Barrio Libre : Criminalizing States and Delinquent Refusals of the New Frontier

The city of Nogales straddles the border running between Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. On the Mexican side, marginalized youths calling themselves Barrio Libre (Free 'Hood) employ violence, theft, and bribery to survive, often preying on undocumented migrants who navigate the city's sewer system to cross the US-Mexico border. In this book, Gilberto Rosas draws on his in-depth ethnographic research among the members of Barrio Libre to understand why they have embraced criminality and how neoliberalism and security policies on both sides of the border have affected the youths' descent into Barrio Libre. Rosas argues that although these youths participate in the victimization of others, they should not be demonized. They are complexly and adversely situated. The effects of NAFTA have forced many of them, as well as other Mexicans, to migrate to Nogales. Moving fluidly with the youths through the spaces that they inhabit and control, he shows how the militarization of the border actually destabilized the region and led Barrio Libre to turn to increasingly violent activities, including drug trafficking. By focusing on these youths and their delinquency, Rosas demonstrates how capitalism and criminality shape perceptions and experiences of race, sovereignty, and resistance along the US-Mexico border. Gilberto Rosas is Assistant Professor in the Departments of Anthropology and Latina/Latino Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Publisher's note. The city of Nogales straddles the border between Sonora, Mexico, and Arizona. On the Mexican side, a group of marginalized youth calling themselves Barrio Libre (Free Hood) employs violence, theft, and bribery to survive, often preying on undocumented migrants using the citys sewer system to cross the border. In this book, Gilberto Rosas draws on his in-depth ethnographic research among the Barrio Libre to understand how the gang operates, why its members have embraced criminality, and the role that neoliberalism and security policies on both sides of the border have played in the youths descent into Barrio Libre. Rosas argues that although these youth participate in the victimization of others, they should not be demonized. They are complexly and adversely situated. Many are migrants driven to Nogales by the effects of NAFTA. Shadowing the youths through the spaces they inhabit and control, he shows how the militarization of the border actually destabilized the region and led Barrio Libre to turn to even more violent activities like drug trafficking. By focusing this population and their thickening delinquency, Rosas asserts the importance of capitalism and criminality in shaping of perceptions and realities of race, sovereignty, and resistance along the U.S./Mexico border. Gilberto Rosas is Assistant Professor in the Departments of Anthropology and Latina/Latino Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. "In this raw and compelling ethnography, Gilberto Rosas grapples with the violence, racism, and determined attempts by border youth to build their own sense of freedom in the cage of the US-Mexico border and its economy of escalating inequalities. Barrio Libre is a significant contribution to border and borderlands studies, one that enriches our understanding of the lives of youth."Lynn Stephen, author of Transborder Lives: Indigenous Oaxacans in Mexico, California, and Oregon "Gilberto Rosas's exploration of the seamy underbelly of neoliberal state sovereignty in the sewer tunnels beneath the US-Mexico border takes us to a vexed and murky place, both ethnographically and theoretically. His work invites us to consider provocative and urgent questions about the deep complicity between policing and criminality, and the racialized relegation of human life to abjection and unnatural death on the new frontier. Rosas's insistence upon directing our critical gaze to a dark and dank place of subjection, power, and violence ought to instigate vital new lines of debate in the study of border enforcement and subjectivity within the wild zones of state power."Nicholas De Genova, coeditor of The Deportation Regime: Sovereignty, Space, and the Freedom of Movement Other Nightmares And The Rise Of The New Frontier -- Against Mexico : Thickening Delinquency Of The New Frontier -- Low-intensity Reinforcements : Cholos, Chúntaros, And The Criminal Abandonments Of The New Frontier -- Interlude. Post-september 11 At The New Frontier -- Against The United States : The Violent Inaugurations And Delinquent Exceptions Of The New Frontier -- Oozing Barrio Libre And The Pathological Ends Of Life -- Interlude. Nervous Cocks At The New Frontier. Gilberto Rosas. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.