BORDERLANDS AND IDENTITY - MIGRATION AND REPRESENTATION BY Eric John Warner A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Hispanic Cultural Studies – Doctor of Philosophy 2013 ABSTRACT BORDERLANDS AND IDENTITY - MIGRATION AND REPRESENTATION By Eric John Warner This dissertation addresses the effects of globalization on literary and cinematic productions from the United States and Mexico in regard to the shared experiences of migration insofar as demonstrated by intensified levels of technology, movement, marginalization, and transformation of once national identities into transnational identities defined by culture and common experiences. At the same time, it also proposes a glimpse into the role of transnational companies and neo-liberal policies in diminishing the national identities of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries into stateless-transnational subjects. In addition to contemplating theories of globalization, the selections for the corpus of this study physically or thematically originate from Northern Mexico, and the Mexican-American ideological border regions of the United States. From Northern Mexico, I will use examples from the written work of David Toscana, Luis Humberto Crosthwaite, Rosina Conde, and Rosario Sanmiguel, as well as cinematographic productions from Patricia Riggen, Gustavo Loza, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and María Novaro. From the US, I have made a similar two medium-based selection of written and visual cultural texts from Sandra Cisneros, Victor Villaseñor, Richard Rodríguez, and María Ripoll. In order to understand how these cultural texts embody the aforementioned indicators of globalization, this project embarks along the migratory path from south to north (with a few deviations) to demonstrate the role of identity in developing periphery literatures which take into account transnational, national, regional, and local affiliations juxtaposed with the consequences of globalization. Moreover, we will see the maturation and accomplishment of these fringe literatures into globally acclaimed and respected entities that now share the platform with other famed cultural works demonstrating their breadth, scope, and width. I would like to dedicate this dissertation to the most influential teacher in my life, my grandmother JoAnn Sells (Schmidt), as she is the one who guided me on a path to higher knowledge. I am forever thankful for the experiences, interests and unconditional love that she has shared with me throughout life. Had it not been for her intriguing personality, inquisitive nature, and relentless search for answers, I wouldn’t have had the skills needed to complete this project. If anyone is deserving of a doctorate, it is Grandma Sells. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe a big debt of gratitude for the unconditional support of all of my family – Grandma JoAnn, Grandpa Gordon, Grandma Shirley, Grandpa Dave, Greg (Dad), Jolee (Mom), Aaron, Michele, and the rest of the gang. I would also like to thank my committee members, professors, and teachers who have guided me along the educational path – I am forever grateful to Professor Eduardo Guízar-Álvarez, Professor Miguel Cabañas, Professor Kristine Byron, Professor Doug Noverr, Professor Cecilia Bustamante, Professor Susan Hennessy, Mrs. Betzold, and Mr. Wyss. Furthermore, I couldn’t have done it without my other family, a good bunch of friends that has met me somewhere along life’s path and has been there for its ups and downs, and all around, thanks a bunch Gustavo Rodríguez-Morán, Bicho Azevedo, Elena Selezneva, Alberto Veiga, Eleni Beli, Nikolai Priezjev, Olga Eremina, Maggie Shum, Negin Angoshtari, Kian Mehravaran, Thao Nguyen, Bri Orr-Álvarez, Adriana Martínez, Isabel Álvarez-Sancho, Zenaida Moreno, Angélica Silva, María de la Torre, Carmen Albaladejo, los dos Alejandros (“banda” Ávalos and “salsa” Blásquez), Nohemí Lugo, Nicola Rasch, Jasón Schrier, Darrick Sommers, Claudia Delgado, Pascal Hachey, Ivan Salazar, Kriscel Estrella, Steven DeCaluwé, and my Telamon (Michigan Migrant Head Start) family. v TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………..…………. 1 CHAPTER 1- Globalization and Contemplating Borders/Identity………..………….. 20 Defining Globalization: its Impact on Economy and Culture………………… 21 Globalization: Mexico and the World………………………………………….... 30 People, Identity and Borders in the Twenty-first Century.................................. 38 Globalization and its Aftermath: Marginalization, Nomadism, Fragmentation and Hybridity........................................................................................................... 47 CHAPTER 2- Nomadism/Migration: New Perspectives from Mexico.……………….. 56 The State of Migration in Mexico………………………………………………... 56 The Socio-economic Situation of Mexican Migration…………………………...60 Migration in Northern Mexican Narrative and Mexican Cinematography….. 64 Deterritorialization and the Effects of Geography……………………………... 70 The Transnational Experience from the Mexican Perspective…………………81 Santa María del Circo and the Carnivalesque…………………………………... 83 New Tendencies in Migration……………………………………………………. 91 CHAPTER 3- Mexico’s Northern Border Zone…………………………….………….. 98 The Border and the Participants………………………………………………… 99 Mexico’s Northern Border Expression………………………………………….. 103 (Narco)corridos…………………………………………………………………… 116 The US Influence…………………………………………………………………. 119 Food, Otherness and Music………………………………………………………. 122 CHAPTER 4- Representations of Hybridity: the Mexican-American/Chican@ Discourse…………………………………………………………………………………... 130 Sui generis?............................................................................................................... 137 Representation a la Tortilla Soup………………………………………………... 154 “Mexicanness”…………………………………………………………………….. 159 CONCLUSION………………..………………………………………………………….. 171 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………….....……………………..…………………………………. 178 vi INTRODUCTION “Border thinking” (Mignolo), Life on the Hyphen (Pérez-Firmat), Contact Zones (Pratt), Nepantla (Anzaldúa), In-betweenness (Bhabha), rasquachismo (Ybarra-Fausto), Transculturation (Ortiz), Hybridization (Canclini), Acculturation (Malinowski), Assimilation, Globalization, and Glocalization are just a few of the numerous terms and/or concepts ubiquitous to the human experience at a time when intensified human movement, commerce, and telecommunications continuously redefine people, culture, and society as a whole. In a rapidly-changing world in which all of the aforesaid terms apply in some way, shape or fashion, it is my quest to bridge the gap between two very different thematic approaches to the Mexican migratory experience that are deeply affected by the division of the physical border between Mexico and the United States. I will analyze how Mexican and Mexican-American cultural productions, chiefly film and 1 literature, approach the topic of migration, areas of the migratory path, and identity. It is also necessary to illustrate how each of these works embodies fundamental differences, as well as similarities, in its technique for writing from the “fringe” or “peripheral” areas of each of their respective countries. As a result in population shifts in the peripheral areas, increased literary production along the border, and a global readership, a new cultural “center” has emerged not necessarily as a national literature, but yet that of a literature that responds to the themes relevant 1 Mexican American- refers to any member of the heterogeneous Mexican-origin population in the USA. Chicano is used in much of California, but some choose not to use the term for the political connotations and adopt other terms such as Hispano (New Mexico) or Mexican / Mexican American in other areas such as Chicago and Texas. Mechicano (Mexicano & Chicano) is used to connote a politicized identity that affirms cultural and historical connections between all Mexicans (Allatson 159). 1 2 to those who live along these Borderlands. This literature addresses a large set of socioeconomic and geopolitical factors that put Mexico in the crossroads of globalization: it increases its exposure to the world due to its wealth in human labor and natural resources, while pushing some of its population into marginalization, as is the case in Ciudad Juárez in light of the misogyny that occurs on a daily basis, not to mention other barbaric practices. In each border region, on either side of the actual physical border extending from Tijuana and San Diego to Matamoros and Brownsville, authors and cinematographers depict a reality interpreting and illustrating experiences which, in all actuality, reflect an identity, be that a local, regional, national, transnational, or an international identity. In recent times, economic agreements, technological advances, wars, terrorism, population increases, major political changes and the inequalities in wealth distribution have been globally significant events that exacerbate the magnitude of marginalized and disadvantaged people who are being thrust into a world of unknowns, a world of migration in a time when anti-immigration sentiment abounds due to the ongoing economic turmoil (recession, high unemployment, underemployment, slowing economies, and geopolitical tensions that cause commodity spikes) across the globe. This has affected nearly every country in unprecedented ways and has contributed to economic disparities and greater levels of displaced peoples who ultimately find themselves in las trincheras (the trenches) of more affluent nations