Crossing boundaries: exploring child migration at the U.S.-Mexico border in Valeria Luiselli’s works

What is happening along the U.S.-Mexico border? And what drives child migrants to risk their lives crossing borders? The thesis explores the complex relationship between Mexico and the U.S., the project of constructing a dividing border wall, and the influences it had on the policies adopted to reduce Mexican immigration. In the first chapter the troubling relations between Mexico and the U.S. are underlined, retracing the main stages that marked history: agreements, laws and political tensions which determined the root causes of certain migration policies. The second chapter focuses on UAC (Unaccompanied Alien Children), that is children attempting to cross the border, pushed by socio-economic and political factors that force them to abandon their home countries looking for better life conditions: in particular, they undertake dangerous journeys hoping to put an end to the exploitation and oppression suffered both in their villages and along the way. In the end, an analysis of Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive and Tell Me How It Ends is useful to explore the harsh reality to which children are subjected, presenting authentic testimonies of migrant children who managed to reach the U.S. Valeria Luiselli’s narrative is particularly interesting since she not only displays facts, but also focuses on the psychological and emotional aspect, to understand the repercussions that such traumas have on children’s physical and mental health.