Cross-border Communication and the Enregisterment of Collective Frameworks for Care

ABSTRACT

Communication plays an important role in the non-copresent care that is increasingly prevalent today. Drawing on long-term research with transnational Salvadoran families, I explore how one multigenerational kin network managed a health crisis: a family member had been diagnosed with a new form of chronic kidney disease that is epidemic in rural Central American communities. The family used cross-border communication to simultaneously enact care and consolidate a particular register of care. I suggest that everyday communication is a powerful force that works both within and beyond immediate care work encounters in ways that have far-reaching consequences for ethical and moral life.

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RESUMEN

La comunicación tiene un papel importante en el cuido a distancia que es cada vez mas prevalente hoy. Con base en una investigación de largo plazo con familias transnacionales Salvadoreñas, exploro como una familia multigeneracional enfrontó una crisis de salud: un miembro de la familia había recibido una diagnosis de una nueva forma de enfermedad renal crónica que es epidémica en las comunidades rurales de Centroamérica. La familia utilizó su comunicación a través de fronteras para promulgar el cuido y para consolidar un registro particular del cuido. Sugiero que la comunicación cotidiana es una potencia importante que funciona dentro de y mas allá de encuentros inmediatos del cuido con consecuencias profundas para la vida ética y moral.

KEYWORDS:

• El Salvador
• care
• communication
• chronic kidney disease
• migration
• transnational families

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• El Salvador
• cuido
• comunicación
• enfermedad renal crónica
• migración
• familias transnacionales

Acknowledgments

This paper would not have been possible without the trust and cariño of my Salvadoran participants and interlocutors, to whom I am eternally indebted. Thanks to Felicity Aulino for her comments on a preliminary version of this paper that was given at the American Anthropological Association Conference in 2018. I also wish to thank the three anonymous reviewers and the journal editor for their constructive feedback, which have greatly improved this manuscript. All remaining errors are my own.

Supplemental data

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Notes

1. This is a pseudonym, as are all other personal names used herein.

2. In addition to gender, another factor in this differentiation of care labor was Fermín’s medical expertise. He was routinely treated as the family medical expert and was expected to actively guide Davíd’s treatment and interact with his doctors to ensure that his father was getting good medical care.

Additional information

Funding

This research was conducted with support from the Jacob K. Javits Fellowships Program, the Chicano Studies Institute at the University of Santa Barbara, and the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States.

Notes on contributors

Lynnette Arnold

Lynnette Arnold is a linguistic anthropologist whose work focuses on communication and care in the Americas, particularly in contexts of migration. She received her PhD from the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2016 and is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.