Letters of undocumented Mexican women in the United States: the affective experience of nomadic voices

Abstract

In the following paper I will analyze letters written by undocumented Mexican women living in the US during 1990 - 1992 from the perspective of affective theory. These letters, written to relatives and friends living in Mexico, reflect epistolary discourses extensively influenced by affects such as fear, sadness and desolation, but also by a future promise of happiness. I will posit that the experience of displacement of these women gives birth to nomadic cultures where the letter emerges as a textual form capable of providing a safe space for the expression of solidarity, the preservation of affective memory and the deployment of an ethics of care.