Threshold - Emergency Responders on the US-Mexico Border

1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-0-520-29717-3
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 41, 296 Seiten, Cloth Over Boards, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 666 g

Reihe: California Series in Public Anthropology

"Jusionyte explores the sister towns bisected by the border from many angles in this illuminating and poignant exploration of a place and situation that are little discussed yet have significant implications for larger political discourse."—Publishers Weekly, STARRED Review

Emergency responders on the US-Mexico border operate at the edges of two states. They rush patients to hospitals across country lines, tend to the broken bones of migrants who jump over the wall, and put out fires that know no national boundaries. Paramedics and firefighters on both sides of the border are tasked with saving lives and preventing disasters in the harsh terrain at the center of divisive national debates.
 
Ieva Jusionyte’s firsthand experience as an emergency responder provides the background for her gripping examination of the politics of injury and rescue in the militarized region surrounding the US-Mexico border. Operating in this area, firefighters and paramedics are torn between their mandate as frontline state actors and their responsibility as professional rescuers, between the limits of law and pull of ethics. From this vantage they witness what unfolds when territorial sovereignty, tactical infrastructure, and the natural environment collide. Jusionyte reveals the binational brotherhood that forms in this crucible to stand in the way of catastrophe. Through beautiful ethnography and a uniquely personal perspective, Threshold provides a new way to understand politicized issues ranging from border security and undocumented migration to public access to healthcare today.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jusionyte, Ieva

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Politische Ethnologie, Recht, Organisation, Identität

Inhaltsverzeichnis

INTRODUCTION

Dead End
Treacherous Terrain
First Due to the Border
Binational Security
Toxic Statecraft
Politics of Wounding and of Rescue

PART ONE: ANKLE ALLEY

Nogales, Arizona, Mexico
Fence Jumpers
Tactical Infrastructure
Por Otro Lado
Overpaid Tomato Pickers
Accidental Violence

PART TWO: DOWNWIND, DOWNHILL, DOWNSTREAM

Brotherhood
Red Tape
Maquiladora
Acid Rain
Road to Rocky Point
Staging
Security of the Future

PART THREE: WILDLAND

Load Vehicles
The Man in Black Dress Pants
Bound by Law
Watchouts
Aid Is Not a Crime
Land of Many Uses
Some Pill to Help Us Walk

EPILOGUE: THE GREAT NEW WALL

About This Project
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Notes
References
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Ieva Jusionyte is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Social Studies at Harvard University and the author of Savage Frontier: Making News and Security on the Argentine Border. She has trained and volunteered as an emergency medical technician, paramedic, and wildland firefighter in Florida, Arizona, and Massachusetts.