Professional
Research Interests
Landscapes; Urban and Regional Cultural
Geography;
Mexican-American Borderlands
For
almost two decades, two principal research agendas have held my attention:
the urban geography of northern Mexico and the cultural geography of
Mexican Americans. Two research
monographs and an edited volume published by university presses, and
a steady output of refereed articles in top geography and cognate field
journals are the result. This
research has largely been conducted independently, and without major
external funding. I have been awarded several small grants that
have supported fieldwork for this research, including two awards from
the Association of American Geographers in 1986 and 1990. Tejano South Texas was awarded the John Brinckerhoff Jackson
Prize in 2003 by the Association of American Geographers.
My
concerns with urban Mexico stem from my doctoral dissertation research in
Veracruz. That research questioned the
problem of the perception of selected cities in the nineteenth century and how
the foreign images of these places influenced their growth and role in the
development of early modern Mexico. In
1987, this concern with the geographical image of cities was carried forward to
an examination of the towns of the north Mexican border. Five years of collaborative research and
field work across and throughout the 2000 mile-long Mexico-U.S. boundary
resulted in The Mexican Border Cities:
Landscape Anatomy and Place Personality (1993). In this book it is contended that, despite their proximity to the
United States, the border cities are fundamentally Mexican places, as
distinguished by their urban landscapes, including town plan, land-use pattern,
and building fabric. The book
contributes to the argument made by geographers and others that cities are not
only economic systems, but are equally cultural creations and need to be
understood as such. I continue to work
in this arena, carrying out field studies of cultural patterns and processes
along the border.
A
complementary research effort to the study of urban Mexico is my work on
Mexican Americans. A stream of research
articles as well as several book chapters and solicited contributions examine
aspects of Mexican American place identity, origins, and geographical
pattern. This array of research is
showcased in Tejano South Texas: A
Mexican American Cultural Province (2002), a monograph-length exploration
of how and why South Texas represents a distinctive cultural subregion along
the Mexican-American borderland. The
work contributes to separate, yet related theoretical issues that have
concerned American cultural and regional geographers. First, it supports the contention made by geographers that
particular American ethnic and social groups have created distinctive areas and
that these subregions can be measured, delimited and illustrated
geographically. This research is of considerable interest to borderland
historians and others who have called for research to substantiate Mexican
American regional variation. Further, Tejano South Texas demonstrates how
landscape is a socially constructed space that both mirrors and reinforces
group identity. In this research an emphasis is given to understanding cultural
forms and attributes as they persist or change in a landscape over time. In Tejano South Texas, I combine the more
traditional cultural geographic concern of regional interpretation with an
analysis of landscape as a symbolic representation.
My
present research is concerned with the geographical distribution and
social-cultural identity of Hispanic/Latino populations in the United
States. Hispanic Spaces, Latino
Places, an edited volume forthcoming
from the University of Texas Press is an exploration of the regional
cultural geography of Hispanic/Latino Americans. In its broadest scope, the book represents
a scholarly assessment of ethnic group diversity examined across geographic
scales from nation, to region, to place. Hispanic Spaces, Latino
Places addresses themes of spatial distribution and cultural identity
specific to each subgroup and relevant to the places that Hispanic/Latino
Americans have created. Issues
of contested space, social networks, and landscape imprint reveal identity
and explore how spaces have become places charged with meaning to specific
Hispanic/Latino subgroups. These
themes are examined across varied social contexts where some Latinos
are only just beginning to create a place identity as new immigrants
and in others where Hispanics have deeply etched landscapes that communicate
long attachment to places.
In
spring 2004 I will initiate “Mexican Border City Landscape Change: An Analysis
Using Re-Photography.” This project documents and investigates historic built
environments along the U.S.-Mexico border. Research will create a visual
analysis of selected built environments of two cities, Ciudad Juárez,
Chihuahua, and Reynosa, Tamaulipas, between 1900 and the present. A major data
source is my personal archive of historical photographic images, chiefly
vintage historic postcards, including some 1000 images for Juárez and some 300
images for Reynosa. The methods of research will involve case study method,
comparative method, and repeat photography to analyze past and present images
of the built environment. The changing landscapes studied will be mapped to
create a resource for historic preservationists. The research will illustrate
how geographers can reconstruct and interpret past built environments from
historic and contemporary visual materials.
Mexican
border cities are some of the fastest growing urban places in the world. Rapid
growth has meant accelerated change in the urban landscapes of these places.
Historic built environments in these cities are poorly understood, and the
proposed research will create a model method for assessing landscape change in
urban areas undergoing fundamental physical transformation. The results of this
research can be applied to other urban contexts in the developing world where
landscape change is erasing past built environments.