The Construction and Deconstruction of Border Zones in Fronteras Americanas by Guillermo Verdecchia and Amigo's Blue Guitar by Joan MacLeod

Abstract

The Canadian response to the political, cultural, and social crossing of American borders in Amigo’s Blue Guitar by Joan MacLeod and Fronteras Americanas by Guillermo Verdecchia is shown as self-defensive, even though most Canadians have in their own histories negotiated a border. Amigo’s Blue Guitar shows how members of a Canadian family fictionalize the experience of a political refugee from El Salvador whom they have sponsored, in order to authenticate or express positive self-images. Fronteras Americanas interrogates the "Latin" experience in North America, exploding stereotypes constructed by the media, and questioning the way self-identity may be constructed in response to the dominant "Saxon" culture. However, both plays also imagine the possibility of "dancing" in a space which precludes borders, of playing "a tune beyond us, yet ourselves."

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