https://publications-prairial.fr/representations/index.php?id=1836 Entrées d’index fr 0 https://publications-prairial.fr/representations/index.php?id=1834 Through an examination of the fateful encounters between African American soldiers stationed at Fort Huachuca and indigenous populations who lived and labored in areas located in close proximity to the military installation, Robert F. Jefferson argues that the racial and ethnic traditions, customs, and practices that existed along the Arizona–Northern Mexico border during the early 1940s were far more fluid than scholars have ever imagined. Exploring the massive influx of black recruits and military families who entered the region, the piece points out that they found that the cultural mores and racial fault lines established in border towns like Naco, Agua Prieta, Hereford, and Nogales reflected an elasticity and a syncretic dynamism that was largely absent in desert metropolitan areas like Tucson and Phoenix. In the process, the racial identity making and cultural exchanges that frequently took place along the border frequently outdistanced the racist and xenophobic politics practiced in official Washington and Phoenix at the time. But the moments of interethnic unity were also freighted with danger and uncertainty as black GIs found themselves standing face to face with the racial enmity and class antagonism that structured daily life along the Arizona–Mexico border. The piece concludes that the complexities surrounding the fateful encounters between all of the parties in the border areas during the war and how these interactions were framed and interpreted by politicians, pundits, and border townspeople later in the decade have yet to be fully understood. sam., 20 déc. 2025 18:21:27 +0100 ven., 23 janv. 2026 17:53:04 +0100 https://publications-prairial.fr/representations/index.php?id=1834