In 1995, the acclaimed Mexican author Carlos Fuentes published 'The Crystal Frontier', a novel about the complex realities shaping the U.S.-Mexico border following the creation of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, which promised to usher in a new era in the historically thorny relation between both countries.
El Paso is the frontline in the battle for America’s soul
El Paso represents the changing face of a more diverse America. But in the debate over culture and immigration, demographic anxieties are being replaced by bullets.
Por:
Univision
El Paso Strong es una de las frases resilientes que más se ven por estos días de duelo pero de unidad en la ciudad.
Imagen Mario Tama / Getty Images
In his book Fuentes portrayed the border as an exciting opportunity where we could either foster cultural understanding or condemn each other to suspicion, violence, xenophobia, and genocide.
On Saturday, El Paso, Texas considered one of the safest cities in America, came face to face with Fuente´s worst fears as a gunman inspired by white nationalist groups walked into a local Wal-Mart intending to kill as many Mexicans as possible.
What ensued can only be described as an act of terrorism aimed at the heart of Hispanic America and the ideals of mutual appreciation millions of people on both sides of the border work for every day.
As my mom worked and parented, all in one breath, she instilled in us the values that I carry with me today: “por la familia, todo.” Lee este contenido en <a href="https://www.univision.com/noticias/opinion/por-la-familia-todo-ruben-gallego-sobre-su-candidatura-para-ser-el-primer-senador-latino-de-arizona" target="_blank" link-data="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000147-f3a5-d4ea-a95f-fbb7f52b0000","_type":"ae3387cc-b875-31b7-b82d-63fd8d758c20"},"cms.content.publishDate":1726508089253,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017b-d1c8-de50-affb-f1df3e1d0000","_type":"6aa69ae1-35be-30dc-87e9-410da9e1cdcc"},"cms.content.updateDate":1726508089253,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017b-d1c8-de50-affb-f1df3e1d0000","_type":"6aa69ae1-35be-30dc-87e9-410da9e1cdcc"},"link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.univision.com/noticias/opinion/por-la-familia-todo-ruben-gallego-sobre-su-candidatura-para-ser-el-primer-senador-latino-de-arizona","_id":"00000191-fbe6-d0b9-a3df-ffee82b60000","_type":"ff658216-e70f-39d0-b660-bdfe57a5599a"},"linkText":"español","_id":"00000191-fbe6-d0b9-a3df-ffee82b10000","_type":"809caec9-30e2-3666-8b71-b32ddbffc288"}">español</a>.
"What a sad reflection that the Republican Party has moved from Abraham Lincoln, who <a href="https://www.lincolncottage.org/lincoln-and-immigration/" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.lincolncottage.org/lincoln-and-immigration/&source=gmail&ust=1722615259799000&usg=AOvVaw1h4-6RbvpglrZVIbOjgpuE" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">said </a>immigration was a ‘source of national wealth and strength’ and Ronald Reagan, who <a href="https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/farewell-address-nation" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/farewell-address-nation&source=gmail&ust=1722615259799000&usg=AOvVaw3smYQcjpnK2Yg75NSEOBUf" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">called </a>for his ‘city on the hill’ to be ‘open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here,’ to Donald Trump, who <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-says-immigrants-are-poisoning-blood-country-biden-campaign-liken-rcna130141" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-says-immigrants-are-poisoning-blood-country-biden-campaign-liken-rcna130141&source=gmail&ust=1722615259799000&usg=AOvVaw1u4LrDvU2tKeNxJCdbz96i" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">says </a>immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood of our country".
"Our current immigration laws include so many hurdles that can keep families in limbo, and even being married to a U.S. citizen isn’t always enough to allow someone to get a green card".
"For those of us whose livelihoods depend on it, President Biden’s actions to protect and preserve DACA show a striking contrast with those of Trump and MAGA Republicans. Trump has a record of trying to end DACA and will try again if he wins another term".
"While immigrants by now are accustomed to being the tip of the spear in the GOP’s arsenal of attacks, let's be clear-eyed that the threat now is beyond harming immigrant communities or calling attention to the border. This is about using this issue as a tool to further Trump’s political ambitions, even if that means suppressing the right to vote, undermining our election results, or stoking more political violence".
"This month comes at a special moment in our nation’s history. For the first time, we have more Latinos serving in Congress than ever before. In the Senate, the Democratic Majority has confirmed a historic number of Latino judicial nominees and recently confirmed the first Latina to serve on the Federal Reserve in the Board’s 109-year history".
"This is the clean energy boom unleashed by President Biden: good-paying jobs in a fast-growing industry and lower bills for working families — all while addressing the climate crisis affecting our lives".
Putting presidents, former presidents and coup plotters on trial is an honorable and necessary practice to maintain a healthy democracy. Failure to put on trial presidents or former presidents who broke the law or committed crimes has had devastating consequences in Latin America.
Mexico's migrant policy bears responsibility for the deaths of 39 migrants in the fire at a detention center in Ciudad Juarez. They were in the custody of the Mexican government, in a federal facility.
The southern border has always been a focal point in our national politics, but since Donald Trump launched his presidential bid by criminalizing Mexican immigrants and promising a wall, it has become the frontline in the battle for America’s soul.
This is not a battle of ideas so much as one fueled by inflammatory claims, conspiracy theories and the constant conflating of crime and immigration. To that end, President Trump has unjustly smeared border communities like El Paso time and time again.
A city of roughly 650,000 people, of which 80 percent are Hispanic, El Paso represents the changing face of an America that embraces diversity as a strength. 'La linea', as locals refer to the border, and more specifically the Wal-Mart store where the attack took place, are part of a daily social experiment in which immigration defines national identity, instead of threatening it. Immigration in America does not threaten national identity, it defines it.
But as border towns like this one become the epicenter of the nation’s divisive parley over culture and immigration, demographic anxieties are being replaced by bullets. On Saturday, 22 people were killed and 27 were left injured. Almost all of them of Mexican descent.
President Trump may not have pulled the trigger, but he was pointing at the target. The wrong target.
Violence in Juarez never spilled over into El Paso, like Trump said it would. It was the violence in El Paso that touched the lives of people in Juarez who lost their lives shopping for school supplies on the other side.
It's now Mexicans who fear Americans and Latinos buying guns at a stunning rate in the aftermath of the shooting, according to local media reports.
El Pasoans never believed in Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric and fear mongering, this democratic bastion deep in red Texas voted instead for democratic politicians like Beto O’Rourke and Veronica Escobar. They looked through the crystal frontier and saw themselves on the other side. “Two countries, one heartbeat.”
Maybe it's time we all start listening to the border instead of talking about it from afar.
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