Even if my theory is wrong and our home has exclusively been a byproduct of local effort, any bubble that might have existed officially popped. In just the last decade, the ubiquity of GPS, mobile technology, and the Internet have forever changed our home. But it’s unlike any of the other changes we’ve ever witnessed before. It’s as if religion, capitalism, and the train all arrived at the same time. But they aren’t just new to us. Like shipping containers and plastics, or cars and highways, these changes are disrupting everyone, everywhere. For the first time in history, we’re all part of the real-time world.
Throughout history, El Paso del Norte has been characterized as a unique place. Not in the typical sense of the word, in which all places are “unique.” But more in the genuinely dumbfounding and strange way. For centuries people have tried defining it and diagnosing it from within its confines. Normally, our differences or “problems” are simply characteristics of a segment of our people. As if only an area filled with incompatible outlooks can create such a place –– that is simultaneously “home” and “foreign,” even to inhabitants.
No matter how true that might sound, it’s wrong. Our home is not independent from the world, we’re merely a byproduct of it. A microcosm of the bigger picture. By now, you may be able to identify the effects we’ve seen from major world or national causes. But not all of them are necessarily bad, obvious, or that long ago.
For instance, it’s my belief the changing border after 9/11 could have added to the financial deprivation of Mexico. Which then ramps up a drug war, peaking by 2007. This in turn causes a surge of immigration with new waves of businesses and home buyers in El Paso. Thus, insulating our city from the recession plaguing the rest of the country in 2008. With bleak forecasts everywhere else, many from the “brain drain” returned to their old stomping grounds. The momentary surge gave new momentum and character to the region. But for the past few years, as the pendulum swung back in the opposite direction, that energy began to dissipate.
Throughout history, El Paso del Norte has been characterized as a unique place. Not in the typical sense of the word, in which all places are “unique.” But more in the genuinely dumbfounding and strange way. For centuries people have tried defining it and diagnosing it from within its confines. Normally, our differences or “problems” are simply characteristics of a segment of our people. As if only an area filled with incompatible outlooks can create such a place –– that is simultaneously “home” and “foreign,” even to inhabitants.
No matter how true that might sound, it’s wrong. Our home is not independent from the world, we’re merely a byproduct of it. A microcosm of the bigger picture. By now, you may be able to identify the effects we’ve seen from major world or national causes. But not all of them are necessarily bad, obvious, or that long ago.
For instance, it’s my belief the changing border after 9/11 could have added to the financial deprivation of Mexico. Which then ramps up a drug war, peaking by 2007. This in turn causes a surge of immigration with new waves of businesses and home buyers in El Paso. Thus, insulating our city from the recession plaguing the rest of the country in 2008. With bleak forecasts everywhere else, many from the “brain drain” returned to their old stomping grounds. The momentary surge gave new momentum and character to the region. But for the past few years, as the pendulum swung back in the opposite direction, that energy began to dissipate.
Even if my theory is wrong and our home has exclusively been a byproduct of local effort, any bubble that might have existed officially popped. In just the last decade, the ubiquity of GPS, mobile technology, and the Internet have forever changed our home. But it’s unlike any of the other changes we’ve ever witnessed before. It’s as if religion, capitalism, and the train all arrived at the same time. But they aren’t just new to us. Like shipping containers and plastics, or cars and highways, these changes are disrupting everyone, everywhere. For the first time in history, we’re all part of the real-time world.