Liminal States

I read an article recently about people who dress up like Martha Washington as part of a debutante ball in Texas. It was already sort interesting (a “what moves people to do this” kind of interesting) when I got to this part:

Today, Martha, George, and the girls are mostly Mexican Americans. Many of them descend from the original WBCA families, but just as many are descended from the people who were categorically oppressed—and, in several instances, massacred—by an American colonialist expansion set in motion by the Founding Fathers they dress up to honor.

This is the story of a border town, and what it means to be part of two worlds. And how they both acknowledge and don’t acknowledge this reality. For example:

Abrazo Ceremony, which takes place the morning after the pageant, before the parade. Four children, a boy and a girl each from Laredo and from Nuevo Laredo, cross the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge from their respective sides, dressed in colonial-era costumes and accompanied by the mayors of their cities. When they reach one another in the middle of the bridge, over the waters of the Rio Grande, they hug.

(Except it’s a ceremony you can’t actually watch.)

It’s a story about countries, cultures, poverty and wealth… but even larger. How one can be a part of things and on the outskirt of things at the same time. It’s a long article but also super interesting. So bookmark if you don’t have time to read it now.