WHEN DID HOSPITALITY GET SO HOSTILE? The US Latinx Diaspora as an American Dystopia in Sabrina Vourvoulias’s „Ink”
WHEN DID HOSPITALITY GET SO HOSTILE? The US Latinx Diaspora as an American Dystopia in Sabrina Vourvoulias’s „Ink”

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines Sabrina Vourvoulias’ Ink (2012), a Latinofuturist dystopian novel that explores the intersection of migration, race, and systemic oppression within a near-future authoritarian United States. Drawing on the long-standing tradition of migration as a central theme in speculative fiction, Ink presents a society where immigration control is enforced through a highly intrusive and dehumanizing system. In the novel, migrants are permanently marked with tattoos that signify their legal status, transforming them into visible “others” whose rights and freedoms are stripped away through a series of biopolitical measures. The narrative follows the experiences of individuals whose bodies become sites of control and exploitation, as the government uses the rhetoric of disease and public safety to justify the further marginalization and sterilization of non-white migrants. This study situates Ink within broader conversations about migration, xenophobia, and biopolitics in contemporary US society, highlighting how the novel critiques current immigration policies and the racialized processes of exclusion. The paper also explores how Vourvoulias uses speculative elements—such as the fictional tattooing process and the creation of spaces like the “Inkatorium”—to address the lived realities of Latinx migrants and their experiences of alienation. By combining elements of dystopian fiction with real-world political dynamics, Ink offers a powerful commentary on the fragility of belonging in a society marked by hostility toward immigrants. Ultimately, this paper argues that Ink serves as a crucial intervention into the speculative fiction genre, one that forces readers to confront the dystopian dimensions of Latinx migration in the US It challenges the boundaries between hospitality and hostility, offering a compelling vision of resistance and survival within an increasingly hostile, racialized system.

• Details
• Contents