Enduring legacies of the copper borderlands: Negotiating tensions between historic, cultural, and environmental sustainability

Stephanie Capaldo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The border communities of southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico, have pivoted around copper mining since the late 1900s. While mining remained central to the region's sense of place, a century of mineral exploitation harmfully impacted the area's water, air, wildlife, vegetation, and public health. By the late 20th century, after operations ceased, the economic and social vitality of postmining towns in the copper borderlands had become dependent on the memory of that mining for the purpose of tourism, which begged the question: Was it possible to sustain cultural identity and environmental health when the two appeared in opposition to each other? Mining histories are celebrated in local museums, libraries, historic sites, monuments, restaurants, hotels, and stores. Mining stories are retold and reenacted in local ceremonies, rituals, parades, festivals, and competitions. Open pits, tailing piles, mountaintop removals, and smoke stacks have, over time, become landmarks, reminders of economic prosperity past, while the environmental realities of mining development are often left out of the plot line. Mining narratives have the power to define sense of place in southern Arizona and northern Mexico; some are privileged while others have been forgotten. Cultural, historic, and economic sustainability depend on the preservation of mining memory; however, environmental sustainability also requires recognition of its damaging history. This article explores the extent to which the removal of mines and smelters from mining towns changed their sense of place and identity. Particularly, it examines the interrelated cultural, economic, and environmental vital signs that determine health and prosperity in historic mining towns along the mythic frontier region of U.S.-Mexico borderlands.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)306-312
Number of pages7
JournalSustainability (United States)
Volume8
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Dec 2015

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