Fluidity of the Border
The Mexican Revolution of the 1910s was a pivotal period during which physical and social demarcating of the border occurred. The years between 1913 and 1917 were an era when “both Mexicans and Americans held out hope that the revolution would be a short-term conflict after which conditions would return to normal” (Line in the Sand, n.d.). Ultimately, this period (World War I) led to the creation of new border crossing regulations.
It was not until several border battles that occurred in the Arizona/Mexican border town of Nogales that the fluidity of the border and the peace that these binational communities enjoyed ended. By 1920, “the boundary line had been transformed from Nogales’s binational main street to a militarized buffer between two nations at war” (Line in the Sand, n.d.). The war years of the 1910’s proved to be a pivotal time with the addition of tighter controls on customs, immigration, and law enforcement along with the violence and bloodshed took their toll on the border. The border changed from a peaceful center of cooperation to conflict and division. “By 1918 the events at Nogales and the resulting fence that divided the town were emblematic of the boundary’s metamorphosis. The border had become a divide” (Line in the Sand, n.d.).
Concurrently, President Woodrow Wilson(United States) and President Venustiano Carranza(Mexico) established the American and Mexican joint commission. The United States and Mexico had radically different ideas for this commission. “While the American delegates asked the Mexican government to consider issues relating to the protection of American interests from revolutionary damage — the “protection to life and property of foreigners in Mexico,” the “establishment of a claims commission,” and “religious tolerance” — the agenda for the Mexican commissioners was primarily the removal of the expeditionary forces from Mexico” (Lim, n.d.). Carranza’s specifically wanted to keep American forces free reign to pursue outlaws such as Pancho Villa. Both sides failed to reach an agreement and ultimately the “joint commission was permanently shelved” (Lim, n.d.). Eventually both nations developed new policies that would radically reshape the border and ultimately each nation.
Eventually new border regulations at El Paso “dramatically interrupted the usual flow of traffic across the international bridge” (Lim, n.d.). This affected immigrants and laborers from Juarez that needed to travel across to El Paso for work. Rioting occurred which eventually led to Immigration Act of 1917. Literacy requirements and a head tax increase now included Mexican immigrants, who were previously excluded from such laws. These new regulations paved the way for future increased regulation of Mexican migration. Employers in El Paso were not all too happy with these new founded regulations “when five hundred laborers arrived in Juárez in 1918, the El Paso Times complained about the extended and unnecessary delay U.S. officials created for employers as they processed the workers and took their photographs” (Lim, n.d.).
Lim’s book covers the same type of border activity that St. John’s book does. After reading both of these books concurrently, I discovered they each complement each other, while providing information the other does not, such more detailed information on how the Immigration Act of 1917 came to be as well as more detailed information on the early harsher border rules targeting Asian and European immigrants.
Lim, J. (n.d.). Porous Borders. Retrieved from https://platform.virdocs.com/read/748003/180/#/4/4
Line in the Sand. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://platform.virdocs.com/read/71130/14/#/4/8/2[page_120],/1:131,/1:131
