#borderlandsarchive

[theborderlandsarchive-blog]

(Specific) Location: Tijuana, Baja California Item Name:  Piece of the Wall Description/Materials: Rubber and Untreated Metal  BLA Item No. BLA-120818 - 01

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A. What cross-border connection(s) does this object represent? The wall that exists at the San Diego / Tijuana border today are actually recycled landings strips from the Vietnam war. Maybe that’s some kind of cross-border connection. 

[theborderlandsarchive-blog]

(Specific) Location: San Diego, CA, MCASD Item Name: Sanctuary Print Shop Description/Materials: Hand-made Prints from Sanctuary Print Shop Date Collected: March 2019 Name of Contributor/Author: Anonymous

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A. What cross-border connection(s) does this object represent?

https://www.sanctuarycityproject.com/public-action

[theborderlandsarchive-blog]

Unrefined Copper Nugget, Bisbee AZ, 2019  Location: N. 32.522499, W. -117.046623 Item Number: BLA 070119-01 Description / Material: copper nugget, untreated, raw Date Collected: 01-07-2019 Contributed by: Sam Truett

_______________________ What cross-border connections does this artifact represent? This piece of Copper comes from Bisbee AZ where there is a long history of cross-border ties that Transend almost every political, social and natural border in the region. In 1881, the same year that Southern Pacific Rail completed its transcontinental route, Phelps Dodge company purchased 2 mines at Bisbee, AZ. The firm turned Bisbee into an industrial town overnight. As their empire moved south into Douglas, AZ and further into Mexico, extending from Nacozari, Sonora where Phelps reopened the areas colonial Spanish Silver mines for their rich copper deposits. This was one of the areas along the southern border where crossborder connections were solidified early on and supported by an exchange of economic investment.

[theborderlandsarchive-blog]

Used Plastic Bottle, Tijuana B.C., 2012 Location: N 32.522499 , W -117.046623 Item Number: BLA180412-01 Description/Materials: recycled fanta soda bottle, blue Date Collected: 04-18-2012 Contributor: Cheyenne Concepcion

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What cross-border connections does this artifact represent?

ALOT of America’s trash ends up in Mexico, but in Tijuana, trash flows back. In 2012, I spent a whole summer mapping trash and sediment flow from Los Laureles Canon to San Diego’s bay. Alter Terra, the TJ based nonprofit I worked for, was interested in repurposing the trash into building materials for migrant settlements in the urban periphery. This bottle represents an entire cycle of capitalism and consumerism that inherently binds the United States to Mexico. The bottle was manufactured in Mexico, sold in the United States, trashed in the U.S. and sent back to Mexico as rubbish, only to flow back into San Diego as an article of pollution.

What is your relationship to the artifact you contributed? (Or the place where the object comes from?)

 I spent that summer working for Alter Terra, based in Los Laureles Canon in Tijuana. Locals regard the place as El Canon. This was the beginning of my relationship to the subject of borders as urbanism.

Has the construction of a border changed your objects’ relationship to the place where you found it?

 The territorial divide at the border complicates the environmental consequences of manufacturing and pollution. Different environmental laws, practices and organizations muddy restoration efforts.

Why did you contribute to the archive?

I am the conceptual artist who created the archive.