Like George Bush, I recently took a trip to the border town of El Paso. My brother moved there in July to begin his four year stint at the nearby Holloman Air Force Base. El Paso is a fascinating place. Just across the border from Juarez, the fourth biggest city in Mexico, it is also home to Fort Bliss Military Base – which is receiving over 16,000 new troops this year from the series of military base closings and restructurings. Being in this super militarized border town made even a trip to the corner store steeped in layers and layers of socio-political context. My family refused to accompany me on a photography trip to the Juarez border after Thanksgiving, so I decided to visit the National Border Patrol Museum. I was expecting the skewed discourse about the hordes of illegal Mexican immigrants trying to break into America’s Southern Frontier at any cost, which there was plenty of. Occasionally the literature on the walls of the museum would ask questions like: “Will the trend of illegal immigration continue?” And the answer would be: “Yes. As long as people of the world quest for a better life, the rise of illegal entries will continue.”
But I was surprised that the most disturbing thing I came across in the museum was a photograph of personnel on detail at the Tule Lake Internment Camp. This was in a section discussing the ways in which the Border Patrol’s role changes during wartime. The photograph was placed next to other photographs of German and Italian prisoners of war from World War II. I found myself staring into the picture of the 10-12 white men holding guns trying to decipher the importance of this photograph in this museum. I felt as though this picture being framed on the wall of the National Border Patrol Museum was celebrating the duty of these soldiers whose job was a huge mistake. I guess it was the total lack of context that bothered me the most. I don’t know exactly what I wanted: A sign next to this photograph explaining how Japanese internment was one of the most heinous things that happened in American history? A section of the museum talking about NAFTA and globalization and how the U.S. depends on illegal labor? Perhaps they can remove the entire wall of sharp shooting prizes that covers most of the back wall and make room for some of my ideas.
Posted by neela at November 30, 2005 11:37 AM
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