6 Great Resources for Teaching About the U.S.-Mexico Border

Posted on May 20, 2019

In researching resources for the novel excerpt "The Gringo Champion," which tells the story of a teen migrant, WWB has found great videos, articles, and photo essays addressing immigration across our southern border—which can be also be used with other works of literature, such as Esperanza Rising, or in social studies and history classes. You'll find links to these resources below.

1. "The Mexicans want to steal him. And the Americans want to keep him." Read about a seventeen-year-old whose experiences with the US–Mexico border are far different from Liberio's.
2. Look at photos taken at different US–Mexico borders; scroll down to see a crossing of the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo). Then, look at an image of artist Patricia Ruiz-Bayón’s “Tortilla Wall” installation. Read more about art that explores border crossing and immigration in “A Vale of Terror, Transcended.”
3. Find out how a US official analyzes border issues in “Former ‘Border Czar’ Gives Real Facts about Immigration” from Pro Publica.
4. Look at photos and images from the Borderland Collective project. Students asked and answered questions like “What is ‘Acting like an American’?” “What is the purpose of a border?” and “What is a border?”
5. Read about one way for people on different sides of the US–Mexico border to make contact: a tug of war. . . And about the immigration trend we're not hearing about: Americans moving to Mexico.
6. Watch a trailer for the Frontline documentary: When Daddy is Deported to Mexico.

(Watch on YouTube.)