Mariana Mora’s talk, “Cartographies of justice against the racial effects of preemptive criminalization and the politics of absence in Guerrero, Mexico,” discussed how the September 26th, 2014 case of the 43 disappeared students of Ayotzinapa is reflective of larger state forces of dehumanizing and devaluing indigenous lives in Mexico. The violence against these youth is an active process of racialization and criminalization of poverty and indigeneity. Through her profound and moving talk and references to neoliberal policies and the official “narrative” of the September 26th disappearances, Mora focused on the portrayal of indigenous bodies in Mexico as lacking productivity and utility, in turn becoming disposable and devalued in the eyes of the state.
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