¡Viva George! : celebrating Washington's birthday at the US-Mexico border / Elaine A. Peña.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Peña, Elaine A., 1979- author.

Series:

Jack and Doris Smothers series in Texas history, life, and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Festivals--Texas--Laredo--History.

Festivals.

Festivals--Mexico--Nuevo Laredo--History.

Political customs and rites--Texas--Laredo.

Political customs and rites.

Political customs and rites--Mexico--Nuevo Laredo.

Festivals--Texas--Laredo--International cooperation--History.

Festivals--Mexico--Nuevo Laredo--International cooperation--History.

Ethnosociology--Mexican-American Border Region.

Ethnosociology.

International cooperation.

History.

Laredo (Tex.)--Relations--Mexico--Nuevo Laredo.

Laredo (Tex.).

International relations.

Mexico--Nuevo Laredo.

North America--Mexican-American Border Region.

Texas--Laredo.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 199 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, [2020]

Summary:

"For more than a century, the border cities of Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, have celebrated George Washington's birthday with parades, pageants, and other festivities. This project uses that long-standing tradition as a lens to examine binational relations and cross-border cooperation, especially during times of crisis (e.g., the 1954 flood, currency devaluations, present-day drug violence). It is a work of both ethnography and archival research (as well as a few uncatalogued documents the author received from private collections), and it argues that the tradition of meeting in the middle of the international bridge is more than a goodwill gesture or an exercise in identity-consolidation. Peña maintains the GWB celebration is a repository of bicultural memory, a negotiation platform, a reconciliatory course of action, and even an efficacious mode of border security"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: from border capricho to border scaffolding

Playing for power

Playing Indian, playing colonial

Playing Mexican

Playing under duress

Hurricane Alice and the International Bridge closure

Crisis

Paso libre

Us, them, and festive security

Conclusion: why study border enactments?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 174-190) and index.

ISBN:

9781477321430

1477321438

9781477321447

1477321446

OCLC:

1145087807