We think of maps as connoting knowledge and permanence. Then we see maps showing California as an Island and have to ask “What do we believe today that will be completely wrong 200 years from now?”

Among other things the Changing Boundaries exhibit graphically illustrates that borders are not as permanent as they appear. It also suggests that money spent on artificial barriers, walls and checkpoints is to a large extent wasted. People move around.

Over the last four hundred years the frontier between Mexico and the United States has shifted and hardened. These maps show that in a historic perspective boundaries between countries are not as fixed as they seem. To believe that the current border will stay fixed would require much hubris.

Some from the far right will fear that the exhibit is an attempt to reclaim the Southwestern US for Mexico. Some from the far left will see “Astlan” and Mexico’s old boundaries and will claim that this land is rightly Mexico. The curators would suggest that the maps are simply historic data and as such aren’t meant to imply anything. To attempt to turn back the clock would immediately raise the question “turn it back to when?” The Comancheria? New Spain? French Louisana? It can’t be done. These maps can teach us about the past but we have to live with the reality of the present and try to improve the world in the future.