Cinematic ‘Caravans’: Ethnography and the Filmic Representation of Mexican and Central American Immigration

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

The cinematic, virtually real, and ethnographic representation of Mexican and Central American immigration speaks to its importance on the imaginaries of Western audiences. From El norte (1983) and Sin nombre (2009) to La misma luna (2007) and Carne y arena (2017), the visual representation of human mobility has been informed by the socio-political contexts of those North American countries in which immigration occurs. Drawing on Hamid Naficy's conceptualization of an 'accented cinema,' this panel proposes to complicate the tropical representation of Mexican and Central American immigration in film, virtual reality, and ethnography by centering the formative aspects of the filmic subgenre in relation to ethnographic research and history.

This panel will consider the spatiality of postcolonial cinema in the Americas by reviewing how dislocation is manifest in transnational spaces like detention centers, frontera towns, subterranean tubes, and the agricultural sites of itinerant laborers. This panel welcomes all considerations of the experiences of migrants, refugees, and immigrants with a focus on their representation. Drawing on LASA's theme for the year, "Nuestra America," this panels seeks to affirm and address how human mobilities have been necessarily misrepresented in global and local contexts.

Sub Track

• Film, Performance, and Culture

Session Organizer

• John Kennedy, Cornell University

Chair

• John Kennedy, Cornell University

Discussant

• Junyoung Verónica Kim, University of Pittsburgh

Individual Presentations

• “Para Seguir Adelante: Livelihood Strategies, Transnational Ambitions, and the Agency of Honduran and Salvadoran Migrants in the Pacific Northwest” - Jordan D Levy, Pacific Lutheran University; Sandra M Estrada

• Hell on the Other Side of the Border: Precarious Work of Hispanic Women in Factories in Almudena Carracedo’s Documentary "Made in L.A". - Jennifer Thorndike, Monmouth College

• Movilidad y espacios suplementarios: Victoria Para Chino y Sin nombre del director Cary Fukunaga - Jesús E Morales

• "El Otro Lado": Transnational Human Mobilities and Cinema - John Kennedy, Cornell University