The Problem of Identity in a Changing Culture,
Core Ideas: Boundaries, Identity, and the Human Condition
Georg Simmel’s view (as cited) that boundaries are central to what it means to be human: they both hinder and enable, liberate and confine, consolidate and exclude. Boundaries are sociological rather than purely spatial, but geopolitical borders are a salient, multi-dimensional kind of boundary with political, economic, cultural, and historical aspects.
Borderlands are commonly described using loaded terms: marginalized, contested, occupied, police, trade, governance, documents; but also terms like hybridity, fusion, acculturation, syncretism, and multiple identities — all indicating complex identity formations.
Three major types of borders are highlighted:
Historical border: drawn principally through war.
Cultural border: division of a population, settlement and forced resettlement, with interethnic friction.
Political-economic border: based largely on law enforcement.
Expressive border culture is part of the cultural border and is shaped by historical, political, and economic border configurations; it can also influence those configurations.
Central question: What does it mean for people living under externally imposed, heavily policed boundaries that magnify social inequalities and ethnic differences? How do border dwellers express themselves bodily within such contexts, and which expressions do they deem important?
The focus of the chapter is on bodily self-expression in border policing and cross-border crossings as recurring themes.
Américo Paredes’ border folklore and the “in-between” existence among Texas Mexicans show a resistance tradition in response to stark social oppositions between hostile powers (racist United States vs. centralist Mexico). Corridos become expressions of resistance to Anglo domination and the creation of new identities in opposition to external structures.
A key argument: new cultural expressions emerge in border spaces, producing identities defined in opposition to other groups (e.g., Tejanos vs. Mexicanos) and contributing to shifting border definitions over time.
In the early 1990s, the quebradita dance emerges as a cultural response to xenophobia (e.g., California’s Proposition 187) and as a pathway for Mexican/Chicano youth to connect with heritage, build peer communities, and contest prejudice through a confrontational aesthetic. This is framed as part of a broader “tradition of resistance.”
The border is not a fixed, monolithic space; rather, border identities are fluid, with youths integrating influences from country line dancing, hip hop, and Mexican baile folklórico. This blending signals growing security in regional/ethnic identities and less adherence to a centrist model of what it means to be Mexican, American, or Chicano.
Dances in border space reveal a continuum of identities between Mexicano and Chicano, with regional variations highlighting the dynamic nature of identity formation.
Border Types Revisited: Cultural, Political-Economic, and Historical Intersections
The border is described as a site where historical forces (war, resettlement) interact with contemporary political-economic controls (border policing, immigration policy) to shape cultural practices.
Expressive culture in border zones both reflects and contributes to the border’s configurations, revealing tensions and solidarities.
The concept of “borderscape” (Gómez-Peña) integrates borders with landscape as a social and cultural space shaped by flows of people, media, money, and ideas.
Theoretical Frameworks: Borderscape, Heterotopia, Transculturation, and Kinetopias
Borderscape: A space where borders are lived, experienced, and negotiated through culture, migration, and media. It is not just a line on a map but a social field shaped by transnational flows.
Audiotopia (Josh Kun): The border as an audioscape — sonic spaces created by migratory flows of sound that bend geopolitical boundaries. Borderscape and audiotopia are intertwined spatial and sonic concepts.
Heterotopia (Foucault): A space of juxtaposition and deviation that challenges everyday norms. Borders can function as heterotopias where displaced identities and cultures juxtapose within a site of transition.
Transculturation (Fernando Ortiz): The process of blending cultures through loss, acquisition, and reconfiguration; border dances are transculturational as they mix moves from diverse sources (e.g., polka, cumbia, hip hop, ballet folklórico).
Rasquachismo (Tomás Ybarra-Frausto): A border aesthetic of recycling and bold juxtapositions; a cultural sensibility that informs border dances and clothing styles.
Kineto-pias (kinetopias): A neologism for movement-centered border spaces created through dance.kinetopias are places defined by bodily movement, where the border is enacted through bodies and their interactions; they are grounded in time and place and involve gaze, power dynamics, and social contestation.
Borders as a nexus of power: Dances can contest, reproduce, or redefine boundary politics; the experiences of border dwellers are shaped by unequal power relations (immigration policy, policing, social stratification).
Transculturación vs. borderization: Border dances emerge from unequal power contexts, often blending traditional and modern elements; they can revive older forms or create hybrid practices that reflect contemporary realities.
Dances as Border Dances: What Makes Dance a Border Practice?
Border dances are those that interact significantly with the border context and either express or produce embodiments of historical, political, economic, or cultural borders.
Border dances translate border dynamics into movement; the body becomes a primary medium for negotiating borders.
Characteristics of border dances (illustrative, not exhaustive): eclectic movement vocabularies, awareness of conflict and power struggles, cross-cultural exchange, and resonance with border politics.
Not all dances in border regions qualify as border dances; some remain rooted in non-border spaces or do not engage border life in their practice.
Dances highlighted as border dances (in the chapter) include: cumbia norteña, waila, Western/country swing, Nor-tec dancing, quebradita. Other forms (e.g., matachines, danza azteca) intersect with border contexts in varied ways, sometimes politically charged.
The dichotomy between border dances and sound: music may remain more conservative in some cases, while body movement adapts rapidly to border life and can cross long distances via face-to-face transmission and later via digital media (YouTube, social networks).
The Matachines and Other Ritual and Social Dances in Border Contexts
Matachines: A well-documented border ritual dance with roots in conquest narratives; in Mexico it is a symbol of indigenous identity, while in the U.S. it is often seen as a Spanish survival and, in places like Laredo, emblematic of mestizaje. Its performance in border contexts blends Cohualhitecan costuming with mestizo/European virtuosity and may reference Plains Indian elements (e.g., war bonnet) to comment on resistance and popular culture.
Danza Azteca: Emerges in border contexts as a political, diasporic practice, sometimes reintroducing symbols like the cross as part of hybridity and history. Some practitioners engage in global indigenous movements and political activism.
Other social dances in border areas: polka, waltz, corridos, rancheras (norteño Tejano); polka morphs into a slower, regionally distinct style (tacuachito/oppossum) in Texas border areas; the vals (waltz) adapts in ways that blur European origins with local movement (e.g., deep knee bends, cradle-like movements).
Western swing: Originates in Texas (1920s) with later revivals in California (1940s); movement vocabularies fuse Anglo fiddling with European, African American, and Latino musical practices; later shifts included more “whitewashed” presentations in the 1950s-60s that reflected racialized politics.
Waila (Tohono O’odham): A border-associated instrumental dance in southern Arizona; movements draw from rock, Tejano, norteño, O’odham, and pan-Indian influences; serves as a symbol of local culture in civic celebrations.
Cultural flows: Nor-tec (Tijuana-based electronica with norteño/banda roots) and its transborder dance manifestations show how border dances move beyond local contexts when communities relocate (e.g., Chicago adopting Afro-Caribbean or salsa moves and incorporating quebradita).
The border as a center of experimentation: Border dances reveal how tradition can be reinterpreted in new global and urban settings, becoming platforms for innovation rather than mere preservation.
Case Study: Quebradita on the Border and in Virtual Space
Quebradita (a social or competitive dance) and its musical style emerged across the U.S.-Mexico border in the early to mid-1990s, driven by a tecnobanda-infused fast cumbia rhythm and a diverse movement vocabulary.
Musical context: Guadalajara-based production blends very fast cumbia rhythms with tecnobanda, norteño, and bandas; it borrows movement ideas from ballet folklórico, corriditas, cumbia, country, hip hop, swing, and more.
Aesthetic and themes: quebradita emphasizes flashy Western clothing, acrobatic moves, and a confrontational, rasquache border aesthetic that positions urban Mexican-American youth as visible on a national stage. It is associated with a bold stance against racism and exclusion.
Social impact: In the 1990s, quebradita clubs and competitions grew, attracting youth across Mexican and Mexican-American communities; dance clubs and flyer parties formed social networks and fashion identities (e.g., LA, Tucson, Chicago). Dancers’ choices were often linked to local conditions, including gang presence and political climates.
Local variations in the U.S. and beyond:
Los Angeles: neighborhoods organized into clubs; flyering culture; influence from Jalisco, Sinaloa, Nayarit; cholo-quebrador fashion (airbrushed T-shirts with cowboy boots).
Tucson: clubs organized in schools; emphasis on competitions and performances; heavier use of ballet folklórico steps from schooling.
Chicago: pasito duranguense emerges later; influences from Puerto Rican merengue; Norteño fashion disseminated by popular groups.
Social dynamics and identity: Quebradita bridged Mexican-born and U.S.-born youth, creating a transnational youth culture. It provided a sense of community and a counter-narrative to discrimination and social exclusion.
Cultural capital and authenticity: YouTube and online feedback introduced new forms of authenticity debates, with comments about who is “really Mexican” or who embodies “duranguense” properly. Debates revealed intergenerational and cross-border tensions in authenticity claims.
Gendered and classed dimensions: Clothing and styling were central to how quebradita was read; debates about “vaquero” vs. hip-hop looks highlighted tensions about authenticity, class, and regional pride.
The media and corporate commodification of quebradita:
2007 Televisa Bailando por un Sueño featured an acrobatic category including quebradita; the dance entered a national-television context.
2009 MasterCard Spanish-language ad featured quebradita dancers to market debit cards to Latinos; showcases the dance beyond its border-area roots.
Zumba incorporated quebradita into fitness and Latin dance rosters; demonstrates mass-market adoption.
International diffusion and canonical status: quebradita appears in international salsa congresses (beginning in the early 2000s) and in global dance repertoires; artists blend quebradita with salsa, bachata, and other styles (e.g., Mexico City, Austria, Malaysia). The dance becomes a symbol of modern Mexico in some foreign contexts, though debates about tradition persist.
Shifts in aesthetics and canon: clothing becomes toned down (two-color satin, fewer lamé/metallics); hats less common; still features boots, fringe, and chaps in some performances. There is a contested boundary around what constitutes “true quebradita” clothing.
The internet as a transformative arena: a growing renaissance on YouTube (2009 onward) where dancers share lessons, performances, and discussions; global visibility increases; some critics celebrate the dance’s popularity, while others challenge its authenticity or read it as a commodified Latino dance.
Duranguense as a successor and expansion: Pasito duranguense inherits elements from quebradita but foregrounds immigration and U.S.-based musicians; it provokes different kinds of debates and a new social dynamic, including online criticisms of dancers in non-Chicago contexts. Duranguense conversations reveal how border dances can move from a frontera-bound practice to a pan-national, even pan-Latin, phenomenology.
Internet era contrasts: quebradita’s online prominence coexists with ongoing debates about authenticity; duranguense faces new types of online conflict; the two dances illustrate how border dance practices can migrate, morph, and monetize across borders.
Commercialization and cultural politics: quebra-dita’s rise in media and commerce redefines the border as a site of cultural capital, where Mexican-American youth gain visibility, but where authenticity and origin are renegotiated in public discourse.
The broader point: the quebra-dance phenomenon demonstrates how border dances can shift from being marginal acts of resistance to becoming canonical, mainstream, and globally recognized cultural expressions, while still retaining contested origins and ongoing debates about authenticity.
YouTube and digital distribution as a research tool: the author emphasizes YouTube as a vital resource for ethnographic study of border dance, enabling observation of transnational practices, dissemination of moves, and cross-location comparisons.
The ongoing life of quebradita and the emergence of pasito duranguense illustrate how border dances can reframe national and regional identities, creating new cultural centers (e.g., Greater Mexico) and challenging conventional center-periphery narratives.
Theorizing Border Dance: From Borderscapes to Kinetopias
Border dances share a lineage with transnational, postmodern, and globalized cultural expressions but are not new; they evolve by borrowing and recontextualizing movement vocabularies across generations (e.g., 1930s swing moving into 1960s rock 'n' roll and influencing quebradita in the 1990s).
These dances embody both integration and contestation: dancers may embody multiple ethnic identities, and the dance can simultaneously affirm and critique cultural boundaries.
The border is conceptually a contact zone (Gómez-Peña) that has extended into the Midwest and virtual space, forming a transnational hyperspace where borderscape flows reshaped by media and mobility.
Kinetopias: turning points in which border bodies move within, across, or around borders; these are physically grounded (time/place) but connected to broader border imaginaries. Kinetopias are characterized by: the presence of observing Others, the impact of policing and cultural clash, and the bodily experience of migration. Kinetopias are not just abstract concepts; they occur in discotheques, street festivals, schools, and online spaces.
Audiotopia vs. kinetopia: while audiotopia emphasizes sonic spaces as border-crossing, kinetopia centers on the bodily, tactile, and visually embodied experiences of border crossing and exchange.
Hybridization and transculturation are central: border dances routinely blend elements from diverse cultures (e.g., European dance roots with Mexican-American contexts). This blending raises questions about tradition and modernity, authenticity and adaptation.
The concept of borderization (the thickening of boundary markers through social and political processes) is contrasted with creolization and hybridity: borderization foregrounds unequal power relations, immigration policy, and economic disparity as drivers shaping new cultural forms.
Danza azteca and ballet folklórico examples show how border dances can oscillate between revival, political activism, and hybridity, resisting or reimagining histories of conquest and culture clash.
Borders are also not static: upper-level concepts like Gómez-Peña’s Fourth World (a space where Indigenous and deterritorialized populations meet) and Morales’s heterotopia emphasize ongoing displacement, exchange, and reconfiguration of identities.
The border as a transnational phenomenon: border dances are not confined to a geographic boundary; they spread beyond borders via online media, schools, and global dance communities, while still retaining strong local, bodily dimensions.
Cultural and Ethical Implications: Politics, Identity, and Representation
Political context matters: policy decisions (e.g., Proposition 187) shape cultural expressions and can motivate or intensify border-dance practices as acts of resistance or assertion of heritage.
Racialized and class-based dynamics persist: YouTube discussions reveal uncomfortable displays of racism and xenophobia; debates over authenticity often intersect with class and regional identities, not merely ethnicity.
The border as both center and periphery: while seen as a boundary region, border cultures reimagine themselves as centers of innovation, influence, and global dialogue (the border as a hub for new cultural forms).
The tension between depoliticization and politicization: as dances enter mainstream media and commercial spaces (advertising, television competitions, fitness programs), their political edge can be diluted or transformed, raising questions about what is retained or abandoned in the process.
Issues of cultural capital and ownership: competing claims about what constitutes authentic quebradita or duranguense reflect shifting power dynamics within Mexican-American communities and across transnational audiences.
Connections to Previous Lectures and Foundational Principles
Simmel’s boundary theory underpins the analysis of border identity: boundaries shape social life and identity formation.
Border folklore theory (Américo Paredes) informs the interpretation of resistance, “in-between” identities, and the creation of new border cultures through interethnic struggle and persecution.
The concept of transculturation aligns with the border’s mixing of cultures, where loss and acquisition create new cultural forms that can be celebrated or contested.
Foucault’s heterotopia provides a framework for understanding border spaces as juxtaposed, deviant, or transitional spaces with distinct rules and norms.
Fernando Ortiz’s transculturation helps conceptualize how border dances blend origins from multiple cultural streams while negotiating power relations.
The discussion of a border as a kinetopia connects theoretical ideas about movement with empirical observations of how bodies move in spaces of border contact and conflict.
The discourse on Greater Mexico and the transnational construction of cultural spaces echoes debates about nation, diaspora, and identity in globalized contexts.
Practical and Real-World Implications
Border dances offer a lens to study how communities respond to policy, discrimination, and social exclusion, turning trauma into cultural production and solidarity.
They illustrate how cultural forms can migrate beyond their origin communities, enabling new audiences to access and reinterpret them.
The interplay of media, commerce, and culture in border dances demonstrates how globalization reshapes regional traditions into global cultural capital while raising questions about authenticity and ownership.
The bodily focus highlights how migration and border politics are experienced not only through law and policy but also through everyday practices, embodied in dance, movement, and performance.
Concluding Synthesis: Dances as Kinetopias of the Border
Border dances are not merely performances; they are embodied theories of how borders work, how people negotiate them, and how identities emerge from contact zones.
Dances like quebradita illuminate the border as a living space where multiple identities co-exist, compete, and reconfigure in dynamic ways that shape both local communities and global audiences.
The synthesis of theory and ethnography in this work emphasizes that studying border dance yields insights into body, movement, power, culture, and resistance, while also acknowledging the ongoing political and ethical complexities that accompany these expressions.
Quick Reference: Key Terms and People
Simmel: Boundary as core to human identity; sociological rather than purely spatial.
Américo Paredes: Border folklore;