Liminality

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The concept of liminality and the in-between are use in the field of cultural anthropology to explain the transition period of permanent presence of uncertainty or inability to fully integrate into a group or culture. When trying to understand the experience of immigrants through liminality, immigrants live in continual liminal period meaning that their liminal experience is a non-transitional period where the individual permanently lives in the between. However, liminality does not carry a negative connotation since it gives a new perspective that exposes the individual to be hyper critical of dual worlds. In Yuri Herrera’s Signs Preceding the End of the World, Makina’s journey lives in a stage of transitional liminality while her compatriots …show more content…
It is clear that Makina is immigrating from a southern Mexican village and across the US, however the names of the cities are never mentioned disregarding their geographical location. Decrypting the name of the titles she makes stops in are “The Place Where the Wind Cuts Like a Knife” meaning Chicago, “The Place Where The Flags Wave” meaning Capitol Hill, and ending in “The Place Where People’s Hearts are Eaten”. The last stop by referring to a non-specific US major city that can devour immigrant’s dreams as well as it holds the possibility of many opportunities. By blurring the names of the cities from both sides of the city highlights the hardships found in both countries. Makina as a woman faces harassment by random man in public areas in both sides of the boarder. While traveling through México is harassed by a youngster while in the US an Anglo persecutes her: “Makina knew that the bastard was just itching to kick her or fuck her” (73). Also, even though Makina encounters many dangerous and she is physically injured, while crossing the physical boarder between the US and Mexico the author does not centralizes the physical pain that Makina should have felt. The author does not decentralize the importance of the geographical locations to emphasize …show more content…
The language hybridity of the homegrown also reflects their luminal stance between the Latin and Anglo world. Makina describes this language hybridity as: “More than a midpoint between homegrown and Anglo their tongue is a nebulous territory between what is dying out and what is not yet born. But not a hecatomb” (65). Homegrown live in two logistical words at once, however the fact that the author describes this metamorphosis as “not a hecatomb” it implies that this process is not a sacrifices, rather the birth of something new. Furthermore, the description of the switching of tongues refers to Spanglish which is when a bilingual speaker that dominates both languages is able to code switch between Spanish and English unconsciously without breaking the grammatical rules of ether language in one conversation. This linguistically hybridity is an example of the complexity of choosing an identity for an individual that cross a physical boarder, but did not left behind his culture and language, rather tries to incorporate them in a new identity. In terms of the linguistically boarder Makina is at an advantages for speaking three languages separating her from her
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