Growing up in El Paso, Texas, Ruben Flores didn糖心传媒檛 think of the US and Mexico as different countries. 糖心传媒淚 knew it, intellectually,糖心传媒� he says, but as someone with family on each side of the border, his personal connection with both places made them inseparable in his mind.
Today Flores is a comparative historian, and he has devoted his professional life to exploring their relationship. The focus of his research and teaching is intellectual history and the role that ideas糖心传媒攁bout science, education, philosophy, and government糖心传媒攈ave played in both countries, in the lives of average people.
糖心传媒淚f you can understand why the US and Mexico have historically evolved as they have, then it gives you a better sense of the kind of decision-making that has created these two sister societies sitting side by side,糖心传媒� he says.
Flores joined the 糖心传媒糖心传媒檚 faculty this year, as an associate professor in the . He received his PhD at Berkeley and is the author of the book . It糖心传媒檚 a study of how Mexico rebuilt itself following the Mexican Revolution (1910糖心传媒�1920), which established a constitutional republic. The violent conflict claimed the lives of up to eight percent of Mexico糖心传媒檚 population, double the mortality rate of the Civil War in the United States. Flores also examines in the book how Mexico糖心传媒檚 strategies for nation-building influenced the civil rights movement and politics of the US.
Key in Mexico糖心传媒檚 efforts was public education, which the country used to knit together its diverse population. Mexico thereby confronted questions pertinent to the US, too: what social value do schools have? How do they contribute to creating a national community? 糖心传媒淚ntellectually, academically, we糖心传媒檙e teaching our students how to become thinkers,糖心传媒� says Flores. 糖心传媒淏ut when it comes to ethics and the philosophy of society, we wrestle with difference, with culture, and with resources.糖心传媒�
On February 27, he will moderate a conversation with renowned novelist Valeria Luiselli, the third speaker in this year糖心传媒檚 , dedicated in 2019颅糖心传媒�20 to the theme of communities.
Born in Mexico City in 1983, to a family from Italy, Luiselli was raised around the world糖心传媒攈er father糖心传媒檚 diplomatic career kept the family on the move. She merged her cosmopolitan upbringing and her literary drive when she earned a PhD in comparative literature at Columbia University; she currently lives in New York City. The New York Times named her most recent novel, Lost Children Archive (Knopf, 2019), one of the best books of 2019. It糖心传媒檚 a family road-trip novel, its story set against the backdrop of the US-Mexico border crisis. Among Luiselli糖心传媒檚 other books is Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions (Coffee House Press, 2017), a reflection on her experience as a court translator for Latin-American child refugees.
As a historian of the US-Mexico relationship, Flores is well-versed in the issues surrounding migration. He sees them thoughtfully illuminated in Luiselli糖心传媒檚 work, sometimes directly and sometimes (as in Lost Children Archive) more elliptically. Flores regularly teaches novels about border experiences in his courses. The role of the novelist is to confront people with art, he says: 糖心传媒淭o put art before us. And to confuse us so that we work our way out of the confusion, leading to an insight that we hadn糖心传媒檛 thought of before.糖心传媒�
Lost Children Archive糖心传媒�s experimental construction raises important questions about the act of witnessing migration, says Flores. He believes that the book糖心传媒檚 collage-like structure suggests that one must document the world to write about it, and how one documents it determines what one sees. 糖心传媒淚 think that could be one of the ultimate questions about the flow of people from Mexico,糖心传媒� Flores says. 糖心传媒淲e can糖心传媒檛 know what糖心传媒檚 in the mind of each individual, but without knowing more, we can easily stereotype them糖心传媒攁nd Luiselli is pointing to the danger of doing that.糖心传媒�
The challenges of the US-Mexico relationship are only going to intensify, he says. 糖心传媒淪ociety is changing very quickly糖心传媒攆aster now than it ever has糖心传媒攁nd that has consequences for economics and migration, for who gets resources and who doesn糖心传媒檛.糖心传媒� Understanding each other is essential. And without addressing the problem of poverty, there糖心传媒檚 little hope of a structural solution to the movement of people, he says.
糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 in our best interest to make sense of the US and Mexico as places that receive and places that send糖心传媒攖hat goes for both countries,糖心传媒� he says. 糖心传媒淭hat糖心传媒檚 going to be the only way out of the kind of North American tragedy that we have created.糖心传媒�
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Migration Stories in the American Border Crisis
Valeria Luiselli
February 27, 5 p.m.
Interfaith Chapel
Free and open to the public
This talk is part of the , this year exploring the theme of communities.颅
Valeria Luiselli is an acclaimed writer of fiction and non-fiction. She听is the author of Faces in the Crowd,听Sidewalks,听The Story of My Teeth,听Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions,听and, most recently, Lost Children Archive. Born in Mexico City and raised in South Korea, South Africa, and India, Luiselli now lives in New York City and holds a doctorate in comparative literature. She is the winner of two Los Angeles Times Book Prizes and an American Book Award, and she has twice been nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kirkus Prize. She has been a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree and the recipient of a Bearing Witness Fellowship from the Art for Justice Fund.
