“¿Por qué crees que se van nuestros hijos?”

El continuum de violencias en torno a la desaparición forzada de migrantes del Bajío mexicano

Bibliographic Data

ID17818679
AuthorsHelena Fabré Nadal (0000-0002-1284-7511, corresponding author)
Year2026
Issue63
Pages125-146
Publication date2026-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAntípoda Revista de Antropología y Arqueología (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2011-4273 • E-ISSN: 1900-5407
PublisherUniversidad de los Andes (PUBLISHER • VE)
DOI10.7440/antipoda63.2026.06
OpenAlexW7160238882
LanguageFR
References cited16

This article examines the forced disappearance of twenty-two migrants who, in 2011, left their rancherías in San Luis de la Paz (Guanajuato, Mexico) to look for work in the United States, driven both by precarious living conditions and by a longstanding community tradition of migration. Drawing on ethnographic research carried out in those same rancherías—including more than twelve months of accompaniment with the families of the twenty-two disappeared migrants—the article analyses how these families’ everyday lives become embedded in a continuum of violence that unfolds before, during, and after the disappearance. I argue that the analytical framework of intertwined violences helps explain how daily life is shaped by overlapping forms of structural and slow violence, which intersect with the extreme violence that characterises current migration routes from Mexico to the United States and ultimately gives rise to forced disappearance. The analysis foregrounds the experiences of women who remain in the rancherías and do not migrate, exploring the different forms of violence present in their rural communities. By focusing on the everyday experiences of the families of the disappeared, the article offers a perspective on forced disappearance that is grounded in migrants’ places of origin. It concludes by highlighting the need to examine the multiple forms of violence that occur simultaneously in the physical environment of the disappeared, in order to develop a more nuanced understanding of migration and forced disappearance as part of a broader web of violence

Ethnography · Everyday life · Forced migration · Order (exchange) · Perspective (graphical) · Structural violence · Conflict, Peace, and Violence in Colombia · Latin American Urban Studies · Migration, Health, Geopolitics, Historical Geography

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access