Contrabbandieri, banditi e guardiani. Le vie del traffico illecito nella costruzione del confine tra Messico e Stati Uniti

Abstract

This article focuses on the Mexico-United States border creation between 1821, year of the Mexican independence from Spain, and 1924, when the establishment of the Border Patrol shaped the current border control structure. This process will be analysed through the lens of smuggling, considering both the thread of union and separation that still determines the relations between the two countries. In particular, during the 50 years between the war against the United States (1846-1848) and the end of Porfírio Diaz’s regime in 1910, two simultaneous trends developed: on one side, the border crystallized, resulting in the consolidation of the flimsy “line of sand”, on the other side, a counter movement split the two national sovereignties , claiming their respective territories. Smuggling was the very first, fundamental human behaviour marking the border, paradoxically by challenging it.

Keywords

• boundary
• smuggling
• Mexico
• United States
• Border Patrol
• confine
• contrabbando
• Messico
• Stati Uniti
• polizia di frontiera