The Border: The 'Line In The Sand' Dividing The U.S. And Mexico

An NPR interview with the author of a book that looks at the actual story behind the arbitrary creation and actual development of the border between the U.S. and Mexico. It presents many significant, but little known facts about how the border was created on paper and how this did not take into account the geographic and human realities. For example, the Apaches - not the U.S. or Mexico - actually controlled the region on both sides of the new 'border.'

The 'Line In The Sand' Dividing The U.S. And Mexico : NPR: "It's easy to define the squiggly border between Mexico and Texas: It's determined by a river — the Rio Grande. But the rest of the U.S.-Mexico border is not so obvious. The straight lines are drawn seemingly at random across mountains and deserts.

In her book Line in the Sand, historian Rachel St. John traces that dividing line to its beginnings in the mid-1800s. 'One of the things that's really interesting to me about the western border,' St. John explains to NPR's Steve Inskeep, 'is that there really is no 'there' there before the United States and Mexico sit down and decide that they're going to draw this line.'"