Undergraduates Reimagining the US-Mexico Boundary through Film, Research, and Community-Humanitarian Engagement

With Faculty Mentor Dr. Grace Peña Delgado

About Humanities EXPLORE

Celebrating the Humanities Directory

BORDER FUTURES opens up imaginative and compassionate visions of the future through naming past violence. Understanding the US-Mexico border as a part of a long history of Empire and exclusion, the border futures project centers the human choices that built—and can un-build—the line.

Boundary Stone, 1898

The Chosen Line

The BORDER FUTURES project supports the development of Dr. Grace Delgado’s forthcoming book, The Chosen Line.

The Chosen Line aims to bring change and development into focus. A sweeping historical narrative, the book begins with the California Mission system in the 18th century and ends in the present. Yet, it remains grounded in individuals' lives, shaped by a complex and developing system of symbolic and literal borders. A midwife's keys become a symbol that holds the intersections of race, gender, property, and colonialism within the mission system. A candle in a church basement becomes a small light of hope—a choice to stand against a dehumanizing national narrative—that sparks a national movement. Blue drums filled with water are oases in a weaponized desert landscape. These stories are brought to life through engaging, accessible prose and deep archival research. With evolution and choice at its center, the book makes subversion and transformation feel approachable and possible to the everyday reader. This vision structures our research.

What We Are Looking At

Our research draws on the efforts of archivists, academics, and activist groups to better understand how the U.S.-Mexican border of today was shaped in its lifetime, as well as the implications of it through that timeline.

Archives

Our team has gathered from many special collection centers, from those local, such as the Bancroft Library, to the San Diego History Center. Additionally, our team is planning to attend the Huntington Library, UCLA's Special Collections, USC's, and the Autry Collection. In addition, we are planning to visit one of the main missions we've been studying: San Gabriel Mission.

Academics

To remain critical in our analysis of documents and archives, our team found it vital to study academia surrounding the topic. This, too, was deeply expansive to ensure a deep understanding of all the time periods we were expected to oversee. Some materials we studied were A Wicked War by Amy S. Greenberg, articles on the El Mozote Massacre, and academic journals like Racial and Cultural Dimensions of Gente de Razon by Gloria E. Miranda.

Activists

While researching, it was essential to focus on histories of resistance to the border's violence. Since its birth, people have been struggling for justice against the border; we cannot let this be a footnote in its history. Our research has touched on Indigenous revolts (in the Mission period as well as ongoing struggles for sovereignty), national movements for sanctuary, and ongoing humanitarian work in border communities. Groups like No More Deaths, Salvavision, and the Tucson Samaritans have been resources and inspiration.

"Eulalia Perez." Photograph. California, n.d. The Bancroft Library, California Faces. https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/42256?ln=en&v=uv#?xywh=-13%2C619%2C819%2C465. (accessed January 2026).

Perez, Eulalia. Una Vieja y sus Recuerdos Dictados...a la Edad Avanzada de 139 años. Manuscript. From the Bancroft Library, California Cultures. https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/154335?v=uv#?xywh=51%2C-553%2C2245%2C1824&cv=2. (accessed January 2026).

This is an example of some of the kinds of archived materials we researched. This, specifically, is a manuscript from the Bancroft Library, dictated by Thomas Savage in 1877. It is the story of Eulalia Perez, a mayordoma and llavera of the San Gabriel Mission, as told by her and written by Savage. Such documents are vital in understanding contemporary notions of race, empire, and symbolic borders in 19th-century California.

How We Work (Methods/Process)

In sum, our team synthesizes, or condenses and compares, documents and research over the centuries that the border has existed. For Andrei, this is researching Indigenous trails and comparing them to the Camino Real Highway today. For Phoebe, it's focusing on activists and grasping the Sanctuary movement of the 1980's through archives, academic journals, and oral histories. And for Sofi, it's understanding the social norms and conditions of 19th-century California, pre- and post-its annexation into the United States. Throughout all of this, we aim to better understand the conditions that created the U.S.-Mexico Border and what its future could look like.

No More Deaths. "Migrant Death Mapping." No More Deaths • No Mas Muertes, August 4, 2025. https://nomoredeaths.org/migrant-death-mapping/

Specific Tasks Assigned to the Team:

Andrei

My specific task focuses on mapping, and I researched the mission projects in regard to 19th-century history. I researched the mission system in both Alta and Bala, California, and created a map showing their geographic relationships. With this, I was able to see where El Camino Real is and how that road also acts as a border. Using these locations, I was also able to identify Eulalia, a keyholder at Mission San Gabriel, and trace her movements. These individuals and places help define California as it is now and show that the border is not always just a line that governments create. I do this through mission websites, historical documents, and Google Maps, using the sites to pinpoint the main locations. The main challenge for me is ensuring the locations are accurate and that the information gathered can be fact-checked. This research is important because it allows researchers to understand how the border works and how those in the past dealt with it.

Here are the maps I created. They are useful because they show how people traveled in the 19th century and how people can become agents of the border and help expand its influence.

Walking the Californias: The Life Path of Eulalia Pérez:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1pqLWaRyhy9LJVIk5V0prSDFwhFgY_7w&usp=sharing

Missions Alta and Baja:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1fcD0o8835q8ExPAY4V7wqgh3IaANMVY&usp=sharing

Phoebe

I spent the first two quarters researching and co-writing the opening to a chapter on the US Sanctuary Movement. The opening focused on Dora Rodriguez and the 1980 Ajo Desert crossing. Dora was in a group of twenty-six Salvadorans seeking refuge during the Civil War who crossed through the Ajo desert. She was among the thirteen who survived. Their tragedy and the government's refusal to grant them asylum were essential in beginning the Sanctuary Movement. She continued to be a committed activist and humanitarian, and has recently begun sharing her story as part of her advocacy. Her memoir, Dora: A Daughter of Unforgiving Terrain, was an incredible resource.

On top of Dora's memoir and many interviews, I engaged with primary news sources about the crossing. It was also essential to engage with a broader context for the Sanctuary Movement, Salvadoran Civil War, U.S. foreign and migrant policy during the Cold War, and more. This meant looking at both archives and secondary academic texts. It was important that the opening introduce the chapters' broader themes and analysis, while remaining grounded in its story.

Sofi

A specific task designated to Sofi was the translation of 19th-century documents from antiquated Spanish to current English while ensuring the essence of the original text was preserved. This manifested in court documents, Mission mythos, and most notably, interviews from women in positions of missionary power. This also necessitated understanding concepts no longer as vehemently implemented in California, such as "gente de razon,' which made race fluid under the identity of religion.

Why It Matters

Once we can know how individuals worked alongside the border in a metaphysical sense, we can begin to understand how human the border is and how groups use their influence to alter the perception of the border. We can connect this to the different political parties and how one side used the border as a way to humanize people and the other to make them feel inhuman.

What's Next?

In the coming month, between June 1st and 4th, our whole team will be attending the Huntington Library, UCLA Special Collections, the Autry Museum, and the University of Southern California. During this time, we will be collecting archival materials spanning the 19th to the 21st century to further support research for Dr. Delgado's upcoming historical book on the Border and its life.

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