In this public lecture, Anthony Mora will be speaking on his recently published Border Dilemmas: Racial and National Uncertainties in New Mexico, 1848-1912 (Duke University Press, 2011). This book compares the trajectory of one southern New Mexico town, Las Cruces, against the trajectory of its neighboring community, La Mesilla, as a starting point for rethinking Mexicans’ historic role in the United States. Las Cruces was built north of the border by Mexicans who decided to take their chances in the United States after 1848. La Mesilla was established just south of the border by men and women who did not want to live in a country that had waged war against the Mexican republic; nevertheless, it was incorporated into the United States in 1854, when the border was redrawn according to the Mesilla/Gadsden Treaty. Mora explains how two towns less than five miles apart were deeply divided by conflicting ideas about the relations between race and nation. Examining the first generation of Mexicans who lived in these sites exposes the early limits on racial and national identities created by U.S. imperialism in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

About The Author

Anthony Mora is an associate professor of history, American culture, and Latina/o studies at the University of Michigan and received his PhD from the University of Notre Dame. Before joining the University of Michigan, Mora served on the history faculty at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, and was a visiting scholar at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, Mass. Mora teaches courses on Mexican American history, Latina/o history, and the history of sexuality.  Professor Mora's principal research interests focus on the historical construction of race, gender, and sexuality in the U.S.