ABSTRACT
Nearly a century ago, the United States-Mexico border zone was a vast swath of uninhabited desert, canyon lands, and mountain chains, interrupted by occasional bursts of agriculture. It was fittingly labeled the “land of sunshine, adobe and silence.”1 But in the short span of the past half-century, the region absorbed millions of newcomers. Today, it is blanketed with burgeoning cities and vast global industrial complexes, one of the fastest growing economic corridors in the Americas. Along the southern edge, the Mexican cities grow spontaneously, frequently with minimal planning. They borrow from the language and culture of their counterparts north of the boundary. In this part of the world, urbanization marches to the beat of the global economy; its landscapes are driven by the triple engines of global assembly, free trade, and the international division of labor.
