ESRI: Envisioning the Embattled Borderlands
PLEASE CLICK MAP for a BETTER VIEW The map (above) that ESRI geographer Krista Schlyer chose for the top of her photo-map essay response to the so-called border wall is indicative of the care she and the rest of the ESRI team have taken with this entire exhibit. As a geographer who lived in this map for seven years (1990-1994 in Tucson and 1994-1997 in Pharr), I notice a few important things that this map captures nicely. First, the borderlands are identified by the border, but not strictly defined by it. As Oscar Martinez argues in Border People , it is a zone that extends approximately 100 miles in each direction from the line that gives the region its identity. In every sense except strict legalities, this region is neither the United States nor Mexico. It is a third entity that is both divided and united by a line that meanders through its center. In addition to Border People , I recommend Tom Miller's On the Border as an introduction to the place; I had the privilege of...