Listening to Laredo

A Border City in a Globalized Age

Mehnaaz Momen

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9780816551729
  9780816551736
• eBook ISBN:
  9780816551750
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social History
• Index: Social Sciences

Nestled between Texas and Tamaulipas, Laredo was once a quaint border town, nurturing cultural ties across the border, attracting occasional tourists, and serving as the home of people living there for generations. In a span of mere decades, Laredo has become the largest inland port in the United States and a major hub of global trade. Listening to Laredo is an exploration of how the dizzying forces of change have defined this locale, how they continue to be inscribed and celebrated, and how their effects on the physical landscape have shaped the identity of the city and its people.

Bringing together issues of growth, globalization, and identity, Mehnaaz Momen traces Laredo's trajectory through the voices of its people. In contrast to the many studies of border cities defined by the outside—and seldom by the people who live at the border—this volume collects oral histories from seventy-five in-depth interviews that collectively illuminate the evolution of the city's cultural and economic infrastructure, its interdependence with its sister city across the national boundary, and, above all, the strength of its community as it adapts to and even challenges the national narrative regarding the border. The resonant and lively voices of Laredo's people convey proud ownership of an archetypal border city that has time and again resurrected itself.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword by Helen Liggett
• Acknowledgments
• Historical Timeline of Laredo, Texas
• Introduction
• 1. Laredo Speaks! What Is a Border Town?
• 2. Where Is the Border? The River/the Wall/the Checkpoints/the Prisons/the Colonias
• 3. The Bazaar on the Border: How Did It Evolve?
• 4. Public Spaces and Community Engagement: Claiming Laredo
• 5. Visions of the City: Institutions and Infrastructure
• 6. Border Identity: Remains of the Day
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index