Postcards from the Sonora Border: Visualizing Place Through a Popular Lens, 1900s-1950s - Softcover

Arreola, Daniel D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 081655501X ISBN 13: 9780816555017

Publisher: University of Arizona Press, 2025

Synopsis

Young men ride horses on a dusty main road through town. Cars and gas stations gradually intrude on the land, and, years later, curiosity shops and cantinas change the face of Mexican border towns south of Arizona. Between 9 and the late 95 s, Mexican border towns came of age both as centers of commerce and as tourist destinations. Postcards from the Sonora Border reveals how images― in this case the iconic postcard - shape the way we experience and think about place.

Making use of his personal collection of historic images, Daniel D. Arreola captures the evolution of Sonoran border towns, creating a sense of visual 'time travel' for the reader. Supported by maps and visual imagery, the author shares the geographical and historical story of five unique border towns - Agua Prieta, Naco, Nogales, Sonoyta, and San Luis Rķ o Colorado.

Postcards from the Sonora Border introduces us to these important towns and provides individual stories about each, using the postcards as markers. No one postcard view tells the complete story - rather, the sense of place emerges image by image as the author pulls readers through the collection as an assembled view. Arreola reveals how often the same locations and landmarks of a town were photographed as postcard images generation after generation, giving a long and dynamic view of the inhabitants through time. Arranged chronologically, Arreola's postcards allow us to discover the changing perceptions of place in the borderlands of Sonora, Mexico.

About this title

About the Author

Daniel D. Arreola is a professor of geographical science and urban planning at Arizona State University. His many books include Postcards from the Rķ o Bravo Border: Picturing the Place, Placing the Picture, 9 - 95  and Tejano South Texas: A Mexican American Cultural Province.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 081655501X
• ISBN 13: 9780816555017
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 296