Norma Cantu, author, Department of English, University of Texas

This presentation explores key celebrations found in Laredo, Texas, a south Texas city located across the river from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas in northern Mexico, and their role in community building and the creation of mestizaje or hybridity-borderland culture. The fiestas are religious, social, and political in nature and function at various levels of "community" in that each is celebrated by specific residents in Laredo.