Maras as Producers of Translocal Spaces of Violence in the Americas and Europe

Research Area

The project examines the production of space by brutally violent youth gangs, known as maras, that are found in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and the US and are recently spreading throughout the Americas and Europe. Although they create transnational spaces through their migration between different locations, as a group of actors they are not primarily interested in spatial orders (unlike some guerrillas). Rather, the spatial orders resulting from their activities are a by-product of their pursuit of other interests. Operating in an “external” space that is translocal, the “internal” space of maras is produced within the diasporic community, promising them protection as well as a sense of home and belonging.