In Alvarez and Zubieta’s chapter, “Central American Immigrants at the Northeastern Mexico Border,” the authors look to gain knowledge about the numbers of Central American migrants and their experiences in terms of abuse and maltreatment. This chapter is a field research study that was conducted in February and April of 2007 on the main border sites in the state of Tamaulipas. The authors initiate the chapter by providing some background information on the issue, such as why there was a large population movement in the 1980s, from Central America to Mexico, and how Mexico became a transit country for those moving to the United States. It also touches briefly on the migrant journey and what the everyday could look like. The rest of the chapter consists of the results, and findings such as Hondurans were the largest group followed by Salvadorians, and Guatemalans, 229 of 535 migrants acknowledged suffering aggression, and that women showed lower % of abuse and aggression. However, it is noted the crimes asked about on the surveys do not include those of sexual or more serious crimes, therefore they are not counted and are shown less.
The book Human Rights: Along the U.S. Mexico Border, is a compilation of essays edited and distributed by the highly accredited University of Arizona, Press. This study is one of many aimed at understanding the different facets of the migrant’s crisis. Specifically, in this chapter, authors agreed their main source of information was from a 650 questionnaire, which is mentioned was not completed as they hoped. In translating the questionnaire and convincing people to complete it, focus was lost, and the personal interviews resulted being the source of with the most information. However, the shelters they visited held primarily Central Americans than Mexicans, they were able to get higher numbers of information to go along with their study; therefore, providing more direct recounts of specifically Central American experiences.
Migration and the violation of human rights is a recurring topic seen in Latin America time and time again. Throughout this course, it is important to recognize and understand the individual struggle that migrants from various countries face. As mentioned above, the motivation was to identify the number of Central American migrants and whether or not they’ve had to endure some type of aggression. This study serves as an example of how researchers go about creating the frames for their studies, especially when there isn’t accurate information due to the severe circumstances’ migrants face.
This photograph was chosen as the cover of the book. Because most of the book is aimed at demonstrating the gendered experiences in migration, a woman and her children are the main focus of the image, even though the woman is not facing the camera head-on.
Human Rights in Latin America 