FLOWING INDENTITIES: THE RÍO GRANDE AND THE SHAPING OF A COUNTRY
Panel Chair:
Imelda Martín Junquera (Universidad de León)
The Rio Grande/Rio Bravo represents more than a geographic landmark. Natural division between the current territory of Mexico and the US (Texan and New Mexican frontiers), its waters have swallowed dreams, laughs and tears on the border. Even the Mexican-American war (1846-1848) is believed to have started on the banks of the Rio Grande at Matamoros (Mexico) with the killing of American soldiers by Mexican troops. The river acquired utmost relevance when the Secretary of State at the time, James Buchanan, expected Mexico to accept it as the new frontier, as the definite dividing border.
Thus, a whole history of wars and immigration converges on its banks which mark the level of wealth or poverty on both sides of the border. These banks mirror each other and throw an inverted reflection of the economies in the rest of the country. The cities on the Mexican bank have the highest rent per capita of the country while the ones on the US bank in Texas have the lowest.
Literature has traditionally created bridges to cross the river; its waters mix accounts of fraternities and hostilities between peoples, immigrants, newcomers and natives. Narratives of the border contain history written on the water: people who have drowned and those who have crossed and made it to the other side. An icon of immigration for decades, of people carrying its waters on their body, the Rio Grande washes away the stories of wetbacks persecuted by immigration laws and policies. At the same time, other southwest narratives portray the river as a silent witness and a haunting presence where blood, water and toxins flow together to the ocean whenever they are able to reach it.
Suggested topics:
-Literary metaphors for rivers abound, such as Anzaldúa's construction of identity as a river: "identity flows between, over, aspects of a person." In the particular case of the Rio Grande, the river truly contributes to the creation and shaping of personal identities. How are these flowing identities portrayed in literature?
-In a less metaphorical perspective, the mouth of the Rio Grande, once an ecological reserve, is now in danger because of toxic dumps from factories on both sides, is American literature addressing these environmental issues and denouncing the abuses against nature in general and water in particular as the source of life? Or does it remain in the safe hold of metaphor?
-Questions such as these constitute the basis of this panel where the Rio Grande is contemplated in its meaning as a political, historical, economic, social and cultural frontier; its metaphorical dimension in the creation of flowing identities; and its relevance as an environmentally endangered site.