We Walk Until the Deaths Stop

Sentiment and Corporeality on the Migrant Trail

Bibliographic Data

ID11223232
AuthorsJanet O’Shea (0000-0001-8670-1665, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume57
Issue1
Pages45-59
Publication date2025-04-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDance Research Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0149-7677 • E-ISSN: 1940-509X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0149767725100715
OpenAlexW7138865967
LanguageEN
References cited22

Every year, beginning on Memorial Day, a group of 35 to 85 1 activists walk from Sásabe, Mexico to Tucson, Arizona, USA over eight days, through the arid, rugged terrain of the Sonoran Desert. They walk through soaring desert temperatures, along dirt roads and highways, enduring hot spots, blisters, and leg cramps, as shade gradually disappears with little to block the rising sun. At night, walkers sleep in tents or on tarps. Participants carry small white crosses emblazoned with the names and ages at death of migrants who perished while trying to complete a perilous journey undetected. Some are labeled “Deconocido/a” (Unknown) to memorialize someone whose remains have not yet been identified. Periodically, over the course of each day’s journey, participants conduct a role call in honor of the dead, with each walker reciting the name of the person they commemorate as the group responds with the word “¡Presente!” to “indicate that the life and death of the migrant whose name was read is recognized and witnessed” (Mankel 2021: 104). Participants undertake this journey to highlight the scale of death in the desert and its individual ramifications. 2

Desert (philosophy) · Dirt · Downtown · Honor · Violent death · White (mutation) · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Interdisciplinary Cultural and Social Studies · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access