Trailing Signs

Architects such as Fernando Romero and Teddy Cruz have published architectural proposals that challenge the current state of the U.S-Mexico Border. Cruz’ practice challenges the aesthetics and qualities of life across both sides, arguing for an infiltration of the density existent in the Mexican barrios into suburban America. Fernando Romero from LAR re-appropriates the 2,000 mile long border, dissecting the political and social issues then projecting new futures. In his book HyperBorder he calls attention to the Border as a territory with the potential to be revived, rather than ignored. He recognizes the border’s importance and ability to alter both countries’ future, as Mexico and the United States are already heavily interdependent. Romero projects potential futures interventions which could alter, and arguably improve, the border as a megalopolis of cultural, social, and economic exchange. My position stands somewhat aside these two architects, as my interests lie along the U.S.-Mexico border. However, I am not interested in finding a solution or ultimate proposal to the very complex, heated, and layered political issues between both countries. What is important however is the current state of movement across the line. People, goods, and services are in a continuous flow North. There are two chapters to this story: Navigating Landscapes and Residual Traces.


Navigating Landscapes

Trailing Signs situates the movement and navigation along trails within a broader historical story. An estimated half a million migrants walk along the migrant trails in southern Arizona, traveling in groups with a coyote leading them through the desert. For the coyote there is no GPS or map to tell them where to go, it is all about memory and reading the land. Its takes a certain level of knowledge to be able to see. This continual bed of knowledge of the landscape and the trail network exists in the collective memory. This collective memory is the catalyst for the migration to occur. It is only through the previous experience of the place that the guide then knows where to navigate. It is a continual process of reading the land and recalling memories of place. Whether they notice the smell, the dense mesquite, a certain tree, or the shape of the mountains it is all linked to memories of the land.

Residual Traces

This migration pattern sits within a historical context of humans migrating and crossing frontiers, particularly in America. The trails are a residue left behind. They are patterns of movement and traces that have an alternate effect on the land. The traces can be viewed in relation to other historical trails: The Oregon Trail, The Mormon Trail, The Underground Railroad. Arizona’s Migrant trails will also be remembered in the collective history of politically charged territories. The Underground Railroad’s quilts are a collection of waypoints, which aided in navigation, but still had existence after the historical event, hence acting as traces from the past.

Through the act of layering multiple agents, trails, networks and catalysts the work digests multiple data and patterns into new systems of organization. Working along side Edward Tufte and James Corner the maps develop new visual connections across cultural, social, and statistical patterns. The collection of mappings becomes a living three-dimensional object, as movement is in a continual state of flux yet always referencing the past. The historical will always be present in the mapping of the current. Layers of political, social, and urban infrastructure are connected to the historical migrations of people, goods, and services along the networks of roads, rail, and rivers. The work takes into account political policies such as NAFTA, as a control of movement across the two countries.

The collection of maps is stored in a book, along with collected research and data trails. The maps sit between a written historical narrative of trailing and a projective architectural scenario which exploits the systems revealed by the mappings.