The Devil’s Highway: Meksika-Amerika Sınırını Geçiş, Global Etkiler ve Politikalar

Öz

Meksika-Amerika Savaşıyla (1846) başlayıp 11 Eylül sonrası döneme kadar gelen süreçte ABD-Meksika sınırı kriz, anlaşmazlıklar ve uzlaşmanın temsili oldu. ABD Meksika sınırını geçiş, sert sınır koruma politikaları ve sınır bölgesindeki yüksek ölüm oranlarıyla medyada geniş yer buldu. 2005 Pulitzer Ödüllerinde kurgusal olmayan anlatılar dalında finale kalan, Urrea’nın The Devil’s Highway (2004) eseri göz ardı edilen Meksikalı göçmenlere kendi kişisel-politik sınır anlatısında kendilerini ifade etme şansı vermektedir. Bu makale, sınırı geçmeye çalışan Meksikalı göçmenlerle ilgili temel bir soru sormaktadır: neden sınırı geçmek için bu ölümcül yolculuğa çıkıyorlar? Bu soruya cevap olarak, makale ABD-Meksika sınırını geçmeye çalışan göçmenlerin tecrübelerinde tarihi, kültürel, ekonomik ve politik yansımaları The Devil’s Highway eseri üzerinden incelemektedir. Meksikalıları göç etmeye ve Amerikan toplumu ve ekonomisinde bir yer aramaya iten sınırı geçme mücadelesi Deleuze ve Guattari’nin yersizyurtsuzlaşma ve yeniden-yerliyurtlulaşma kavramlarıyla bağlantılıdır. Arjun Appadurai’nin bahsettiği birbiriyle kesişen küresel dinamikler ve John Tomlinson’nın bahsettiği karşı konulmaz kitlesel medya ve iletişim ağları, Meksikalı göçmenleri yersizyurtsuzlaştıran ve yeniden-yerliyurtlulaştıran küreselleşme döngüsü içinde hapsolmalarını daha da ileriye taşımaktadır. Sınır militarizminin başarısızlığı ve yaygınlaşan yabancı düşmanlığı sebebiyle, Urrea’nın bu politik anlatısı Meksika ve ABD arasında diplomatik, hukuki ve insani açıdan bir iş birliğine çağrı yapmaktadır. Dolayısıyla, Urrea’nın yaşam yanlısı anlatısı ve sınır politikalarında reform çağrısı, sınır kontrol politikaları, sınır ve göç çalışmaları ve sınır hattında insan hakları mücadelesine yeni bir boyut kazandırmaktadır. Disiplinler arası bir sınır anlatısı olarak, The Devil’s Highway Meksikalı kaçak göçmenlerin tecrübelerinde Meksika tarihinin, jeopolitik ve bölgesel dinamiklerin ve küreselleşmenin baskınlığına ışık tutmaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• The Devil's Highway
• yersizyurtsuzlaşma
• yeniden-yerliyurtlulaşma
• ABD-Meksika sınırı

The Devil’s Highway: The U.S. - Mexico Border Crossing, Global Influences and Politics

Öz

Beginning with the 1846 Mexican-American War and expanding to the post-9/11 era, the U.S.-Mexico border has become the embodiment of crises, conflicts, and reconciliation. The border crossing has occupied the headlines with strict border control policies and high death tolls along the border. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for the nonfiction category in 2005, Luis A. Urrea’s The Devil’s Highway (2004) gives voice to marginalized Mexican border crossers in his personal-political border writing. This article poses a major question about Mexicans crossing the border: why do they embark on a fatal journey across the border? As a response, the article explores the historical, cultural, economic, and political repercussions of Mexican border crossing through The Devil’s Highway. Mexicans’ sense of displacement and search for a place in American society and economy relate their border crossing to the concepts of deterritorialization and reterritorialization, keyed by Deleuze and Guattari. In addition to Arjun Appadurai’s intersectional global dynamics and John Tomlinson’s overwhelming mass media and communication networks, Mexican migrants’ broadened entrapment in a cycle of global deterritorialization and reterritorialization is noted. With the failure of border militarism and prevalent xenophobic responses, Urrea’s political narrative calls for collaboration between the United States and Mexico on diplomatic, legal, and humanitarian terms. Therefore, the analysis of Urrea’s pro-life narrative and his call for border policy reform provide a new dimension to the politics of border control, border and immigration studies, and human rights struggle along the border. As an interdisciplinary border narrative, The Devil’s Highway highlights the predominance of Mexican history, geopolitical and regional dynamics, and globalization in the experience of undocumented Mexican migrants.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• The Devil's Highway
• the U.S.- Mexico border
• deterritorialization
• reterritorialization

Kaynakça

1. Aguirre, A., Jr., & Simmers, J. K. (2008). Mexican border crossers: The Mexican body in immigration discourse. Social Justice, 35(4 (114)), 99-106. http://www.jstor.org/stable/ 29768517
2. Aldama, F. L. (2006). Luis Alberto Urrea. Spilling the beans in Chicanolandia: Conversations with writers and artists (pp. 261-276). University of Texas Press.
3. Androff, D. K., & Tavassoli, K. Y. (2012). Deaths in the desert: The human rights crisis on the U.S.—Mexico border. Social Work, 57(2),165-173. http://www.jstor.org/stable/ 23718921
4. Anzaldúa, G. (1987). Borderlands: The new mestiza = La frontera (1st ed.). Aunt Lute.
5. Appadurai, A. (1990). Disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy. Theory, Culture &Society, 7(2–3), 295–310. https://doi.org/10.1177/026327690007002017
6. Auchter, J. (2013). Border monuments: Memory, counter-memory, and (b)ordering practices along the US-Mexico border. Review of International Studies, 39(2),291-311. http://www.jstor.org/ stable/24564660
7. Bruce-Novoa. (1995). The US-Mexican border in Chicano testimonial writing: A topological approach to four hundred and fifty years of writing the border. Discourse, 18(1/2), 32-53. http://www.jstor. org/stable/41389402
8. Cockcroft, J. D. (1986). Outlaws in the promised land: Mexican immigrant workers and America’s future. Grove Press. https://archive.org/details/outlawsinpromise0000cock

9. de Cosío, F. G., & Boadella, A. (1999). Demographic factors affecting the U.S.-Mexico border health status. In (M. O. Loustaunau & M. Sánchez-Bane, Eds.) Life, death, and in-between on the U.S.-Mexico border: Así es la vida (pp. 1-22). Bergin&Garvey. https://archive.org/details/ lifedeathinbetwe0000unse/mode/1up
10. Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (2000). Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (R. Hurley, M. Seem, & H. R. Lane, Trans.) University of Minnesota Press. (Original work published 1972)
11. Eichstaedt, P. (2014). The dangerous divide: Peril and promise on the US-Mexico border. Lawrence Hill Books. https://archive.org/details/dangerousdividep0000eich/mode/2up
12. García, M. T. (1985). La frontera: The border as symbol and reality in Mexican-American thought. Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, 1(2),195-225. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1052036
13. Hernandez, K. L. (2009). Mexican immigration to the United States. OAH Magazine of History, 23(4), 25-29. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40506011
14. Heyman, J. McC. (2009). A border that divides. A border that joins. Anthropology Now, 1(3), 79-85. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41203570
15. Holland, E. W. (1991). Deterritorializing “deterritorialization”: From the “Anti-Oedipus” to “A thousand plateaus.” SubStance, 20(3), 55-65. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3685179
16. Jimenez, M. (2011). Border enforcement has caused migrants’ deaths. In (D. Haugen, & S. Musser, Eds.) Illegal migration (pp. 182-188). Greenhaven Press. https://archive.org/ details/illegalimmigrati0000unse/page/182/mode/2up
17. Kelly, K. H. (1996). Down in the dumps [Review of the book Across the wire: Life and hard times on the Mexican border, by L. A. Urrea]. The English Journal, 85(1),94-95. https://www.jstor.org/ stable/821139
18. Kossoudji, S. A. (1992). Playing cat and mouse at the U.S.-Mexican border. Demography, 29(2), 159– 180. https://doi.org/10.2307/2061725
19. Lybecker, D. L. (2008). The policy of border fencing between the United States and Mexico: Permeability and shifting functions. Journal of the Southwest, 50(3),335-351. http://www.jstor.org/ stable/40170394
20. Massey, D. S. (2016). The Mexico-U.S. border in the American imagination. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 160(2), 160–177. http://www.jstor.org/stable/ 26159208
21. Meierotto, L. (2014). A disciplined space: The co-evolution of conservation and militarization on the USMexico border. Anthropological Quarterly, 87(3), 637-664. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43653025
22. Mendoza, L. (1994). The border between us: Contact zone or battle zone? Modern Fiction Studies, 40(1), 119-139. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26284272
23. Payan, T. (2006). The three U.S.-Mexico border wars: Drugs, immigration, and Homeland Security. Praeger Security International.
24. Slack, J., & Whiteford, S. (2011). Violence and migration on the Arizona-Sonora border. Human Organization, 70(1), 11-21. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44150972
25. Tomlinson, J. (1999). Globalization and culture. University of Chicago Press. https://archive.org/ details/globalizationcul00toml/page/n6/mode/1up
26. Urrea, L. A. (1993). Across the wire: Life and hard times on the Mexican border. Anchor Books.
27. Urrea, L. A. (2005). The devil’s highway: A true story. Back Bay Books. https://archive.org/ details/devilshighwaytru0000urre (Original work published 2004)
28. Vilanova, N. (2002). Another textual frontier: Contemporary fiction on the Northern Mexican border. Bulletin of Latin American Research, 21(1), 73-98. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3339550
29. Yarbro-Bejarano, Y. (1994). Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La frontera: Cultural studies, “difference,” and the non-unitary subject. Cultural Critique, 28,5-28. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1354508