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Retelling Borderlands History

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Walking the narrow corridors of what once housed a federal prison in Mexico City to search the archives for his book published in 2003, Revolution in Texas, SMU historian Benjamin Johnson could only imagine what the halls might have witnessed long ago. “The documents are stored in the jail cells where the walls are still covered with graffiti from the prisoners,” says Johnson, associate professor of history in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. “The atmosphere was intense, but these papers were the records of the 1910 land redistribution, near Mexico’s Matamoras and opposite Brownsville, Texas, that helped inspire the revolt.” Revolution in Texas (Yale University Press) recounts an early 20th century uprising of Tejanos (Texans of Mexican origin) that occurred in the lower Rio Grande Valley and was fueled by Anglo settlers’ desire for land.

For years, this violent regional history was suppressed. Eventual cooperation between the U.S. and Mexican governments helped end the cross-border attacks, but the events would inspire Tejanos to fight for their rights as Americans, an effort that still continues. Tejanos who weren’t part of the violence went on to found organizations like the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in 1929. In his latest book, Bordertown: The Odyssey of An American Place (Yale University Press, September 2008), Johnson uses the remote town of Roma, Texas, as an example of the larger history of the U.S.-Mexico border and its changing role in the United States. Similar to the first work, Bordertown, which features photographs by Jeffrey Gusky, is an explanation of how border residents came to identify themselves as Americans in the United States while continuing to feel powerful kinship with their Mexican heritage. Bordertown also includes exploration of material culture and urban layout.

Borderlands research piqued this native Texan’s interest while in graduate school at Yale – where he earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees – as he realized the Mexican border’s importance to the United States. “The United States is not self-contained; to understand our history requires an understanding of our connection with other parts of the world, in this case Mexico,” says Johnson, who joined SMU in 2002. Estimating that by 2050, more than a quarter of the United States’ population will have some kind of Hispanic ancestry, mostly Mexican, Johnson says the Hispanic role in American history has been largely ignored. “The United States is such a polyglot society, and there are many notions of Americanism.

Different people have found a place to fit in, which is one way our country works. Telling these stories about history has made room for them.” Johnson also studies environmental history, a relatively new field that examines interactions between humans and the natural world. He focuses on the experience and social history of conservation. Another book under contract with Yale University Press, Escaping the Dark, Gray City: How Conservation Re-made City, Suburb and Countryside in the Progressive Era, combines several aspects of the conservation story, including environmental politics, urban history and architectural forms, and traces the rise of the movement and its effects on industrial society.

“Conservation has been a more profound strand within American culture than most realize and is usually presented as a movement followed by a small, undemocratic elite,” Johnson says. “But I see mass support for it in spite of complicated circumstances.”

For more information: faculty.smu.edu/bjohnson/