What makes a fronterizx?

6/7/2017

Ni de aqui. Ni de alla. Or is it de aqui Y de alla. Both?

Fierce Fronteriza is celebrating six months! On a cold, snowy day in Denver while attending the American Historical Association conference, I decided to take a leap and finally begin blogging. It has been a wonderful experience. I love it-- I have 15 draft blog posts waiting to be finalized right now. From historic buildings to Braceros, from queer history to Pachuco history. From the past to the present. It's all a part of being a Fierce Fronteriza.

In order to celebrate, I want to know from YOU, "What makes us fronterizas and fronterizos?" Is it culture, language, geography, accident of birth, or what? Is there a difference between being a fronterizA or a fronterizO or a fronterizX?

Comment below and I'll put together a blog based on your ideas.

I can't wait to hear what you think.

1 Comment

Clavo

6/8/2017 10:42:34 am

When a person reaches the point of unconditional love and respect for humanity, community and all life, it then becomes possible to achieve the status of Fierce Fronteriz@. All other senses are called upon to build a strong foundation based on cultural beliefs, heritage and genetics. As the gaps become narrowed which separate classes and socioeconomic groups, the confidence levels and success from movimientos become the encouraging voice to strive for more and believe in better for future generations. It was never my intention to become as active as I am in community projects and movements. My wife Rosemary has become an influential force in my life. She has a certain way of motivating me at a moments notice to jump out in the middle of traffic to help an elderly person across the street, or putting a hault to a hateful convoy spewing their rhetoric across the border towns across four state lines. If called upon to act for your community, whether it is LGBT, Homeless, Farm worker or acts of civil disobedience, and you respond with others activating the rest of your peers. You can call yourself a Fierce Fronteriz@.

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My father used to tell me about sneaking into this theater to watch movies as a kid in the 1910s. It showed Spanish language films. In the 1940s, it was transformed into a "whites only" theater but that didn't last long. By the 1950s, it was headquarters to the Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers Union, a radical labor organization. Before it closed, it housed the Mine and Mill Bar.

This message is painted on the east side of the old Mission movie theater.

The bell tower of Guardian Angel Catholic Church, built in the 1910s to serve the growing Mexican immigrant community in what was then the "east side" of El Paso.