To the Sovereign, the Migrant Body: A Journey from Beyond
“México is a journey of death for you […] The United States is not a journey of death. The United States is death itself.”
Leader of a refuge in México giving a speech to migrants preparing to cross the México-U.S. desert in the documentary Which Way Home
In this essay, I articulate a theory of sovereignty concerning the journey of migrant bodies who travel from southern to northern México whose stories end in stoppage. I argue that a theory of sovereignty based on a structure of exception does not account for the decree, a colonial practice of making pronouns absent. The territory, and not only life, in which sovereignty is presupposed must account for the structure of sovereignty. The logic, rhetoric, and speaking location of sovereignty are the concern of this essay.
Preparing submission for 2025.