Introduction: Crossing Borders and Boundaries in the Hispanic Caribbean
Introduction: Crossing Borders and Boundaries in the Hispanic Caribbean
This book begins with a discussion of Michael Kearney's classic essay, in which he differentiated “borders” from “boundaries” in the contemporary world. For him, borders are the often hybrid geographic and cultural zones between nations, while boundaries are the legal spatial delimitations of states. Thus, the borders and boundaries of nation-states often do not correspond neatly to each other. In particular, the crisscrossing of cultural borders and legal boundaries by migrants disturbs the conventional dichotomy between “us” and “them.” As Kearney writes, “‘transnationalism’ implies a blurring, or perhaps better said, a reordering of the binary cultural, social, and epistemological distinctions of the modern period.” Moreover, “peoples that span national borders are ambiguous in that they in some ways partake of both nations and in other ways partake of neither.”
Keywords: Michael Kearney, cultural zones, borders, boundaries, contemporary world
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