David Romo

A Global Microhistory of El Paso and Ciudad Juaréz: Axis and Allied Intelligence and Propaganda along the U.S. – Mexico Border, 1933 to 1945

Dr. Romo’s project explores the role of Allied and Axis propaganda and intelligence in shaping the U.S.-Mexico border between 1933 and 1945. During World War II, drug smuggling became conflated with Axis plots to subjugate America; Mexican braceros were no longer portrayed as unwanted aliens but rather hailed by U.S. government officials and propagandists as heroic “soldiers of production” in the battle against global fascism; and the Zoot Suit movement of Mexican American barrio youth became a symbol of disloyalty. Although much of the contemporary literature characterizes the so-called globalization of the U.S.-Mexico border as a relatively recent development linked to current immigration issues, drug smuggling and militarization, Romo argues that World War II marked an important turning point in these developments. It is a period in which the global discourse of war left an indelible mark on the border’s political, economic, and cultural landscape.