Famous Latin American songs and their discourse on transit migration: from undocumentation to vulnerability and violence

Abstract

The phenomenon of transit migration has been studied on numerous occasions from various perspectives of social analysis, highlighting its particularities, causes, risks and possible future scenarios. The information released from interviews, surveys and other data collection techniques has undoubtedly yielded a fundamental database for social sciences. However, in the present academic effort, our objective is to examine the relation of this migratory phenomenon with the discourses that emerge from musical products, in their function as emitters of a series of symbolic contents that address and distribute visions on various national and international themes.

In this context, in the following lines we will develop a critical analysis on the discourse of the five most famous Latin American songs (Mojado, Pa’l Norte, Clandestino, El inmigrante and José Pérez León) that have several million plays on different musical platforms, and that their main theme is transit migration. Emphasis is placed on their particularities and their relationship with theoretical approaches to migratory transit, revealing scenarios in which migrants develop in vulnerability, depression, religion, job uncertainty, path hazards, immigration control, deportation, among others.