Transnational Americas: Home(s), borders and transgressions

From early times on, the concept of the border and home in the Americas was continuously changing, denoting sometimes ephemeral boundaries and temporary locations. Throughout the history, the westward expansion in the U.S.A. as well as the independence wars in Central and South America relativized the concept of dividing lines and homes, respectively. With time, the geographical frontiers of the continent’s countries together with the politically symbolic demarcations gained additional meanings and while in some cases borderlines emphasized actual separation between states, in other cases they pointed only at the historical heritage of a given region. Moreover, geographic, political, economic and cultural borders both separate and connect American countries; the transnational migration tendencies of the 20th and 21st centuries show that the home-searching process still goes on with the peoples of the Americas finding their new habitats on the same continent―but in another country.

Cover and book design: Zoltán Dragon