Life and Experiences in the U.S/Mexico Borderlands Virtual Exhibition

In 1598, Juan de Oñate led an entrada of 400 soldiers, 130 families, and farm animals across the harsh Chihuahuan Desert and discovered El Paso del Norte (the pass to the north) near the Rio Grande, a passage leading through the Franklin Mountains to New Mexico. The Manso people of the region fed the explorers, and on May 1, 1598, Oñate organized a ceremony, el toma, to claim the lands for Spain, celebrating their survival, giving thanks to God. Oñate marched through El Paso del Norte towards New Mexico, invading pueblos of the Gipuy (or Kewa Pueblo) along the way.

The cruelty of the Spanish invasion in the Southwest continued. Upon reaching what would be established as Santa Fe in October of 1598, Oñate met the Acoma people. While at first Oñate and his caravan lived in peace with the Acoma, Oñate’s nephew Juan de Zaldívar took it upon himself to raid the Acoma in December of that year, taking food, prisoners, and their women by force. Zaldívar was killed in the ensuing struggle and Oñate retaliated in January of 1599 by taking the Acoma stronghold by force, murdering 800-1,000 people, and mutilating/selling approximately 500 others into slavery as further punishment. When King Philip II of Spain heard the news of the massacre, Oñate was banished from New Mexico, and Mexico, for his extreme cruelty to the Acoma people.

After 1680, Spaniards built three missions in the El Paso area, which connected many missions along the border and around the state. The Spanish constructed Catholic missions to convert the people of the region, abusing religion as a means to control the Original People. Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, and by 1836 residents of Tejas declared independence from Mexico as the Republic of Texas,
appealing to the U.S. for annexation.

Texas was not annexed until 1845 due to Texas’ slave trade practices, and in 1846, President Polk declared war on Mexico as a bid to continue the campaign of Westward expansion. The U.S. won the Mexican-American War in 1848, and forced Mexico to sign the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The U.S. bought the Southwest for $15 million, and when the Gadsden Purchase (or treaty) was signed in 1853, the Rio Grande became the U.S. and Mexico borderline. With the development of the new borderline came a new borderland community, and its distinct economic, cultural, and social practices emerged.

One of the oldest cities in Texas is El Paso, the sixth largest in the state, with a population of 840,758, El Paso is opposite Juárez, Mexico, directly across the Rio Grande. Surrounded by the Chihuahuan Desert, El Paso is located at the base of the Franklin Mountains. Since it affords a northerly passage into New Mexico when crossing the Rio, El Paso was dubbed El Paso del Norte. Part of the Chihuahuan Desert Ecoregion, it is considered the most diverse desert in the Western Hemisphere and one of the most diverse arid regions in the world. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most endangered regions in the world. Overgrazing, water depletion and diversion, changes in the fire regime, urbanization, increases in agricultural and resource extraction activities, invasive exotic species, and over collecting of native plants and animals are among the greatest threats to biodiversity in the Ecoregion.

Doves, the Mexican eagle, burrowing owls, ground squirrels, coyotes, mountain lions, Black bears, Gray and Kit foxes, rabbits, rattlesnakes, Brown Recluse spiders, and scorpions are among the many creatures found in El Paso. In 1883, J. Fisher Satterwaite, El Paso Parks and Streets Commissioner, introduced alligators to a newly founded San Jacinto Plaza in downtown El Paso. The alligators thrived, and soon became the central attraction for tourists and El Pasoeans alike. Unfortunately, by the 1950s, violence and vandalism against the reptiles were on the rise, and by 1965, they were moved to the El Paso zoo. The history of the alligators lives on in San Jacinto Plaza (Or La Plaza de los Lagartos) with the installation of acclaimed El Paso born artist Luis Jiménez’s fiberglass statue Los Lagartos. Jiménez was among the spectators to see the alligators in downtown El Paso as a child, and the alligators have become a symbol many in the region recognize as distinctly “El Paso”.

Cacti are plentiful in the region, including yucca, sotol, ocotillo, cholla, barrel cactus, prickly pear, lechuguilla, and agave. Trees like the date palm, the windmill palm, cypress, mesquite, live oak, and flowering bushes thrive. Some distinctive habitat types in the Chihuahuan Desert include yucca woodlands, playas, gypsum dunes, and a diverse array of freshwater habitats. The borderland, its flora, and fauna are a shared experience for borderland inhabitants.

Allegorical symbols from the region include artist representations rejecting the appropriation and negative stereotypes of fauna and land, affirming both the pain and strength associated with their symbolic nature. The print Howl by El Paso artist Luis Jiménez rejects these stereotypes, celebrating his Mexican heritage, and much like the Mexican wolf he depicts, he is howling for the forgotten Original People, the struggle of his own people, and for the fast disappearing western frontier.

For almost a half-century after the annexation of Texas in 1845, the flow of immigrants was barely a trickle. In  fact, there was a significant migration in the other direction: Mexican citizens left the newly annexed U.S.  territories and resettled in Mexican territory. Beginning around the 1890s, new industries in the U.S.  Southwest—especially mining and agriculture—attracted Mexican migrant laborers also fleeing stressed  conditions under the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. The Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) then increased the  flow; war refugees and political exiles fled to the United States to escape the violence. Mexicans also left rural  areas in search of stability and employment. As a result, Mexican migration to the United States rose sharply.  

During the economic depression, immigrant workers from Mexico were pushed back across the border, and  when economic prosperity and labor shortages arose, the workers were pulled back in to fill the void. During  World War I until 1921, the first Bracero program opened the border to Mexican field workers. In 1942, the  “official” Bracero program was enacted. The program called for braceros to be guaranteed wages, housing,  food, and exemption from military service. Though this was the agreement promised by the United States,  workers were denied for multiple reasons and were not given proper paperwork to work in America. Both El Paso and Juárez were prominent recruitment sites.  

Geography, immigration, and displacement are common themes in Chicanx and Latinx art. Taking an activist  approach, artists illustrate the historical presence of Mexicans and Original People in the Southwest, human  rights abuses of undocumented immigrants, racial profiling, and the militarization of the border. Art provides  a venue to challenge xenophobic stereotypes about Mexican Americans, and bring awareness to our broken  immigration law and enforcement system, while simultaneously politicizing and mobilizing its audience to take  action. 

Another common theme is the labor exploitation in agricultural, domestic work, and service industry jobs,  particularly of the undocumented. Artists worked to politicize the community and make a call to mobilize in an  effort to stop immigration raids in the workplace and boycott exploitative and oppressive corporations, while  exemplifying dignity and visibility to an often-invisible working population. The U.S. has a dubious history  concerning immigrants, and economic and political forces determine how they are treated according to the  “push – pull” factor.  

Immigration is much more diverse today. Migrants from Latin America during the early twentieth century  came almost exclusively from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. Today, immigrants come from every country in  Latin America, and even migration from Mexico has diversified: people come not only from the historical  sending states in the Mexican heartland, but also from Mexico’s gulf coast, from the southern states, and from  other areas that sent few migrants before the 1980s and 1990s. That means that Mexicans and Latin  Americans are creating truly new communities in the United States – communities based around a pan-Latin  American identity, as opposed to a regional homeland identity. 

The border is a place of extreme conflict, conjuring images of barbed wire, federal agents of la migra  (Border Patrol and I.C.E., or Immigration and Customs Enforcement) with automatic weapons and security  dogs, surveillance helicopters and drones, and the infamous Border Wall. The region is a conduit for drug  cartels, following migratory routes to major distribution points; immigrants are often forced to carry cargos  of drugs across and beyond the border for the smuggler. By contrast, the landscape is beautiful, populated  with a diversity of wildlife, flora, and friendly people. These works depict the binational culture of the  region, and are reflective of how border cities thrive, acting as a hub for Chicanx, Mexican, Mexican  American, Tejano, and Latinx culture.  

Art created by Chicanx and Latinx artists is influenced by social, political and cultural issues. Many artists  work to resist and challenge dominant social norms and stereotypes for cultural autonomy and  self-determination. Some artists focus on building awareness of collective history and culture, and equal  opportunity for social mobility. Latinx and Chicanx art challenges the social constructions of racial/ethnic  discrimination, citizenship and nationality, labor exploitation, and traditional gender roles in effort to create  social change. Activism takes form in representing alternative narratives to the dominant through the  development of historical consciousness, illustrations of injustices, and indignities faced by Mexican  American communities. 

Drawing from the Chicano movement, activists utilize art as a tool to support social justice campaigns and  voice realities of dangerous working conditions, lack of worker’s rights, truths about their role in the U.S. job  market, and the exploitation of undocumented workers. Using the United Farm Workers campaign as a  guideline, Chicanx artists put stronger emphasis on working-class struggles as both a labor and civil rights  issue for many Chicanx people and recognized the importance of developing strong symbols that  represented the movement’s efforts, such as the eagle flag of the UFW, now a prominent symbol of  La Raza.  

Dreams continue. With hard work and determination, some are achieved and some are not. However,  dreams never die—“Si se puede” truly is the anthem of the daily struggle.

Themes in the murals included Chicanx history, women’s cultural history, the United Farm Workers (UFW),  cholo and street culture, familial relations, and religious iconography. Overtime, Chicanx murals became  diverse in content and style. In Texas, artists from Brownsville, Kingsville, and Laredo, helped to foster the  emergence of Chicanx art throughout the borderlands. Artists exhibited in major cities like Austin, Dallas,  El Paso, Houston, San Antonio, and throughout the state’s Valle (Valley). Eventually, Chicanx art migrated  from the U.S. Southwest to Northern and Eastern states, changing to reflect differences and similarities in  these regions. Chicanx art today has expanded throughout the nation, and Latinx artists from Puerto Rico,  the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and many other Latin American cultures with roots in the U.S. contribute to  the contemporary art scene.  

Mexican and Mexican American experiences have heavily influenced popular culture. While English is the  national language in the U.S., Spanish comes in at a close second, and is the dominant language in many  cities. Mexican influenced cuisine has increasingly become part of the American menu. Visual arts, music,  

literature, dance, theatre, and film melded into mainstream culture. Catholicism and Christianity have  merged with pre-Columbian traditions, creating new subsects of religious ideology. Immigration continues  to inspire a creative outpouring in Mexican and Chicanx cultures at the border and in the American  heartland.  

The Texas-Mexico border is a living metaphor for the Mexican and American cultures that live side by side,  speaking Spanish and English and engaging in cultural and religious practices. Living in the border region,  people have made their own “in between” culture, often leaving behind expressions of their ancestral  culture, language, and religion in the synthesis of the new. The explosive growth of Mexicans and Mexican  Americans in the U.S. reveals their indomitable spirit. Selected artworks refer to the traditions and customs  that continue to transform borderland culture and inspire its fluorescence.