Highway for the Hemisphere

Abstract

This chapter explores how interest in Mexico continued to orient Los Angles toward the borderlands and Pacific world in the 1930s and through the post-war era. Los Angeles rebuilt its cross-border relationship with Mexico in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution through the construction of a transnational highway running from Los Angeles to Mexico City. While the political borderline running horizontally between the two countries became increasingly rigid during this period, the construction of the International Pacific Highway reveals how regional elites hoped to strengthen ties through cross-border infrastructure, tourism, and trade. The Automobile Club of Southern California, precursor to the American Automobile Association, and a number of Mexican governors spearheaded the project, which they completed in 1957. Through the highway, elites in Los Angeles and in Mexico envisioned and negotiated a new regional relationship between two borderlands regions.