Reviewed by:

• Performances of Suffering in Latin American Migration: Heroes, Martyrs and Saints by Ana Elena Puga and Víctor M. Espinosa
• Gail A. Bulman

Migrants' suffering is frequently highlighted in the media and has garnered increasing political attention in the past several years, underscoring violent dramas, "border wall" rhetoric, and family separation. Puga and Espinosa investigate "melodramatic strategies" that "artists, advocates, journalists, . . . scholars," and migrants themselves employ to shape recognizable stories of victims, villains, heroes, or martyrs in an effort to obtain human rights and more tangible benefits (3). The scholars adopt an interdisciplinary lens, meshing sociology, performance studies, ethnography, and cultural studies to postulate that migrants' accounts are scripted and "cast" and to show how those dramas are often repeated. The book examines the ways in which circulating migrant melodramas might be helpful or harmful, suggesting that mises en scène of suffering might undermine migrants' agency and lure the public into ignoring the underlying, systemic roots that disempower and exclude migrants. The study specifically foregrounds Mexican and Central American migrants to the United States and interweaves "real" stories of advocates and migrants at various stages in their journey with artistic representations of migrant suffering to consider the impact and potential danger of reducing migrants' tales to scripted, emotional dramas of "virtuous suffering as the price of inclusion in the nation-state" (17).

Following a detailed introduction, the book is divided into three parts, each including two chapters with case studies that explore character archetypes, "the power dynamics of casting in both cultural production and daily life," and the tensions surrounding what the authors call "the political economy of suffering": the commodification of suffering as "a system of exchanges that has significant political consequences" (22–23). Part 1 scrutinizes diverse "Rescuers" as archetypes, such as the "empathic companion, saintly angel mother, and potential martyr" (32). Chapter 2 proposes that religious leaders play a central role as script writers and "directors" of migrant narratives. To delve into this, the scholars compare the "writings and social performances" of nineteenth-century Italian migrant advocate Bishop Giovanni Battista Scalabrini and twenty-first-century Mexican migrant shelter [End Page 114] director Father Flor María Rigoni to showcase the melodramatic underpinnings of their "Christian" acts. Scalabrini's writings and actions supporting Italian migration to the Americas divide the world into good versus evil, victims versus villains, depicting migrants as "suffering, wretched, weeping," in need of the young, bold, courageous, and empathic male priests who rescue them (52–56). More than a century later, Rigoni's poetry continues portraying migrants as pitiful; however, his excessive empathy positions himself alongside them "less as a protector and more as a witness or a friend who feels his equal's pain" (66). The authors draw out the tensions and contradictions in Rigoni's writings and behaviors, showing how he exploits melodrama's tropes sometimes to romanticize migrant suffering, thus blaming migrants' afflictions on "individuals rather than economic or political systems" (76) in counterproductive ways. Chapter 3 juxtaposes two shelter directors: the laywoman Olga Sánchez Martínez, and the priest Alejandro Solalinde. Positing that Sánchez projects herself "as a guardian angel to the poor and 'afflicted,'" a "saintly figure" who saves injured migrants, the authors claim that Sánchez's self-image strategically helps fund and support her shelter (90–92). Beyond just saintly, Solalinde, on the other hand, is depicted as a martyr and revolutionary. As with their other migrant and rescuer portrayals, Puga and Espinosa investigate the priest's story from multiple perspectives: his depiction in media and by human rights advocates; his own performance; and "how he has cast and staged migrants" (111).

Part 2, "Mothers and Fathers," contrasts the myths surrounding migrant mother activist Elvira Arellano with those of coalitions of men physically maimed during attempted migrations. The authors explore these characters' castings and "corrective castings" about identity, femininity, motherhood, and masculinity to examine "individual agency in the construction of the role, affective responses to the casting, and the history that provokes such affective responses...

审核人：

• 拉丁美洲移民中的苦难表演： Ana Elena Puga 和 Víctor M. Espinosa 的英雄、烈士和圣人
• 盖尔·布尔曼

移民的苦难经常在媒体上被强调，并在过去几年中获得了越来越多的政治关注，强调暴力戏剧、“边界墙”言论和家庭分离。Puga 和 Espinosa 调查“艺术家、倡导者、记者、……学者”和移民自己用来塑造受害者、恶棍、英雄或烈士的可识别故事的“戏剧性策略”，以努力获得人权和更切实的利益(3)。学者们采用跨学科的视角，将社会学、表演研究、民族志和文化研究相结合，假设移民的叙述是有剧本和“演员”的，并展示了这些戏剧是如何经常重复的。这本书考察了流动的移民情节剧可能有益或有害的方式，表明苦难的场面可能会破坏移民的能动性，并诱使公众忽视削弱和排斥移民的潜在系统根源。该研究特别突出了墨西哥和中美洲移民到美国的前景，并将倡导者和移民在旅程不同阶段的“真实”故事与移民苦难的艺术表现交织在一起，以考虑将移民故事简化为脚本的影响和潜在危险， “以道德苦难作为融入民族国家的代价”的情感剧（17）。剥夺和排斥移民的系统根源。该研究特别突出了墨西哥和中美洲移民到美国的前景，并将倡导者和移民在旅程不同阶段的“真实”故事与移民苦难的艺术表现交织在一起，以考虑将移民故事简化为脚本的影响和潜在危险， “以道德苦难作为融入民族国家的代价”的情感剧（17）。剥夺和排斥移民的系统根源。该研究特别突出了墨西哥和中美洲移民到美国的前景，并将倡导者和移民在旅程不同阶段的“真实”故事与移民苦难的艺术表现交织在一起，以考虑将移民故事简化为脚本的影响和潜在危险， “以道德苦难作为融入民族国家的代价”的情感剧（17）。

在详细介绍之后，这本书分为三个部分，每个部分包括两章案例研究，探讨角色原型、“文化生产和日常生活中铸造的权力动态”，以及围绕作者所说的“苦难的政治经济学”：将苦难商品化为“具有重大政治后果的交换系统”（22-23）。第 1 部分将不同的“救援者”作为原型进行审查，例如“同情的伴侣、圣洁的天使母亲和潜在的烈士”（32）。第 2 章提出，宗教领袖作为剧本作者和移民叙事的“导演”发挥着核心作用。对此，学者们比较了“文字与社会表现”[结束第 114 页]导演弗洛尔·玛丽亚·里戈尼神父展示了他们“基督教”表演的戏剧性基础。斯卡拉布里尼支持意大利移民到美洲的著作和行动将世界划分为善与恶、受害者与恶棍，将移民描绘成“受苦、悲惨、哭泣”，需要年轻、勇敢、勇敢和善解人意的男性牧师来拯救他们（52-56）。一个多世纪后，里戈尼的诗歌继续将移民描绘成可怜的；然而，他过分的同理心将自己置于他们旁边，“与其说是保护者，不如说是作为见证者或感受到同龄人痛苦的朋友”（66）。作者引出了里戈尼的作品和行为中的紧张和矛盾，展示了他有时如何利用情节剧的比喻来浪漫化移民的苦难，因此，以适得其反的方式将移民的痛苦归咎于“个人而不是经济或政治制度”（76）。第 3 章并列了两位庇护所主任：外行女奥尔加·桑切斯·马丁内斯和牧师亚历杭德罗·索拉林德。假设桑切斯将自己投射为“穷人和‘受苦者’的守护天使”，一个拯救受伤移民的“圣人”，作者声称桑切斯的自我形象在战略上有助于资助和支持她的庇护所 (90-92)。另一方面，索拉林德不仅是圣人，还被描绘成烈士和革命者。与他们对移民和救援者的其他描绘一样，普加和埃斯皮诺萨从多个角度调查牧师的故事：媒体和人权倡导者对他的描绘；他自己的表现；和 ”

第 2 部分，“母亲和父亲”，将围绕移民母亲活动家 Elvira Arellano 的神话与试图迁移期间身体残废的男性联盟的神话进行对比。作者探讨了这些角色的选角和关于身份、女性气质、母性和男性气质的“矫正选角”，以检验“角色构建中的个人能动性、对选角的情感反应，以及引发这种情感反应的历史……