Eliminating the border through art

Much of the discussion and performance surrounding the border conflict and culture centers around the idea of effectively eliminating said border to perpetuate a greater sense of cultural intertwining and a lack of cross-cultural distinction. Josh Kun’s article titled “The Aural Border,” along with Guillermo Gómez-Peña’s articles on “La Pocha Nostra” and “The Multicultural Paradigm: An Open Letter to the National Arts Community,” reflect the need for the United States and Latino communicates to educates each other and share their artistic and culture identities to the point where the idea of a “border” is essentially obsolete. Gómez-Peña, in particular, discusses numerous misconceptions surrounding Latino culture and certain hypocrisies inherent in the juxtaposition of U.S. fascination with Latino culture and its resistance to the growing number of Latinos in U.S. communities. He stresses the need for “dialogue” between the communities and the importance of emphasizing the similarities between cultures. Josh Kun, in his article titled, “The Aural Border”, discusses the ways in which music and the “sounds of the border” can blur the media-contrived differences between Latin and Anglo-American cultures. Both authors also declare the need to unite intellectual and artistic sectors of the populations. The performance and artistic methods seem to range in their effectiveness, but the general message of the emerging border-art scene appears to suggest a desire and need to erase the concept of the “border” in order for the cultures at hand to coexist in a peaceful manner.