American Roundtable is an Architectural League initiative, bringing together on-the-ground perspectives on the condition of American communities and what they need to thrive going forward.

This presentation and discussion, captured in the video above, complements the report Brownsville Undercurrents on the city of Brownsville, Texas, the southernmost American city on the US–Mexico border. Report editors Lizzie MacWillie, Jesse Miller, Josué Ramirez and report contributors Amanda Davé, Zoraima Diaz-Pineda, Edna Ledesma, and ChristinaMaria Xochitlzihuatl Patiño Houle shared findings and highlights and then discussed some of the report’s key ideas and provocations with American Roundtable project director Nicholas Anderson and Architectural League executive director Rosalie Genevro.

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We asked Las Imaginistas for their thoughts on public space and equity in Brownsville. —Lizzie MacWillie, Kelsey Menzel, Jesse Miller, and Josué Ramirez, Brownsville Undercurrents editorse.

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A crowd gathers around a model made of painted clay buildings, hand-drawn street grids, pieces of yarn, and other chucherias (knick-knacks) depicting a future downtown Brownsville, Texas, and its connection to Matamoros, Mexico. It’s the result of months of dialogues, bike rides, and making workshops led by Las Imaginistas, an art collective. Their project, Hacemos La Ciudad (We Make the City), is a civic reimagining of Brownsville.

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