Motherhood, Disappearance, and Agency in Mexican Films Made by Women: Sin señas particulares (Fernanda Valadez, 2020) and La civil (Teodora Mihai, 2021)

This chapter addresses the representation of motherhood in two recent Mexican movies: Sin señas particulares (Identifying Features, 2020) by Fernanda Valadez and La civil (2021) by Teodora Mihai. Drawing on Judith Butler’s call to amplify the linguistic horizon to create space for subjects not contemplated in the social spectrum, this chapter explores the types of agency employed by vulnerable subjects—poor, single mothers in highly precarious social environments—in both films. Even though the characters’ actions adhere to certain cultural frameworks that normalize an unequal distribution of vulnerability, they insert themselves in the public sphere via unexpected repertoires and characterizations of motherhood and mothering. By analyzing these works, I identify the mechanisms that allow the visual denaturalization of mothers. Some of these mechanisms are related to the representation of feminine characters, in particular, their age and appearance, whereas others demonstrate a preference for depicting their emotional state instead of scenes of physical violence. As such, we observe how a metaphorical audiovisual language is preferred over hyperreal staging.