Domesticar a La Bestia. Cuerpo, migración y relato

Resumen

The body as both a container and continent of narratives has been explored by multiple approaches and disciplines, from which we can understand its diverse expressions, constructed through the juxtaposition of space and time. Drawing on an approach situated within the affective turn in anthropology, this article analyzes, through various testimonies, some experiences of Central American migrants in order to understand the intimate way in which bodies become the narrative vehicle of a journey fraught with risks and dangers, of which the northbound train known as La Bestia [The Beast] is but one. In the voices recorded here, we can grasp the affective intensity of the act of migrating, which begins from the moments before individuals separate from their communities and families, and continues inevitably in the longed-for destination, where new corpo-affective challenges arise.