Luiza-Maria FILIMON
Ovidius University of Constanța, Romania
| Abstract: | In an article from 2018, Iver B. Neumann analyzes the role of monuments in the construction and representation of the Other. Neumann observes that from the Bronze Age and up to the Second World War, monuments would display the Other either as absent, (literally) dead, or subjugated. While constructions celebrating the conquerors may be passé, one type of monument that doubles as an identity marker not only persists but thrives. The wall is alive and well. In America, the U.S.-Mexico border wall – either in practice or in discourse – represents a veritable battleground where identity is cast in supremacist terms and the alterities search for legitimacy. What sets walls apart from other classes of monuments is found in their utilitarian function, that creates normative conditions whereby the evolution or devolution of the Selves’ relation to the Other is codified at the policy level to serve exclusionary designs. The present article analyzes how the construction of a walling in / out enterprise generates identities and assigns them value based on their proximity to the border, using as a case-study the wall at the border between the United States and Mexico. For this purpose, the article examines the practices of monumentalization outlined by Neumann and applies them to the U.S. border. In this sense, the article provides a historical overview of the border in order to illustrate that current developments, however paroxysmic, are not isolated only to the Trump Administration’s policy on immigration but are part of a long-standing policy approach adopted by both Republican and Democratic administrations that, inadvertently, contributed to the present crisis. |
| Keywords: | Alterity; identity; Nogales; practices of monumentalization; Trump administration; U.S. immigration policy; U.S.-Mexico border wall |
| Contact details of the authors: | E-mail: luiza.filimon@365.univ-ovidius.ro |
| Institutional affiliation of the authors: | Faculty of History and Political Science, Ovidius University of Constanța |
| Institutions address: | Aleea Universității, No. 1, Constanta, 900470, https://isp.univ-ovidius.ro/, luiza.filimon@365.univ-ovidius.ro |