“I grew up biculturally in Arizona. It was very common for people to cross the border five to six times a day. I’m sorry we don’t have that openness that we used to have,”* said ASU School of Transborder Studies director Irasema Coronado, during a panel at last Saturday’s Zócalo and Universidad de Guadalajara program “Are the U.S. and Mexico Becoming One Country?” The event was part of the Spanish-language LéaLA literary festival and book fair at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes in downtown Los Angeles.

Panelists included artist, curator, and cultural consultant Anita Herrera and Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León sociology professor Víctor Zúñiga. The program was moderated by Puente News Collaborative’s executive editor and correspondent Alfredo Corchado.

The conversation moved past the vitriol around immigration in contemporary political debate and looked at what unites the U.S. and Mexico. The panel spoke of the ties that bind the two countries—through migration, work, family, culture, language—and shared ways people themselves can serve as bridges for cross-border exchange.

Obvious connections bind the U.S. and Mexico to one another, the group observed. The two countries are geographic neighbors, and parts of the U.S.—like Los Angeles—were once part of Mexico. Mexico is the U.S.’s primary trading partner. Mexico also has the second largest number of citizens living abroad, after India— many of whom are in the U.S.

Despite this, there is still polarization, Corchado said. So how can culture fight back against it, and change the climate between the two countries? he asked.

“I think that culture transcends borders,” Herrera said. Born and raised in Huntington Park, California, Herrera was inspired to start her “Diaspora Dialogues” art series after she moved to Mexico City in 2018. The project consists mostly of experiential art installations. One such installation was set up at Saturday’s event and celebrated a family backyard party typical of her upbringing. It consisted of displays of old family photos, tacos, music, and the specific balloon arches and tables customary at those events. In the series, she wanted to share her specific culture, her Los Angeles, and open a space to discuss what connects, and disconnects, Mexicans and the diaspora.

“The diaspora exists because of an imaginary line,” Herrera said. Though she and her friends in Mexico City often listened to the same music and watched the same novelas, they were clearly not from the same country. Friends and family in Mexico called her “la gringa,” a name she did not like. She recalled struggles to obtain her Mexican tax identification number and her “papeles,” to learn more Spanish, and assimilate into Mexico City culture.

“I’ve learned a lot and unlearned a lot,” she said. “In the U.S., we are taught to be more selfish and individualistic. I’ve learned a new way to live.”

Zúñiga, the sociologist, offered the example of the “0.5 generation,” those who lived in the U.S. (many of them born there) and then moved to Mexico in the earlier part of this century, who are the subject of his book. This generation’s unique experiences and perspectives, as American and Mexican, inspire Zúñiga to believe a better relationship between the two countries is possible, he said.

“These children are much more than just bilingual individuals, these children are binational” and also bicultural, he said, having learned “to move between worlds, rituals, and norms that rival each other.”*

“To be bicultural,” Zúñiga further defined, “requires you to feel at home in the U.S. and equally at home in Mexico”*—something he and many migrants cannot claim. So, he asked, what impact does this 0.5 generation have on their communities? How are they adapting, and how is Mexico adapting to their presence?

Part of the reason some families move back to Mexico is because of immigration issues, like deportation. These families do not want to live separately. For Zúñiga, when families make the decision to stick together and move back to Mexico in the face of state policies they are defending themselves against separation.

Coronado offered a different perspective on those families, highlighting that many of this generation that moved back to Mexico are angry. They feel alienated and estranged in their new schools. They grew up imagining their lives on the football team or going to prom, and their lives have been changed radically. Many state a desire to return to the U.S. when they become adults.

Zúñiga said his research shows the situation appears to differ by region. At schools located closer to the border, in, for example, Zacatecas, his work has shown that 99% of students asked if the American-born students were similar to them said “yes.” The same question posed to students in Oaxaca and Puebla resulted in only 20% affirming the similarities. That “anti-Yankee” sentiment is regional, it demonstrated.

In so many ways, the border is a model for the larger countries, said Coronado, who herself grew up moving between Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora. People move across the border for work, for doctor visits, and for medicine, she observed. Border towns exhibit an interdependency that can serve as a model for both countries on “how to get along, respect each other, have a harmonious relationship.”*

*This quote was translated live from Spanish to English by on-site interpreters.