Paper short abstract:

I will explore how Mexican peace activists living in Barcelona experience the realities of Mexico’s Drug War on a day to day basis and the ways in which they engage with, and seek to affect, the reality of living with violence and death in Mexico.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I will explore the experience of war and death in Mexico from varying positions of geographical displacement, and emotional attachment. Since 2006 Mexico has suffered from a conflict in which over 80,000 have died, thousands of individuals have disappeared, and at least 200,000 have been displaced. By looking at the work of Barcelona-based association for peace in Mexico, Nuestra Aparente Rendición (Our Apparent Surrender), I will look at the effects on Mexican migrants living in Catalonia of coming to know a violent reality when not physically present, and how the analysis of war is transformed into practical action via transnational networks and tools. Within the work of Nuestra Aparente Rendición, I will also explore the somatic experience of displaced death, and how that translates to varying notions of shared grief and suffering, as well as assertions of solidarity and shared humanity across transnational networks encompassing Mexico, Europe and the USA. I will do this by examining how volunteers experience counting the dead in Mexico's only civilian-led, nation-wide count of the dead in relation to the Drugs War, Menos Días Aquí. Through this I will discuss the significance of making violence and suffering visible through differing forms of protest and testimony.