Isolation and Intimacy in the Sonoran Desert: A Migrant’s Account

Authors

  • Lacey Schauwecker Indiana University, Bloomington

Keywords:

desert, migration, border crisis, poetry, ecology, geography

Abstract

There are many ways to chart the geography of the Sonoran Desert and its ensuing border crisis. In this essay, I consider the value and shortcomings of migrant death maps before appealing to Javier Zamora’s poetry as a more ecological literary example. While witnessing violence against humans in Southern Arizona remains important to exposing and challenging government policy, I contend that accurately navigating this landscape requires attention to how it both isolates beings, and also puts them into intimate relation with one another. The more one learns about the desert, the more one recognizes it as a home and community, not simply a mass grave.

Author Biography

Lacey Schauwecker, Indiana University, Bloomington

Lacey Schauwecker is currently a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University, Bloomington.

References

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Wilcox, S. and Bird, B. (2020) ‘Moving Toward a Future for the Jaguar in the United States.’ Defenders of Wildlife. [Online] [Accessed 12 September 2020] https://defenders.org/ blog/2020/06/moving-towards-future-jaguar-united-states

Zamora, J. (2016). ‘Jumping Cholla Cactus.’ TriQuarterly 15 January 2016. [Online ] [Accessed 12 September 2020] https://www.triquarterly.org/issues/issue-149/jumping-cholla-cactus

Zamora, J. (2017) Unaccompanied. Washington: Copper Canyon Press.

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Published

2020-12-23

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 2 (2020)

Section

Thinking Space

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