Research that matters

Dr. De Leon does a phenomenal job at outlining the path migrants cross to enter into the United States. The author nicely infuses  ethnography and archaeology to depict migrants’ journey. I love how the author allows the participants to take their own pictures. Although I recognize this is also for logistical purposes, this also serves as a form of autonomy for the participants to tell their own journey. The pictures help visualize for the reader the journey especially since these are hand chosen sites by the migrants themselves.  Furthermore, Dr. De Leon categorization of the varying sites that migrants will encounter and utilize was fascinating.

On another note, I how the author built such a rapport with those he interviewed as exhibited at the beginning of chapter seven when Memo called him to update him that he made it across the boarder. The author giving Memo a thing of apple juice displays the trust and intimacy Dr. De Leon created. Even after such a formidable trip, the migrants, even years later, must hold onto these stories. So, the fact that Dr. De Leon created an environment where Memo and others were comfortable opening up to him is amazing and one of the few factors in ethnography that is hard to each but key to master. All in all, this one of the ethnographies that I will return to read after this course and aspire to create in a similar fashion.

The Land of Open Graves details the violent and dangerous experiences of Mexican migrants crossing the border to the US. Although this topic has been widely studied, De Leon brings a new perspective to the narrative. He states that historically, this type of work has relied almost solely on interviews rather than observations. Additionally, the stories tend to hinge on the experience of the writer/researcher rather than the subjects themselves. De Leon utilizes a more holistic approach and incorporates archeology into his research. This shows me that it’s okay to write on a subject that has already been widely studied. In fact, it is sometimes beneficial to do so, for the world is a rapidly evolving place and the results probably change with every study.

Another important aspect to this book is the visual component. De Leon uses both maps and photographs as a medium, in addition to text. The photographs are quite jarring and at some points disturbing, but I think this is critical to his work, for they show the raw, unfiltered images that he himself saw. Text can only describe so much. The maps are also helpful from a logistical standpoint, helping the reader understand where and how these migrants are traveling across the border. This also ties into the theme of the environment and physical surroundings as being key in understanding the experience of people themselves. This reminds me of last week’s reading and the idea of body-lands. What kinds of ethnographies constitute visual storytelling?

Of all readings in this class, the title of this book used such vivid imagery that it struck me for seconds. Throughout the book, the author continues to rely on visual elements to communicate his raw observations by using images of real people-an attempt to emphasize the “realness” of the situation. This strategy surely achieves its goal somewhat, for these pictures really turned texts into voices to me as I read. However, the pictures concern me greatly as I think about the welfare of these individuals. Although the writer did mention that people explicitly agreed to include their pictures in the research, what if that decision was made on the spur of the moment? Would these pictures trigger traumatic memories for them as they look back later on? How would their children feel when seeing their parents’ faces featured that way? This, to me, raises a more important question of what role the researcher needs to assume. Should it be sufficient to conduct the research according to the informants’ explicit consent or should researchers go further to think on behalf of the informants and account for possible change of decision?

Despite my concern with using photographs of real people, I really like how the author adopts an interdisciplinary approach in her writing, using not only ethnography but also archeology to analyze and convey her ideas. To me, this strategy on its own sets the book apart from others of the same genre, and reflects the degree of thoughtfulness and devotion of the author

In terms of content, The Land of Open Graves touches on the issue of indirect violence, which refers to the complex forms of violence implicit in various federal policies including ‘Prevention through Deterrence’. The book does an excellent job of detailing how such intangible and abstract idea comes into play through portraying the experiences people involved in border crossing. The idea of indirect violence raises the important question of the hidden agenda behind each federal policy and how different interest groups are represented in those policies. I’d go further and argue that even the clean-up process, which claimed to resolve environmental issues caused by border crossing, is part of that indirect violence, for it perpetuates a dismissive narrative regarding the migrating people.

Another aspect I find intriguing is how Memo and Lucho chose to forget parts of their traumatic experiences and appear ‘seemingly content’. I wonder whether these behaviors reflect their resilience and acceptance, or that such forgetfulness is their coping strategy, in which they shut down extremely painful memories. If the latter hypothesis is correct, then what will results if one day some image triggers the return of these memories?

I think one main difference between this ethnography and other ethnographies that we’ve read is that in Jason De Leon’s research, he incorporated methods of biological anthropology. Although it is not explained in detail in Chapter 7 or the Introduction, it was demonstrated in Chapter 3 of how he used the pigs to experiment the damage of nature on the dead bodies. I really like how he includes all aspects of things in this book, not only the observation itself, the experiments, but also the connection of the immigrants’ family members and how this necroviolence (mentioned in Chapter 3) has such a strong effect on the family members. I think he also writes in a way that’s really easy to understand and connect with, and all I can think of is that, this book is so…REAL.

My first encounter with this book was during the fall when I volunteered to be the facilitator of the installation “Hostile Terrain 94,” which is closely associated with his research. I also attended his talk and was really impressed and moved by everything and that’s when I started to think about the intimate relationship between anthropology and politics. It is because of the Prevention Through Deterrence policy that this immigration issue worsened. I started to wonder, what is the relationship between anthropology and politics? How strong does institutions affect people, and even culture? Or is it vice versa?

In the Fall, Jason de Leon visited campus and gave a truly impactful talk about his work in the Sonora desert that left many of us in the audience in tears. As such, I knew what to expect when beginning to read from De Leon’s book, but I really enjoyed the opportunity to read it in the context of what we have learned about ethnographic research, allowing me to taking in a lot more details about De Leon’s writing and research style than I would have initially. In the introduction, I love how honest De Leon is; he builds trust with the reader so easily because he explains in great detail his research methods and his true feelings on the subject matter. At moments, I was slightly shocked by the graphic and casual words he employed that we have not seen so much in other ethnographies; it not only made his writing stand out (beyond the content alone), but I think it reflected his care for his interlocutors. He was “trying to match the frankness, sarcasm and humor of my interlocutors” and “sneak across the border between accepted discourse and excluded discourse” (14). I believe he succeeded in doing so, but I also appreciated that he explained this all upfront; in that way, the readers would not be distracted by this unique writing style but instead focus on the content throughout the book.

  As for Chapter 7, a question that kept repeating in my mind as I read was related to the pictures. While De Leon may have changed Lucho and Memo’s names (he said some were pseudonyms but some were not), how is showing pictures of their faces not putting them in danger of deportation? I think the pictures are incredibly impactful and really develop a clear understanding of the reality of border crossings, but at what cost? De Leon spends a lot of time discussing the morals of this research in his introduction, but I was confused how he could confidently publish these pictures all throughout his book while knowing the risk it poses for Memo and Lucho. He may discuss this in other chapters, and it seems like Memo and Lucho wanted to share their story in this way; however, I do not know why they would not have preferred to just include non-identifying pictures such as just of the mountains or of their backs/hands/etc. I thought that having Memo and Lucho carry the camera with them and take photographs from their own perspective was such a unique way of giving them agency over their story, but I think there is much to be discussed about these pictures and how they were used in De Leon’s research. Because as he mentions in the introduction, he is not the person being put at risk, but rather, Memo and Lucho carry the burden and fear of potential deportation.

Being queer and black in a society that may not accept you is very challenging and very interesting also. It was interesting to read how Dr. Maurine discusses her POV and own situations in her book. Although it was a complex read it did justice for the information being conveyed throughout the book. East word and east sentence stood for a lot of meaning which was very powerful to see. Things that I notice and enjoyed was how she brought in other people’s points of view by interviewing them. All this makes me realize how there’s still a problem with people accepting people for who they are no matter their sexual identity, religion, or any other thing that makes people different from each other. It’s very important to know that queer freedom in any other LGBTQ community deserves the right to have a chance to find love without being shamed or looked down upon. Auto America has come a long way we still have a long way to come and especially in the black community most importantly in the black community that is not heterosexual

I absolutely love the concept of the body-land as described by the author in the fifth chapter. In other anthropology classes, I have been introduced to the concept of the body as a site for structural violence, a carrier of the manifestations of social marginalization and disempowerment. However, equating the body to the landscape in which it exists is a powerful metaphor that takes into account the subjectivities imposed upon the body. “A body-land that does not carry the constraining disciplines of colonization is almost impossible to imagine. We are so disciplined into gendered, racialized, sexualized ways of being; we are the product of the colonial imagination.” (63) Our bodies become the landscape home to colonization and violence. This is where Lara’s understanding of queerness comes alive to me. To most, the word queer is inextricably tied to notions of sexuality that stray from (or oppose) heteronormativity. However, queerness in many realms of black liberation theory is rather equated with otherness. For example, disability may be considered a form of queerness as it strays from normative views of a “good” body. Since blackness has historically existed in the margins of American society, it essentially becomes synonymous with queerness from a theoretical standpoint. Most importantly, black liberation relies upon this understanding of body-lands and awareness of how our bodies hold the manifestations of generational trauma. I personally feel that Lara’s spiritual basis for her book gives the reader a better framework from which to understand black liberation. It is not limited to placing black people in power but involves granting black people empowerment.

Lara talks about how the experiences of being Queer are distinct across cultures, identities, ethnicities and races. When she brings up the erasure of Indigenous Queer folk (64-65) in particular, it made me think about how Indigenous Queer folk are erased in Ecuador, which came up in my own work. I was interviewing someone about health access, and I asked about racism in the area. They proceeded to tell me about how Indigenous people in the area experience racism, but luckily, there in the highlands, they didn’t have to deal with any of the discrimination that comes with being gay. When I asked why, the person told me that it was because there were no gay people in the highlands, only on the coast of Ecuador. There were no “gays” in the highlands because it was all Indigenous people. The idea that someone could be both Indigenous and queer was completely foreign to them. This ties into Lara’s continuing points about how Indigenous peoples are not allowed to “exist in time,” they are relegated to a colonial, premodern, traditional past (65). This past does not allow them technology, rights, queerness, or any other intersectionality of identities. I also really liked Lara’s point where she says “To love being queer: Black and to love being queer: Indigenous and to know what it is to be either and both” (66). To know what it is to be either and both–how is one supposed to know what it is to be either OR both, in the context of Indigeneity, when your existence as a queer: Indigenous person is not allowed, or even further, unimaginable. This calls attention to the fact that the identity-seeking project for a queer: Indigenous person is long and arduous with the path intentionally hidden.

In Queer Freedom: Black Sovereignty, author Dr. Ana Maurine Lara provides us with a powerful ethnography that proved to be extremely thought provoking in reflecting on her fieldwork in the Dominican Republic. Here, she explains her engagement in different religious ceremonies, observations surrounding more traditional celebrations, as well as including interviews engaging different activists— all contributing to her discussion of what we view as contemporary ideas of what it means to be black and queer. She also brings into this discussion the idea of decolonization and expresses a desire for decolonization. This being said, what I found particularly interesting is the interwoven nature of her theory of coloniality as it pertained to religion, specifically that of christian coloniality. A line I resonated with described christian coloniality and its “attendant capitalism” as requiring “the valuation of some lives over others, some knowledges over others, some ways of being over others” (pg 7). This line in particular stood out to me in the sense that it provided clarity as to Lara’s idea of how christian coloniality has created a narrow sense of societal norms, and how subsequently, has contributed to racial and sexual discrimination by narrowly defining what is and is not acceptable. She further describes this as the “violent and continual management of the most intimate levels of being” (pg 6). I find her use of the word violent in tandem with management here intriguing, I wouldn’t have personally characterized the results of christian colonialism as such, but nonetheless enjoyed that Lara prompted me to personally reflect on this matter after reading this line. 

Overall I enjoyed this reading and actually found it to inspire more personal reflection about my own thoughts on modern day queerness and blackness, and how it has developed as a result of many intertwined and moving parts of society and human history. Questions to ask after the reading— we talk of decolonization, but what does this specifically entail/look like in an ideal world, does it consist of policy change?

I will be perfectly honest here, this was a difficult one for me, not out of rejection, but more misunderstanding. I began by reading the 2 poems contained in the introduction, and was well ready to get into the reading. But, perhaps I missed the memo on where I was supposed to begin, because going straight into the assigned chapter, body lands, I was confused. Terms and language were being thrown around that I had never seen before. I was expected to know these terms, and already be familiar with them. Over time I got to understand them via context but it felt like I woke up, halfway in the deep end of the pool with no idea of how I got there.

As it stands, the book, I hesitate to call it a book, is informative. The continued linkage of 2 subjects helped me to better understand the flow and message the words were trying to present. But it was only toward the second half of the chapter where I finally managed to get my bearings, when the more traditional writing style became more prominent. The interviews, life experiences, and retellings i could understand, and using those, began to piece together the meaning of the book.

Dr. Ana-Maurine Lara’s Queer Freedom: Black Sovereignty is a poetic ethnography of queer, Black, and Indigenous people and spiritual practices in the Dominican Republic. These entanglements offer a complex understanding of Caribbean Black, Indigenous, and queer communities. Lara argues for and uncovers pathways to Queer: Black decolonization and what it means to be free, particularly for Black, Indigenous, and queer people.

Although this is not your average ethnography, at least in its presentation, the author interviews activists in different communities and mostly at the intersections of two or more marginalized communities. She argues “we” are not free and that freedom is more spiritual and sacred than necessarily legally prescribed. Her focus on Black and Queer people allowed for a historical and spiritual understanding of Christian colonialism and even capitalism. Also, I enjoyed how her methodology sought to challenge the traditional anthropological research methods by including herself in the accounts, relying on mythological accounts, storytelling, alongside the traditional interviews regarding beliefs. At times, her poetic style and abstract framing made the reading difficult to follow, however, once you understand this style it definitely broadens your mindset on how to present an anthropological or an academic article, in general.

One of the aspects of this ethnography that stood out to me the most was how ofter the word “we” was used in the chapters we read this week. In the chapter about war, when Lara is discussing how she feels about the war that is being waged against queerness and Blackness her use of we to describe her feelings and who is being harmed allowed me to see the personal connection that she had to the topic and drew me into the ethnography a bit more. By using we the issues being discussed become issues for all of her readers and not just issues that are isolated to the worlds of other people. But, because of how personally connected she seemed to be to this topic, I wonder how she was able to navigate both worlds of being an anthropologist conducting ethnographic research, while also feeling personally involved with the topic? For me, it seems harder to study topics that you are close to so I wonder how she juggled both sides of this work.

Another thing that stuck out to me from this reading was the discussion about what joy is at the end of the chapter named War. This reminded me of conversations about radical acceptance and the responses of the other people in the circle helped me to understand why accepting ourselves as we are is truly a radical choice. Since before we’re born we are consistently fed subconscious ideas about what’s normal, what’s not normal, what’s good, and what’s bad. When we decide to say that we find joy in accepting ourselves as we are, whether that be queer, straight, Black, white, immigrant, or native, we decide to go against all of the norms we are taught. Lara’s description of what she finds joy in is a radical acceptance and celebration of these nuances within ourselves and that is what makes it seem scary or like it’s too much.

Lara brings up the concept of body-land which emphasizes that bodies are built from nature and therefore are not separate from it. In an excerpt at the beginning of the chapter Cherríe Moraga describes land as “the common ground for all radical action.”(Lara 61) and mentions the body as land for action. From this viewpoint, Lara examines how Christian Colonialism inherently harms people by influencing land, such as emphasis on the Dominican-Haitian border fueling ultra-nationalism and anti-Haitianism. I see the body-land concept also as a counter to the idea of dominion which claims people as superior to nature and justified to control it. This thought was used to justify colonialism and had heavy influence from Christianity as Europeans viewed that God gave man control over the earth and use of all resources. This idea of control continues to harm both land exploited to fuel the global economy built off of colonization and postcolonialism and people who occupy or were dislocated from the land. Eurochristian control was also put directly on people through “The reification and instantiation of gender binaries, racial hierarchies, and heteronormativity,”(Lara 68) which are still in place after most countries have gained independence, showing how colonialism is inseparable from the systems and states which act against Black, Indigenous, and Queer people.

I found this week’s reading from Lara’s Queer Freedom : Black Sovereignty to be very thought-provoking and illuminating. One aspect of this ethnography I resonated with was the incorporation of different modes of thinking in her analysis of current oppressive structures and ideas of decolonization. Something unique to this ethnography is the way Lara embraces breaking down socialized ways of thinking enforced by Christian Coloniality. Moreover, one of Lara’s main conflicts is with the ontological possibilities delimited by this structure and the capitalism that followed (6). As Lara elucidates, states uphold the racial, gender, and sexual standards enacted through Christian colonial ideologies and therefore posits a method of thinking about these ways of being far removed from the oppressive systems perpetuating them. I appreciate how Lara addresses the deeply institutionalized roots of colonization and even how movements for the liberation of black and queer people can fall victim to regarding the state as a site of freedom. This thought relates to a reading I have done from David Pellow’s What is Critical Environmental Justice, where he takes an aggressive stance toward the state as an actor for change versus a perpetrator of oppression. I agree with the ideas from both of these authors that looking to a system that has continually created inequity and suffering for marginalized people is not alone productive for meaningful efforts towards decolonization (and in Pellow’s case, Environmental Justice). Further, I agree that for decolonization to be fully realized, the process must take place in different realms, including spiritual-religious and theo-philosophical ideas of transformation. Lara in her ethnography, engages with an incomplete analogy, leaving the audience to question their desire for an articulated resolution. This was a method that both excites and frustrates me. As she discusses, individuals make their unique meanings in life, therefore placing the responsibility on them to delineate their understandings. I am excited by how engaging the idea of incompleteness is. I also enjoy the direct engagement Lara forces on the reader when understanding her work. As she mentions, her ethnography is a space where you must be present, and her intentional opacity highlights this. Although this provides a mode of conversation with the audience, I wonder if this dilutes the ethos that Lara has as the ethnographer. This question was appeased by reading the ways Lara engaged with her work, and the exhaustive nature of her research because it bolstered her authority to me as a reader.

I was intrigued by Lara’s inclusion of Frantz Fanon’s definition of decolonization. Fanon describes decolonization as, “quite simply, the substitution of one ‘species’ of mankind by another. The substitution is unconditional, absolute, total, and seamless” (2). It is also a process that aims to grant individuals independence from colonial power, or more generally hegemonic power. Lara’s decolonial framework seeks to obtain autonomy with regard to the intersection of queer and black identities. The concept of body-lands plays into this also as it hinges on individuals’ subjectivities as they relate to bodies and the geopolitical formations those bodies are confined to. Lara references Anzaldúa as well, and I believe her work Borderlands speaks further to the struggle of claiming one’s own sovereignty. In Borderlands, Anzaldúa provides historical context to the modern issues pertaining to Mexican immigration into the U.S. I think her description of the U.S.-Mexican border as “es una herida abierta where the Third World grates against the first and bleeds” (3) speaks to the overall brutality of the situation. She points out too how the border can be used as a tool to reinforce an us vs them mentality that ultimately benefits white supremacy. Taking into account the colonial past of Mexico, I’m left feeling as though there hasn’t been a change in the ways the U.S. exploits minorities and has consistently white washed our histories. The precarious experiences of those crossing the border are the new means of subjugation and erasure. I believe this way of viewing borders fits into Lara’s conception of body-land. 

While I did find this ethnography very interesting and significant, I honestly had some trouble understanding some of the concepts and specifics that Lara was talking about. However, I did really like her discussion and definition of “body-lands.” Lara states, “The concept of body-land indexes the relationships and the simultaneous co-constructions of bodies and the lands across/through/on which those bodies exist. Body-lands extend beyond mere flesh-soil into the subjectivities produced across changing body-lands, whereby the histories, contradictions, absences produced by pillaging, captivity, severance, rape, torture, and development are rendered visible, even if at times illegible” (61-62). I believe that she means that body-lands involve the connection between and the story behind the different relationships humans have amongst others and with the land they reside on. The story behind the land someone lives on can reveal so much about social constructs, the way relationships function amongst humans, the social, physical, and mental issues that impact those that occupy the land, and more. I thought Lara’s discussion on this topic and the connections she makes were very relevant and important, and have applications to different parts of all of our lives. This makes me question, where and what are places/situations in your own life that you connect to the concept of body-lands?