Making Absence Visible: The Caravan of Central American Mothers in Search of Disappeared Migrants

Abstract

The touring model employed by the Caravan of Central American Mothers in search of disappeared migrants in transit through Mexico creates processes of political empowerment for poor, indigenous peasant women who have no previous experience as activists and human rights defenders. Interviews and participant observation with members and organizers of the ninth caravan (held in December 2013) reveal three key moments that anchor the mothers’ transformation into political subjects and human rights activists: the creation of a collective identity based on maternal activism, the forging of an alliance with transnational human rights networks, and the emergence of a budding politics of visibility based on public acts of grieving that candidly lament the vulnerability of migrants caught in the drug war and border securitization across the hemisphere. El modelo itinerante de la Caravana de Madres Centroamericanas en busca de migrantes desaparecidos en tránsito por México genera procesos de empoderamiento político de mujeres pobres, indígenas, campesinas y sin experiencia como activistas y defensoras de derechos humanos. Entrevistas y observación participante con integrantes y organizadores de la novena Caravana (diciembre 2013) identifican tres momentos claves para entender la transformación de las madres en sujetos políticos y luchadoras sociales por la defensa de los derechos migrantes: la conformación de una identidad colectiva basada en el activismo maternal, la alianza con redes transnacionales de promoción y defensa de los derechos humanos, y la emergencia de una política de la visibilidad a partir de acciones de duelo público en respuesta a la vulnerabilidad de los migrantes en el contexto de la narcoguerra y la política hemisférica de securitización de fronteras.

Contesting Mexico’s Necropolitics: Necrogovernance and Subversive Necropower in Two Cases

“…The Fathers and Mothers of Ayotzinapa and the OFPC used a touring model, with caravans traveling across the nation to stage protests. Accompanying these protests, in which relatives of victims staged acts of public mourning, made me reflect on the essence of this activist strategy (Rivera Hernández, 2017), and this reflection is at the heart of my argument here.…”

“…Finally, I shall use “subversive necropower” to refer to the strategies activists use to reclaim ownership of their dead or disappeared. I label these strategies “necropower” both to compare them to corporate, criminal, and state necropower and to shed light on the way Mexico’s contemporary repertoires of collective action seem to build on a regional history of social movements that memorialized victims in public spaces (Noble, 2015; Rivera Hernández, 2017; Robben, 2007; Sanjurjo, 2017; Tilly, 1995; 2006).…”

“…Necropolitics should be viewed as a contested field of social action and discourse in which subversive necropower may instead render victims visible and thus mournable. The benefit of this perspective is that it links the activist repertoires used by Latin American collectives of relatives of victims (Auyero, 2006; Rivera Hernández, 2017; Robben, 2007; Sanjurjo, 2017) to regimes of necrogovernance (Mbembe, 2008; Robben, 2016; Rojas-Perez, 2017). We might even speak of a discourse of “necromorality” that declares that the dead have rights and that the nation’s victims must have truth and justice and be remembered.…”

“…Latin American relatives of victims of state violence often defy regimes of necrogovernance by recalling violent memories in public spaces in this way (Rivera Hernández, 2017; Robben, 2007; Taussig, 1992). By doing so, they form a “shared strategy of political action” and participate in “the production of shared meanings” (Sanjurjo, 2017: 113).…”

“…By doing so, they form a “shared strategy of political action” and participate in “the production of shared meanings” (Sanjurjo, 2017: 113). These protest repertoires draw their strength from a strategic deployment of a “politics of visibility” (Rivera Hernández, 2017: 108) that makes full use of the “moral and magical power of the unquiet dead” (Taussig, 1992: 48). They use testimonies and photos of victims to call on society to join them in their struggle.…”