Standing on Common Ground: The Making of a Sunbelt Borderland

by Geraldo L. Cadava

Under constant surveillance and policed by increasingly militarized means, Arizona's border is portrayed in the media as a site of sharp political and ethnic divisions. But this view obscures the region's deeper history. Bringing to light the shared cultural and commercial ties through which businessmen and politicians forged a transnational Sunbelt, Standing on Common Ground recovers the vibrant connections between Tucson, Arizona, and the neighboring Mexican state of Sonora. Geraldo L. Cadava corrects misunderstandings of the borderland's past and calls attention to the many types of exchange, beyond labor migrations, that demonstrate how the United States and Mexico continue to shape one another. In the 1940s, a flourishing cross-border traffic developed in the Arizona-Sonora Sunbelt, as the migrations of entrepreneurs, tourists, shoppers, and students maintained a densely connected transnational corridor. Politicians on both sides worked to cultivate a common ground of free enterprise, spurring the growth of manufacturing, ranching, and agriculture. However, as Cadava illustrates, these modernizing forces created conditions that marginalized the very workers who propped up the regional economy, and would eventually lead to the social and economic instability that has troubled the Arizona-Sonora borderland in recent times. Grounded in rich archival materials and oral histories, Standing on Common Ground clarifies why we cannot understand today's fierce debates over illegal immigration and border enforcement without identifying the roots of these problems in the Sunbelt's complex pan-ethnic and transnational history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History

320 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2013

Reviews

[Erica · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars. This book had a very interesting concept and premise, but the writing was so convoluted and disjointed that is was very difficult read.

[Atif Taj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Post WWII, massive investment in either side of the border brought business community together. Alex Jacome and Ignacio Soto grew wealthy. However from the late 1960s and early 1970s, the end of Bracero Program, the Hart-Cellar Act, rise in unemployment and indebtedness increased amongst the ordinary Mexicans. This led to violence and discrimination. IRCA and Proposition 187 in California (later struck down by CA Supreme Court) was designed to stop the illegal immigration. National leaders tried to one up each other after IRCA. Operation Gatekeeper, Operation Hold the Line, Operation Safeguard, Minuteman Project, Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, and 287(g) program militarized the border region. Arizona SB 1070, House Bill 2281 were anti immigrant laws. All these acts made the post WWII harmony between two communities romantic.

[Kaileigh Q · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot reading this book and felt it was pretty accessible for a more general audience. Chapter two was my personal favorite. It lost a star for me though because, at times, I felt like I needed to skim over things that had been repeated.

[Charles Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

...continuing my study of borderlands and transnational histories. What a pleasant surprise this book is: the author's empathy and choice of primary sources make this an innovative, accessible, and enjoyable examination of the "construction" of the sunbelt borderlands along the Arizona-Sonora border from approximately WWII until the recent past. Multiple groups reside in the sunbelt borderlands: Anglo Americans, Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and the O'odham indigenous. Each is portrayed respectfully.

The work is bookended by fascinating analyses of the most interesting "primary sources": opening with the history of the western Arizona that whitewashed Tucson's history, and closing with three works of the plastic arts: statues of Pancho Villa, Padre Kino, and an installation called Border Dynamics now displayed on the campus of U of Arizona.

Grounding his work in rich archival sources, the author traces growth fueled by, at first, mining and agriculture and aerospace industries that boomed during the war years. Urban boosters took the lead and a case study of Mexican American merchants in downtown (Jacome's department store) serves as a middle chapter. Another middle chapter examines the growth of UofAz and Uni-Son which each provided educational opportunities for students on either side of the border. The Good Neighbor, the Bracero Program, and the Cold War, immigration laws, NAFTA, all played a role in forming the sunbelt.

The ideals of international cooperation and friendship are in constant tension with conflict, discrimination, and inequality on both sides of the border. Borderlands history should uncover the many different meanings - racial divisions and interethnic friction,; social justice and inequality; ambivalent or shifting definitions; nationalism and regionalism; and other dynamic relationships. This book beautifully does just that, bringing to light the border realities so deeply formed by the stories that people have told about themselves, their relationships, and their shared homeland.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough