Queering the New Borderlands: The Trail of Dreams and Undocuqueer Activism in the South

The growing activism of queer undocumented youth has challenged the divisions and categorizations of the state and of the migrant rights movement. Their organizing tactics have demanded the visibility of marginal subjects and... [ view full abstract ]

The growing activism of queer undocumented youth has challenged the divisions and categorizations of the state and of the migrant rights movement. Their organizing tactics have demanded the visibility of marginal subjects and the destabilization of assumed categories of la familia. Drawing on in-depth interviews, this paper describes and uplifts the transformational politic engaged by undocuqueers from the South. Besides journalistic accounts, little research has focused on the impact of undocuqueers’ activism across the nation, especially the South. My interviews document the tools, technologies and movidas created by undocuqueers who seek to (re)define political activism in the 21st century. The presentation will tell this story as it played out in the context of the 2010 Trail of Dreams, a 1,500-mile trek from Miami, Florida to Washington D.C. by four undocumented youth.