Abstract

OLIVERAS-GONZALEZ, Xavier. Spatialities in Conflict. Re-bordering and Resistance at the Anzalduas Dam (Tamaulipas-Texas Border). Norteamérica [online]. 2017, vol.12, n.1, pp.169-196. ISSN 2448-7228.  https://doi.org/10.20999/nam.2017.a006.

Re-bordering, one of the processes of contemporary “borderness,” imposes the configuration of new spatialities in border areas. Focusing on the spaces of everyday life and using a qualitative methodology, the author analyzes the spatial operations that reproduce or resist this process, and whether the operations reinforce border separation between territories and societies of two neighboring nation-states. He analyzes the border between the United States and Mexico, selecting the bi-national Anzalduas Dam on the Río Bravo/Grande as a case study. This place is characterized by the simultaneous presence of re-bordering operations and recreational activities on both sides of the border, based on which the resistance operations are constructed. The author concludes that, to a greater or lesser extent, even the resistance itself reinforces border separation.

Keywords : spatiality; re-bordering; resistance; place; the everyday.