The Documented Border Collection

The Documented Border Collection is a subset of our Borderlands Collections and is being made available through an open access digital archive. Currently, it includes the Lawrence Gipe Operation Streamline Sketches and The Celeste González de Bustamante and Jeannine E. Relly Oral History collections. 

The Documented Border: An Open Access Digital Archive is an interdisciplinary effort whose goal is to advance understanding and awareness about the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and its peoples during a period of unprecedented societal change. The innovative archive focuses on untold and silenced stories and events about this transnational region.

The archive divides into two parts. Collection guides are available in Spanish and English.

Part I: Journalists and Human Rights Activists oral histories

Journalists and Human Rights Activists includes oral histories of journalists from both sides of the border who cover northern Mexico, and human rights activists who are working to improve freedom of expression in Mexico. The oral histories are being collected by two professors from the School of Journalism, Celeste González de Bustamante and Jeannine Relly. The oral histories help illuminate the complex environment in which journalists must work, as they negotiate between political and economic forces, and the need to inform the public.

Part II: Operation Streamline illustrations

The second part of the archive features the inner-workings of U.S. immigration policies through the documentation of "Operation Streamline." Lawrence Gipe, School of Art professor has created illustrations of the proceedings, which are not allowed to be photographed or videotaped. Gipe’s drawings provide a unique record of the journey of undocumented migrants.