Migration-As-Travel: re-thinking Transit Migration through Migrant Narratives

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2317-9651.i31p104-131

Keywords:

transit migration, minor literature, autonomy of migration, affection, testimonio

Abstract

This article examines two testimonies written by undocumented migrants (El viaje del Pollo: la odisea por el sueño americano (2014) by Fabián Quito and Sobrevivientes: Ciudadanos del mundo (2018) by Pascal Ustin Dubuisson) which narrate their journeys through unconventional tropes such as the figure of the tourist, the adventurer, and the notion of cosmopolitan citizenship, in order to propose the idea of migration as a form of precarious cosmopolitan travel. Drawing on the theory of the autonomy of migration and Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of “minor literature,” it argues that these testimonies go beyond their denunciatory function and operate as epistemic interventions that reconfigure the ways in which migrant transit is represented. The article suggests rethinking migration beyond the grammar of trauma, integrating new ways of feeling, narrating, and politicizing human displacement.

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Author Biography

  • María José Gutierrez Jimenez, Emory University

    Profesora Visitante de español y Estudios Latinoamericanos en la Universidad de Emory, Oxford College. Es colaboradora del proyecto de humanidades públicas Humanizando la Deportación, archivo de narrativas digitales producidas colaborativamente con migrantes latinoamericanos. Obtuvo su doctorado en Literatura Latinoamericana en la Universidad de California, Davis. Sus intereses de investigación incluyen el estudio de fronteras, las migraciones sudamericanas y la cultura Latinx en EEUU. 

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Published

2026-06-30

Issue

Section

Dossiê: Migrações de corpos, línguas e identidades

How to Cite

GUTIERREZ JIMENEZ, María José. Migration-As-Travel: re-thinking Transit Migration through Migrant Narratives. Caracol, São Paulo, Brasil, n. 31, p. 104–131, 2026. DOI: 10.11606/issn.2317-9651.i31p104-131. Disponível em: https://revistas.usp.br/caracol/article/view/238528. Acesso em: 25 sep. 2026.