Migrantes traumatizados, desaparecidos y muertos: niñas, niños y adolescentes mexicanos, chicanos y eulatinos como representados en la narrative y el cine

ABSTRACT Since 1910, Mexico has been a supplier and path for the migrating people, including Central Americans, in search of better living conditions. In fact, the flow of currencies from immigrants to their native country constitutes a lure for the dependent economic systems that they leave behind. During several migratory waves, men, particularly young ones, constituted the great migratory exodus. Beginning in the 1970s, women and children joined the waves of immigrants, and since 1994, the number of migrant children and adolescents has risen substantially. This latest immigration phenomenon is symbolized in the collection of short stories El oro del desierto (2005) by Cristina Pacheco (2005) and the documentaries Two Americans (2012) by Daniel DeVivo and Valeria Fernández and Sin país / Without Country (2011) by Theo Rigby, among others, where migrant subjects experience trauma, disappearance, and death. In addition to a sociohistorical context, these phenomena are revealed by the theoretical approaches in the works "The Intrusive Past: The Flexibility of Memory and the Engraving of Trauma" (1995) by Bessel A. van der Kolk, Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History (1996) by Cathy Caruth, and Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory (2011) by Rosi Braidotti. The reference work Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Dsm-5. (2013) by the American Psychiatric Association was also helpful. Cited examples of literary and cinematographic representations show the psychological effects on children and adolescents migrants whose nomadic condition is shared with all human beings. To interpret this particular condition, we offer the history of immigration waves from Mexico and Central America into the United States and a psychological approach to interpret child and adolescent immigration experiences as presented in the literary and cinematic texts. Related to the migrant subjects, the selected texts highlight nomadism, traumatic event (including PTSD), and death. In addition, an identity emerges related to the nomadic subjects and those characters that live on the periphery and are framed by the hegemonic power.