The differences between attending a baseball game in the US and Mexico are difficult to miss. The on-field rules are identical, but the atmosphere in Mexican baseball stands is noisy, musical, constant and infectious. The two fan cultures are distinct enough that, were you to drop a blindfolded supporter into either crowd, they would be able to identify which side of the Rio Grande they stood within seconds – or so you might think. Reality is never so binary.
Despite the often unyielding political debates about them, international borders rarely possess hard edges. This is particularly true in South Texas, and not merely as some writerly conceit - even that most material indicator of crossing a border, a checkpoint with customs officers, can be found 50 miles away from the actual national boundary. The Rio Grande may delineate where Mexico and the US officially begin and end, but the famous river simultaneously exists at the centre of economies, communities and individual lives that span both of its banks. Living with one foot in Laredo (on the US side) and the other in Nuevo Laredo (in Mexico) is so intrinsic to life here that it’s even reflected in the name of the cities’ beloved baseball team, los Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos (the Two Laredos Owls).
