Frontera y liminalidades de la noche: Violencias y desigualdades en la nocturnidad (noctem) de jóvenes residentes de Tijuana

Abstract

This paper analyzes the interrelation between nocturnity, youths, and systemic violence. Based on the theory of conceived and inhabited space, ethnographic work, and on-site exploration, a reconstruction of urban imaginaries “of the border” and “of the night” is presented, as well as the narratives generated by Tijuana’s young residents. Thus, a distinction between the night (noctis) and nocturnity (noctem) is exposed, along with some key elements that make up the accessibility, experience, and participation of young people in Tijuana nights’ nocturnity in recreational, inequality, transgression, and violence contexts. The results allow us to perceive nocturnity as a socially constructed space, complex and dynamic, with diffuse and rigid borders, that needs a comprehensive public policy that seeks the inclusion of the youth and the progressive decrease of the inequalities that affect them.