Exploring Southwestern USA: A Rich History of Spanish, Native American and US Cultures - Essay Sample

Introduction

Southwest is an area generally known in United States of America and its yet one of the transitionary regions in the country. This area is physically uniform and this can be attributed mainly to the clear, desert climate and the board flatlands the Rio Grande Valley, and in the New Mexico plateaus. The population living in the southwest is majorly made of Americans who were Spanish, native Indians in America. The Spanish and American Indians coexisted in this region for approximately 260 years before the Anglo Americans began to arrive in early 1900s (Kownslar & Leiker, 2003). Nowadays the triple culture area is now majorly made of non-natives, this might have been brought about by the Anglo population which was large and more homogenous engulfing the minor population.

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The southwest boarder stretches for approximately 2000 miles between United State and Mexico. On the other hand, Rio Grande stretches 1,250 miles along the boundary but on the western side of El Paso, Texas the border does not have a natural geographical barrier excluding a little length along River Colorado. On the U.S.-Mexico boundary is a 700 mile of wire, chain links, posts with rails including a mesh wire fence that is constructed on the boundary (Kownslar & Leiker, 2003). Authorities patrolling this are also use thousands of cameras, underground sensors, aircrafts, drones and water vessels to guard the border (Piekielek, 2016). After Mexico became independent from the Spaniards in the year 1821, she increased her borders towards Oregon. In 1836 Mexico seceded Texas which indicated the start of the loss of the Mexican strongholds that presently is referred to as the United State southwest.

In 1844 the United States President James K. Polk entered the White House and assured the Americans that he would fulfil the "Manifest Destiny" by stretching the borders throughout the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. In 1845 united states annexed Texas which resulted to a deteriorated relationship between Mexico and United States. Later on America tried to buy California and New Mexico for approximately $30 million and got turned down by Mexico (Piekielek, 2016). This provoked the U.S. President and he decided to dispatch about 4,000 troops of soldiers to the southwest border in Rio Grande and the Southern part of Nueces River which was in both Mexico and United State of America (Kownslar & Leiker, 2003). In the year 1846 April, 25th, a Mexican Cavalry in the disputed territory left several American soldiers dead or wounded which lead to America declaring war on Mexico. This lead to a number of bloody battles and sieges. In 1848 a treaty was formed between Mexico and United States of America which formally approved the annexation of Texas by America and also Mexico acceded to sell a third of their territory to the United State government, this treaty brought an end to the Mexican-American war. The war between America and Mexico led to the erection of the modern boarder in the southwest.

During decades following the Mexican-American, war no federal limits on immigration were put in place to control the immigration between the two countries as they were allowed to pass freely at the border. The only concerns were the Chinese immigrants who crossed the border illegally that the American authorities wanted to keep out from doing so. The Chinese could easily cross the border into the U.S by just learning a few Spanish words and disguising themselves as Mexicans. The American authority had not in place restrictions to prevent Mexicans from crossing the border, this was only applied in the 1910s during the Mexican revolution where the refugees were many and also the demand for Mexican labour had increased. After the lethal incursion on Columbus, Texas in 1916 because of the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa and following the publishing of the Zimmerman Telegram which proposed military alliance of Mexico and Germany in world war 1, United State beefed up security at the border deploying military to patrol the boundaries with Rangers and home guards whom were officially sanctioned by the government.

According to St. John, erecting of the initial barrier was in 1909 by the U.S. Bureau of Animal Industry to cease cattle movement across the Mexican-American border. Towns that were around the borders tried to erect fences in the 1910s which were not meant for physical barriers but denoting the boundary lines and also channelling people to the point which were designated for crossing. The building of the boundary fences was started to restrain the illegal crossing illegal migrators and controlled substances in the year 1993 (Stephen, 2003). President Bill Clinton at that time granted the authority to construct a 15-mile barrier in the border of San Diego and Tijuana. In the year 2006 according to the Secure Fence Act authority was granted to construct a 700-mile fence that was later on completed in 2011 (Lowry, 2019).

The United States government has tried to invest billions of dollars to strengthen the U.S.-Mexico border but it has not yielded any positive results, according to the new senate report, there is almost 95% of illegal immigrants and drugs that go across the border without any United State officials noticing. According to a recent report on the border crisis in the near past about 15,000 illegals were caught on the southern borer a number which had doubled from the number of caught immigrants in 2014 when immigration was at its peak(Lowry, 2019). The numbers are shocking but the government doesn't seem like taking the crisis serious. Granting freedom to immigrants to pass across the border freely, it allows for illegal drugs to be smuggled into the country where people highly demand and desire these drugs. Usually these drugs pass across the border undetected by the officials into the U.S. Johnson also added to his report that the border crisis is brought about by the unsatisfied demand for drugs by Americans and high demand for profits by the smugglers. The border crisis in the southwest can only be solved when the administration takes the crisis seriously and try to curb illegal immigration and drug supply in to the United States. The border crisis in the southwest west has also largely contributed other humanitarian crisis like human trafficking and smuggling, gang combined with other criminal participations which want to profit out of the border crisis.

Israel in a relatively small country given that it covers 8,100 square miles. This generally make Israel a frontier because it is bordered with several hostile territories (Yadlin, 2018). The country is highly vulnerable to attack as its roads and railway lines are exposed to attack by the neighbouring enemies. The vulnerability of the country and the idea that the entire country is a frontier adversely affects how the citizens of Israel live their lives because they are always alert to attack from their neighbouring hostile territories. This geographical vulnerability increases the antagonism that is always directed towards Israel by their fierce neighbours. The thought that any American citizen can cross a big continent without seeing a hostile face is an unthinkable to the citizens living in Israel because of their geographical position and the enemies that surround them (Yadlin, 2018). This situation forces most of the Israelites to live in the coastal plains so that they can be able to escape from their enemies. Since the borders of Israel are very much exposed no man can live close to the boarder where they are in the range of the enemy's fire. This has really affected the way people live their lives in Israel as people are living like prisoners in their own country. In Israel there only two borders that are known internationally with the others still disputed. The disputed boarders are the border between Israel and Palestine, border between Lebanon and the border between Israel and Syria. The dispute between these three borders have led to a lot of conflicts and loss of lives among the three countries.

Conclusion

In conclusion border crisis is a major problem in many countries as it hinders development and also introduces other social evils like human trafficking and smuggling, drug trafficking and many criminal activities. The authorities concerned in taking care of the borders must take serious action to try and curb the problem by reducing illegal immigration and drug trafficking. This will reduce a lot of conflicts between countries with border crisis and increase the national relations between the countries. The picture that is painted out because of the border crisis in the southern border is shameful as toddler are arraigned in court for deportation proceedings against them. This crisis has created a huge problem in the southern border where children loiter around empty buildings looking for shelters and food to eat. Also this crisis can be solved by the U.S. government in that they can afford to take in these refugees because the refugee resettling system is wasting away because there are refugees brought into the camps for settlement. When this is done it will release pressure and tension from the southern border.

References

Kownslar, A. O., & Leiker, J. N. (2003). Racial Borders: Black Soldiers along the Rio Grande. The Western Historical Quarterly, 34(2), 227.

Lowry, R. (2019, March 6). Yes, There's a Crisis at the Border. Retrieved from https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/03/06/yes-theres-a-crisis-at-the-border-225642

Piekielek, J. (2016). Creating a Park, Building a Border: The Establishment of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and the Solidification of the U.S.-Mexico Border. Journal of the Southwest, 58(1), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1353/jsw.2016.0001

Stephen, L. (2003). Histories and Stories from Chiapas: Border Identities in Southern Mexico.:Histories and Stories from Chiapas: Border Identities in Southern Mexico. American Anthropologist, 105(2), 425-426.

Yadlin, A. (2018, October 6). The critical security challenges Israel has to face. Retrieved from https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5364593,00.html