Migrant memento mori and the geography of risk

Abstract

Undocumented migrants entering the United States on foot through southern Arizona face extreme uncertainty and risk in their endeavor. The forces of decay and erasure experienced by migrants and the things they carry ensure the rapid disappearances of the traces—primary material evidence—of this already invisible and precarious social movement as it unfolds. Playing a large role in this erasure is U.S. border security policy, which routes migrants into remote spaces where their experiences are hidden and where they are likely to become lost, to become hurt, and die. The environment of Arizona’s Sonoran Desert rapidly decays both objects and human bodies when people die en route, where migrant death is as high per capita as it has ever been. When discovered by land managers, investigators, or others, the things migrants leave behind and their bodies after death are actively removed from the landscape. Remarkable within this context of erasure are the semi-permanent and deliberately placed vernacular shrines, which mark migrants’ engagement with risk. The evocative nature of shrines inspires their preservation and curation by non-migrants who encounter them. As shrine sites directly engage with the risks migrants face, because of their sacred aura, and because they uniquely persevere in the harsh desert landscape, these sites serve as memento mori. Tethered in place, they become physical and emotional points of reference for navigating a landscape characterized by risk and uncertainty.