Mapping-Ofrenda: mapping as mourning in the context of migration

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes the concept of mapping-ofrenda, which envisions mapping as a form of mourning and remembering while living in the context of migration. Inspired by the traditional Mexican ofrenda, the mapping-ofrenda aims to collect, curate, and represent posthumous memories. It can be produced collaboratively or individually, built with physical or digital maps, shared with other people, or kept private, and be dedicated to a single deceased or to an entire community. Through the process of co-designing two online ofrenda-maps with two Latina-American women living in Montreal (Canada) we identified some of the potential of mapping-ofrenda, including its capacity to stimulate our memories and remember stories on the verge of disappearing, to ground them to places, and to share them with people that might live far away. Mapping-ofrenda can also be a way of making visible the global geography of migration through highly intimate memories and acknowledging both the very personal and the highly universal need to remember and grieve. Finally, the main value of mapping-ofrenda in the context of migration, may be its capacity to reactivate and strengthen existing links and connections between people that are still alive but that may live far away.

KEYWORDS:

• Death
• migration
• cartography
• memories
• grief
• stories

Acknowledgments

We are incredibly grateful to Alice De Marzo and Amelia León for sharing their intimate stories and create their mapping-ofrendas with us. Special thanks to Eduardo Malpica and Chloé Dugas for their continuous support in this project. Thanks to Alan Nash, Nalini Mohabir, Anne Kelly Knowles, and Kathleen Vaughan for their helpful comments on an early version of this paper. Many thanks to the two anonymous reviewers for their very stimulating comments and feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declaration of interest statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 Ethical clearance for this Project was sought from The Human Research Ethics Committee of Concordia University (Montreal). Certification Number: 30012639

2 The authors translated the interviews in this article from Spanish to English.

Additional information

Funding

The research presented in this article was supported by The Fonds de Recherche du Québec Société et Culture (FRQSC), Mexico’s National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT), CANARIE Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) [435-2016-1178].

Notes on contributors

José Alavez

José Alavez holds a Ph.D. in geography, urban and environmental studies from Concordia University (Montreal). By drawing on new cartographic theories and practices, his research focuses on mapping the geographies of individuals who endured the death of a loved one in the context of migration. His previous academic work includes studying the domestic spaces of the homeless population in Mexico City and proposing methodological approaches to link art and the humanities with cartography.

Sébastien Caquard

Sébastien Caquard is a geographer and a mapmaker interested in mapping stories to better understand the complex relationships that exist between places, narratives, memories and maps. As the founder and director of the Geomedia Lab, he has been leading the development of Atlascine, an open source mapping application designed to map stories in depth and to reflect on cartographic processes and practices. He is professor in the department of Geography, Planning and Environment at Concordia University Montréal Tiohtià:ke) and the current lead co-director of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS).