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Dissertation Information for Juan Manuel Benitez

NAME:
- Juan Manuel Benitez

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (2005)

ADVISORS:
- Jose Carlos Moya
- James W. Wilkie

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Raul Hinojosa Ojeda

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: A social history of the Mexico-United States border: How tourism, demographic shifts and economic integration shaped the image and identity of Tijuana, Baja California, since World War II

Abstract: Contemporary images of the U.S.-Mexico border are portrayed in a plethora of coverage by the mass media as well as many other mediums. Many of these sources represent very polarized and conflictive images of the region. This work takes an integrative approach in order to identify the processes of globalization, which have the most dramatic impact on these images and examine how these images help to construct and perpetuate distinctive border realities.

These processes have been magnified since W.W. II and helped to create a complex and seemingly arbitrary historical "advertisement" of the region. I argue that an examination of specific regional tendencies occurring simultaneously can provide a more illuminating discussion of the contemporary U.S.-Mexico border. I use Tijuana, Mexico since W.W. II as a case study for examining how the current socio-cultural "advertisement" evolved historically and generated the current globalized, physical and social landscape. Specifically, the impacts of tourism, demographic shifts and economic integration coexist in polyvalent realities that result from and help create the political, economic and social identities of Tijuana.

I examine how these historical peculiarities molded the contemporary border space. However, these integrated processes take their toll on the social schemes of the Mexican side. What seem to be dualities are actually characterizations of both function and place related directly to how tourism, the movement of people and economic developments shape and define the region. By focusing on how historical images and portrayals of Tijuana represent, shape and reproduce social realities or processes; these social and economic transformations constitute the historical advertisement of a border identity that is rooted in specific processes of globalization with unique ramifications.

I use three distinct historical phases to identify and discuss these transformations and their effect on Tijuana's image construction and identity development. Beginning with the period from 1945 to 1965; then, 1965 to 1982; finally, 1982 to the present; I trace how tourism, demographic shifts, and economic integration resulted in distinct representations of the border and how these processes affected how individuals on both sides of the border viewed the region and interpreted these phenomena.

MPACT Scores for Juan Manuel Benitez

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-08-10 11:58:32

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Students under Juan Manuel Benitez

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None