When the Border Crosses You

Looking back at history, it is often tempting to judge the choices people made. We convince ourselves that, had we been there, we would have made the right decision. While working on my senior project on the 1848 on the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (the agreement that ended the Mexican-American war and allowed the US to annex 55% of Mexico’s territory) I kept wondering about what could have been. History, and historical figures, are complicated, and accounts of them can changed based on who is telling the story.

Once the treaty was signed, borders shifted, citizenship changed, and rights were promised. What seemed straightforward on paper quickly became far more complicated. Bright promises of citizenship were dulled by land dispossession, political exclusion, and violence. The border had moved for Mexicans living in South Texas, but belonging had not followed. Instead, they faced widespread land dispossession, disenfranchisement, and reduction to second-class status as rigid Jim Crow-style social codes were applied.

“What if they had fought back? Why didn’t they stand up for their rights?” I asked myself.

Turns out, they did. Again and again. Some challenged the system in courtrooms. Others wrote petitions that often went unanswered. Some documented injustices for future generations. And a few, like Juan “Cheno” Cortina, believed armed resistance was the only option left.

How do you fight a reality built layer upon layer? How do you fight against a system that has already decided where you belong? The deeper I went into history, the harder it became to point fingers.

Juan Cortina was born a Mexican citizen. He didn’t cross a border—the border crossed him. As Anglo settlers gained political and legal control of South Texas, Mexican families lost land, influence, and protection under the law. After witnessing repeated abuses against Mexican residents, specifically Brownsville Town Marshal Robert Shears whipping a 60 year old worker known by Cortina’s family, Cortina concluded that the legal system no longer offered justice. In 1859 he led an armed resistance that later became known as the Cortina Wars. To many Mexican Texans, he became a defender of people who had nowhere else to turn.

Taking action does not require all the answers, and resistance can take many forms. It does not always have to be conventional. Our lives are filled with resources that we can use to stand against injustice. History reminds us that doing what is right cannot be left to someone else or another time. We have that opportunity today.

Are you good at having conversations? Maybe you’re a writer. Can you listen? Can you remember? Do you have talents or know talented people? Every skill, every connection, and every act of courage can make a difference. Abara firmly believes in the power of a nonviolent approach to injustice. We are not powerless.

We see time and again through history that when peaceful and legal attempts to gain rights and justice don’t come through, some choose violence feeling that they have exhausted their options. But we hope that we can forge a different way, and that people feel their voices can be heard, and that realities can be transformed through prophetic imagination and action.

Written by Cristhel Mejía, Former Border Encounter Participant and Abara Staff