ON THE BORDER

"Miller's travel through forgotten bordertowns and his truly marvelous descriptions of their tenacious inhabitants . . . will make them unforgettable to every reader lucky enough to discover this gem of southwestern Americana." San Diego Union
"A deftly written book. . . . Mr. Miller has drawn a lively sketch of this unruly, unpredictable place." New York Times Book Review
"Miller conveys the gutsy sand-in-my-veins life of men in the Border patrol . . . everyone can learn from his sensitive outlook . . . Miller will make you turn around and realize this thin strip of land is a different world and make you realize it is exciting to live here." El Paso Times
"Intelligent and highly readable . . . a rewarding book . . . Miller's eye is excellent, and he likes to listen. He allows the border to speak in its own accents, to reveal its own prejudices and passions. Those who have not been there will find this a richly informative book. Those who have been there will probably be surprised that Tom Miller survived the trip." Larry McMurtry, The Washington Star

From the Introduction

Every year officials from the Cochise County, Arizona, towns nearest the border get together with their Sonora, Mexico, counterparts for sport and pleasure. They call the event "A Celebration Nation to Nation." In the spirit of international amistad, politicans on both sides proclaim their mutual and eternal goodwill. On other days they might take issue over the problems of migration, drugs, pollution, and smuggling, but on this day the abrazos, the embrace, is in order. As part of this annual observance, officials play volleyball against each other in a game advertised as "a symbol of solidarity and a hand of friendship extended."

Conventional volleyball rules are followed, and the court is regulation size. The only unusual feature is the net. Instead of the normal cloth mesh stretched between two poles, this net is the seven-foot chain link fence separating the United States from Mexico, topped by three strands of barbed wire which slant towards Mexico. On the barbs shreds of clothing are visable, left by Mexicans who have tried to scale the barrier.

As the ball is slapped back and forth, the barbed wire works to the Mexicans' advantage. When the game is over the Mexicans emerge victorious, and both teams approach the "net" for comradely handshakes. Alas, the fence turns the "hand of friendship extended" into a most delicate problem. How do you shake hands with a fence in the way? The mayors pause at the paradox of the situation, laughing nervously at their predicament. Finally they adjust to the crisis. The officials each extend three fingers through the fence, rubbing them against the fingers of their opponents. It is the best they can do.

Such ironies and contradictions thrive on the border between the United States and Mexico, a region that does not adhere to the economic, ethical, political, or cultural standards of either country. Since the 1850s, when the boundry was first established, it has earned a reputation as a place where every conceivable form of illicit activity is condoned.

The border has come to represent many things to many people, yet it remains the most misunderstood region of North America. Our southern frontier is not simply American on one side and Mexican on the other. It is a third country with its own identity. This third country is a strip two thousand miles long and no more than twenty miles wide. It obeys its own laws and has its own outlaws, its own police officers and its own policy makers. Its food, its language, its music are its own. Even its economic development is unique. It is a colony unto itself, long and narrow, ruled by two faraway powers. The symbiotic relationships shared by the many pairs of border towns, such as El Paso and Ciudad Juarez or Calexico and Mexicali, are born of necessity. The cities couple like reluctant lovers in the night, embracing for fear that letting go could only be worse.

The general impression of border towns is that they are sleazy and sleepy, dusty and desolate, places where the poor and the criminal mingle. In truth, many are like that. But the border is also sexy and hypnotic, mysterious and magical, self-reliant and remarkably resilient. It changes pesos into dollars, humans into illegals, innocence into hedonism. No other international boundary juxtaposes such a poor but developing nation with such a wealthy and industrialized one. The border must absorb the blows from both sides, learning when to jab and when to duck.

TOM MILLER writes about the conflict and culture in the American Southwest and Latin America and has appeared in Smithsonian, The New York Times and many other publications, as well on national television and radio programs. He is the author of Trading with the Enenmy: A Yankee Travels through Castro's Cuba and The Panama Hat Trail. He has lectured often about the border in both the United States and Mexico and is currently Adjunct Research Associate for the Latin American Area Center, The University of Arizona.

ON THE BORDER: Portraits of America's Southwestern Frontier (1981) is available directly from the author at P.O. Box 50842, Tucson, Arizona 85703.