Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SIGNAL-LANDSCAPE (New approaches to mapping the signs of violence and care in the migratory landscapes of silenced women)
Période du rapport: 2022-02-01 au 2023-04-30
This project intends to put academic research at the service of global and European social challenges in this case related to the migration of women by land routes in unsafe contexts. For this, we will focus our field work on a multi-sited and feminist ethnography developed at key points of the routes that connect Central America and the United States, crossing Mexico, among other territories. It is one of the busiest migratory routes, and also one of the most dangerous for those who walk it. Kidnappings, exploitation, extortion, the sale of people or disappearances are part of the life stories of women on the move.
Therefore, it is proposed to generate results based on the research question: What traces does the migration process leave on women, focusing on the case of Honduran women? Traces related to Violence, Exploitation, Trafficking and Disappearances (VETD) and traces related to the Attention, Survival, Agency and Legitimized Presence Strategies (CSAP)
The Experienced Investigator considers as a general objective to form a cartography with the protagonists, as a LANDSCAPE-SIGN from these traces. For this, the following will be related: a) The physical landscapes that reflect the damage and care that women have experienced along the route; b) The geographical and social landscapes of VETDs from their experiences; and c) The geographical and social landscapes of the CSAP that can make us reflect on the ways of managing human mobility.
This work proposes to be part of the generation of situated narratives that address the issue from the protagonists (migrant women) to demand a critical social dialogue that aspires to transform the contexts of damage into habitable spaces where life and bodies are not in permanent risk
Therefore, it is proposed to generate results based on the research question: What traces does the migration process leave on women, focusing on the case of Honduran women? Traces related to Violence, Exploitation, Trafficking and Disappearances (VETD) and traces related to the Attention, Survival, Agency and Legitimized Presence Strategies (CSAP)
The Experienced Investigator considers as a general objective to form a cartography with the protagonists, as a LANDSCAPE-SIGN from these traces. For this, the following will be related: a) The physical landscapes that reflect the damage and care that women have experienced along the route; b) The geographical and social landscapes of VETDs from their experiences; and c) The geographical and social landscapes of the CSAP that can make us reflect on the ways of managing human mobility.
This work proposes to be part of the generation of situated narratives that address the issue from the protagonists (migrant women) to demand a critical social dialogue that aspires to transform the contexts of damage into habitable spaces where life and bodies are not in permanent risk
In this project, a Multilocal audiovisual ethnography has been developed along the migration route from Central America to the United States. Women who walk to move within a migratory project, but also women who walk the route to locate the disappeared. And it is that one of the main traces of violence carried by the bodies of women in movement is disappearance: the one they experienced, the one they fear to live or the one they are living.
This multilocal ethnography has led us to visit and develop research processes in three countries mainly (Honduras, Mexico and the United States), as well as in two more as part of the journey (El Salvador and Guatemala). In these territories, the Researcher has sought to facilitate the narration of the geographical and bodily landscape of women in transit, to generate a broad choral narrative that offered a cartography of the route.
For this, 19 biographical narrative support workshops were held in the construction of creative stories (63 women and 4 men participated); 11 thematic dialogical workshops as a dialogical reflective space (56 women and 13 men participated); and 73 interviews with key informants, many of them also supported by methodological proposals that generate creative narratives (50 women and 23 men participated).
In parallel, the video camera occupied a central place in the construction of the narrative about the route. Audiovisual ethnography was developed along the route, being present in everyday contexts and in the development of the Project. Thus, we collected the visual story in reception and accommodation spaces, in spaces for the generation of narratives, in transit spaces or, among others, in search spaces for missing relatives. The places that the Researcher visited and inhabited were those that women in transit or key informants pointed out to us as key. In some of these spaces, seminars were held in which the Researcher was able to show the comparison that was being made between the migratory route of Central America and that of West Africa that goes to Europe. All this analyzed from the traces that traffic leaves on the bodies of women.
In the workshops, 32 visual narratives, 6 audiovisual narratives and 1 sculptural narrative have been generated. We call this set of stories, all of them linked through the methodological proposal, the Creative Narrative Cartography of the route. This is the direct discursive choral result of women. Part of it has already been shared in various forums such as Conferences, Congresses, etc. In the month of October of this year there will be an artistic installation in collaboration with the University of Cádiz and the Ibero-American Theater Festival of Cádiz. This narrative material will also be worked on throughout the year with women on the Spanish border with North Africa, thus extending the dialogue between border territories.
One of the key results of this project is the audiovisual narratives. Let us remember that an investigation of a visual ethnographic nature was developed. Thus, the Researcher has generated a series of five short documentaries that collect, with a practical case, the search for disappeared persons in the Mexican context. Throughout 2023, a second audiovisual result will be finalized that will collect the different forms of violence and resistance developed by the participants in this project. Currently, all the material is collected and analyzed. The script is under review and editing will begin later.
Dissemination of the material and knowledge has taken various forms so far: 3 international congresses; 5 seminars; 1 radio show; 1 TV show; and 2 academic publications, among others.
This multilocal ethnography has led us to visit and develop research processes in three countries mainly (Honduras, Mexico and the United States), as well as in two more as part of the journey (El Salvador and Guatemala). In these territories, the Researcher has sought to facilitate the narration of the geographical and bodily landscape of women in transit, to generate a broad choral narrative that offered a cartography of the route.
For this, 19 biographical narrative support workshops were held in the construction of creative stories (63 women and 4 men participated); 11 thematic dialogical workshops as a dialogical reflective space (56 women and 13 men participated); and 73 interviews with key informants, many of them also supported by methodological proposals that generate creative narratives (50 women and 23 men participated).
In parallel, the video camera occupied a central place in the construction of the narrative about the route. Audiovisual ethnography was developed along the route, being present in everyday contexts and in the development of the Project. Thus, we collected the visual story in reception and accommodation spaces, in spaces for the generation of narratives, in transit spaces or, among others, in search spaces for missing relatives. The places that the Researcher visited and inhabited were those that women in transit or key informants pointed out to us as key. In some of these spaces, seminars were held in which the Researcher was able to show the comparison that was being made between the migratory route of Central America and that of West Africa that goes to Europe. All this analyzed from the traces that traffic leaves on the bodies of women.
In the workshops, 32 visual narratives, 6 audiovisual narratives and 1 sculptural narrative have been generated. We call this set of stories, all of them linked through the methodological proposal, the Creative Narrative Cartography of the route. This is the direct discursive choral result of women. Part of it has already been shared in various forums such as Conferences, Congresses, etc. In the month of October of this year there will be an artistic installation in collaboration with the University of Cádiz and the Ibero-American Theater Festival of Cádiz. This narrative material will also be worked on throughout the year with women on the Spanish border with North Africa, thus extending the dialogue between border territories.
One of the key results of this project is the audiovisual narratives. Let us remember that an investigation of a visual ethnographic nature was developed. Thus, the Researcher has generated a series of five short documentaries that collect, with a practical case, the search for disappeared persons in the Mexican context. Throughout 2023, a second audiovisual result will be finalized that will collect the different forms of violence and resistance developed by the participants in this project. Currently, all the material is collected and analyzed. The script is under review and editing will begin later.
Dissemination of the material and knowledge has taken various forms so far: 3 international congresses; 5 seminars; 1 radio show; 1 TV show; and 2 academic publications, among others.
This project aims to be part of the narratives that reflect the violence and damage experienced by women in their migratory transit. And do this from the voice or the direct story of the protagonists.
The Researcher's commitment to the theme and to the research academic work will mean that, despite having suspended the Marie Curie contract, the project will be concluded with the established objectives. Mainly, the final documentary SIGNAL-LANDSCAPE will be finalized for its wide dissemination in educational, academic, technical and general society spaces.
For dissemination, the Researcher relies on the international networks in which she participates and with her committed work at: Universidad Pablo de Olavide (currently a professor), Universidad e Cádiz (research group) and University of Wisconsin-Madison (research group and member 4W STREET)
In short, the Researcher hopes that SIGNAL-LANDSCAPE forms part of the social dialogue necessary to transform the migratory routes of harm, into routes of care and respect for the human rights of the women who transit them.
The Researcher's commitment to the theme and to the research academic work will mean that, despite having suspended the Marie Curie contract, the project will be concluded with the established objectives. Mainly, the final documentary SIGNAL-LANDSCAPE will be finalized for its wide dissemination in educational, academic, technical and general society spaces.
For dissemination, the Researcher relies on the international networks in which she participates and with her committed work at: Universidad Pablo de Olavide (currently a professor), Universidad e Cádiz (research group) and University of Wisconsin-Madison (research group and member 4W STREET)
In short, the Researcher hopes that SIGNAL-LANDSCAPE forms part of the social dialogue necessary to transform the migratory routes of harm, into routes of care and respect for the human rights of the women who transit them.