This volume explores several issues pertinent to the history of the cross-border region between Mexico, Guatemala and Belize from new explanatory approaches in order to reflect on a history and a reality that are shared by three neighbouring societies, emphasizing the actors and local practices that shape cross-border dynamics.
This analysis is contributed by eight specialists who study aspects that are fundamental to our understanding of a process involving various persons and institutions in a specific space. Dynamics and Conflicts in a Cross-Border Region addresses an issue of current relevance through studies that focus on the problems inhabitants of the region have faced over the years: the realities of a porous border; the existence of family, trade and cultural ties that surpass the administrative limits negotiated by the states late in the 19th century; the impact of the internal conflicts of neighbour countries in the border space; experiences of exile and refuge at the border and the violence they entail; the role of local authorities in managing regional problems; the pending task of cross-border territorial organization; the efforts of local institutions to promote regional development; and the presence of phenomena like contraband, drug trafficking, organized crime and human trafficking in an increasingly complex and challenging space. This provides a way to use the region’s history as a springboard for conceiving of mechanisms by which we can together face the challenges presented today to the inhabitants of the cross-border region between Mexico, Guatemala and Belize.
This book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Latin American history and Social History.
Table of Contents:
PART 1: Violence, refuge and trade on a porous border
1. Porous borders: The Soconusco between Chiapas and Guatemala, 1824-1882
Armando Méndez Zárate
2. Wars and Trade: The Chiapas-Guatemala cross-border space as a territory for political refuge, 1825-1863
Juan Carlos Sarazúa
3. Guatemalan refuge in Mexico: views on violence and forced displacement in recent history
Marisol Garzón
PART 2: Mexico and Guatemala: managing cross-border problems
4. Border issues and their historical management by local political institutions, 1930-1990
María Dolores Palomo
5. Institutional constraints for cross-border land-use planning in Guatemala and Mexico
Federico Morales Barragán
PART 3: Social and economic dynamics in the Mexico-Belize region
6. Public institutions and border trade in the Mexico-Belize regional space
Carlos Macías Richard
7. Cross-border dynamics in the Mexico-Belize border region: types, characteristics and geographical location
Juan Carlos Arriaga
