Joselin Castillo
PhD
American Studies
Research Title : Economic Analysis of Guatemala and El Salvador
The Central American isthmian region compromised of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, commonly known as the Northern Triangle, has shaped a new understanding of anti-migrant sentiment in the 21st century. Originally an economic term, the ‘Northern Triangle’ circulates as a derogatory term. With mothers, children, and gang members at the limelight at the U.S./Mexico border, few conversations around the historical implications empire and US imperialism is acknowledged in mass media and U.S. politics. Despite the histories of civil wars and international interventions in Central America, the term, the ‘Northern Triangle’, now functions as a framework of illegality in a geopolitical landscape across the continent. My project is to provide a genealogy of the ‘Northern Triangle,’ from an economic to a migratory terminology, and how it works in tandem with immigration policy in the U.S.. I argue that the Central American diaspora challenges the social construction of space through solidarity and alliance building across kinship and communal care. My intervention is to disclose the erasure of Central American histories focused on the regional and global scale of politics and address the unilateral power discrepancies portrayed by the media.
