In all the books we have read until now, the concept of territory appears more than once. In Ruiz de Burton’s The Squatter and the Don, as well as in Americo Paredes’ With his pistol in his hand, the common territory used for the stories where the Border between Mexico and the United States. This territory comes to be a place for disputes and legal problems. The territory itself was the center of the dispute for which different countries claim their rights and possession. Embedded within the concept of territory, there is also other concepts such as the law.

For instance, the law is present in the Squatter and the Don, when the families of the San Diego county should wait until the deliberation of the judge to see if their territory and properties will be declared as of their own, or will be automatically passed to the dominion of the squatters. Similarly, in With his pistol in his hand, Gregorio Cortez is pursued and arrested by the law. However, this was more a kind of persecution organized by the rangers, using the name of the law as a justification for the resentment they felt for Cortez. It is interesting in the story of this corrido, to see how as Cortez moves to different towns and different sides of the Border, more and more sheriffs and rangers from all these places join together in order to capture Gregorio Cortez,. It was as if “the law” was bigger than the division created by the border. In both cases, we see how the law operates against innocent people in both of the stories. In other words, we see the injustices of the law, failing  to guarantee the rights of  people; and how this was intrinsically related with the territory where these people lived.

When it comes to Piri Thomas’ Down These Mean Streets, the territory comes to be (depending on the situation) a safer or a dangerous place. For instance, El Barrio was for Piri his place of comfort and security. He felt at home living in the Spanish Harlem, that was his nest. Whenever he had to move to another side of Harlem, he felt uncomfortable and out of place. For example, when he moved to the Italian part, he was victim of a very serious accident with the other boys there. Even when he left in direction to the South, after his long trip, he came back immediately to his dear Spanish Harlem.  I find a similarity between how this Harlem neighborhood was divided, and how the borders of this mini-territory can be comparable to the border between nations that we see in the other two books. It does not mind where these borders are, the fact that they divide means that inevitably people who live in either side of the border will have different conditions and  contexts in relation to each other. In terms of the law,  I also see how it interferes negatively in Piri Thomas’ memoir. The law in this case comes to be present if we consider the extreme surveillance and policing  that these kind of neighborhoods have in New York. However, at the same time they are policed, the needs and real security of these people are forgotten and overlooked.

Note: I hope these ideas make sense. It was not easy to express the relationships I found between the different books and these concepts. There were some ideas I had in my mind, but I don’t know if I was able to express them correctly.

Pamela Chavez