Border Identifications: Narratives of Religion, Gender, and Class on the U.S.-Mexican Border (review)

Based on 10 years of ethnographic research in the Juarez/El Paso area, Vila challenges many of the traditional images of what it means to be a "border crosser." Notions such as hybridity, border crossing and third country, concepts prevalent in studies of the U.S./Mexican border experience, are seen as inadequate to understand the complex process of identity construction on the part of people who live on both sides of the border and who cross the border either routinely or in the process of immigration. The above concepts Vila sees as homogenizing the border, as if there were only one border identity, border culture, or process of hybridization. Instead, he argues throughout the book that the reality of the border goes well beyond that "consecrated figure" of border studies, the border crosser, to encompass complex processes of identification that, in some way or another, actually organize the behavior of border actors and result in complex identities.

To understand the meanings that the boarder holds for different people, both on the Mexican and U.S. sides, Vila uses (and critiques) various theories of identity construction, most particularly, those articulated by Foucault (1983;1988) Holstein and Gubrium (2000), Laclau and Mouffe (1985;1987) and Zizek (2000). His major analytical concepts are narrative plots, metaphors and interpellations (a word Webster defines as identifying with a particular identity). Based on 10 years of ethnographic research and hundreds of interviews, data throughout the book consist of extensive dialogs, quoted verbatim, among interviewees along the border. In his previous book, Crossing Borders, Reinforcing Borders (University of Texas Press, 2000) Vila demonstrated how regional, ethnic, and national factors impact the metaphors and narratives that express a sense of identity on the part of people who live in the Mexico/U.S. border region. In this book he focuses on how these factors are intricately intertwined with religion, gender and class to constitute a complex array of identity anchors.

In Chapter l, Vila analyzes data on the meanings of Catholicism and Mexican identity and shows how Mexican respondents on both sides of the international border address as Mexican customs what indeed are Catholic customs. Examples include Day of the Dead, Christmas, Las Posadas and matachines (folk dancers), all of them Catholic traditions. The widely shared, commonsense assumption that being Mexican and being Catholic are one and the same is not farfetched for most Mexicans, whether in Mexico or the U.S. Commonsense assumptions, census data, and theoretical discussions about Mexicans and religion point to the fact that being a Mexican and being a Catholic are intertwined. In Chapter 2, however, he discusses the identity narratives that Mexican Protestants develop to make sense of what is supposedly an oxymoron. In particular, he shows how this group reconceptionalizes the notion of border from a geographical point to a religious border that separates the "saved" ones from the "condemned."

In Chapters 4 and 5 monolithic notions of the Mexican male and female are challenged as Vila presents data to show that Mexican and Mexican American families are much more complex than the stereotyped model of machismo pretends. The final data chapter introduces ways in which constructions of social class affect identity. In particular, among Mexicans, southern Mexicans are seen as those despised "others" who do not work hard enough to get out of poverty. On the American side of the border, the commonsense discourse is that "all poverty is Mexican." Therefore, moving to the United States or becoming more Americanized equates with higher social class perceptions.

The book is essential reading for anyone who studies identity issues on the part of people who cross international borders and, in particular, the Mexican/Texas border. Vila presents data that buttresses his contention that identity construction among these migrants is based on an array of interacting factors that include regional identity, nationality, ethnicity, race, religion, gender and class. He challenges many...