As part of the activities of the Guadalajara International Book Fair, we interviewed Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez, founder, professor and director of the School of Cross-Border Studies at Arizona State University (asu for its acronym in English). He told us about the history, academic programs and research projects that are developed at the School, focused on migrants and children of migrants. He also described a project for the digitization of maps dating from the century xvi to the century xix from the southwestern United States, particularly Arizona, New Mexico, and California.

He also talked about the theoretical anchor that he proposes to study the region of the southern United States and northern Mexico, relying on political ecology, on which it is based to define the borders of the region, beginning with the environmental ecology exemplified in "the two deserts ”of Sonora and Arizona, which affirms that they are actually the same and because of it they have crossed from cultures to fauna. Trade and migration relations are lost in this space when it comes to politics, since aspects such as archaeological and ecological are neglected.

Finally, the academic spoke about his friendship and working relationship with his colleagues, and highlighted the difference between cross-border and transnational studies that, far from being mutually exclusive, complement each other, and therein lies the richness of collaborative scientific work.

Among his most recent publications is Language Hegemonies and their Discontents: the Southwest North American Region Since 1540 (University of Arizona Press), and the book is in press Withdrawn. From Netzahualcóyotl to Aztlán: the intellectual pilgrimage of a cross-border man, published by El Colegio de la Frontera Norte.