The lonely borderer : a journey through the memories, lyricism and resilience of Javier Zamora

Abstract

This research examines the literary works of Salvadoran writer Javier Zamora in Solito (2022), a novel in the form of a memoir, and Unaccompanied (2017), a collection of poems about the author's life experiences. In his journey, leaving home alone to cross the border between Mexico and the United States to meet his parents, memories and reflections emerge from Zamora's childhood experiences and the psychological consequences and political awareness of Zamora as an adult. This is done in light of Greg Grandin's critique of the Eurocentric and Americanized "world order," the decolonization of minds and worldviews by Ngúgí wa Thiong'o and Marcio D’Olne Campos, and the "in-between space" and the difficulties of writing by Gloria Anzaldúa. Moreover, it also theorizes Achille Mbembe's work on Necropolitics, and the theorization of Alyshia Galvéz and Eithne Luibhéid on the meaning and identity of the immigrant person.