Research Catalog

Title

¡Viva George! : celebrating Washington's birthday at the US-Mexico border / Elaine A. Peña.

Author

Peña, Elaine A., 1979-

Publication

Austin : University of Texas Press, [2020]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 199 pages : illustrations, maps; 23 cm.

Summary

"For more than a century, the border cities of Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, have celebrated George Washington's birthday with parades, pageants, and other festivities. This project uses that long-standing tradition as a lens to examine binational relations and cross-border cooperation, especially during times of crisis (e.g., the 1954 flood, currency devaluations, present-day drug violence). It is a work of both ethnography and archival research (as well as a few uncatalogued documents the author received from private collections), and it argues that the tradition of meeting in the middle of the international bridge is more than a goodwill gesture or an exercise in identity-consolidation. Peña maintains the GWB celebration is a repository of bicultural memory, a negotiation platform, a reconciliatory course of action, and even an efficacious mode of border security"--

Series Statement

Jack and Doris Smothers series in Texas history, life, and culture ; number forty-nine

Uniform Title

Jack and Doris Smothers series in Texas history, life, and culture ; no. 49.

Subject

• Festivals > Texas > Laredo > History
• Festivals > Mexico > Nuevo Laredo > History
• Political customs and rites > Texas > Laredo
• Political customs and rites > Mexico > Nuevo Laredo
• Festivals > Texas > Laredo > International cooperation > History
• Festivals > Mexico > Nuevo Laredo > International cooperation > History
• Ethnosociology > Mexican-American Border Region
• Ethnosociology
• Festivals
• International relations
• Political customs and rites
• Laredo (Tex.) > Relations > Mexico > Nuevo Laredo
• Mexico > Nuevo Laredo
• North America > Mexican-American Border Region
• Texas > Laredo

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 174-190) and index.

Contents

Introduction: from border capricho to border scaffolding -- Playing for power -- Playing Indian, playing colonial -- Playing Mexican -- Playing under duress -- Hurricane Alice and the International Bridge closure -- Crisis -- Paso libre -- Us, them, and festive security -- Conclusion: why study border enactments?

Call Number

JFE 21-2771

ISBN

• 9781477321430
• 1477321438
• 9781477321447
• 1477321446

LCCN

2020008799

OCLC

1145087807

Author

Peña, Elaine A., 1979- author.

Title

¡Viva George! : celebrating Washington's birthday at the US-Mexico border / Elaine A. Peña.

Publisher

Austin : University of Texas Press, [2020]

Edition

First edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Jack and Doris Smothers series in Texas history, life, and culture ; number forty-nine

Jack and Doris Smothers series in Texas history, life, and culture ; no. 49.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 174-190) and index.

Sudoc No.

Z UA380.8 P370vi txdocs

Research Call Number

JFE 21-2771