Abstract

ARMENTA ALVAREZ, Carlos  and  ESCALA RABADAN, Luis. The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Border Crossing. Commuters and Performative Border in the Californias.Translated byErika Morales. Frontera norte [online]. 2025, vol.37, e2390.  Epub Aug 18, 2025. ISSN 2594-0260.  https://doi.org/10.33679/rfn.v1i1.2390.

This article aims to describe and explain, from the perspective of Cultural Sociology, how the commuter population in the urban border region of Baja California employs different strategies for presenting themselves at the ports of entry into the United States. This text is based on in-depth interviews conducted between 2020 and 2022 with different active cross-border people who use their temporary visitor visas to work in the United States and reside in Tijuana and Mexicali, Baja California. The research shows the importance of cultural elements such as social performance to explain this population’s dynamics of cross-bordering in this region.

Keywords : commuters; transborder workers; social performance; Tijuana and Mexicali; United States-Mexico border.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in English | Spanish     · English ( pdf ) | Spanish ( pdf )