Representations of undocumented people on television shows such as The Fosters can impact how audiences understand contemporary issues concerning sanctuary and migrants. In this Critical Intervention forum essay, we examine the intricate representation of Ximena, a Latinx woman, and her struggle as an undocumented person who takes up sanctuary in a church to avoid being arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This televisual representation of Ximena highlights the need to incorporate the complexity of undocumented people's experiences into mainstream narratives. As activist scholars, in this brief essay we support, critique, and contextualize representations of undocumented people and sanctuary as part of the work that needs to be done to help challenge dehumanizing representations, laws and policies, and actions.
Fugitive Rhetorics in Media Representations of Sanctuary
Oscar Alfonso Mejía is a PhD student in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah. Correspondence to: Oscar Alfonso Mejía, Department of Communication, University of Utah, Languages and Communication Building, 255 S. Central Campus Drive, Room 2400, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA. Email: o.mejia@utah.edu.
Kent A. Ono is Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah. Correspondence to: Kent A. Ono, Department of Communication, University of Utah, Languages and Communication Building, 255 S. Central Campus Drive, Room 2400, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA. Email: Kent.Ono@utah.edu.
Oscar A. Mejía, Kent A. Ono; Fugitive Rhetorics in Media Representations of Sanctuary. Departures in Critical Qualitative Research 1 March 2020; 9 (1): 111–115. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/dcqr.2020.9.1.111
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