“Ever since I was 4 years old, my mom would wake us up every day to cross the border, from kindergarten to college,” said the 37-year-old chef, who grew up in Tijuana and whose family had restaurants there and in Chula Vista, California, where she worked before she opened her own eatery.
For almost 19 million Americans, at least half of them of Latino or Hispanic descent, the southern border region that spans nearly 2,000 miles and four states is home. Yet some of these residents feel that the region’s deep history, Latino heritage and outsize impact on the nation’s culture, economy and identity has gotten lost amid the emphasis on border security and immigration politics.
In the borderlands, from Imperial Beach, California, to Boca Chica, Texas, many residents boast a culture of their own and even a language, the so-called Spanglish, which they say set them apart from either nation.
“It’s the fusion of these worlds that makes border folks — we have a very special sensibility, we have our own patois,” said San Diego State University border pop culture expert William A. Nericcio, who’s from the border city of Laredo, Texas.
Curiel is part of a younger generation of creative talent drawing on the southern border region’s rich Hispanic and Mexican heritage, whose cultural imprint extends far beyond the country’s southernmost cities.
Take the increasingly popular birria tacos, found in the best taco trucks, a dish that crossed the border like other beloved Mexican and Tex-Mex foods. Or country music fans’ love for the late Freddy Fender, who was born as Baldemar Garza Huerta in the border town of San Benito, Texas. These cultural exports have taken the experience of living in the “places between places,” as described by Arizona poet laureate Alberto Ríos, and have universalized them, further engraining Latino culture into the mainstream.
That culture stems from the geography, too: In El Paso, the skyline of Juárez, Mexico, is the backdrop to the Texas city with its mix of colorful murals, bilingual store signs and eclectic architecture in its downtown.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
