Based on historical research as well as on-site experience at the border, this talk examines the current "crisis" of asylum seekers arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. It compares mass media and political rhetoric about the caravans to the self-description of both asylum seekers and caravan-sponsoring organizations such as Pueblos Sin Fronteras. The talk explores the practice of migrant caravans as human acts of solidarity and survival.

Rachel Ida Buff is a writer and historian. She teaches history and comparative ethnic studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is author, most recently, of Against the Deportation Terror: Organizing for Immigrant Rights in the Twentieth Century (Temple University Press, 2017) and A is for Asylum Seeker: A Historical Glossary of Words for People on the Move (forthcoming from Fordham University Press). She writes frequently for various outlets and is also working on a novel, Holy Toledo.