Narrative of the journey as a vehicle of resistance Global Diversities and Inequalities Research Centre

July 2024

Prof. María López, Alejandra Díaz de León and Ana Sabina Castro have published an article titled 'Mujeres a la fuga. Narrativa del viaje como vehículo de resistencia para las mujeres en tránsito por México'/ 'Women on the run. Narrative of the journey as a vehicle of resistance for women in transit through Mexico' in the Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revue Canadienne Des Études Latino-Américaines et Caraïbes.

Prof. López reports:

Together with Alejandra Díaz de León (University of Essex) and Ana Sabina Castro (El Colegio de México), I present our findings of our interviews in Mexico City with migrant women on their way north. We focus on migrant women's narratives of neglect and abuse by authorities and others.

In this article, we present migrant women as complex individuals with autonomy, agency and political identity, traversed by multiple and changing realities. Applying Achille Mbembe’s concepts of necropolitics and the critique of black reason, as well as narrative studies, this article develops a critical analysis of the narrative of the migration process told by migrant women as a mechanism for (re)interpreting the journey and the women. In this sense, women’s narratives emerge as a vehicle of resistance and the migration journey as a non-linear process marked by trauma and fear, but also by strengths and strategies for moving forward.    

This fieldwork is funded by the Center for US–Mexican Studies, University of California San Diego as part of the project Women on the run: Narrative of Violence against Women in transit through Mexico.   

At the end of October 2024, I will be travelling to Tijuana, on the US-Mexico border, to interview with migrant women, practitioners and stakeholders for the next phase of the project. I will be conducting this fieldwork with one colleague from the Center for US–Mexican Studies, University of California San Diego, and two doctoral students from the University of Baja California.