The San Diego–Tijuana Region, Gateway or Barrier?

Mellon Fellow at the School for Advanced Research and PhD candidate in History, Northwestern University

Join Miguel Girón for a program exploring how the San Diego–Tijuana region helped define what the U.S.–Mexico border is today. Focusing on the decades between the 1960s and 1990s, Girón will show how city officials, business owners, Mexican American veterans, commuters, and real estate interests turned two small cities into a massive “bordered metropolis” and the world’s busiest land port of entry.

In his talk, Girón will describe how local actors pushed for policies that intensified enforcement and in other ways protected the flow of goods, capital, and certain forms of labor. Attendees will learn how border policy has been shaped from the borderlands up—not only from Washington—and how the border continues to function as both gateway and barrier in ways that benefit some while excluding others.

Register to attend the event in person at SAR

Or watch online at www.youtube.com/@sarsantafemultimedia

About the School for Advanced Research

Established in 1907, the School for Advanced Research (SAR) advances creative thought and innovative work in the social sciences, humanities, and Native American arts. SAR is home to the Indian Arts Research Center (IARC), a leader in community-advised and collaborative Indigenous arts engagement and collections management. Through scholar residency, seminar, and artist fellowship programs, SAR Press publications, and a range of public programs, SAR facilitates intellectual inquiry and human understanding. SAR’s historic 16-acre campus sits on the ancestral lands of the Tewa people in O’gah’poh geh Owingeh or Santa Fe, New Mexico. SAR is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational institution.

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