Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: For several decades, social scientists and historians have attempted explain the origins of social issues unique to Latinos in the U.S. This article reviews existing literature written largely by Chicano/a authors on the Mexican (American) experience and focuses on an important common theme – that of Borders, either physical or symbolic, that are created to divide two groups perceived as distinct and often incompatible, based on stereotypes of cultural and social difference. By utilizing historical and contemporary analyses of national memory and of the public and institutional rhetoric around social problems like illegal immigration, this paper seeks to advance our understanding of how Borders define people of Mexican descent as distinct through both racial and nationalist imagery. The author suggests the implication of this metaphor for theories of race and nation that have thus far excluded the Mexican experience from consideration.