William Andrés Álvarez

Every year, thousands of migrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa cross the Darién Gap, a dangerous jungle region between Colombia and Panama. This project explores the lived experiences of these migrants, focusing on how they endure violence, territorial control, and extreme precarity, while also forging fragile forms of hope and solidarity. Drawing from three years of ethnographic research—including life histories, participatory visual narratives, and immersive fieldwork—this study documents how geopolitical shifts, humanitarian interventions, and organized crime shape the trajectories of people in transit. Through this lens, the project critically engages with broader debates on migration governance, the global production of human suffering, and the punitive treatment of racialized and impoverished populations from the Global South. The Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship will support the completion of a book manuscript that not only offers an in-depth ethnographic account of migration through the Darién but also reflects on the moral and political challenges of bearing witness to suffering in contexts marked by abandonment, cruelty, and resistance.