Abstract
This paper addresses the intended and unintended politicization of bodies of undocumented migrants beyond their death. Border activists in Arizona, California, and Texas have engaged in marches, projections, and collective acts of mourning to publicize the issue of undocumented migrants dying in their attempt to cross the desert. Nienass and Délano argue that these politics of mourning are stagings of dissensus in Jacques Ranciere’s sense, as they place these border deaths in the context of state violence and constitute a challenge to existing frames within which we sense someone as publically grievable.
This research draws from fieldwork and interviews conducted in various cities and sites along the US-Mexico border in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas between April and June 2013 with funding from The New School Provost’s Office Research Cluster Grant. We are grateful for comments from participants at the symposium Political Abilities held in Innsbruck between 27 and 29 March 2014 and at the workshop ‘Memory, Migration and Materiality’, hosted by The New School between 1 and 3 May 2014. An extended version of this chapter appeared in Social Research Vol. 83, No. 2 in summer 2016. We thank Katy Brandes, Tomás Castelazo, Camilo Godoy, and Saul Soto for permissions to use their photos.
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Nienass, B., Délano, A. (2016). Deaths, Visibility, and the Politics of Dissensus at the US-Mexico Border. In: Oberprantacher, A., Siclodi, A. (eds) Subjectivation in Political Theory and Contemporary Practices. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51659-6_15
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