Author Archives: Manuel G. Galaviz

Born in Mexico and raised as an undocumented youth in San Diego, California, Manuel (Manny) Galaviz is a first-generation college graduate and Chicano scholar. He earned his Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin in December 2020.
Border Fence entering the Pacific Ocean. Ocean and cloudy sky in the background. One Border Patrol jeep and a Border Patrol motorcycle guard the border fence. In the foreground a hill with sand and vegetation.

Envisioning a Different Park: Border Walls, Transborder Ties, and Militarized Ecologies

When news broke out on January 20th, 2021, that newly inaugurated President Joe Biden signed a proclamation ending Trump’s Executive Order 9844, which declared a national emergency at the U.S. southern border, funneling emergency funds to construct his infamous border wall, immigrant rights activists and leaders rejoiced. Biden’s proclamation explicitly called to “pause work on each construction project on the southern border wall.” Yet, the next day, construction crews replacing the existing 18-foot border fence with the 30-foot rusted steel border wall between San Diego and Tijuana carried on with business as usual. (read more...)