Vehicle Consumption, Theft and Smuggling in the Texas-Mexico Border, 1930–1960

Abstract

My work studies how the construction of international highways and the rise in automobile consumption in northern Mexico during the 1930s and 1940s facilitated the illegal entry of thousands of stolen cars from the United States and encouraged the expansion of vehicle theft in the U.S. Southwest. This illicit business exposed the vulnerability of the political border between the United States and Mexico. Likewise, I also study the efforts of both governments (the United States and Mexico) to stop this illegal activity and the response of transnational criminal gangs to adapt to the increasing intervention of the State on the border.