Narratives of invasion and intimacy: Transborder relations with tamarisk in the Chihuahuan Desert

Tamarix spp., also known as salt cedar or tamarisk, has garnered a reputation in the United States as an invasive plant, with widespread policy and research advocating for its eradication in the Chihuahuan Desert region that spans the United States and the Mexico border. Yet, south of the border in Mexico, tamarisk is often integrated into daily life on more friendly terms. This study applies a political ecology lens to government and conservation publications and news articles on tamarisk between 1995 and 2020 to investigate media and governmental narratives in the Southwestern US and Northern Mexico as a contiguous region. Our research asks: In the last 25 years, how has the movement, management and biocontrol of tamarisk plants interacted with the broader discourses of invasion in the US-Mexico borderlands? We find that government and news media publications from the US side of the border are more likely to demonstrate combative and hierarchical narratives that frame human-tamarisk relationships using militaristic language, while narratives of tamarisk in Mexico—particularly as expressed in news media—are more diverse, and include articulations of a quotidian intimacy and relationality between people and tamarisk. The article argues that differences in discourses between publications from the US and publications from Mexico reflect a hegemonic relationship between the two countries that is also characterized by counterhegemonic practices. This intervention suggests new paths forward in thinking about introduced species through a lens of human-plant relations that deepens existing political-economic understandings.