Sin Nombre, Babel, and the Conflicts in Contact Zones

Abstract

Contact zones can be understood as spaces where cultures meet and establish relations of power based on historical processes of domination and inequality. In such spaces and under such circumstances, power dynamics are sometimes resulted from the act of geographic dislocation, executed either by the individual from a central culture who is seen as the tourist or expatriate, or by the subaltern subject who travels to an imperialist nation in search of better prospects, who is seen as the – sometimes illegal – immigrant. The objective of this article is to examine Sin Nombre (2009) and Babel (2006), two films that bring representations of both instances of transit and the inequity of power, through the lens of the postcolonial concept of contact zones.