This thesis closely analyzes two of Benjamin Alire Saenz's short stories from his collection Everything Begins and Ends At the Kentucky Club (2012) that discuss specific spatiotemporal and "transfronterizo" dynamics of the El Paso-Juárez borderland. In both these stories ("He Has Gone to be With the Women" and "The Rule Maker"), Saenz probes how people along the El Paso-Juárez border negotiate ongoing sociopolitical dilemmas as they learn and experience the border. Despite burgeoning scholarship on Chicanx borderland literature, scholars typically focus on broader, transnational issues that veer away from micro-nuances that ordinary people experience. To examine these micro-transnational nuances, this thesis employs embodied cognition theory to demonstrate how Saenz's characters experience and thinking are heavily influenced by the dualities of the El Paso-Juárez border. As opposed to presenting biased narratives that often portray the border as militarized war zone, Saenz's short stories explore the humanity that is often dismissed. Exploring how Saenz's fictional characters embody micro-transnational traits allows readers to reimagine and empathize with the El Paso-Juárez border
