Landscaping Violence: Ephemeral Representations of Anti-Immigrant Violence in the San Diego-Tijuana Borderlands

The San Diego-Mexico border, until recently, has been a critically underexplored site of racial and ethnic tension in greater Borderlands studies. Due to San Diego’s vision of itself as a center of peace and prosperity, the city narrative has often centered around its rejection of the Tijuana border, despite its reliance on and proximity to the border. Set along the backdrop of a period of border militarization across the 1990s, my dissertation explores the violent tactics of surveillance utilized by state actors like the United States Border Patrol and non-state vigilante organizations at the San Diego/Tijuana border and modes of critical resistance through artistic imaginaries. Drawing from board games, political ad campaigns, and roadsigns, my dissertation uncovers how visual and ephemeral relics of politics and play embedded themselves into the everyday cityscape of San Diego, further creating cultures of fear and loss for immigrants crossing the Tijuana border.