Just kiddin.

Peter, thank you for your comment. You’re the first journalist to actually leave a comment on the weblog instead of sending an email behind the scenes.

I am a taste curious why you would find it necessary to trash my title and why you suggested that some reporting I’ve done in the Borderlands, Mexico and the U.S. over the last twenty years should not be used in the book.

When I wrote, “Provocative Titles Sale,” I really wasn’t trying to specifically trash your title (which if I remember right, was thought of by someone at the Knight Center), but rather stating what seems to me like a fact. If you look at our archives, they’re full of provocative titles for ordinary posts. Unfortunately, no one buys what we write.

And by all means you should be allowed to include pieces of reporting you’ve done in the past. I should say first off, that I really enjoyed almost all of the chapters in the book. But I felt like I was led astray by the subtitle. It read like a great anthology of reporting, but I was expecting a coherent policy argument … or, as the subtitle reads, a “case for opening the US-Mexican border.”

I wanted interviews with demographers and policy experts. I wanted to hear from government service managers to talk about what sort of infrastructure reforms would need to be made. I wanted to hear from Mexican politicians on their thoughts about opening the border. I also wanted comparative cases like the EU and India and Nepal (which share an open border). I wanted Freedom of Information Acts filed in order to see if FEMA or any other gov’t agency has a plan of what they would do if, say, el Popo were to one day erupt sending millions of Chilangos northward.

But what you did was something much different and something you should be lauded for: you told the stories of ordinary everyday people on both sides of the border. The people who are usually left out of the major media. So although Wetback Nation left me disappointed in terms of the information I was looking for, it did make me a fan of your writing and reporting and I will make sure to keep track of future stuff. Thanks for dropping by.

One of my recent classes was devoted to this issue though remarkably, in the hour and a half or so we spent discussing, the question of “what would happen if the border were to be erased?” didn’t come up. (Or rather it didn’t occur to me to ask). Instead we went in circles about the current effect of immigration—legal and illegal—on the people of the US, Mexico, and other countries making these journeys as well as the people in the receiving countries. (For example, what effect does having a chino-headed gringo come teach in México have on its people/culture? The economy? Or of China, for that matter). The point is, our hackneyed platica didn’t really get us anywhere. We merely agreed that it wasn’t really working out right now, but didn’t offer up anything resembling a suggestion as to what would.

Needless to say, we’ll return to this in the next class. Thanks, oso!

However, something that did come up that hasn’t been mentioned is that of the “coyotes”—smugglers—that for an exorbitant will rate take ignorant would-be illegals across the river and set them free to be caught by the border patrol, not knowing that the Rio Grande is not the US/México border in all parts of the Republic. (I think the term is used for any smugglers, although my student used it to refer to only those who practiced this kind of abuse).

Also, from this May’s Harper’s Index (yeah, I’m reading back issues—the mail doesn’t work here). “Average number of Mexicans that have died each year since 2000 trying to cross to the United States: 407.” One wonders what those deaths must have been like. Suffocation? Starvation? Crushed while hiding among cargo? You can imagine there must be incidents that nobody knows about also. The idea of those hidden gold-paved streets still weighs heavy in peoples’ minds apparently. Eldorado, USA—here we come! (Maybe inspired reading of Candide is what is driving everyone northward).

Either way, I think eliminating border controls would mitigate these problems.

And speaking of China, perhaps the Chinese tunnels in Mexicali would be a safer route (check out “They Came Out Like Ants!” in the October 2004 issue of Harper’s).

Turks have been migrating to Germany since the 50’s, yet they are still a marginalized community. Moreover, Turkey has been trying to join the EU for quite some time, yet the Eastern 10 come along and jump ahead of them. Yes, there are stereotypes, even within Germany – where they are supposed to be “ein Volk”: ossies vs. wessies. However, they are still included within the EU. The fear in Europe is about Islam (which = terrorism, but not only). And in the minds of Europeans immigration = Islam.

With Mexicans, and Latinos, it is different. It is about the browning of America. About the dilution of the “fundemental values” upon which the country was founded. About the loss of “our” language. And about the “stealing” of our social services. In the US immigration = illegal immigration.

Living in SoCal we have a unique kinship with Mexico… the cultures meld. But where I grew up, in Long Island NY, “Mexican” is a term to describe any latino… and the influx of southern / central Mexicans into the northeast is not taken lightly. As an example – while nearly the entire South Bronx (an area almost the size of San Diego) is Puerto Rican & Dominican.. .there is only one, small Mexican barrio in Sunset Heights Brooklyn, an area of about 20 square blocks. While the South Bronx is a hell-pit of street crime and gangs, Sunset Park is thriving and alive with hardworking people. Yet many in the established Latino communities view the Mexicans as ‘poor outsiders coming to take our jobs’.

As for the EU vs Turkey… I agree that it’s about Islam, but I think it is also socioeconomic – many northern europeans cast the same suspect eye on the Bulgarians, Hungarians, Latvians, etc… as being poor, dumb, lazy, and desperate… an ignorant sentiment echoed (privately) by my neighbors in the Northeast, who have finally accepted Puerto Ricans after nearly 30 years, but now feel threatened by Mexicans, who are an oder of magnitude ‘poorer’ than the established Latinos. Provincialism has always been a part of Old Europe and I think a lot of that sentiment lives on, especially in ‘Old New York’.

I have kept up with the ups and downs of the EU. As of late, the media certainly has been reporting the downs much more than the ups. But we’ve got to remember that this is a region that has been at war with itself for milienia so I’m constantly amazed when they can agree on anything. In comparison, the Western Hemisphere has had much less internal violent conflict and arguably has less cultural and linguistic diversity. Though I’m sure a billion policy experts would disagree with me, I really don’t see how the EU could be doing things any better.

HP,

You might want to look at this.

Myke,

I wish that the digital world really were erasing borders as quickly seem to be saying that it is. Are you planning on doing this?

Xolo and Sassy,

I’m closer aligned with Xolo here. Despite a long history of Turkish immigration to Western Europe, the cultural divide between Turkey and Europe is much more pronounced than Mexico and the U.S. Turkey is a barely secular Muslim nation (whose secularism depends on its military) firmly rooted in the Ottoman Empire with a language – though reformed – that traces to Sanskrit. Especially in the post 9/11 world, the century old Christianity vs. Islam conflict is bubbling up strong where nothing like that could compare between Mexicans and Americans.