In my hometown, the Rio Grande Valley, borders exist as fluid cultural zones where separate countries meet to form a unique blend of customs and traditions. However, it is this very border that also defines distinct ways of life for two territories. As a child, my parents and I would drive into a border city in Northern Mexico to visit family for weekend trips. In 20 minutes my family could drive from McAllen, Texas into Reynosa, Tamaulipas. McAllen and Reynosa were truly worlds apart. McAllen, Texas generally maintained a prosperous and sustainable life for its residents. Life presented itself differently south of the fence. Reynosa grappled with the violence of the war on drugs prolonged by its government and the peso's devaluation. As a young person raised in …show more content…
I wanted to explore the area where different worlds merged through political policy, presenting complicated issues, and asking profound questions with the urgency to confront them. My curiosity led me to analyze one of the greatest challenges undertaken by the U.S. and Mexican governments - the war on drugs and illicit trade. I dedicated a semester to work with Professor Pablo Sierra in an independent study titled The Drug War in Mexico. Our course focused on the culture, production, and criminalization of drugs in Latin America, specializing in Mexico through a historical approach. I explored archival research from the late 19th to early 21st century and delved into the major debates in the field. Although I only had a taste of bilateral policies against the illegal drug trade, my exposure to archival research between both countries allowed me to develop a deeper understanding of law and diplomatic relations between the United States and Mexico. In addition, my fluency in English and Spanish aided me throughout the process of interpreting scholarly
In Jason de León's eye opening and heartbreaking book The Land of Open Graves, we get an indepth ethnological account of the many people who's lives have been shaped in one way or another by the Mexican-American border, and the weaponization of the inhospitable Sonoran desert. In this section of border crossing, 4 million undocumented migrants have been arrested (more than one third of all immigration arrests), and countless others have tried, failed, succeeded or died (1). De León also frames Border Patrol as a tool of state-sponsored structural violence and highlights the horrendous after effects of free trade policies for tens of millions of immigrants seeking to regain what they had lost. The author also details the ethical and moral
When Gloria Anzaldua writes in The Homeland Aztlan “this land was Mexican once, was Indian always and is and will be again” one can assume or conclude that she recognizes that the land was taken away from the Indians by Americans. Therefore, you can say that she catecterize the border as Indian Land. To my way of thinking,Gloria Anzaldua blends poetry, personal narrative and history to present the view and experiences of people affected by living in the borderlands and to establish credibility to the poem. On the other hand, this chapter and the two poems present a connection because the three of them express the drwabacks of being Mexican- American.
The Life of Two Different Worlds In “Into the Beautiful North,” Luis Alberto Urrea tells a well-known story of life for thousands of Mexican people who seek a better future. He presents his novel through the experiences of the lives of his main characters that have different personalities but share a common goal. Through the main characters we are presented with different situations and problems that the characters encounter during their journey from Mexico to the United States. Urrea’s main theme in this novel is the border that separates both the U.S. and Mexico, and the difficulties that people face in the journey to cross.
Martinez, Oscar. Border People: Life and Society in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1994), 232.
Visiting a tourist attraction in Mexico, tourists do not realize the gruesome reality that Mexican civilians face on an everyday basis. Dead bodies cover the streets, the echo of gun shots ring through the streets daily, and seeing the cartels terrorize businesses. The rise of Mexico’s violence in the past decade has marked the country and made its way to the United States. The United States has ignored the problem for many years, since they always referenced Mexico’s drug crisis as a non-emergent issue. In the past decade the U.S. government has seen an increase in violence and consumption of illegal drugs due to the Mexican cartels. This issue is becoming more impactful to the U.S. as they continue to ignore it. Mexico plays a significant role in the United States economy and politics, therefore the United States involvement will play a critical role in ending the drug cartel war in Mexico, by helping the people in Mexico, targeting all the kingpins to get them off the streets, and legalizing marijuana.
In 2006, “President George Bush passed the Secure Fence Act where every mile of Yuma’s border with Mexico contained a fence or vehicle barrier” (Jeunesse, 2015). While this had a positive impact for Yuma with reducing the amount of illegal immigrant crossing and smuggling. Many challenges for the Hispanic arose as well. Not only is it the hours of waiting to cross the border and death of those that try to jump the fence that don’t make it but, the impact this has made on the separation of families and society in the united states. Now it is harder for immigrants to get transported to get over the border but to get a job itself in the United states. Those that are legal citizens in Yuma county there are several cases of separation of families that still live in Mexico because they are considered illegal immigrants. Traveling to one another has been a lot more complicated than it was years ago. Many will feel isolated from the other cultures of the world because of the
The war over drug routes and power between rival cartels has left Mexico in a bloody war. The violence occurring throughout the country only seems to escalate. In part, the United States has a role in this war because of the exploitation of weapons. Unfortunately, a lot of people are being killed every day because of the drug war. Action from Mexico must be taken swiftly to avoid any further casualties by collaborating with the United States on how to stop the smuggling of guns, building trust between the community and the police, and deciding on a plan to the help the economy for their citizens.
n.p., 25 Sep. 2013. Web. 16 Feb. 2014. Corcoran, Katherine. “Mexico’s Drug War Strategy Remains Unchanged With New Government.”
side of a border town made Smeltertown residents American, Perales looks at how they also never left their Mexican culture and customs behind. The San Jose’ de Cristo Rey Catholic parish served as a place for Esmeltianos to reimagine what it meant to be racially and culturally Mexican in an American border town. The Catholic chapel on the hill became the locus of what it meant to Mexican in a border town. Through their sense of community and the Catholic parish, Esmeltianos retained many aspects of their Mexican culture: Spanish language, Mexican patriotism, Catholicism. “Blending elements of national and ethnic pride, shared language, and a common experience with Catholicism provided a foundation on which Esmeltianos reconfigured what it meant to be Mexican in a U.S.
Concerned authorities have focused essentially on criminalization and punishment, to find remedies to the ever-increasing prevalent drug problem. In the name of drug reducing policies, authorities endorse more corrective and expensive drug control methods and officials approve stricter new drug war policies, violating numerous human rights. Regardless of or perhaps because of these efforts, UN agencies estimate the annual revenue generated by the illegal drug industry at $US400 billion, or the equivalent of roughly eight per cent of total international trade (Riley 1998). This trade has increased organized/unorganized crime, corrupted authorities and police officials, raised violence, disrupted economic markets, increased risk of diseases an...
The United States has a long history of intervention in the affairs of one it’s southern neighbor, Latin America. The war on drugs has been no exception. An investigation of US relations with Latin America in the period from 1820 to 1960, reveals the war on drugs to be a convenient extension of an almost 200 year-old policy. This investigation focuses on the commercial and political objectives of the US in fighting a war on drugs in Latin America. These objectives explain why the failing drug policy persisted despite its overwhelming failure to decrease drug production or trafficking. These objectives also explain why the US has recently exchanged a war on drugs for the war on terrorism.
Beith, Malcolm. (2013, September 24). The current state of Mexico's many drug cartels. CTC Sentinal
In Mexico, thousands of people die every year due to the war between the Mexican government and the drug cartels. When an American buys cocaine, he assists drug cartels to murder thousands of people in Mexico. To explain my point, I will explain my ideas and feeling on that issue and the opposition points of view as well.
Drugs have affected our nation, state and community in a variety of ways, more negative than positive. Everyday people may suffer from drug addictions, whether it is over the counter prescriptions or bought on the street. The United States of America top three most commonly abused drugs are: Alcohol, Tobacco and Painkillers. Though there are many more other substances that are abused by Americans, those three top the list.
The problem I want to explore is how the War on Drugs has become a social problem. This is a social problem because it has created an overpopulated prison system disproportionately filled with people of color and the poor.