1. In Border Boda or Divorce Fronterizo, Marguerite Waller says, “I still feel that Spanish is central to my understanding of the place and the time that I am living, but I do not think that it will allow me to represent anyone or anything more authentically.” She also describes the different scenarios that lead to people becoming bilingual or monolingual, saying that a well-educated white person might know more Spanish than a Hispanic one who has grown up in the U.S. Considering these circumstances, what role should Spanish play in negotiating the border? Should debates, performances, and interactions be done in one particular language, or is this question more context-dependent? If it should depend on context, when should Spanish be used and when English?
2. Reading about Teddy Cruz, I wondered how architecture and design fits into the body of art tackling issues regarding the border. How should we look at this work? Fine art? A more practical sort of art? The quote of Tania Bruguera’s in Teddy Cruz’s Mapping Non-Conformity, “It is time to restore Duchamp’s urinal back to the bathroom!” especially stood out to me. Duchamp’s urinal, or “Fountain,” as he called it, is only considered art by some because he signed it and hung it up as such. If it returned to the bathroom, it would be not art, but a piece of plumbing. Can we then look at architecture as art, or is it something more functional? How does it relate to the performance art we have been reading about, either in its goals or the way it tries to achieve them?
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