“Amañarse por acá”: Staying in an “Origin” of Rural Migration, in Boyacá

Abstract

This paper seeks to understand the effort required to stay in rural areas of Boyacá with a long history of out-migration, by following the paths of the word amañarse. In tune with the invitation to reconsider the linear understanding of migration, it searches to appreciate the repetitive work made to sustain certain rural presents. It suggests that staying is a practical effort, but also an effort of narrative. It further proposes that the words of amañarse unfold in a way similar to a song. It is a kind of singing that reconfigures the terms in which migration stories tend to be told and that, insisting in returning to places rendered as a kind of “past”, opens subtly to the possibility of a shared future, emplaced. It is a sonic path that invites us to listen differently to the difficulty and the pleasure of finding amaño, of wanting to stay.