Bernardo Moreno Peniche

BERNARDO MORENO PENICHE, then a graduate student at University of California, Berkeley, California, was awarded funding in October 2023 to aid research on “At Home: Chagas Disease and the Politics of Landscape in the United States,” supervised by Dr. Charles Briggs. The grantee investigated the projected foreignness and structural neglect of Chagas disease in the U.S. by examining its insect vectors (kissing bugs), parasite (Trypanosoma cruzi), and nonhuman hosts in Southern landscapes. Over a year (August 2023-2024), the grantee conducted multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork, primarily in North-Central Florida, collaborating with an infectious disease physician documenting locally acquired cases. The research extended to Texas and Louisiana, incorporating participant observation at health fairs, entomological studies, laboratories, hunting trips, and community outreach events. Using landscape ethnography, the research engaged with interlocutors through hikes across these ecosystems. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with scientists, clinicians, students, journalists, activists, and affected individuals, alongside social media monitoring, field notes, photographs, and sketches. Findings reveal how kissing bugs function as boundary objects, mediating scientific and public imaginaries while shaping careers and advocacy efforts. The instability of native/invasive and foreign/domestic categories, coupled with the region’s “subtropical” branding, reflects racialized and nationalistic anxieties that render Chagas simultaneously present and invisible. The project examined the entanglements of kissing bugs, researchers, and residents in shaping disease visibility, arguing that Chagas’ neglect is not a failure of knowledge but an actively produced condition embedded in public health discourses, practices, and financial structures.