This essay decodes a Wall-DNA in American culture with an examination of two shaping moments in history, namely the Founding Fathers and the Mexican-American War. It argues that the Trump Wall, instead of protecting, endangers American values and opportunities; instead of uniting the nation, divides it and ignites cultural wars. The Trump Wall portends fear, bigotry, distrust, intolerance and disconnection; it is the Trump War. Therefore, this border construction is more of a mental construct than a physical one, especially when it involves a cultural re-landscaping and boundary shifting between the US and Mexico and within the two nations. The essay also challenges a one-dimensional and static view on American values, and calls for a 21st century sophistication for a culturally nuanced definition of what America means, and a 21st century agility to cross back and forth any walls without sparking a war.
Articles by Mimi Yang
Mimi Yang Ph.D. is Professor of Modern Languages at Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin. She is the author of the book The Tricultural Personality (Chinese, Hispanic, English): A Paradigm for Connecting
Cultures (Edwin Mellen, 2014). Her selected publications on American themes include “The Prairie Style:
Rethinking American Cultural Identity” in South Atlantic Review, “Crossing between the Great Wall of China and the ‘Great’ Trump Wall” in Palgrave Communications. As a Hispanist by training, she has also published (in both English and Spanish) extensively on the themes in the Spanish speaking world, ranging from Jorge Luis Borges’ metaphysics to Latin American postmodernism, Frida Khalo’s visual autobiography, César Vallejo’s poetic creationism, and communicative teaching pedagogy. She is a recipient of the 2004 Wisconsin Global Educator Award in higher education.