Un/Settlement: Counter-Memories of Migration and Railways in Southern Mexico By Victoria Simmons A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2018 Victoria Simmons i Abstract The Ferrocarril Panamericano (Panamerican Railway) has long served as a space of livelihood, exchange and integration for the communities of the Pacific Coast of southern Mexico. Nevertheless, in recent decades, the historic vitality of this railway, its passengers and communities has been buried under narratives of migrant criminality, terror, and victimhood. As a means of lightening the contemporary weight of security imaginations, this dissertation draws on archival and interview data from diverse locations in Mexico to offer a series of counter- memories of migration on the Ferrocarril Panamericano in southern Mexico. Each counter- memory aims to foreground memories that have been buried and to reconnect historical knowledges that have been separated from one another. It reconnects studies of migration and governance with histories of settlement, transport and state-making. It also highlights the expulsions and dispossessions of today in connection with the transit migration phenomena. Sinopsis Desde su inauguración, el Ferrocarril Panamericano ha servido como espacio de sustento, intercambio e integración para las comunidades de la costa del Pacifico al sur de México. Sin embargo, en años recientes, la vitalidad histórica de este ferrocarril y de sus pasajeros se ha enterrado bajo las narrativas e imágenes de criminalidad, terror y victimización de migrantes. Como manera de aligerar el peso de este imaginario securitizado, esta tesis ofrece una serie de contra-memorias de los ferrocarriles y las migraciones en el sur de México. ii Prologue & Acknowledgements To all the participants who I interviewed for this study, thank you for your time, courage and trust. Archival research for this project would not have been possible without the support of the Centro de Documentación e Investigación Ferroviarias (CEDIF) at Mexico’s National Railway Museum in Puebla. I am particularly indebted to Isabel Bonilla, Jefa del Departamento de Biblioteca Especializada, for patiently and passionately sharing with me her vast knowledge of Mexican railway history. In Mexico City, I am grateful to Linda Arnold for generously sharing her time and expertise to help me navigate the Archivo General de la Nación (AGN). I also wish to thank Tracey Goode for her research assistance in diverse archives in Mexico, and Sara Torres for her friendship and for always welcoming me into her home. This dissertation was made possible thanks to generous financial contributions from many institutions and private donors. From 2011 to 2016, the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs (FGPA), and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University provided regular contributions to this project via scholarships, travel funds, teaching and research assistantships. This project also benefitted from a two-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) doctoral award (2014-2016); a one-year Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2013-14), and; a six-month grant from the Borders in Globalization (B.I.G) project (2016). Finally, I wish to thank the Province of Quebec for choosing to make affordable childcare a policy priority which enables women to contribute to science without giving up a family-life. The field work and writing of this dissertation was made possible with the financial support from the many private donors who have contributed to Carleton University’s internal awards. I am particularly grateful for the TD Graduate Travel Award in Migration and Diaspora iii Studies, which supported my field research in Mexico in 2014; the Graduate Research and Innovative Thinking Award (GRIT), which supported the archival portion of my field research in Mexico in 2015; the Norman Pollock Memorial Award for Latin American Studies and the Hamlin Graduate Bursary, which supported the writing of the dissertation in 2016. The Graduate Students Association at Carleton University also supported this project at various points by contributing funds for field research in Mexico, the writing and defence of this dissertation in 2016-18. Finally, I am grateful to Pablo Policzer and Monique Greenwood for offering me space, resources and academic comradery during the final stages of dissertation writing at the Latin American Research Centre (LARC) at the University of Calgary. To my mentors: To William Walters, my dissertation supervisor, thank you for your guidance, support, professionalism and overall openness and flexibility during the research and writing processes. Working with you has been an absolute privilege, and I am so very grateful for your mentorship. Laura Macdonald wrote numerous letters of support for diverse applications and offered me opportunities to build my professional networks and share my research with others. I am grateful to Sonya Lipsett-Rivera for sharing her expertise and contacts in support of my archival research in Mexico. Tanya Basok also played a pivotal role in the earlier stages of this project’s development. She wrote letters of support, offered feedback as a member of the examining committee on my comprehensive exams and project defense. I am grateful to Bruce Curtis, Daiva Stasiulus, and Martha Rojas-Wiesner for their support with the early development of this dissertation project. Over the course of my doctoral studies, I regularly attended reading groups which provided me with the opportunity to cultivate ideas and receive feedback on diverse aspects of this dissertation. I am grateful to all participants in these groups, and I wish to highlight the many iv important contributions from Jiyoung Lee An, Kevin Partridge, and Christine Pich. To the many colleagues, faculty, and staff at Carleton University who also supported this work: Xiaobei Chen, Augustine Park, Martin Geiger, Paula Whissel, Marlene Brancato, Darlene Moss, and my colleagues from the 2011 cohort of the PhD program in Sociology. Finally, I also wish to extend a special thanks to my friend, Jennie Nichols, who is an example to follow on so many levels. To my mother, Frances Simmons: Thank you for your unwavering support through every stage of this journey. She has offered every type of support imaginable. Her contributions have been invaluable, and the completion of this project would not have been possible without her. To my children, Evan and Leo, thank you for gifting me daily reminders to play, laugh and snuggle, regardless of the number of projects and deadlines that I may have on the go at any given time. Your tiny toes and big smiles are my inspiration. v Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... ii Prologue & Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. iii List of Tables ............................................................................................................................................... ix List of Figures ............................................................................................................................................... x List of Acronyms ......................................................................................................................................... xi An Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 1 The Global Migration Crisis: What We Know ......................................................................................... 2 Security Frameworks: What They Don’t Tell Us ................................................................................... 10 Means .................................................................................................................................................. 11 Myopia ................................................................................................................................................ 11 Method ................................................................................................................................................ 13 Research Questions, Aims and Approaches ........................................................................................... 15 Drawing our Gaze to the Middle: An Infrastructural Account of Migration ...................................... 17 On Counter-Memories and Genealogies ............................................................................................. 25 Methods: The Case, Data, Analysis, and Limitations ............................................................................. 28 The Main Arguments and Structure of the Dissertation ......................................................................... 33 A Final Word: On Power and Terminology ............................................................................................ 38 Chapter 1- Building a Railway and a Modern State ................................................................................... 40 Building a Modern State ........................................................................................................................