And What About Children?: Representations of Infant Migration in Latino/a Cinema

Abstract

The conceptualization of the border as a living, fresh wound has become the foundation of numerous studies that have described and tackled the issue of immigration from myriad perspectives: social, economic, cultural, and political, among others. Similarly, this ‘herida abierta’ has been the focus of diverse written, visual, and aural representations, in artistic manifestations of all kinds. In particular, in the case of Latino/a cinema, the act of migrating has been exposed in movies such as El Norte and/or Sin Nombre, among others. However, as noted by Katharine M. Donato Vanderbilt and Blake Sisk, “although studies point to children and young adults in the Mexico-US migration process, most do not focus on children’s experiences per se” (2015, 61). Following this line of thought, this essay intends to explore the way immigration (understood as a process which involves a point of departure, a journey, and the arrival and settlement of migrants) is represented in Latino/a cinema, paying special attention to the way children are affected by it. The essay will look at several audiovisual texts, ranging from the documentary film Which Way Home, to movies such as Under the Same Moon and Entre Nos.