Lucila Maria Carballo

LUCILA CARBALLO, then a graduate student at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, was approved for funding in September 2023 to aid research on “The Spectral Landscape of the Womb: Latinx Stories of Pregnancy, Birth, and Abortion,” supervised by Dr. Felicity Aulino. This study of the reproductive experiences of Latinx immigrants reveals a complex interplay between inherited trauma and the pursuit of pleasure within a symbolic borderland marked by violence, eroticism, life, death, ancestral connections, and unborn possibilities. From 2024 to 2025, testimonies were collected from undocumented immigrants who recently crossed national borders to seek refuge in a Massachusetts shelter. Their experiences range from pregnancy and birth to abortion and infant loss. It is in these portals between living and non-living that images from the deep past and the possible future most resonantly echo. The study engages with these forms of haunting by integrating psychological anthropology, feminist theory, and experimental filmmaking to address the profound and enduring impacts of colonial violence. This includes systemic abuse, such as mass rape and forced sterilizations, as well as the persistent threats of deportation and family separation. The work, however, challenges ontologies of victimization, rendering its participants as multidimensional subjects for whom hope and joy coincide with striving and grief. Ultimately, this investigation aims to deepen the understanding of reproductive care, as well as the complexities of subjectivity and temporal experience, through a compelling collection of haunting images that recur within and beyond the testimonies presented.