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ix Acknowledgments It seems a bit cliché to say, “There are too many people to thank” for their support and advice in the writing of this book, but there is a reason for clichés. There are too many people and institutions to thank. I apologize in advance if I have overlooked any names, institutional or otherwise. First, I must thank the many people of Matamoros who shared with me their time, compassion and, occasionally, interest. I am sorry to have reduced all of them to “border activists” in this text, when they all were and are so much more than that. Were my writing skills better, or my anthropological imagination more expanded, I might have been able to paint their lives with a more nuanced palette. Nevertheless, this book would not have been possible had certain people not taken me into their fold and allowed me, generously, to know something about their lives. At the time that I conducted the fieldwork and in the immediate aftermath of data review and writing, I suffered the not atypical anthropological hubris of thinking that I had done some good—or at least that I had not caused any damage—in the course of my fieldwork. Now, with years of ethnographic data perusal and writing under my belt, as well as a lot of experience teaching anthropology, I am not as convinced of that. When I went to conduct my fieldwork, I knew that I would one day leave the fieldwork site, just as assuredly as the fact that I had gone there in the first place. As much as I always tried to be clear about that, I’m not sure it was always understood. In any event, the anthropological footprint is evident in this work and I have not tried to sweep it away. I have many faculty at the Department of Cultural Anthropology at the New School for Social Research to thank for the excellent and rigorous anthropological training I received: Bill Roseberry, Kate Crehan, Harry West, and Steve Caton, among others. Most notable, of course, were those who would eventually become the members of my dissertation commit- x   Sustaining the Borderlands in the Age of NAFTA tee: Deborah Poole, Rayna Rapp, Adriana Petryna, and Eli Zaretsky. While life moves on and one loses touch except for the occasional conference encounter, I am deeply indebted to these people for having had faith in the importance of this study, particularly at a time when “the border” had fallen out of anthropological fashion. Debbie Poole has remained a wonderful source of both support and inspiration through the years, and faithfully answers the annoying reference letter requests I still sometimes send. I will always be indebted to her for the faith that she has shown in my intelligence and promise, even if I feel as though I have lived up to a fraction of what she had hoped for. Adriana Petryna ripped out the page where I describe Rosalia, Sierra Club representative, and me standing at the banks of the Dren Cinco de Marzo and said, “Start your book here!” I did not understand that admonition because I was always more comfortable with theory. After wrestling with the book and rearranging it for too long, I finally started the book at the point she recommended. It flowed much more smoothly after that. Other first time book authors and PhD students should take note! Rayna Rapp is Rayna Rapp . . . larger than life and forever an inspiration. I teach my methods classes nowadays partly with excerpts from her book—Testing Women, Testing the Fetus—and I enjoy having the chance to visit with her there. I credit all of these people with most of what I know about anthropology, and I am proud of the tradition that we represent. However, I would be remiss in not mentioning a longstanding intellectual mentor and, now, good friend, Arturo Escobar. Arturo introduced me to anthropology as an undergraduate and, to continue with clichés, made me fall in love with it. He revolutionized the way that anthropologists and others think about development; he is a lovely person, to boot. I hope that this book is some small contribution to rethinking “development,” even if it approaches it in an oblique fashion. Because of the setting, development was tucked into NAFTA and the side accords as ancillary justification. I likely would not be where I am today were it not for the faith that Arturo invested in me early on...

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