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Stripes and Fence Forever: Homage to Jasper Jo (1997) by Marcos Ramirez “Erre” Norma Iglesias-Prieto [email protected] Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies San Diego State University, 2012. Photo: Norma Iglesias-Prieto

‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

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Atelier 4 - Norma Iglesias-Prieto The starting point is the idea that the border—both in its geopolitical and symbolic dimension—marks the life and experience of subjects and that this condition, in turn, marks the way in which we represent the border. That is, the social imaginary is built from a series of varied social representations that respond to different border conditions. My work analyzes the levels of transborderism and their relationship to the levels of complexity of social representations in the U.S.-Mexican border, particularly that of Tijuana and San Diego. In my presentation, I will speak first of the theoretical statement that support the notions of border and transborderism; second, I will analyze diverse cultural expressions (visual arts, oral narratives, cinematographic animations) that show the different levels of complexity of social representations in this particular border. Transfrontiérisme et imaginaire social à la frontière américano-mexicaine Mon point de départ est que la frontière – à la fois dans sa dimension géopolitique et symbolique – marque la vie et l’expérience des sujets et que cette condition affecte, à son tour, la manière dont nous représentons la frontière. L’imaginaire social est construit à partir d’une série de représentations sociales qui répondent à différentes conditions de frontière. Mon travail analyse les degrés de transfrontiérisme (transborderism) et leur relation aux niveaux de complexité des représentations sociales à la frontière américano-mexicaine, en particulier dans la région de Tijuana-San Diego. Dans ma présentation, je parlerai tout d’abord de l’énoncé théorique qui fonde la notion de frontière et de transfrontiérisme ; ensuite, j’analyserai différentes expressions culturelles (art visuel, récits oraux, animations cinématographiques) qui montrent différent niveaux de complexité des représentations sociales sur cette frontière particulière.

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Page 1: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Stripes and Fence Forever: Homage to Jasper Johns

(1997) by Marcos Ramirez “Erre”

Norma [email protected]

Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies San Diego State University, 2012.

Photo: Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Page 2: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Basic Statements about

International Borders

• Borders are human constructions

• Historical. The U.S.-Mexican border is the result of a war (1846–1848) in which Mexico lost half of its territory: Texas, Utah, Nevada,

Photo: KPBS, Espinosa

territory: Texas, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and California

An open wound/Llaga abierta

Photos: Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Page 3: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Basic Statements about

International Borders • Borders are not natural but tend to use

natural barriers in order to naturalize them

• There are sophisticated cultural, social, and

political processes that naturalize borders,

but there are also sophisticated processes

that question their existencethat question their existence

• Borders are real and symbolic limits of

Nation States. Their main function is to limit

or control the free movement of people,

goods, ideas, cultures, ideologies, religions,

languages, etc.

• Borders are supported by the notion of

“others are dangerous” or “others are

problems and generate risks”Photos: Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Page 4: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

28°Political San Diego Ceuta Israel India China Hong Kong

Strategic location that

embodies the world’s

inequalities

- Concentration of wealth

- Areas of extreme tension

Borders as Laboratories (of globalization, postmodernity, exclusion, inequality…)

http://www.politicalequator.org/

* Teddy CruzMap: dreamstime.com

28°

33°

Political

Equator*

Equator

San Diego

Tijuana

Ceuta

Melilla

Israel

Palestine

India

Kashmir

China Hong Kong

Shenzhen

Other Aspects of Inequality

Geographic criteria: North vs. South, Urban vs. Rural

Social criteria: Social Class, Ethnicity, Race, Gender

Page 5: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Photo: Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Page 6: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Border• As a territory, as a geopolitical demarcation, as a boundary of a Nation

State

• As a socially and culturally produced space

• With legal forms and delimitations that generate a variety of individual and social conditions

• This variety of conditions marks people’s experiences and social representations

• Diverse conditions create a universe of symbolic constructions of the borderborder

(N-S, with or without papers, by car or foot, day or night, woman or man, in English or Spanish, for work or for shopping, on Monday or Saturday, with B.C., California, or Sinaloa plates)

Photos: Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Page 7: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Borderisms or BorderlandsBorderisms or borderlands question the notion that culture is only tied to a space and focuses more on:

• conditions

• cultural and social practices

• identity marks

• cultural and social forms of CONTROL and EXCLUSION

• mechanisms of liberation as forms of resistance or ways of questioning structures of power

Humans cross borders in many waysHumans cross borders in many ways

Humans are crossed by many borderlands (borderisms) and in many ways

Photos: Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Page 8: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Borderisms or BorderlandsBorderisms as sites/conditions/identities that are vague, ambiguous, flexible,

hybrid, and in constant processes of transition.

Borderisms and Borderlands theory critiques the binary logic and emphasizes the and, as well as the tensions, conflicts, contradictions, and negotiations of non-fixed identities.

Borderisms and Borderlands theory underscores the possibility of being in several places/conditions simultaneously, generating a series of third choices. The expression of these multiple third choices is the best way of criticizing borders as limits and controls and of criticizing the logic of separation and exclusion (Anzaldúa).

Borders are there to be crossed

Ph

oto

: No

rma

Igle

sias-P

rieto

Page 9: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Tijuana-San Diego as a Laboratory

With high levels of interaction, interdependence,

contrast, unbalance, asymmetry …

Photos: Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Page 10: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Tijuana works as a magnifier

of global social, economic,

environmental, and cultural

trends and conflicts. Photo: Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Page 11: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Every border has at least two sides

• San Diego is not seen on the U.S. side as a border city. The border is only associated to, and recognized on, the Mexican side.side.

• The border—in the national social imaginary of both countries—refers to something negative. A place of loss. The “border brings the worst of both worlds” (Touch of Evil, 1958).

Photo: Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Page 12: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

The position of the border as only on one side

reproduces and naturalizes asymmetry

• The Mexican side of the border serves as the backyard of the U.S.

“Backyard available. In perfect natural state.

Ready to be used as a toxic, nuclear, or

industrial waste dump.”

Photos: Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Page 13: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

San Diego(mine)

Three theoretical approaches, border practices, and social identities (level of interaction and level of commitment,

awareness, understanding, acceptance, and social investment toward the neighboring city and its inhabitants )

San Diego(mine, our, us)

USA

Non-Border, Border DynamicsBilateral, Binational

+- Collaboration

San Diego(our)

San Diego

Transborder, Third

Space/Condition/Identity

E

x

c

h

a

n

U.S. National Identity

PO

WE

R

+

MEXICO

Tijuana(yours, theirs, them)

+- emphasis on

separation, differences

Tijuana(yours)

(our)

Tijuana

Borders refer to the Mexican side.

BORDER AS RISK AND DANGER

n

g

e

T

r

a

d

eMaintain differences but promote

collaboration for the benefit of

both cities.

BORDER AS OPPORTUNITIES

An integrated common space and condition.

TRANSBORDER AS A CONDITION

- Condition of life and meaning

- Levels of transborderism

(A condition that is flexible and includes

tension, conflict, and constant negotiation

and adaptation)

Border Identity

PO

WE

R

-Source: Norma Iglesias-Prieto, 2012

Page 14: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Borderisms or Border/lands and transborder/lands as a

condition of meaning

A relation

Transborderism as a condition of meaning

A relation

BORDER as

geopolitical

delimitations

(territoriality, areas

of legal

competences)

BORDERISMS or

BORDERLAND as

cultural and social

conditions

mark,

constrain,

mold,

affect

Border and

transborder

experience(s) mark,

constrain,

mold,

affect

Meanings

Social

Representations

Social

ImaginaryIndividual

and Social

Page 15: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Social Representations as:

- Interpretations of reality

- Symbolic structures that attribute sense to reality

- Systems of codes, interpretive marks, value,

systems of classification

- Codes that define and guide behaviors and

orient collective practices

Artist: Marcos Ramírez Erre

Photo: Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Page 16: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Source: Norma Iglesias-Prieto, 2012

Page 17: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

TransborderismLevel and complexity of the experience on

both sides of the border.

The most intense, dense, and full-of-meaning

action in the transborder condition is the

act of crossing the international border. In

the act of crossing, subjects and processes,

define much of their identity.

Crossing (frequency, intensity, directionality, Crossing (frequency, intensity, directionality,

type or scale of activity, material and

symbolic exchange, social and cultural

meaning attached to the interaction, etc.)

Photos: Norma Iglesias-Prieto,

Page 18: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Transnational and Transborder

Transnational

TransborderTransborder

Diasporas/

Deterritorialized

Territorialized,

dense, intense,

simultaneous

Source: Norma Iglesias-Prieto, 2012

Page 19: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

A higher level of transborderism is associated with greater

cultural capacity and richness, increased complexity in the

ways people experience and perceive the border, and richer

concepts of self-identity.

“Taking the place of the

border, I have placed a

war trench, creating a

place neither from here

nor from there. When I

cross the border, I feel

I’m crossing a line of

war, a constant and

internal war that exists

in my mind, between my

two cultures and

identities: my Mexican

self and my American

self.”

Mental Map : SDSU students. Class CCS 355 Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Page 20: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Social Representation of the U.S.-Mexican Border

Direct relation between the level of transborder activity and the level of complexity in the representation.

Four types or levels of interaction and representation that representation that range from the most basic sporadic, commercial interactions, to the regular (daily) intense interaction of bilingual, bicultural individuals (many of them with dual citizenship).

Mental Map : SDSU students. Class CCS 355 Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Page 21: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

“The boundary is not a spatial fact

with sociological consequences,

but a sociological fact that forms

itself spatially.”

Georg Simmel

Artistic practices as processes

of liberation.

Border/lands, Transborderism, and Creativity

All mechanisms of control

have cracks.

All walls have holes.

Borderlands and holes

generate great energy and

great creative potential.

Border/lands, Transborderism, and Creativity

Photo: Norma Iglesias-Prieto,

Page 22: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Tijuana:• Flexible

• Creative

• Chaotic

• Graphic

• Intense

• Dynamic

• Diverse

Tijuana is an inspirational location, the

muse, the studio, as well as the site

that provides topics, materials, and

conditions to CREATE.

Photo: Gabriela Juárez,• Diverse

• Contrasting

• Fascinating

A location that:

• Confronts

• Inspires

• ChallengesTijuana from “cultural desert” to “artistic hotspot”

Creativity, Art, and Agency

Photo: Gabriela Juárez,

Photo: inSite97,

Page 23: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

The Transborder Condition in Tijuana Art

• The subjects’/artists’ trajectories, activities, dynamics in which he/she participates

• The artists’ practices (individual or network)

• Topics or themes of art Tijuana Art Practices is Expressed in:

• Topics or themes of art pieces

• Form of art production

• Characteristics of artistic events

• Audiences/publics

Photos: Norma Iglesias-Prieto,

Page 24: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Tony Capellán, El buen vecino/

The Good Neighbor, inSite97

The Transborder Perspective

Border as an open wound, as a barrier that divides people, families, communities.

Photo: inSite97

Page 25: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Marcos Ramirez ERRE

inSite97

Toy-an Horse/Caballo de Troya

In the middle of the border

crossing, a two-headed

wooden horse; one body, two

directions, two different

projects, two opposing views,

but it can never move in

opposing directions. opposing directions.

Negotiation. Transparency in

cross-border relations.

Photos: inSite97

Page 26: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

The body of crime (2008) by Marcos Ramirez ERRE

An installation consisting of a Chevrolet Suburban, bullets, video, wood and metal

wall pieces, photographs mounted on glass, and photographic prints.

A narcocorrido video parody of the drug trade in

Tijuana. The artist plays the role of three characters:

the assassin, the victim, and the police officer. He

thus stresses the responsibility shared by all in the

social reality we have constructed or we have

allowed. The three characters played by the same

person create confusion, as in the city, where nobody

knows who anybody is anymore. ERRE gathered knows who anybody is anymore. ERRE gathered

forensic material and elements of the crime and

placed them on display in the gallery (the car, the

bullets, and the car radio playing narcocorridos). He

also includes photos of the three characters mounted

on mirrors with tags “I,” “You,” “Him” etched along

the bottom, and leaving the next pronoun—“we”—

open for the audience to fulfill. ERRE finally stresses

“us” and sets aside the discourse of victimization that

puts an emphasis on “others.” The project not only

problematizes issues of truth and identity, but it also

makes transborder responsibilities evident.

Photos: Marcos Ramírez “Erre”

Page 27: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

An installation consisting of a Chevrolet Suburban, bullets, video, wood and metal

wall pieces, photographs mounted on mirrors, and photographic prints.

The body of crime (2008) by Marcos Ramirez ERRE

Photo: Norma Iglesias-PrietoPhoto: Marcos Ramírez

Photo: Marcos Ramírez

Photo: Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Photo: Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Page 28: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Jaime Ruiz Otis• Produces art from industrial trash (Maquiladoras)

• Waste gained new meanings as art pieces and, by that, dignified the work and the workers

• Industrial work is not only his theme but his main supplier of materials

• He criticizes in his art pieces the asymmetrical relation with the U.S. and the role of Tijuana as provider of cheap labor and the backyard of the U.S.

• His art work critically approaches the logic of mass production, repetition, homogeneous global production, repetition, homogeneous global consumption, toxic waste pollution , industrial urban landscapes, etc.

Trade Marks series made from cuts that workers incised into plastic

sheets. The multiple squares or circles show the repetitiveness of

the work.

Photo: Jaime Ruiz Otis

Photo: Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Photo: Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Page 29: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Jaime Ruiz Otiz• Requiem-Km 142

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2O3i_uH9Rc

Photos: Jaime Ruiz Otis and Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Page 30: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Joao Louro’s project The Jewel/In God We Trust traces an inverted trajectory of the recycling dynamics that characterizes the border zone. His project begins with the selection of a European car recovered from a junkyard in Tijuana and transformed into a “jewel” through the addition of golden layers of paper. Once this trash object was transformed into an opulent golden sculpture, it was exhibited and auctioned in San Diego. The money from the sale was given to an elementary school in Tijuana and it was used to support visual art workshops for children (InSite 05).

Photos: inSite05

Page 31: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

The rules of the game/ Las reglas del juego

By Gustavo Artigas

Four teams play in the same court at the same time. Two U.S. teams play basketball and two Mexican teams play soccer. Both sports represent cultural and national identities.

This artistic event suggests the possibilities of negotiations with low conflict and respecting differences in a shared space.

Photos: inSite2000

Page 32: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

One Flew Over the Void (Bala perdida), 2005: Transgression of Borders and Borderlands

Building on a collaborative process that is evident

throughout his artistic practice, Javier Téllez’s

project One Flew Over the Void (Bala perdida)

involved a sustained engagement with psychiatric

patients from the Baja California Mental Health

Center in Mexicali to co-create a public event and

to document its evolution and final performance.

Inspired by the traditional “human cannonball”

circus performer, Téllez explored the notion of

spatial and mental borders in the context of Tijuana

and San Diego. He developed an event that

involved sending a human cannonball across the involved sending a human cannonball across the

border between Mexico and the United States.

Through successive creative workshops and

exchanges, the world’s most famous human

cannonball, Dave Smith, the psychiatric patients,

and Téllez collectively devised the backdrop,

music, costumes, print advertising, and radio and

television announcements for the event. The

performance took place on August 27, 2005, at the

border fence between Playas de Tijuana and

Border Field State Park (inSite05).

Photos: inSite05

Page 33: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

With Brinco, Judi Werthein created a project that links

migrants’ efforts to cross the border illegally with the

increasing global corporatization of goods and labor.

The project is a uniquely designed sneaker,

trademarked Brinco. The shoe design is inspired by

information and materials that are relevant to, and

could provide assistance to, those crossing the border

without documents. Underscoring the tensions sparked

by the global spread and mobility of the maquiladora,

Brinco (2005): Art Object or Useful Item?

by the global spread and mobility of the maquiladora,

the sneaker was manufactured in China. Counterpoint

to its potential for utilitarian use by Mexican migrants,

the sneaker was sold as a one-of-a-kind art object and

was available in the United States during inSite05 in a

high-end sneaker store located in a very nice area of

San Diego. In a single object, Judi reveals the

contradictions among fashion, competition in the

manufacturing industry, and migratory flows, themes

that lie at the heart of the dynamics of labor geography

in today’s world (inSite05).Photos: inSite05

Page 34: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Brinco (2005): Art Object or Useful Item?

Photos: Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Page 35: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Daniel Ruanova

Photos: Norma Iglesias-PrietoPhoto: Daniel

Ruanova archive.

Page 36: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Children’s Social RepresentationsProject: The Other Side of the Line (2008)

One of the four phases of this project coordinated by Norma Iglesias Prieto

and Yvon Guillon consists in the creation of two short animated films by

children from Tijuana and San Diego based on the theme “The other side of

the line.” The cartoons that resulted were the work of twenty-two children

between the ages of 11 and 13, in two workshops offered by French

animated-film experts Sébastien Water and Guilles Coirier. Through the

workshops, children from each city produced a short animated film about

the children on the other side of the border. The two groups of children

discussed the way they think about and portray the other side.

Subsequently, the children came to consensus regarding the story,

characters, situation, context, sets, etc. They also wrote the script, built the characters, situation, context, sets, etc. They also wrote the script, built the

set and characters out of paper and fabric, shot the entire sequence of

scenes, recorded the soundtrack, and edited their respective film

animations.

The 22 children who participated in the project were of mixed gender and

possessed a variety of levels of transborderism and experiences of the

“other side.” This experience ranged from those who had never crossed the

border (usually because their parents had never wanted to, in the case of

San Diegans; or because they lacked a United Stated visa, in the case of

Tijuanenses); those who crossed regularly for reasons of family or school;

and those who at some time had lived on the other side/el otro lado. The

two short animated films (5 minutes each) are: Wacha el Border (2008) by

children from Tijuana, and Beyond the Border (2008) by children from San

Diego.

Photo: Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Page 37: ‘Transborderism’ and Social Imaginary in the U.S.-Mexican Border

Children’s Social Representations• Wacha el Border 2008) by

Children from Tijuana,• Beyond the Border (2008) by

Children from San Diego

http://delotroladodelalinea.wordpress.com/

Through their film-making, the children of Tijuana and San Diego revealed strikingly

different attitudes and conceptions of each others’ cities. But their collaborations also

showed that taking an early interest in and working through children's imagery of the

borderlands, it is possible to generate more positive commitments to a collective

future in an increasingly integrated and diverse world.

Films available at: