Director’s Message
Gina Gwen Palacios
Associate Professor – School of Art & Design
Director – Center of the Borderlands
Director’s Message
As an artist and painter, I was taught that every area of the canvas matters and the choices you make can alter how the viewer experiences the work. You ask yourself, what belongs at the center? What holds the edges? Where do you want to direct the viewer’s gaze? A successful painting expands beyond its physical boundaries, shaping how we experience the space around it, and even ourselves. Throughout my scholarship, I have chosen to center the landscapes, histories, and people of South Texas. Through painting and mixed media, I highlight the richness of this region, its complexity, and the lived experiences that too often exist outside dominant American narratives.
Stepping into the role of Director of the Center of the Borderlands (Borderlands) felt like a natural extension of that work. To center the borderlands is to recognize the RGV not as the margin of somewhere else, but as a place of knowledge, creativity, and lived experience. It means placing students, faculty, staff, and community at the heart of our mission while elevating voices too often overlooked.
The Center builds upon the remarkable legacy of the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS). For years, CMAS advanced Mexican American history, scholarship, culture, and community. We are grateful to the faculty, staff, students, and community members whose vision created that enduring foundation. Our work today exists because of what they made possible.
Borderlands expands that legacy by inviting conversations across disciplines and communities, as the most meaningful questions rarely belong to a single field. Together, historians, educators, scientists, writers, policymakers, and community members, help us reflect the RGV back to itself, and introduce it to audiences beyond our region, in ways that affirm the distinct cultures, histories, landscapes, and people who call this region home. When people see themselves reflected in scholarship, art, and public life, they develop a stronger sense of belonging and agency. Communities that recognize their own value are better equipped to shape their own future.
This work is possible because of our fellows, staff, student employees, faculty affiliates, campus partners, and community collaborators. Thank you for your expertise, generosity, and dedication.
Looking ahead, we will continue expanding opportunities through graduate affiliates, writing initiatives, community partnerships, and student leadership as we cultivate the next generation of borderlands scholars.
Like any meaningful work of art, the Center of the Borderlands is always being composed. Every partnership, conversation, research project, creative work, and student experience adds another layer. The RGV is defined by the knowledge, languages, cultures, traditions, creativity, and resilience that have always existed here. I invite you to join us as we continue centering the people, places, and ideas that shape the Rio Grande Valley.