U.S-Mexico Borderlands

The border region has seen “rapid transformation in a short span of time, changing from a cattle ranching and mining area that attracted U.S., Mexican and European capitalists…to the center of a lucrative vice and pleasure-based tourist industry, to a region that …attracted an extraordinary amount of international capital to its manufacturing and services sector”. (Ganster/Lorey 2) Events and years such as the implementation of the railroad, the years before the Mexican Revolution, the land reform in 1936 and 1937, the implementation of the maquiladora program and the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has had a significant impact on the U.S. Mexican Borderlands.

The implementation of railroad throughout the Mexico and its border region had a great impact on the economic and population growth of Mexico during the late 19th century. Ganster and Lorey explain in their book “The U.S.-Mexico Border into the Twenty-First Century” that the Mexican President, Porfirio Diaz, was determined to ensure that there was “order and progress” in Mexico in hopes to encourage “economic development”. (Ganster/Lorey 35) Soon after the first railroad was developed in the West, rival lines began to “establish major routes in the Southwest that linked most of the important population centers in the border region with one another and with eastern markets”. (Ganster/Lorey 36) In 1881 the first transcontinental railroad to pass directly through the border region was completed, “it linked the area to the western and eastern seaboards of the U.S.”. (Ganster/Lorey 36) The railroad resulted in a population growth of the Mexican town and cities. For example Salinas, Coahuila grew from a population on 778 in 1877 to nearly 15, 000 by 1910”...

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... was reported that in 1996 the number of employees increased from 3, 00 to about 400,000.

After three years of debate NAFTA was established in 1994. Fears concerning NAFTA included job creation, loss and transfer, wages and infrastructure. (Ganster/Lorey 188-189) However, with the implementation of NAFTA the economy grew. Ganster and Lorey reveal that bilateral trade increased by $211.4 per year from 1989 to 2004. Commerce grew by 20 percent in the first six months of 1994. There were advantages and disadvantages of NAFTA, nevertheless, NAFTA “intensified the integration of the two economies rather than distancing them.” (Ganster/Lorey 190)

The implementation of the railroad, and settlers standing up for their rights, land reform, the implementation of the maquiladora program and NAFTA all formed a noteworthy impression on the U.S. Mexican Borderlands.