Border Crossings
(and the Towns that Love Them)
The U.S.-Mexican border is the world’s busiest and perhaps most dynamic international boundary. For some observers, the 1,954 mile (3,145 km) border represents the massive gap between the perceived security and wealth of the “first-world” and the poverty and dangers of the so-called “global south.” But for the people of the borderlands, the towns and ports of entry along the Rio Grande and the Chihuahuan and Sonoran Deserts are the rich meeting place of the Spanish- and English-speaking Americas. Indeed the U.S.-Mexican ports of entry and their binational communities have been colorful and storied gateways between the two countries and their peoples despite the incredible economic and political struggles bordertowns face today. Cast the hype aside and explore the real gateways between the borderlands in a trip across boundaries and time in “Border Crossings (and the Towns that Love Them).”