Pandillas, migrantes y fronteras en Sin Nombre y Babel

Abstract: The emergence of the modern borders was linked to the genesis of national states and served as a tool for physical and symbolic delimitation from the national, religious or ethnic others. The globalization with the partially weakening of the national state has meant the dismantling of borders for finance, technology and goods and the unhindered mobility of those that Bauman called tourists, i.e. those who have the economic and cultural capital required to move across borders without impediments. However, for the vagabonds, refugees and immigrants who are forced by persecution, violence and unemployment to move, the borders of late modernity have been strengthened and hardened. To them the borders are places of risks, discrimination and even violence. These issues are analyzed in the present article incorporating films as empirical material. The cinema provides entertainment and enjoyment through social and ethnic divisions on a global scale and moreover, the latter represents and recreates social issues such as migration, globalization, borders and transnational gangs. The directors and screenwriters present their observations and thinking regarding these sociological issues thematically and by combining images, narrative and music a powerful message is provided