I once heard a story about a man that needed to go north from Mexico to the United States in the 1940s. At the time, Guerrero, Mexico was depleted of resources and there were no jobs for the people. It spread throughout the city that there was work in the United States through a temporary workers program.
The man knew this was his chance to go north, so he went to where all the laborers were gathering to leave. A name was called and no one responded, so he claimed another man’s spot and crossed the border to work in the fields harvesting strawberries and avocados in California. After the temporary worker program ended, he remained in the U.S. undocumented to live out most of his life. That man was my grandfather. A man that only existed through the stories of my grandmother and father.
This past month has been full of horrifying stories of the U.S.-Mexico border filled with headlines such as “Build the Wall” and “Make America Great Again.” Discourse that has been used by the Reagan administration in the 1980s, and now by the Trump administration. Unoriginal and xenophobic. In 2018, news broke that migrant children at the border were being detained in fenced cages and were separated from their parents. Recently, a heartbreaking image of two bodies, Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his toddler daughter, Valeria, went viral as they had drowned together in attempting to cross the Rio Grande to Brownsville, Texas. An image that will forever be imprinted in my mind and soul.
People fear what they do not know, and by not asking vulnerable questions are misinformed or remain uninformed of historical facts. The relationship of the U.S.-Mexico border, unfortunately, is nothing new. However, many individuals do not know the history of how the border came to be.
In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, which ended the Mexican American War. The treaty declared California and parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado a part of the United States. When you hear counter-discourse stating, “We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us,” it is referring to lost or stolen land that was once Mexico, but forever will be indigenous.
In 1910, the Mexican Revolution began, which caused thousands of Mexicans to flee and cross the border for safety. In 1924, Texas Rangers began to police the Border, which later became known as the “border patrol.” During the same time, the Immigration Act or Johnson-Reed Act was established to limit the number of immigrants allowed into the United States.
In 1942, the Bracero program began in response to worker shortages brought on by World War II, allowing Mexicans to work temporarily in the United States, mostly in agricultural areas. That marked the beginning of my family story on my paternal side.
