Reflection on Mary Kate's Presentation

I found this presentation on borderlands literature to be extremely fascinating; until Wednesday, it was not something I had even heard of. I think the idea of expanding the genre to include native groups, like the O’odham, is really important. I know the book that started this movement, Borderlands, is focused specifically on the people in a sort of geographical cultural limbo between Mexico and the United States; they struggle to identify with a singular group. While I do think that this is certainly an important group to talk about, and their struggles are unique and valid, I also think that the O’odham are, in a sense, experiencing an even more extreme version of this and should be included in the literature. 

The Tohono O’odham, despite being a sovereign nation in most senses of the term, are subject to rules and issues created by Mexico and the United States, and their identity is impacted by their tribal upbringing but also Mexican and American culture, which are geographically imposed. Their struggle, then involves three different groups, inherently more complicated than the dual-identity struggle described in Borderlands and, as such, I think modern literature focused on identify within the Tohono O’odham would be not only cathartic to the groups involved, but also constructive moving forward.