ABSTRACT
This chapter examines what childhood in the borderlands can be like and that story of teaching can aid scholars of childhood in creating discourses that are ever more inclusive and less exclusionary. It outlines the work of Gloria Anzaldua to illustrate how children in the 'borderlands' inhabit contested territory, unsettling spaces along the United States (US)-Mexico border that once belonged to Mexico and now are considered part of the US. The US-Mexico border has a complex history that dates back to the Spanish occupation of Mexico and includes wars, contested Mexican settlements in the US. The borderlands between Texas and Mexico are a unique blend of colonialism and post-colonialism that offer multiple vantage points for seeing and exploring how children experience phenomena such as justice and injustice and the contradictions of poverty and support and belonging and distancing.
