Adriana Corral: Reimagining U.S. History and Creating Memory Along the U.S.-Mexico Border Through Unearthed: Desenterrado (thesis)

Abstract

By approaching Corral's work from a theoretical perspective, one more fully appreciates how Unearthed: Desenterrado works to acknowledge the dominant historical narrative and how it manipulates which memories are remembered. In doing so, Corral presently memorializes victims of human rights injustices, not only along the U.S.-Mexico border but across the world. Although her piece brings the plight of the braceros into a current context, Unearthed: Desenterrado also exposes how memories both disappear and re-emerge based on current contexts. Corral grapples with these multifaceted themes of loss, human rights injustice, and memory, all situated within the context of a subjective history. At a time when border relations are viciously strained, my study sheds light on the deeply rooted nature of the problem plaguing America and Mexico today. [From Introduction]