Carmen Lomas Garza's La Feria en Reynosa (1987)

Carmen Lomas Garza's work makes many connections and references to the borderlands, specifically the US-Mexico border (within her context of Texas). In La Feria en Reynosa, we see this direct reference to a border town by the name of Reynosa in the imagery of a barbed-wire fence and two mesquite trees. This scene, which shows a fair where Mexican items are being sold, is very reminiscent of the Mexican tianguis, or open air markets, that I have visited in Michoacan, Mexico. It also reminds me of my hometown's Swap Meet, which is essentially the same thing as a tianguis, but in the United States. My local Swap Meet market is usually made up of Mexican sellers and items since my community is largely Mexican. The items are usually imported across the southwest border and serve as "comforting reaffirmations of historic and ongoing cultural ties to Latin America" (Cortez 3). Everyone who visits on "remate Sunday" as my friends, family and I like to call it, are dressed in their Sunday best, like those in La Feria, paying no attention to the dirt floor and denseness of the crowds at the Swap Meet. I have this memory of when I was a child of going to a farther Swap Meet with my dad to acquire some 100% agave alcohol from Michoacan to help my mom recover from sickness after giving birth to my little sister. It was such a secretive, but awesome exchange of not only the contraband item, but also of culture through the item's use, which I can see reflected in La Feria en Reynosa. This is what I appreciate the most about Carmen Lomas Garza's work -- its ability to transcend borders, space, and time to make it relational to our own experiences and memories, and its ability to create a wonderful space for the exchange of not only stories, but knowledge as well!