Abstract

This research contributes to contemporary anthropological research on human migrations through the analysis of the stage where migrants are neither in their place of origin nor in their final destination, but in a more ambiguous location: that of transit. The actors are undocumented Central American migrants who engage in a migratory process by undertaking a long and dangerous journey throughout the Mexican territory, risking their physical and emotional well being. Many have been victims of human rights violations and accidents - assaults, kidnappings, rape, torture, hunger, mutilation, and death -. Parallel to the routes taken by migrants there are advocacy centers known as Casas de Migrantes that depend on support from the Catholic Church. The Casas are centers of support and hospitality that provide temporary accommodation, meals, . clothing, spiritual support, medical services, and seek to defend and promote human rights. Fieldwork was conducted for a total of four months and a half in the city of San Luis Potosi by volunteering at La Casa de la Caridad Cristiana. Central American undocumented migrants are an invisible and vulnerable population, victims of all kinds of abuses. Mexico criminalizes Central American migration, thus criminalizing at the same time misery and social neglect, the reality of Central American migrants whose only sin is trying to escape poverty and reach the United States. Ironically this is the same situation of Mexican migrants to the U.S.