Misrepresented Insecurities: An Annotated Interview about Displacement and Resistance of Central America’s “Eternos Indocumentados”

Abstract

Central Americans are widely misrepresented in United States mainstream media as one-dimensional peoples always associated with insecurities. In a powerful counter-representation, Director Jennifer A. Cárcamo released her documentary, Eternos Indocumentados: Central American Refugees in the United States in 2018.1 The film lays bare the root causes of forced migration, criminalization, displacement, and multiple insecurities while highlighting stories of resistance in the isthmus and the United States. This article uses an annotated interview format based on an iterative process to analyze the film’s key themes as they inform and are informed by the growing scholarly field of Central American Studies. We call for critical analysis of Central America and its people within broader processes of neoliberalism and global capitalism to better contextualize insecurities and allow for more complex and accurate representations of Central American realities.

Keywords

• Central America
• migration
• insecurities
• representation
• neoliberalism