Voices in Transit: The Role of Speech and Silence in Colombian Women’s Migrant Experience in Asturias

Abstract

This article examines the dynamics of speech and silence in the experiences of Colombian migrant women in Asturias, Spain. Engaging with Black, Chicana, and Decolonial feminist theories that conceptualize language as a site of power, resistance, and exclusion, we explore how migrant women negotiate their voice in contexts of domination. Based on in-depth interviews with eight women, we question the linguistic hierarchies that position language as a mechanism of control, power, and domination. From an intersectional feminist perspective, we address the voice–silence dichotomy to explore its relationship to agency and the forms of structural violence that shape migratory processes. We analyze the mechanism of silencing across multiple dimensions: from racist language and demands for integration to the imposition of accent and changes in the vocabulary as strategies for adaptation as well as survival. We also consider how resisting linguistic and cultural change can function both as an act of identity affirmation and as a survival strategy in hostile environments. Finally, we argue that silence is not only a manifestation of oppression, but also a space of resistance and agency through which women renegotiate their identity and belonging.