City on the Edge national security. As the largest border town Ciudad Juárez, is considered the world’s most in the U.S. (600,000 people as of 2010) El dangerous city based on per capita homicides. Paso received ample resources to build fences The ephemeral and volatile narrative of El and hire more border patrol. Today, a mesh Paso’s nationality begs the question of whether fence runs across the city’s southern limits, or not land is something that can be justly permeable to sight but not to (legal) travel. owned. The multiple changes of the city’s ownership taunt the perceived permanence of Despite the fence, the cities feel connected to one another, as their populations and cultures a border. The dichotomy between the divided migrate back and forth, legally and illegally, cities feels unnatural; the emergence of a literal iron curtain represents a troubled effort to solve across the border. El Paso’s proximity to Mexico has also a problem that dates back to the days when the influenced much illicit economic activity, as first maps were made and land was claimed. The border seems like nothing more than an the different laws (and degrees of enforcement) are conducive to making a hefty profit. imaginary line of imposed power. El Paso has continually transformed itself Currently, the El Paso border could be seen as in unique ways with different peoples, names, a swap shop for guns and drugs. Guns, which economies, and ways of life. Recently, the are far more difficult to purchase in Mexico, borders that surround the city, rather than make their way from the U.S. to end up “south the contents of El Paso itself, have created its of the border.” Narcotics, which travel from the eccentric identity. Though the city is easily interior of Mexico and other Latin American confined on a map, El Paso’s true character nations, make their way north across the border. defies borders. The dynamics of this swap shop have lead to tumult, and currently, El Paso’s other half, Looking across the U.S.–Mexico Border into the city of Juarez.
38