The migrant, or the death management. State Presence and its Relationship to Migration in La fila india and Eldorado

Abstract

This article focuses on the treatment of the migrant character in two different referential contexts, the transit through Mexico on the route to the United States, and the crossing of the Mediterranean to reach Europe, based on a comparative study of the novels La fila india (2013), by Mexican writer Antonio Ortuño, and Eldorado (2006), by French writer Laurent Gaudé. At first, the article reflects on the vision of the State that both novels present and its way of managing the migratory phenomenon, which implies the exclusion of the migrant and the limitation of access to his rights. The second part studies the perception that society has of the migrant and highlights the presence of the female character, whose role as an actor in search of a form of justice reverses the migrant’s inferior position and offers a form of resistance to authority.