Travels and Borders in the Representation of the U.S.-Mexico Border: Cartographies in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Film Babel

Although for centuries travel has been an activity of exploration of borders, territories and cultures, it has intensified in recent years. A culture of mass migration has, now, more than ever before, been extended throughout the world. In the context of multinational space, the individual is immersed in a world marked by the logic of disorientation. Fredric Jameson´s use of "cognitive maps" in the representation of urban space sheds light on the paradox of how this space has become irrepresentable. Using Jameson´s and other theories related to travel and cartography, I will analize the representation of the U.S.-Mexico border in the film Babel, by Mexican director Alexander Gonzalez Inarritu. In this film local and peripheral cultures confront global and metropolitan displacements, leading to conflicts and misunderstandings that are distorted by the media. Against this main current, the film offers a different cultural perspective, a politics of perception of others that goes beyond prejudices.