Imagining a relocated border separating Alto Mexico from the rest of the United States (what I term the United 44 States) is worthwhile not for purposes of advocating a forcible or even political reconquest of the Southwest, which this book in no way invites, but rather as a novel lens to examine contentious border issues that divide many U.S. residents. In discourse today about Mexico and Mexicans, most discussed are concerns over the undocumented entry of Mexicans, and relatedly the supposed failure of even documented Mexican immigrants to assimilate into the Anglo culture. Moreover, our conceptions of Mexico and Mexicans are marked by fears of illicit drugs crossing the border and the possibility of the cartel violence that erupted in Mexico seeping into U.S. territory. Relocating the border for purposes of discussing U.S. immigration policy serves the dual purpose of disconnecting the heated debate from the current physical border, and allowing exploration of the physical and cultural space of the entirety of Alto Mexico, where most U.S. Mexicans reside today as they always have, as a means of identifying and emphasizing the cultural and historical connections and synergies between the United States and Mexico. Ultimately, this book posits Alto Mexico as a cultural convergence zone between the United 44 States—which especially in the last few decades is increasingly populated by Mexicans—and Mexico, in which Anglo retirees and part-time residents from the United States have begun to arrive in substantial numbers, again mostly in the last few decades. Given its large Mexican population and their presence dating back centuries, Alto Mexico invites study as a timely reminder of the shared legacy of the Americas, and the place from which compassionate immigration momentum and policies may spring, in contrast to the imperatives of recent decades and particularly during the Trump regime to fortify and militarize the physical border between the United States and Mexico, to the symbolic exclusion of the Mexican people and culture.

With Los Angeles as its cultural capital and the locus of national/international cultural influence through motion pictures and the television industry, Alto Mexico is a space for the development of respect and appreciation for a bilingual/bicultural society in which physical borders matter little, or at least less than under our border-centric emphasis of late. Indeed, the question is fairly posed in the book whether U.S. or Mexico ownership fundamentally matters in the everyday lives of most Alto Mexico residents. The rise in Mexican population within Alto Mexico makes locating the physical border less critical. Rather, the ascendancy of Mexican population may ultimately bring with it political influence and culture evolution that make ownership of the Southwest matter less for the everyday lives of its residents. Ultimately, the realization may come that people matter more than borders.

A fresh perspective on immigration and culture wars is needed to break the ongoing political stalemate. Although the longstanding U.S. immigration policy conundrum is broader than just Mexicans, encompassing other migrants from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, among other locations, the emphasis in this book on residents and immigrants of Mexican origin allows exploration of our symbiotic relationship with the largest immigrant group living and working in the United States today, by comparing how and when the West was Juan.

Steven W. Bender
Professor and Associate Dean for Planning and Strategic Initiatives
Seattle University School of Law

--Ilan Stavans, author of Quixote: The Novel and the World
and A Most Imprefect Union (with Lalo Alcaraz)

--Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, author of Word Images: New Perspectives
on Canícula and Other Works by Norma Elia Cantú

Raymond Caballero, author of Orozco, The Life and Death
of a Mexican Revolutionary, Mayor, El Paso TX (2001-03)