The border represented nothing more than a passive presence in my life. If anything, it was austere and mundane. Given my experience, I developed a tendency to romanticize borders as a place of cultural exchange and alluring fluidity. Two characteristics that the space does offer, but only to those of us with the class and nation privilege necessary to smoothly navigate what would otherwise be experienced as a stark barrier that is at best imposing, and at worse violent. The US-Mexican border is not a stable entity with a single meaning, but rather, it represents a variety of entities which are in constant flux. The border means different things to different individuals at different times. The recent political, economic, environmental and pandemic difficulties we have all faced have had the consequence of making the border more real than ever. Ciudad Juarez and El Paso are not sister cities. Not when the United States cuts off gas supplies to Mexico in the middle of arctic conditions: leaving almost five million Mexicans without power. The blurring of borders, something that I so firmly believed in, does not exist
Photos Dario Lizarraga
dariolizarragafotografo.pixieset.com
