Promiscuous Crossings: Encountering the Border in Latina/o Narratives of Migration

In his recent memoir, Illegal: Refletions of an Undocumented Immigrant, José Ángel N. describes the deep humiliation he experiences while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, as he hid through thorny brush in the rocky... [ view full abstract ]

In his recent memoir, Illegal: Refletions of an Undocumented Immigrant, José Ángel N. describes the deep humiliation he experiences while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, as he hid through thorny brush in the rocky California hillsides and crawled through drain pipes to evade la migra on the route to San Diego. Yet when he tosses a plastic bottle into the “perfectly clean green lawn” of a private home his cohort has trespassed, he allows himself a brief moment of “doubt and moral speculation,” one where he feels a hint of guilty pleasure at the prospect of violating the private, pristine space of the residence. As N. describes it, “[e]ntering a place uninvited implies a breach of trust. It stirs conflicting emotions and opens up room for moral ambivalence” (5). As an imposing formation—one that is equally physical, rhetorical, and metaphorical—the border looms formidably over the experience of the crosser, and establishes a relation of shame and humiliation that dehumanizes him. Yet crossing the border, especially without authorization, is also a specialized undertaking that requires savvy, know-how, courage, intellectual zeal, and, sometimes, nimble promiscuity. This paper examines the act of crossing the border through a relational analysis of Latina/o narratives of migration, where the verb to cross serves as a key semantic and conceptual tool that allows one to read through the crosser’s strategies to conserve her humanity in the encounter the various geographies of the U.S.-Mexico borderscape.