S. taking the lead.

If you look at both Martinez and Miller and their writings they are similar in that both authors have shared the experience of crossing borders into other countries, the difference though is that both of these men were crossing legally. However, both of these men also have had the experience of watching others cross borders illegally and seeing how their determination and ingenuity will always prevail over the physical border.

The U.S. seems to be the common denominator for both of these authors in that the U.S. cannot stop the influx of immigrants no matter how much money it throws at the ‘wall’. The U.S. sends out resources such as money, weapons, and technology to other countries in an attempt to help other countries secure their borders also, but why? The answer is clear, because the U.S. sees our border as being other countries’ borders also. This becomes very apparent when one looks at how the U.S. has pressured Mexico to curtail the influx of South American immigrants into Mexico as that puts them much closer to our border.

In the end plain old ingenuity will always win out and people will always find a way to circumvent that silly border wall that the U.S. is so worried about. The border patrol will never fully prevent illegal immigrants from entering the U.S. and perhaps, someday, people will realize what a waste of money the wall really is and start using those funds to help marginalized people rise up instead of shutting them out.

Cantu offers a perspective of the borderlands that is unique in the fact that although he is a U.S. citizen he is still of Mexican heritage. Cantu published his book The Line Becomes A River not with the intention of influencing anyone’s political thoughts but more from a place of experience. Cantu writes about his time as a border patrol agent and how that impacted the way he viewed not only his own life but also the lives of those trying to cross the border into the U.S. What is most striking about Cantu’s book is that he in no way tries to influence the reader to see the information for more than what it is, simply his experience as a border patrol agent.

We are all well-aware of our current political climate in the U.S. regarding the status of illegal immigrants into the U.S. The mounting tension between those on the U.S. side of the border and those on the Mexican side of the border is probably at an all-time high due to our current president who seems hell bent on building a wall between the two countries (that already exists). This memoir by Cantu shows readers how opinions and attitudes, by both Americans and Mexicans, is not a one size fits all. Cantu worked with other border patrol agents that commonly referred to Mexicans as “wetbacks” and Cantu never once spoke about being offended even though he is of Mexican heritage. What really surprised me about his book is the fact that there appears to be numerous agents that work for the border patrol.

Cantu sets his memoir apart from others in that he includes a brief chronological history of the formation of the physical border in his book. That in its self serves as a guide to understanding why the border has become so important to both countries. Cantu simply includes facts about the original border monuments as they were set and remarked over the years as well as why they became so significant. Cantu admits openly in this book that his short stint as a border patrol agent changed him and I really felt as though he regretted those four years.

Cantu gives various accounts of reasons why the people he helped arrest and deport had come to the U.S. illegally, most just came looking for work or to escape violence and others admitted they were looking to sell drugs in the U.S. I was slightly disappointed that Cantu did not include more information about the separation of families or the Mexican government’s stance on immigration as it would have helped the reader to better understand the issues we face today. Cantu never describes the border wall itself even though he was stationed right next to it.

The real limitation I see to this type of book written as a memoir is that many statistics are left out. For example, how many immigrants are arrested for human trafficking or drug possession? However, the personal perspective is clearly set forth in a memoir like this and has a human value that should not be overlooked.

How and why did the desert border become a sharp dividing line at certain times but not others?

The border between the U.S. and Mexico has, at times, been a sharp dividing line and yet not so much during other times, leaving the question as to why. St. John discusses and analyzes various trends and historical moments that brought sharp attention to the border that divided the two countries, which I will discuss in this blog.

The border between the U. S. and Mexico was, at times, just a line on a map that had little meaning to the inhabitants residing within that territory. Initially both the U.S. and Mexico sought to define the line for sovereignty reasons, to establish control and laws over its people as well as fend off those who sought to create new nations in what was Mexican Territory, especially the Apache. The Apache did not acknowledge Mexican or U.S. territory or borders and considered the land between the two nations as Apache land. Due to the raids and capture of both goods and people on both sides of the border the U.S. and Mexico worked together and had a reciprocal agreement across the border to drive the Apache out of their lands. The border then became, again, a significant line for both the U.S. and Mexico.

The above is an example of an era in which there was focus on the border, but times change quickly and for almost a decade both the U.S. and Mexico had bigger problems at hand the focus on the border faded, at least for a time. Mexico soon found itself fighting to maintain control of its own country as the French had sent Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian to rule Mexico and the U.S. found itself in the middle of its own civil war. Those events lead both countries to shift focus away from the border and deal with their bigger problems at hand. Of course, as soon as those issues were resolved the border immediately came back into focus as another source of contention soon arose, the Apache playing the U.S. and Mexico against each other. The Mexican government blamed the U.S. for not controlling the Apache “on their own side of the border” as the Apache found it easier to raid in Mexico territory and then move back across the border into U.S. territory.

Both the U.S. and Mexico had finally proven that they had the ability to protect their borders from not only the Apache, but also from each other. Mexico soon passed legislation that prohibited U.S. citizens from owning property in Mexico but with the railroad system bringing new opportunities to the borderlands, something had to give and concessions made. Although there was not a struggle to “control” Mexico was known to have stores of valuable metals and ores in its mines that Americans were eager to obtain. Laborers from both countries flooded in by the thousands hoping to strike it rich in the mines and laborers were allowed to freely cross the border.

During the early nineteen hundreds both the U.S. and Mexico again began to realize how important the border was when it came to collecting customs, rejected unauthorized immigrants, and arrested criminals as the borderlands had seen an unprecedented growth with the development of a stable railway system. As the population boomed along both sides of the border the line became so much more important economically for both sides. Due to boundary disputes and disintegrating markers the U.S. and Mexico once again had to work together to resurvey and remap the boundary that separated the two countries. Since there were buildings physically on both sides of the border in towns like Nogales the U.S. and Mexico agreed that there should be a strip of vacant land at least 50 feet wide that separated the two countries along the border. This, to say the least, marked the beginning of the end for the binational friendly relationship that the U.S. and Mexico and been building up for the last several decades. That very physical separation was the beginning of what we see today with the fences and blockades between the U.S. and Mexico.

The civil war that tore Mexico apart also had a direct impact on the border between the two countries in that U.S. citizens began to worry that simple little monuments that marked the territory between the two countries could hardly keep U.S. citizens safe if the fighting spilled over into U.S. soil. The American government had no choice but to start sending troops to the border to not only protect Americans on U.S. soil but to also control the massive influx of immigrants trying to escape the violence that the Mexican civil war was inflicting on its citizens.

There were other events during the early to mid-nineteen hundreds that spurned other border control issues like prohibition. The U.S. and Mexico worked together and established controlled ports of entry into each other’s countries in an effort to minimize illegal immigration as well as smuggling of illegal items. Controlling import taxes was another benefit of the customs border entry points and eventually the border evolved into what it is today.

John, Rachel S. Line in the Sand: A History of the Western U.S.-Mexico Border. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012.

The U.S./Mexico War of 1846 to 1848 cost thousands of lives and even though the U.S. won the war, it could not take sole credit for the victory. Americans have long overlooked the importance of the Indigenous peoples’ role prior to the onset of the war. The Comanche tribe contributed greatly to the weakening of the Mexican’s in the northern region. The U.S. did not directly recruit the native peoples into the war but instead indirectly involved them by pushing them off of their lands in their expansion efforts. The Navajo and Comanche then began raiding ranches in an attempt to find resources vital to their survival. Of course it would be foolish to blame survival as the main purpose of the raids, in all reality the Comanche traded the goods they secured from their raids to the Americans, especially horses and weapons.

Mexico was simply too spread out and spread too thin to defend all of their northern territory. The Comanche had weakened the forces in northern Mexico before the war had even started and it was down hill from there, so to speak. Interestingly enough the Americans viewed the Comanche was weak and inferior and could not believe that the Mexicans were so easily defeated by them. The Americans then furthered their view of American superiority by postulating that if the Comanche could so easily defeat the Mexicans then the Americans should definitely rule over both of the races.

Whether it is studied or not nothing will change the fact that the native indigenous people of North American played an important and vital role in the outcome of the U.S./Mexico War. It is a shame that more literature isn’t encouraged and records, if available, aren’t released by the Mexican government concerning the period just prior to and during the war.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

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The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

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You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

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