Literacies of surveillance : transfronterizo children translanguaging identity across borders, inspectors and surveillance

This dissertation research interprets the results of a multiple case study focused on the everyday language and literacy practices of transfronterizo children—children who experience life on both sides of the U.S.-México border—in order to understand how children “read and write” themselves as constantly surveilled subjects. Drawing on border inspections, sociocultural perspectives of language and literacy, and border thinking, the findings revealed that transfronterizo children have acquired Literacies of Surveillance. I define literacies of surveillance as the ability to recognize and navigate borders, inspectors and surveillance in the context. As these children noticed surveillance in the environment, they ingeniously orchestrated their language and literacy practices to meet the demands of the border inspectors. Equally, with their knowledge of surveillance, they also recognized the unsurveilled moments and spaces, and engaged in unrestrictive translanguaging practices that demonstrated the depth and complexity of a borderless, bilingualism and biliteracy.