The Borderlands Archive

The Borderlands Archive is an active collection of contributed artifacts from people living in the U.S.- Mexico borderlands that symbolize connection across territorial divide. Collected objects represent physical, social, political and environmental connections that form an counter-narrative, or collective public record about a contested space between two countries. www.borderlandsarchive.org

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(Specific) Location: Currently, San Francisco Item Name: My Father's Wallet Description/Materials: brown leather wallet with a smiley face sticker Date Collected: September 28, 2019 Name of Contributor/Author: Anonymous _____________________________________________________

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

My father who immigrated from Colombia in the 1980s has carried this wallet in his back pocket since he arrived in the United States. After 30 years here, my father self-deported in 2019. He gave me his empty wallet to keep, which at one point carried all of the documents that marked his identity in the U.S. 

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(Specific) Location: LA River/Boundary of former Rancho San rafael 34.120055, -118.269968 Item Name: Rancho Boundary Description/Materials: Digital Photograph Date Collected: January 2020 Name of Contributor/Author: Deborah Diehl _____________________________________________________

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

Cross border connection: This photograph is part of a series that explores ideas about migration, territorial boundaries and the fragility of eras as seen through the lens of California history. This photo is taken at the LA River, which was once a boundary line for Rancho San Rafael, a 56 square mile 1784 Spanish Land Grant and included most of present day cities of Glendale, Burbank, and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Eagle Rock, Glassell and Highland Parks. 

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(Specific) Location: Vallejo, California Item Name: The Crucifixion Description/Materials: Toy, wooden crucifix Date Collected: 2017 Name of Contributor/Author: Reniel Del Rosario _____________________________________________________

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

This object to me represents the 7000 miles cross-border of the Philippines and California.

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

Growing up in the States as a kid who arrived only speaking Tagalog, my parents bought me comic books like Garfield to help me learn English. As I grew up in this clash of Pinxy/American, Philippine traditions and native tongue (represented by the Catholic crucifix) got replaced with my consumption of American culture (represented through Garfield).

This object specifically came from a project in undergraduate where I was told to bring in a cultural object. I knew what to make immediately using what were sitting side by side in my room.

6C.  Has the construction of a border changed your objects’ relationship to the place where you found it?

At first, I just think it's a border that's nothing but ocean, but in reality it's a constructed border of new rigorous visas, customs, and language barriers separating kin and friends. Looking at it like that, this object is tethered to me and my personal experience with adapting to immigration.

6D. Why did you contribute to the archive?

As an immigrant from the Philippines, I think it's only right to tell my story because we need to be heard and our stories need to be seen, both by people who don't know about them and those that need to hear stories from their people to know they're not alone.

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(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. 

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(Specific) Location: N/A Item Name: Space Blanket, “Emergency Blankets” Description/Materials: Mylar, 60″ x 60″ Contributor: Anonymous

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

Migration. Detention.

B. What is your relationship to the artifact you contributed? (Or the place where it comes from)  When I was a kid, I carried around a fluffy pink blanket with me everywhere I went. Psychologists call this a security blanket and describe it as a method for children to cope and often remind children of home and safety. With the images of detained children surrounded by concrete cells, wire fences and space blankets, I started getting interested in the design of the cells. How sensory experiences really can really mess with your head. The most basic tactile comfort for a child has been replaced by a mylar sheet, for this reason, Im contributing this object to the archive.

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(Specific) Location: El Paso, TX | 31.772543, -106.460953. Item Name: Customs and Border Patrol Mug Description/Materials: Ceramic Mug Hand Crafted in America from the Border Patrol Museum in El Paso Texas. Date Collected: June 2018 Name of Contributor/Author: Anonymous

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

Between 2018 and 2019, the El Paso Sector of the Border Patrol saw the largest increase in apprehensions across all categories. In El Paso, the number of  ‘Unaccompanied Alien Children Apprehensions' increased from 4,400 children in 2018, to 15,350 children in 2019 -- representing a 249% increase. For the ‘Apprehension of Family Units’, the El Paso Sector saw a 1,510% increase, arresting 7,700 families in 2018 and 124,873 families in 2019. For Single Adults, the El Paso sector saw a 137% increase in apprehensions.

This mug, collected in 2018 from El Paso’s Border Patrol Museum captures a time of heightened crisis in El Paso. The situation of the Border Patrol has stark differences between its time of collection to now, causing us to focus and question the social and political events occuring just before our eyes -- during the span of this project.

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(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

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Teosinte pre-smuggling, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, 2018

(Specific) Location: Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico Item Name: Teosinte pre-smuggling Description/Materials: Zea Mexicana seeds aka Teosinte Date Collected: March 2018 Name of Contributor/Author: Robert Ungar and Won Cha

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

Teosinte, an ancient ancestor of both indigenous and modern cultivated corn, has the ability to mix with GMO yellow corn, creating hybrid varieties. Teosinte or Zea Mexicana is native to north Mexico and southern US, It is still used by traditional farmers in Mexico to make their crops more resilient to extreme weather and disease.

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

We experimented with smuggling Teosinte seeds from Mexico into the United States using multiple methods, some copied from nature (attaching to tumbleweed, feeding wildlife), and some man-made (helium balloons, corn snacks). We drew on local knowledge, as well as cross-border practices from our respective geographies (Korea and Israel), to get the seeds across the border

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

The United States limits the dispersal of seeds from Mexico under USDA and Homeland Security agricultural quarantine. The border cuts off century old traditions of farmers and migrants carrying seeds across countries, sowing them to make their living while sustaining traditions of food and agriculture.

D. Why did you contribute to the archive?

The simple act of restoring an ancient plant to its homeland, north of the border, is considered by a government an act of Agro-Terrorism. We find it peculiar and symbolic that a global empire is building up walls to protect itself from ancient, indigenous seeds.

The “Imaginary Map of Teosinte Dispersal” is a compilation of research information and a hopeful outcome of the man-made dispersal actions we’ve taken by spreading Teosinte seeds or giving them to people to sow in public spaces, backyards and roadsides.

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Cempasuchil , 2018

(Specific) Location: Item Number: BLA 030519-01 Description/Materials:  Tagetes Erecta/African Marigold  Date Collected: October 2018 Name of Contributor: Janaki Jagganath__

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

Marigolds are native to the Americas and have traveled in the pockets of colonizers across every sea and rooted themselves in the most unwelcoming of landscapes.  Marigolds are borderless and their color has come to represent auspiciousness and good luck in many global cultures.

B. Additional Notes about the item or its history or how you found it.

I grow these flowers yearly for Day of the Dead and Diwali, traditions in mexico and India that use marigolds the central offering to ancestors, and as a way to light a path for spirit visitors.

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Punto de Reunion, El Paso, TX, 2018

(Specific) Location: El Paso, TX, US |  N32.53431, W-117.12374 Item Number: BLA250219-01 Description/Materials: Video, On-Site Installation Date Collected: Feb 25, 2019 Name of Contributor: Lizzie Sturr

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

Punto de reunión, green dots deliberately marked in the urban landscape throughout Mexico. Oftentimes in different shades of green and forms–offer nuance and personal interpretation of what should be a common and fixed image, and symbolize a place of gathering. This marking has evolved to become a decorative tag throughout the city, one that does not have a single, clear purpose. Instead, the green dots are human moments, points of focus and reflection in a vibrant city saturated with noise–a good intention with an inefficient result, composing a larger collective symbol for the country. This project brings the concept of punto de reunión–and its homonymic relationship in the landscape– directly to the borderwall, changing the meaning of the borderwall itself. Separated from the borderwall, the green dot is a place to gather and view the crisis. When located on the borderwall, the green dot shifts the borderwall to a place of meeting.

B. Additional Notes about the item or its history or how you found it.

Created object, not found.

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Canels Chiclets by Arturo Fuentes-Ortiz

Location: Oaxaca, MX | Item Number: BLA 250219-02 Description/Materials: Mexican Bubble Gum Date Collected: March 2018 Name of Contributor: Arturo  Fuentes-Ortiz  

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

The object represents the people so there isn’t a specific location.

B. Additional Notes about the item or its history or how you found it.

I chose the candy bubblegum called Chiclets. It is bubblegum candy that is famously sold all throughout Mexico and the Borderlands. You can see this candy sold especially by kids on the street.  

Optional Questions:

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

I grew up in Oaxaca Mexico. The Chiclet represents a memory. It represents a time I crossed the border:

My mother had crossed the border from Mexico when she was about 25 years old. She had three kids in the States including me. Then when I was 1, my mom suffered a tragic accident at work, injuring her spine and needing heavy surgery. She was left in a wheelchair and as a single mother she was unable to take care of me, my brother and sister. She decided to send all three of us to Oaxaca, Mexico. There I was raised by my aunt (whom we nicknamed ‘Mami-Tia’) and grandparents. Our Mami-Tia raised us and she constantly reminded us that she wasn’t our mom. That our mom is in the states. But to us she was (hence the name ‘Mami-Tia’).  Then at 7 years old, my mom was healed from her wounds and was able to take care of us now.  She came to Oaxaca and we met her for the first time. We knew of her, we’ve seen pictures of her, but it was strange to meet someone who you knew everything about but nothing at all. She picked us up, and just like that, brought us to the Bay Area. During the airplane ride, my sister, brother, and I developed air pressure in our ears due to the altitude. Then our mom gave us Chiclet’s as a way to depressurize and heal the pain. It was the Chiclet’s that served as a reminder of what my family has gone through in order for me to have a better life. Not knowing why, I constantly had to leave a place or why my family lived in two places? The Chicle is not only an object but a symbol of one of millions of stories of families who have crossed the border. It is not just the crossings, but the lives affected after the crossings.  

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

The border has always been to my family a gloomy place. It was always a place of death and dark times. My entire family crossed. So to me, the Chiclet is a reminder of the trajectory of my family’s legacy and my personal continuation of breaking down borders/barriers.

E. Why did you contribute to the archive?

I contributed to the archive because it is important to understand the stories of the people who cross the border. How this border holds intergenerational trauma, and how memory is attached to an object and to a place.

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Through the Wall, Playas de Tijuana, MX, 2018

(Specific) Location: Playa de Tijuana, MX |  N32.53431, W-117.12374 Item Number: BLA160218-01 Description/Materials: Digital Photo Collage (GIF) Date Collected: Feb 16, 2018 Name of Contributor: Sam Gebb  ____________________________________

A. What cross-border connection(s) does this object represent? This object contemplates removal of the Wall along Playa de Tijuana and imagines the possibility of moving freely along the beach, heedless of what country the sand belongs to.

B. Additional Notes about the item or its history or how you found it. I was inspired by joggers on the Playa who would run northwards along the water’s edge all the way up to the Wall, abruptly turn around within an arm’s distance of it, and continue their jog back south.

C. What is your relationship to the artifact you contributed? (Or the place where the object comes from?) I made it.

D. Has the construction of a border changed your objects’ relationship to the place where you found it? Yes. One cannot stroll infinitely along the beach here, as is possible once well north or south of the border.

E. Why did you contribute to the archive?

I’m contributing this object specifically because I’ve always found the beach to be an open, lateralizing, community-generating space, no matter what country I’m in. Especially in the context of the extreme limiting of cross-border interaction at Friendship Park, it saddens me that this swath of land and sea that should be uninterrupted is bifurcated by a wall, a fence, and an invisible buffer zone.

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Charcoal Rubbings of International Boundary Marker 1, El Paso TX, 2018 Location: N31.77559, W-106.5245 Item Number: BLA 140219-01 Description/Materials: Two Framed Charcoal Rubbings on Paper  Date Collected: March 2018 Name of Contributor: Gabriella Willenz, Sophia Arbara, Sophia Sobko

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

Two hundred and seventy-six monuments pepper the U.S.-Mexico land boundary from El Paso west to the Pacific Ocean.

The easternmost point of the land boundary is marked by International Boundary Marker 1, a 12 foot tall, four-sided marker erected in 1855 by a joint U.S.-Mexico team of land surveyors.

The artists’ act of traveling to the monument, employing a grave-rubbing transfer technique, and transporting the resulting facsimile invites interrogation of what is both gained and lost through processes of surveying, research, reproduction, and representation.

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Remnants of Salton Sea, Salton Sea, CA , 2019 Location: Salton City |  N 33.33522, W -115.95955 Item Number: BLA 070219-01 Description/Materials:  Collection of tilapia carcasses Date Collected: January 4, 2019 Name of Contributor: Miriam Arias Hernandez 

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

The white sands of the Salton Sea are deceiving, not for its sand but rather because the shoreline is made up of tilapia bones. These tilapia carcasses represent the ecological and socio-economic consequences of this space. Mexico and the US share allocations of the Colorado River, however, the city of Mexicali disposes their treated wastewater into the Salton Sea which travels north and additionally collects industrial and agricultural waste. Since the early 1940’s, the Salton Sea has been fed this toxic water, causing many species to die off. Therefore, resulting in a shoreline of tilapia carcasses.

B. Additional Notes about the item or its history or how you found it.

The New River travels north into the Salton Sea from Calexico, where it not only carries industrial waste and agriculture runoff, but the river at one point also carried people—migrants from Mexico who used this river to cross over into the US.

Optional Questions:

What is your relationship to the artifact you contributed? (Or the place where the object comes from?) I grew up in the Coachella Valley and I come from a family of immigrants. This place means a lot to me because of its history. My dad immigrated to the US to work in the agriculture fields north of the Salton Sea.  

Has the construction of a border changed your objects’ relationship to the place where you found it? The controversial divide of the border has caused a lack of attention on the US-Mexico border’s environmental water management. The Salton Sea is less than 100 miles away from the border, meaning Mexico shares public and environmental health risks related to the Salton Sea’s increasing toxicity. 

Why did you contribute to the archive? The Salton Sea has a hidden history and the following object allows me to tell that story.

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Plateau, El Paso TX, 2018   Location: Along the US/Mexico border near Anapra and the Rio Grande in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico | 31.77887, -106.52926 Item Name: Plateau Item Number: BLA 070219-01 Description/Materials: Video Date Collected: March 2018 Name of Contributor: Michael Clyde Johnson

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

The video records the desert landscape across the US/Mexico border from two vantage points in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

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Two Border Patrolmen Stationed in El Paso,Texas , 1920-25

Location: 31.772543, -106.460953. Item Number: BLA 190119-01 Description/Materials: Photograph, from 1950s, found in photoalbum Date Collected: 01-18-2019 Name of Contributor/Author:  Dwight Schannep | www.vintagetuscon.com

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

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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.