WALKING THE MIGRANT TRAIL: MOBILIZING CULTURAL HERITAGE AND COMMEMORATING CLANDESTINE MIGRATION IN THE ARIZONA-SONORA BORDERLANDS

Abstract

Since 2004, a group of allies sympathetic to the plight of unauthorized migrants crossing the US-Mexico border have organized the Migrant Trail—a seven-day, memorial walk that takes place between Sasabe, Sonora and Tucson, Arizona and commemorates migrants who have died in the Sonoran Desert. Taking an ethnoheritage perspective this study explores the ways in which the Migrant Trail and its participants have mobilized cultural heritage resources to advocate for the rights of migrants, forge a community of allies, and encourage collective introspection through acts of remembrance that condemn state violence, humanize migrants, and present migrants as individuals who are deserving of human rights. In tracing this process, this study demonstrates the role that mobilized heritage may play in creating spaces and communities that are capable of remembering injustices, advocating for social change, and opening up the possibility for the afflicted to pursue justice in the present and future.