Visualizing Maya Migrations in Latino/American Border Films

• In Event: Marginality, Precariousness, and Exclusion: the Latin American Road Movie

Abstract

This paper analyzes the ways two contemporary Latino/American films attempt to document the obligatory passage taken by Maya youth as they journey to the United States. Through an analysis on the types of (in) visibilities employed by these border films, the paper examines the ways the experiences of Maya migrant youth are constructed in La jaula de oro (2013) by Diego Quemada-Diez and Luis Argueta’s documentary AbUSed: The Postville Raid (2010). While the films differ in style, they both center on the contemporary migration journeys of Guatemalan Mayas to el norte. In analogous fashion, the films link the displacement of Maya immigrants to the United States as a result of the socio-political conditions that continue to impact the isthmus in the postwar period. These visible socio-historical contexts challenge U.S. discourses on migrant youth and border crossings. Thus, the paper also provides another lens from which to understand the ways the passage to the United States shapes contemporary Maya migrant identities as well as how the journey informs the creation of transnational Maya communities.

Author

• Alicia Ivonne Estrada, California State University/Northridge