The border death trap and the dehumanization of migrants in Las tierras arrasadas by Emiliano Monge [El laberinto fúnebre de la frontera y la deshumanización del migrante en Las tierras arrasadas de Emiliano Monge].

Abstract

In this work, we seek to analyze the poetics of death in the contemporary migratory processes represented by the infernal cycle of migrants crossing the border in las tierras arrasadas (2015) by Mexican writer Emiliano Monge. The language of the novel is composed of fragmentary voices, testimonials, murmurs of the living and the dead, whose stories are interrupted and devastated. The testimonial value crosses the limit of fiction and gives a different dimension to the story by avoiding the trivialization of violence. The bodies of migrants, residual and devoid of meaning, are at the mercy of abject beings. In the present article, we will study how, in a frenetic tale characterized by delirium, violence and the loss of hope, the tragic space of the border recreates what the author presents as our “species last holocaust” (341).