Border Architecture

Another blog I found about the border fence and some architectural interventions.

http://borderwallasarchitecture.blogspot.com/

It has some interesting proposals and drawings.

money cutting short

Holland, MI -- The money sent home by Mexican migrants fell in 2008 for the first time on record, Mexico’s central bank said Tuesday, Jan. 27 — part of a global trend that could worsen as emigrants from developing countries lose jobs in the global financial crisis.

Many migrants living in the U.S. are trying to make ends meet, making it difficult to send money back to families in Mexico, said Lu Reyes, Lakeshore Latino Outreach Center volunteer and social worker.

“I don’t care how much you want to help, you have to take care of your own here — pay rent, buy food, the basics,” she said.

Reyes said people might be saving money until the economy improves.

Remittances, Mexico’s second-largest source of foreign income after oil, plunged 3.6 percent to $25 billion in 2008 compared to $26 billion for the previous year, the central bank said.

The percentage drop is nearly twice what the government had expected for the year, and central bank official Jesus Cervantes said the decline will likely continue this year.

Experts blame a crackdown on illegal immigration that has stemmed the flow of those heading north to seek work as well as the U.S. recession, in which many Mexicans, especially construction workers, have been laid off.

People have been leaving the country over the past few years, possibly contributing to less money headed back to Mexico, said Bert Jara, Latin Americans United for Progress executive director.

It was the first time remittances have fallen year-to-year since the bank started tracking the money 13 years ago.

Mexico is not alone: After several years of strong growth, remittance flows to developing countries around the world slowed in the third quarter of 2008. They are expected to drop even further this year in response to the global crisis, World Bank economist Dilip Ratha said Tuesday.

Global remittances that likely hit $283 billion in 2008 are expected to drop 0.9 percent in 2009, Ratha said. Remittances from some Arab countries could drop by 13 percent, he said.

“Remittances are the single strongest poverty-reduction tool that many countries have,” said Robert Meins of the Inter-American Development Bank. “This could translate into a great deal of hardship for a lot of people, which I think is underappreciated.”

In Mexico, reduced remittances are combining with a slide in exports to slow the economy, which is expected to stagnate or even contract this year. Mexico sends 80 percent of its exports to the United States.

“It’s definitely another sign that Mexico is receiving a shock from the U.S. recession through its trade ties to it, and we expect the economy to be in recession this year,” said Jimena Zuniga, an economist at Barclay’s Capital in New York.

Mexico receives the largest amount of remittances in Latin America and the third largest in the world, after India and China — where remittances have only slowed, but not dropped because they have many skilled professionals working abroad who haven’t been hit as hard, Ratha said.

— Staff writer Roel Garcia contributed to this article.

Background - my mom worked with this Lu Reyes

Designing for Guerilla Construction

This is a project by the firm ELEMENTAL in which they were commissioned to design a building that could accommodate 100 families but the project was designed in such a way that only so much was built while the rest was left to be requisitioned in the typical adhoc architecture of the shanty town. I think what is interesting about this project beyond the efficiency of the land use is that the building does not impede the vernacular act of architecture that normally would take place in the poorer urban areas of, in this case, the Chilian cities. The website has alot of interesting images and diagrams as well as videos.

Action Architecture

http://www.elementalchile.cl/category/vivienda/iquique/

On a lighter note.....

Obama's Immigration Reformation

• Barack Obama will secure our borders:

  Obama and Biden want to preserve the integrity of our borders. They support additional personnel, infrastructure, and technology on the border and at our ports of entry.

• Improve our immigration system:

  Obama and Biden believe we must fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy and increase the number of legal immigrants to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill.

• Bring people out of the shadows:

  Obama and Biden support a system that requires undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens.

Plan for Immigration

The Problem

Undocumented population is exploding: The number of undocumented immigrants in the country has increased more than 40 percent since 2000. Every year, more than a half-million people come illegally or illegally overstay their visas.

Immigration bureaucracy is broken: The immigration bureaucracy is broken and overwhelmed, forcing legal immigrants to wait years for applications.

Immigration raids are ineffective: Despite a sevenfold increase in recent years, immigration raids only netted 3,600 arrests in 2006 and have placed all the burdens of a broken system onto immigrant families.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden's Plan

Create Secure Borders

Obama and Biden want to preserve the integrity of our borders. He supports additional personnel, infrastructure and technology on the border and at our ports of entry.

Improve Our Immigration System

Obama and Biden believe we must fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy and increase the number of legal immigrants to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill.

Remove Incentives to Enter Illegally

Obama and Biden will remove incentives to enter the country illegally by cracking down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants.

Bring People Out of the Shadows

Obama and Biden support a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens.

Work with Mexico

Obama and Biden believe we need to do more to promote economic development in Mexico to decrease illegal immigration.

Barack Obama's Record

• Crack Down on Employers: Obama championed a proposal to create a system so employers can verify that their employees are legally eligible to work in the U.S.
• Fix the Bureaucracy: Obama joined Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) to introduce the Citizenship Promotion Act to ensure that immigration application fees are both reasonable and fair. Obama also introduced legislation that passed the Senate to improve the speed and accuracy of FBI background checks.
• Respect Families: Obama introduced amendments to put greater emphasis on keeping immigrant families together.

you can see more at http://www.barackobama.com/issues/immigration/

The Laredo Morning Times

Just happened to be browsing the Laredo Morning Times and I noticed some of the usual great morning stories. You know, like "Man gets killed for no reason type thing" "US gets blamed" :) .... But on a more positive note... I just wanted to post a link to the local paper because they have lots of more stories about whats going on in the city in case you care!! (But there really is such a story that exists.. (I'll post that below)

http://www.lmtonline.com/

http://www.lmtonline.com/articles/2009/01/27/news/doc497f07b4ef48e915792405.txt

Some helpful hints for our Travels!!

This website has a lot of information on what you can and cannot take into Mexico... tips for border crossing... and other random information about the city of Laredo! Enjoy!

http://www.ci.laredo.tx.us/LCVB/crossing.html

Border fence dispute brings Texas showdown

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/17/border.fence/index.html

This article is about a woman who will not allow the government to survey her property and put up a border fence on her land. The Secretary of Homeland Security thinks that the fence needs to be put up since parts of the Rio Grande are small enough to cross.

"On the banks of the river there is ample evidence that people do so. Piles of underwear lie discarded by swimmers after they make it across. The swimmers change into dry clothes they have carried across in plastic bags. Then they disappear into the United States."

Meanwhile, "Richard Cortez, the mayor of the border town of McAllen, Texas, believes hiring more Border Patrol agents, deepening the Rio Grande, and clearing its banks of tall vegetation would provide better border protection than the fence. Cortez calls the fence 'a multibillion-dollar speed bump,' which will slow, but not stop, illegal immigration. 'It is a false sense of security,' he said. 'America will not be safe. America will continue to waste resources on something that is not going to work.'"

Still, the Border Protection does not want to stop the construction of these fences.

Go to the article to watch a video of Michael Chertoff, the Secretary of Homeland Security, talk about the civic responsibility to give up land.

Fronterizos

This essay speaks about fronterizos (borderlanders) and the ways in which Mexico is affected by U.S. products and culture verses the amount of "Mexicanness" it holds onto.

http://www.humanities-interactive.org/borderstudies/text/essay.htm

Are the Borders holy too?

Since I spent most of winter break in Israel, I cannot help but think of all the visual borders I felt during my journey. I remember with precision this one moment on a walk through Jerusalem. We paused on top of a mosque on the way to the Western Wall, and I noticed all around me religious and geographical symbols that for me manifest hatred of the State of Israel. In the context of this location, the people that belong to mosque itself, the Christian quarter to the right, and Jordan mountains to the left would rather that a Jewish state not exist here. There is no need for words or violent acts; these otherwise peaceful visuals are message enough. I wonder then what visual symbols, aside from written signs and gates, exist on the Mexican border.

The architecture surrounding the ancient gates of the city varies by the quarters. In this picture, the Jewish quarter is to the left and the Arabic quarter is to the right.

This is the Arabic quarter:

And the Jewish quarter:

The architecture in a small town Sfat (Safed) also speaks to the border once created between the Jewish and Arab communities. During the British rule of Palestine, in order to stop the fighting between these two groups, a certain stairway that runs through the town was set as the divide of where these two groups could reside. Today these stairs no longer mark any break in the city as Sfat has become one of the most peaceful cities in Israel.


One last example is the Syrian bunker I visited. During the 1973 Israel-Syrian War, Israelis hid in a bunker system that connected the two countries underground. Today it is used as a museum (the bunker is sealed off before you can get close to the border) with militaristic artwork outside it and this sign showing the directions of other cities around the world: (My camera died as we went inside the bunkers, but I can find a picture from a friend if anyone is interested.)
(It was cold)

http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/stable/pdfplus/215499.pdf
-Article on the twin cities that pop up along the US-Mexican Border

http://www.pro8news.com/news/local
-Laredo, Tx Local news station

Couldn't post the actual video at this site even though I know how now. But this is a pretty good video about the economic relationships between the two cities and how vital they are to both countries. Interview with the mayor of Laredo is good too.

http://borderstories.org/index.php/laredo-nuevo-laredo-los-dos-laredos.html

This one was also pretty entertaining. "Nestled in a deep bend in the Rio Grande, the Fort Brown Memorial Golf Course abuts the international boundary on three sides. Federal government plans to build a fence along the border could leave the course in a no man’s land between the barrier and the actual border."

http://www.borderstories.org/index.php/brownsville-golf.html

And last one for me today... This is an interesting project whose aim was to document two different sides to border crossing. Disposable cameras were given to those stopping illegal crossings as well as to the "crossers." It is called Border Film Project.

http://www.borderfilmproject.com/en/index.php

La importancia del Rio Grande a la gente y los peligrosos de agua sucio

As growth and development continue, both in the LRGB and in the watersheds above Falcon and Amistad Reservoirs, the need for water treatment to maintain adequate water quality is pressing. On both sides of the border, many people live in substandard housing. Poor water quality and lack of sewage and potable water, especially in Mexico and the colonias in Texas, have been linked to gastrointestinal diseases such as shigellosis, hepatitis A, cholera, and possibly birth defects such as anencephaly (Finley 1993). Toxic discharges have been documented downstream from population centers in the Lower basin and are most prevalent near the maquiladora industrial parks (assembly plants) (IBWC 1994; TNRCC 1994). As a result of the NAFTA Treaty and the environmental companion agreements between Mexico and the United States, construction of new water treatment facilities has received much attention in recent years. Important treatment plants are coming on line or are in the planning stage. EPA has invested much effort, including substantial financial funds, in helping Mexico to end conditions under which waste water from border communities is released with no or minimal treatment into the Rio Grande. EPA officials predict that most communities will be served by modern treatment facilities by 2010. To date, the two national as well as the various state governments in the region, have not given similar attention to the issue of secure water supply. We believe that this will become a critical concern in the LRGB in the next few years. If the current severe, prolonged drought continues, this may happen even faster.

http://www.harc.edu/Projects/Archive/RioGrandeBravo/Overview/

Border Crossing... Theme Park?

For $125, you can camp for two nights, and then have a midnight "border crossing" experience over a fake border.  Woo!

Border Crossing Theme Park | Viral | SPIKE.com

Brinco: "Jump"

Judi Werthein has created a high-top tennis shoe - a "crossing trainer" to help illegal immigrants cross the Mexio-US border.  The project originated through a cross-border arts exhibition called inSite, who commissioned Judi Werthein to design them.  The shoe is designed with a compass, flashlight, a map (on the sole) and Tylenol, all built-in, to help in any tricky situations.  Werthein has distributed them to many migrants planning to cross the border illegally, but if you want to buy a pair, you'll have to shell out $215.00 to get them out from under the glass display case in the San Diego shoe boutique, Blends.

"Werthein dismisses complaints that she is aiding and abetting illegal immigrants.  She argues she is just provoking an important discussion."

BBC Article

History of Violence

From Christine's Mom:

"This was interesting listening on my way to work this morning. Interesting time - I don't believe I have ever heard anything on the radio or tv about Laredo/Nuevo Laredo. I think I would rather have not known about the violence down there!"

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99742620


From Christine:
Go read through this story. It speaks to the history of violence of Nuevo Laredo, which has been caused primarily by drug cartels. They say that conditions are getting better, but that five years ago, the gangs were in control of most things because of the threat they posed. If something didn't go the way they wanted (new chief of police, news coverage, etc.), they killed to solve the problem. This lead to a great decline in tourism. However, the war has slowed down/shifted to Juarez in recent years. In addition, a new mayor has made an effort to turn things around, through building public centers. He is most proud of his Estacion Palabra, which is an old train station turned literature center, that has had many visitors since it opened. In his mind, things are looking up.

Not your Mother's WWE

Becoming more and more interested in Nuevo Lardeo's passion for Lucha Libre wrestling, I wanted to post these two videos. One video gives everyone a taste of the sport, showing the agility and acrobatic beauty of the wrestlers and how their techniques contrast with American wrestlers seen within World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). The other video interviews a former wrestler and teacher at a Lucha Libre school in Mexico City. It gives us a perception of the wrestler's intentions and agendas behind this underground sport. Hopefully we'll get to see a match or two while in Nuevo Laredo.

Sensacional de Lucha Libre



A Lesson in Lucha Libre

a relative border

So, My 13 year old brother has this best friend named Chris. His father is not a US citizen, but the rest of this family is. They have lived in Holland, Mi for Chris's entire life. Back in October his father went to Lansing to renew his visa and was deported on the spot. So over Christmas break, his family packed up their lives here and moved to Mexico. They moved to a border town so Chris could still go to school in the US. So this 13 year old boy crosses the US-Mexico border everyday to go to school. I have a gut feeling that they moved to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. I remember asking Chris before he left and am sure that the city he mentioned had two words and one of them was Nuevo. I think that it will be interesting to hear his families story and their feelings about borders, especilly the one that forced their family to move from their own country.

Corridos y Bailando

Corridos- a Mexican ballad or folksong about struggle against oppression and injustice.

"the Texas-Mexico border should be considered a prime candidate for the birth of the corrido. He is particularly interested in a special type of corrido that this border engendered, namely, the corrido of intercultural conflict. For Paredes, this corrido emerges as a major folkloric genre in the early period of Anglo-Mexican contact (from the 1850s on)"

The Texas-Mexican Conjunto
"As an expressive symbol, norteño music might well be considered the quintessence of border Mexican culture -- its soul, as it were. We are particularly interested here in the Texas Mexican variant of norteño music -- the conjunto, as it is called by the tejanos -- since this is the ensemble that was originally subjected to the most intense artistic elaboration."


Los Tigres del Norte are by far the most popular norteno band in northern mexico.


And here is a fun video if you yourself would like to practice duranguense before we leave!


Some other popular dances in Mexico (as well as the rest of latin america) are:
Cumbia

Bachata

Merengue

Salsa

and of course, reggaeton

US Border Patrol: Laredo, Texas

Here is a short video by Getty Images detailing the different tactics the Border Patrol in Laredo use to try to catch drug smugglers and illegal crossings at the border. They use speedboats and ground sensors along with others to stop the illegal activities.

It interesting to hear them talk about the effect of checking landings around the river as well as just the idea that they are able to use these boats to move quickly to scare off the trafficking. Also Laredo is #3 in the nation in seizures of marijuana.

Absolut Drinks to That....

I found this ad by Absolut vodka on a la times blog. Although the ad itself is very interesting and in my opinion farely clever, the more interesting thing was the reaction that it raised from the bloggers themselves. This is the link to the article.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2008/04/mexico-reconque.html

And here is a link to another blog where they have been discussing the ad itself.

blog

Oh and this ad was only intended for use in Mexico.

Wide Angle: The World's Most Complex Borders

A PBS broadcast of the show, Wide Angle, focuses in on what they call the "Worlds Most Complex Borders." The episode seems to focus in on the border patrol on the Botswana / Zimbabwe border. Although I have not found the full episode yet, I have embedded two short clips



Also, this link to the PBS website has a short info section for tense border situations around the world (US / Mexico included). Each synopsis includes information regarding:

-Start date
-Current total length
-Official purpose

Tex-Mex Ann Arbor

Tex Mex restaurants in Ann Arbor according to my iPod:

Tio's
Sabor Latino
Bandito's California Style Mexican
Full Moon

If anyone knows what is good, or some other restaurants that I might have missed post a comment.

commutation at the border

Upon leaving office, an outgoing president usually pardons and/or commutes multiple sentences of convicted criminals. The commutations usually happen in the last days of a presidency and are usually the types of crimes for which the outgoing president has some form of sympathy, political or otherwise. Today, former president Bush signed only two commutations. They were for a high profile case in El Paso for two Border Patrol agents who shot a fleeing border crosser (in possession of drugs). Read about it here.

Bridge Cams

I found a site off of the City of Laredo website that has eight webcams set up showing the four different international border crossing. Link



There isnt too much traffic late tonight but it seems that a bus it make the trip through. Im a bit intrigued as to why these are in place. Is it to allow people to watch our border and judge how good of a job the patrols are doing? or is it let people know how long of a wait they will have to cross the border? They seem to update every two minutes or so.


Also I'd like to add a little warning for our trip to Laredo...



Dont be that kitty.

Teddy Cruz

Teddy Cruz has done research pertaining to the border between San Diego and Tijuana. He draws a lot of interesting conclusions:

"We control access, and only insofar as it benefits the US. In reality, the wall is an anachronism; it is virtually powerless against the international connections and interests of a world emancipated by flows of information, technology, and hybrid identities belonging to a global community sans frontiers. This is the paradox of a world defined by geographies of contradiction, a world that wants to be simultaneously bordered and borderless."

http://www.aia.org/cod_lajolla_042404_teddycruz

Washington's B-Day!

Straight from Wikipedia...it looks like there's an annual month-long festival that's going to be going on when we get down to Laredo. Between Jan. 22nd and Feb. 22nd "The Washington's Birthday Celebration (WBCA) is a month long event that celebrates George Washington's Birthday...The celebration includes parades, a carnival, an air show, fireworks, live concerts, and a city-wide prom during which many of Laredo's elite dress in very formal attire."


"The Taste of Laredo" - it happens to be two days after we leave this year, Feb. 12th :(

Found this movie called "Border" made in 2007 by Chris Burgard. Might be worth checking out. It is a documentary and Mr. Burgard did spend some time making the film in Laredo. Below is the synopsis. All the trailers are highly dramatic to stage the mood. Could be good. Also, to anyone, how do you upload youtube videos onto this?

At a time when America is in crisis, one man ventures to the southern border of Mexico in a big blue bus to discover the truth about illegal immigration. Filmmaker Chris Burgards movie is a striking and awakening vision of the true immigration story on our southern border. "Border" is a fresh and controversial documentary that takes a firsthand look at Americas failure to secure its borders and at regular citizens trying to take control again.

"Border" takes you on a journey from state to state and exposes a failed system and a failed policy who few dare to unveil. Burgards courageous journey includes powerful footage in the border crossing regions of America where dead bodies, armed Mexican military incursions, rape trees and drug traffickers are commonplace. Discover what it is like to feel like an American again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av7qVFFegUo

Mike Davis: surveillance, immigration, and the city

In response to Hannah's post I remembered an interview with Mike Davis about the issues of surveillance, our national borders, and why the city needs to be the place of action. This interview is one of the reason's I thought we could combine these subjects into a studio this semester. It's very accessible and not too long... Incidentally, MD used to teach at Sci-Arc.

Virtual Stake Outs - Live Border Cams

There is a new $2 million surveillance system (installed by Texas, of course) at the Texas-Mexico border.  There are 13 cameras installed at various points, allowing people to watch live, streaming video of the border, and play "virtual deputy," by reporting illegal border crossings via email.  

Over 20,000 people have already signed up.  Its free, so I just signed up to be a virtual deputy myself, but its fairly uneventful so far.  I'm not even sure I would report anything if I saw it.  Here, you can sign up too.

Is it effective?  Well, after six weeks of operation, there had been only one drug bust - for over 500 lbs. of marijuana.

Its controversial, just search for it, and you will find lots.

Migrant Structures

I found an interesting article the other day about finding adequate housing for migrant farm workers in the Rio Grande Valley. (http://subtopia.blogspot.com/2006/07/migrant-structures.html) The article brings some important facts to consider for the project.

"The Rio Grande Valley in the south of Texas is the nation’s capital for farmworkers; 90% of the 1 million people there are Hispanic and approximately 1/3rd of those depend on employment in agriculture."


"...makeshift shelters constructed out of scrap material from nearby ditches, open fields, abandoned buildings and cars — places dislocated from basic infrastructure, and generally perceived as countryside slums."

The article goes on to point out that the Valley population grew “an average of 31 percent across counties from 1999 to 2000, compared to 13 percent nationally; yet the region has substantially higher poverty rates than Texas or the United States as a whole”. Also, “Thirty-four percent of the entire Valley population lives in poverty compared to 15 percent of the Texas population and to 12 percent nationally. Unemployment rates in the colonias are two to three times state rates, and many sources cite rates up to 60 percent.” Now, the U.S.-Mexico border is expected to grow in population by another 10-15 million by 2020.



There are now a couple firms looking into "migrant architecture." They are creating low-income housing for these workers that is also allowing them to tow the housing behind a truck as they move from job to job.

Soundtrack to blog post: Sigur Ros - Gobbledigook

posting about posting

I just wanted to add the CCA Actions Exhibition link as reference for the project on which you currently are working.

_______________________

I won't add the links in the syllabus handout because my fingers hurt, but you should check out the many organizations that have a stake in the US-Mexican borderlands (both through my list and where your interests take you). Post any interesting findings...

Marcela Moran's films

I have been corresponding more with Marcela and thought I'd upload her video Casa Del Migrante shot in Nuevo Laredo and the clip from the Lucha Libre exhibit in Austin which features her talking about her film Audiencia, that we'll see in NL.

Casa Del Migrante

VIMBY - Enmascarados

interact with history

came across this interactive timeline of the history of the Mexican-US border territory. go interact!

last student blog

the last time I did a studio in the borderlands we used the Detroit/Windsor situation. Here is the student blog we kept at that time. It was primarily active in the first month while everyone was getting familiar with the subject and it was far more focused on producing a border crossing station. Check it out. You can also check out two of the projects in Dimensions 21.

other borders

Ayesha's post reminded me that I have a small collection of images from international borders. Here are a few. I find a lot the images really interesting because of the way that the border situations/stations/spaces reflect the political relationships between countries. Is architecture readable in this way? Should it be? I'm also really interested in the question of scale here. These spaces often have to operate at two extreme scales; one of national signification and one at pedestrian/vehicular passage. Often times the way they lean (more toward national symbol or more toward human occupation) is related to the relationship they have with the neighboring country.

The first image is also from Pakistan/India. Architecturally there are a number of layers coming together here worthy of your study, but perhaps my favorite part of the picture is the way that the arrows don't quite match up... accident?

This one is from Wild Horse, MT at the border with Canada.

The next two shots are from the border with Mexico between San Diego and Tijuana

Maybe it's obvious where this one is from...

I can't recall where this one is from... sorry maybe someone can tell me.

Bethlehem, Israel (West Bank):

Border between Belgium and France, right where the lights change color:

Belgium - Netherlands

If you're interested in this check out this flickr pool or this one.

Nortec

Nortec \náwr tèk\, noun:

1. electronic music that samples the traditional music of northern Mexico

2. a mix of techno and norteño

Check out this Nortec band Nortec Collective. There is more information on Borderstories.org

A Different Border

A year and a half ago, I went to the Pakistan/India border, Wagah Border, to witness their daily ceremony of taking down the two countries' flags. It is about an hours drive from Lahore, Pakistan. I thought this could be an interesting situation to note as the countries were once upon a time one country. Despite much of what you hear in the news, this ceremony is a peaceful way of showing national pride and respect for each other.

delicious beginnings

Well, I thought I was going to start this blog a different way... but I'm hungry! Let's start with food. Anthony Bourdain's show No Reservations did a show on border food in the Texas border towns. View it here in five parts. Mostly, this is just good old fun, but in the last clip, the one with the sushi chef, it shows a bit about the complicated familial relations across the border. Buen apetito!

Check it out: