Urban Semiosphere, Everyday Life, and Otherness: Narratives of Venezuelan Migrants in Bogotá

Abstract

This article aims to analyze some of the tensions that are configured in the process of cultural semiosis in the city, and which would be transforming the meanings towards foreigners and otherness. The author, through a narrative analysis focused on the migratory experience stories of members of three Venezuelan families, inquires about the daily life tactics that migrants deploy around downtown Bogotá. The article concludes with some considerations about the difficulties faced by Venezuelan migrants as they incorporate themselves in a divided and segregated society such as that of Bogota, whose codes must be deciphered to make their survival possible.