Fugitive Landscapes Blog Post #3

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Suzanna Melendez

Blog Post #3

10/3/16

In Samuel Truett’s Fugitive Landscapes: The Forgotten History of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands it explores the indigenous, economic, labor, and corporate history throughout the southwest. Truett skillfully utilized the methodological approach of boarderland studies between the United States and Mexico in the 19^th century. Some of the sources utilized in his narrative were government documents, corporate annual reports, manuscripts, dissertations and theses. As a historian, Truett offered a unique perspective about Mexico’s far northern frontier colliding with the U.S Western frontier. He argued that the U.S. and Mexico’s history collides and intermingles with one another which is a topic in history overlooked by scholars. Furthermore, he argued that Americans and Mexicans joined forces to promote modern economic development in order to transform the U.S.-Mexican borderlands. By investigating the forgotten history of the U.S.-Mexico boarderlands, Truett seeks to utilize history to reconnect both nations past.

Truett and Pekka Hamalainen Comache Empire have provided me with a new perspective about the frontier. dshanebeck wrote in his blog that “Truett’s central argument is that the borderlands are not divided as neatly and cleanly as modern Americans or historians would like. Often, historians want a clean story that changes as people shift and identities solidify.” I would agree with dshanebeck’s analysis because the concept of a frontier has transformed in modern historical scholarship. Previous historians such as Fredrick Jackson Turner provided a binary line between civilization and savagery. On the contrary, Hamalaine argues that “… historians have reenvisioned the frontier as a socially charged space where Indians and invaders completed for resources and the land but also shared skills, foods, fashions, customs, languages and beliefs.” (Hamalainen 7) Aside from Truett highlighting economic interests from corporations and entrepreneurs, the text also explores how ordinary natives resisted these powerful and influential empires. Prior to reading Fugitive Landscapes, I knew very little about the U.S. and Mexico during the 1800s. Not only does his book provide a historical context for the reader but it also incorporates women and people of various ethnic backgrounds.

One of the most interesting concepts of Truett’s book is the transformation of American identity. By the “…early twentieth century, Arizonans viewed their neighbors to the south as siblings in an interlocking family history of sorts, a history that began with shared struggles on the wild frontier and pointed toward a shared modern future.” (6) But by the 1910s as higbeejonathan pointed out in his blog the Mexican Revolution articulated differences between Anglos and natives. One of the most interesting facts in the book is the author’s emphasis in transnational histories. “Historians of Native America, Africa America, and Asian American have likewise integrated the borderlands into their own histories of race, ethnicity, and postcolonialism.” (7) In addition, scholars have incorporated technology and environmental history into their work. These lenses are a significant part of his scholarship because it addresses social and economic changes in the southwest. Overall, scholars have started to focus more on transnational narratives because it provides new lessons to Americans and Mexicans about the border-crossing age.

In conclusion, Truett’s book is an important part of Mexican-American history. Whereas many historians focus on the conflicts between Mexicans and Americans, Truett provided readers with new insights about the boarderland between America and Mexico. The framework of the book incorporates both an elite and lower class perspective. Although there were efforts to control the transnational space by people in position of power their efforts were in vain. Lastly, as a scholar he really emphasized why his boarderland history research is important. Today as a society we focus too much on the differences between both nations. But in reality we share a common background. A forgotten history centered on dreams and perseverance to survive in the Southwest.