Date of Award

Spring 5-22-2016

Document Type

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts in Spanish

Department

Languages & Literatures

Advisor

Dr. Kim Eherenman

Abstract

The war between the United States and Mexico took place in 1846. It was in 1848 that the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was formed and México lost more than half of their territories. Nearly one hundred thousand Mexicans who lived in these lands at this time became displaced. Around ninety-eight percent of the Mexicans chose to remain where they lived. Faced with territorial changes, Mexicans were then forced to devise defensive strategies of adaptation and survival in an intermediate, “third” space located in between the dominant national and cultural systems of both the United States and Mexico.

This bicultural region of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico is a perfect third space and some of the areas where we can clearly see how Tijuana operates as a third space are through its maquiladoras, the prostitution available in the city, the accessibility of alcohol and the physical border itself. However, one does not have to travel to the border regions of Tijuana to find a third space. We should be more aware of third spaces which are already all around us. Every day in the United States cultures collide and third spaces are created. We can choose to ignore it or we can embrace it. The reality for those that live in Tijuana is that they have no where to go to ignore these cultural collisions for the simple reason that they are taking place in the area they call home.

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