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by Julieta González
"The Americas have seen continental border crossers since the first settlers walked across the Bering Straight," says Javier Durán, associate professor of Spanish and border studies at the University of Arizona.
With that historical context and working with the themes for Focused Excellence established by the College of Humanities, Durán is among the faculty presently developing the College's leadership role in Comparative Border Studies. "We are addressing issues related to borders in terms of language, literature and culture. Our focus locally is on our unique geographical location bordering Mexico, but borders need to be understood in comparative contexts," says Durán.
For example, the College states in its "Focused Excellence Themes" statement that borders must be "examined both in relation to the geopolitical boundaries of countries found in Africa, the Far East, Europe and Latin American, as well as to the ethnic borders...that exist within nations." Some of these cited are the religious, ethnic and cultural contacts of various groups such as Jewish or Turkish presence within German culture or the Jewish and German presence in Russian culture. Those borders are compared to the African or Latino presence in America.
For too many years, according to Durán, Arizona has been one of the border regions that receives less attention in academic circles, especially when it comes to cultural issues, than Texas and California.
One of the issues Durán says that Arizona will need to face within the next 10 years is the increase in the Latino population and the need for Arizona's academic institutions to incorporate cultural heritage and language into academic programs. He believes that the richness of Tucson as a cultural center in the Southwest has been overlooked.
"I don't think we're paying enough attention in our curriculum to local resources, neither human nor cultural," says Durán.
"We believe that the role of the border in the study of the humanities is extremely important. Typically you find that economists and social scientists tend to take over the border. Discourses of trade, commerce and migration seem to monopolize border discussions without really looking at the cultural and language issues that are central to the region," says Durán.
Presently, Durán and his colleagues are developing a study track on comparative border studies in the Spanish and Portuguese department from the undergraduate 100-level courses to a doctoral program. "The program will create a critical mass of students that will continue to study the border not only as a geographical space, but also as a bilingual, bicultural space," says Durán.
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(top) Javier Durán, associate professor of Spanish and border studies
(bottom) Glenn Martínez, assistant professor of Spanish and director of the Spanish Heritage Leaners Program. (Photos: FOTOSMITH) |
One of those colleagues is Glenn Martínez, assistant professor of Spanish in the department of Spanish and Portuguese and director of the Spanish for Heritage Learners Program. Martínez's emphasis is on Spanish in the Southwest, which dovetails into the teaching of Spanish speakers.
"We see the Spanish Heritage Language Program as the entry point for border studies," says Martínez. He defines heritage learners as not only Hispanic students who have a passive knowledge of Spanish, "that is, they understand pretty much everything that is said to them and may be able to say a few words. But, they have certain inhibitions about speaking the language." Martínez extends the definition to include non-Hispanics who have been exposed to the Hispanic culture, who speak and understand the language.
"Linguistically speaking, these students are as competent as any Hispanic at the same level," says Martínez.
Understanding language and its cultural context is critical to border studies, say both Durán and Martínez. A significant amount of language research and instruction is already a mainstay of the College of Humanities.
"We are using the United States-Mexico border in the linguistic and cultural experience as a base to create parameters of comparison with other regions in the Americas. From here, we'll move on to the hemisphere and then the world," says Durán of the UA program.
"My colleagues and I see the border in terms of corridors," says Martínez. "That is, we don't see it horizontally or stopping or beginning at Nogales. We see it vertically, from Hermosillo to Phoenix." Durán adds that this is a "regional corridor in which people move. This is a movement not only of people but of products, cultures, languages, customs and ways of life."
"The border crossers at some point need to be in one place. They don't want to cross borders all the time, back and forth. They need to arrive," says Martínez.
"This population needs to be integrated into our educational system and we have a responsibility to educate them. This curriculum, with time, will be used to educate educators and ultimately as an academic program that will be invaluable in the recruitment and retention of Hispanic students."
Durán adds the program will help the UA "achieve the status of a Hispanic-serving institution, not only in terms of demographics, but in the increased numbers of Latino students this Research I institution will graduate in the near future."
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