Amelia Frank-Vitale drew upon ten years of accompaniment with Migrant caravans in Mexico to support her article Coyotes, caravans and the Central American migrant smuggling continuum. In her article she argues that caravans are being utilized as "parallel strategies that migrants employ to navigate the shifting terrain of immigrant enforcement, exploitation, corruption, and organizing crime in the space of transit." Migrants are forming these caravans as agents of protection from the negative forces that penetrate the border transit space.
Frank Vitale is a cultural anthropologist focused on Central American migration and violence. She is currently working on a project that focuses on life in and around San Pedro Sula, Honduras. She received her PhD in Anthropology from the University of Michigan in 2021. Amelia Frank-Vitale is now a Postdoctoral Research Associate and Lecturer with the Program in Latin American Studies at Princeton University.
