Trazando la Línea/Tracing the Line: Past, Present and Future of Cross-border Communities

In 1848, the United States and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, ending the Mexican-American War and establishing a border between the two nations. Trazando la Línea/Tracing the Line: Past, Present and Future of Cross-border Communities, an exhibit at the Centro Estatal de las Artes y Culturas (CEART) in Mexicali, Baja California, examines the historical development of this border region that began without the current physical barriers that separate the two countries and, despite the walls, remains a place of continuity and connection — a 'third nation' of bi-national values and shared experiences.

Co-curated by Michael Dear, professor of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design, and Hector Lucero, head of the Cultural Heritage Department for the State of Baja California, the exhibition is a commentary on building and breaking boundaries. It highlights history, tensions and transformation through multimedia sources including painting, sculpture, photography, video, maps and historical documents. Dear's current research focuses on comparative urbanism and the future of the US — Mexico borderlands. Michelle Shofet (B.A. Art History 2001) was the curatorial assistant on the project.

Exhibition co-curator Michael Dear with contributing artist Norma Iglesias, in front of a work by Einar and Jamex de la Torre, entitled La Reconquista/The Reconquest.

Among works by artists from both sides of the border are pieces by Berkeley alumni including paintings by David Aipperspach (B.A. Landscape Architecture, Visual Studies 2010) and a video by Claire Evans (B.Sc., B.A., Society & Environment, Urban Studies 2011) that follows the borderline from the Pacific coast to Gulf via Google Earth. The show also features an installation piece by Melissa Corro: La Moda de Cruzar, historical research by Salvador Gutierrez, and works by Nicholas Almquist: lotería cards and the exhibition poster.

"The border region is thought of as a place of violence, poverty, trafficking and pollution — sometimes and in some places it is — but it is also place of everyday life where both sides work together, shop, get married; it's a third nation," explains Michael Dear. "Tracing the Line is important because the exhibit begins to tell the history of this third nation — past, present and future. But 'what future'? I think I know; the third nation will be here when the walls have fallen, exactly in this place where it already lives."

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Trazando la Línea/Tracing the Line: Past, Present and Future of Cross-border Communities

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