UCLA

The topic of migrants from Mexico to the United States has been in the foreground of culture and politics for the past twenty or so years, and public opinion regarding migration has affected policy decisions. This public opinion has largely been influenced by news media as well as popular films, series, and literature. However, not all migrants are represented equally or in equal situations. My dissertation analyzes the representation of Mexican migrant women’s trauma in Mexican and Chicanx cultural production in the 20th and 21st centuries. This dissertation looks at Mexican and Chicanx film, literature, and oral history to understand the ways in which the figure of the migrant woman is inserted into narratives of suffering and trauma Using such thinkers as Gloria Anzaldúa, Amanda Ellis, and Cathy Caruth, I link gender, trauma, and border identity to understand the differences between the migrant women characters represented in cultural production and the real-life women whose lives are affected by these portrayals.Most of the cultural production related to migrant women shows that this group is considered threatening by established institutions in both the U.S. and Mexico because of a pervasive xenophobia, many times codified into law, in both countries. This dissertation builds on theorization around the representation of trauma in cultural production. While Amanda Ellis has written about trauma in Chicanx literature, there has been no in-depth study about the representation of female migrant trauma across the U.S. Mexico border.