<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The community-based performance <italic>Do You Know Who I Am?</italic> (2013; Motus Theater, Boulder; dir. Kirsten Wilson) relates the lived experience in the U.S. under the DACA (Deferred Action for Child Arrivals) programme, told by an undocumented Mexican cast. By reclaiming the label ‘undocumented migrants’ whose residency on American land without legal authorisation implies a dehumanising dimension of the ‘illegal alien,’ the cast defines the state of <italic>undocumentedness</italic> as the lived conditions of vulnerability, exploitation, displacement and perpetual fear determined by living under ‘illegality’ and non-citizenship. My purpose is to analyse the stylistic and thematic oratorical components of the dramatic performance in line with the ontological construction of its performers as undocumented – undocumentedness itself becomes a “space of legal nonexistence” in Susan Coutin’s understanding –, unwelcome (by virtue of Derrida’s theorisation of the standards of <italic>hostipitality</italic>), as well as subjects/objects of racial hatred. Immigrants become collective projections of criminality, a threat to the nation within a “we” against “them” horizontal conflict (Ahmed 51). Within this framework, the performance consolidates an ontology of the Mexican migrant rooted in social stigma and the constructedness of labels, and undocumentedness becomes the locus of a collective imaginarium with repercussions on the immigrant’s survival in society.</p>
</abstract>

The community-based performance Do You Know Who I Am? (2013; Motus Theater, Boulder; dir. Kirsten Wilson) relates the lived experience in the U.S. under the DACA (Deferred Action for Child Arrivals) programme, told by an undocumented Mexican cast. By reclaiming the label ‘undocumented migrants’ whose residency on American land without legal authorisation implies a dehumanising dimension of the ‘illegal alien,’ the cast defines the state of undocumentedness as the lived conditions of vulnerability, exploitation, displacement and perpetual fear determined by living under ‘illegality’ and non-citizenship. My purpose is to analyse the stylistic and thematic oratorical components of the dramatic performance in line with the ontological construction of its performers as undocumented – undocumentedness itself becomes a “space of legal nonexistence” in Susan Coutin’s understanding –, unwelcome (by virtue of Derrida’s theorisation of the standards of hostipitality), as well as subjects/objects of racial hatred. Immigrants become collective projections of criminality, a threat to the nation within a “we” against “them” horizontal conflict (Ahmed 51). Within this framework, the performance consolidates an ontology of the Mexican migrant rooted in social stigma and the constructedness of labels, and undocumentedness becomes the locus of a collective imaginarium with repercussions on the immigrant’s survival in society.

“My Nine-Digit American-Dream”: Undocumentedness and Unwelcomeness in <italic>Do You Know Who I Am?</italic>

East-West Cultural Passage

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

“My Nine-Digit American-Dream”: Undocumentedness and Unwelcomeness in 

The community-based performance Do You Know Who I Am? (2013; Motus Theater, Boulder; dir. Kirsten Wilson) relates the lived experience in the U.S. under the...

“My Nine-Digit American-Dream”: Undocumentedness and Unwelcomeness in Do You Know Who I Am?

Published Online: Mar 13, 2024

Page range: 61 - 73

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ewcp-2023-0006

Keywords
immigrant experience, undocumentedness, hospitality, community-based theatre, DACA, unwelcomeness, Mexican immigrant, hostipitality,

© 2023 Andreea Moise, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

“My Nine-Digit American-Dream”: Undocumentedness and Unwelcomeness in Do You Know Who I Am?

Published Online: Mar 13, 2024

Page range: 61 - 73

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ewcp-2023-0006

Keywordsimmigrant experience, undocumentedness, hospitality, community-based theatre, DACA, unwelcomeness, Mexican immigrant, hostipitality,

© 2023 Andreea Moise, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
immigrant experience, undocumentedness, hospitality, community-based theatre, DACA, unwelcomeness, Mexican immigrant, hostipitality,