Diptych of the border, by Luis Mora Ballesteros: migration, xenophobia and cross-border violence

This article analyzes some important elements of the novel Diptych of the Border by Luis Mora-Ballesteros. The novel refers, in particular, to social and political phenomena that besiege Colombo-Venezuelan borders. The work refers to the drama of forced migration, normalized violence, murders, mourning, the political, military and police corruption, and the actions of irregular and criminal citizens. All these topics are fundamental to the plot. The analysis also engages with the study of other aspects that convert the work in a very particular piece within the binational literary landscape such as the use of intertextuality, in the sense of oral records, the insertion of historical texts as well as political, journalistic and ekphrastic discourse that appear in the narrative. Within the research, questions and answers arise from the initial idea. Diptych of the Border introduced the subgenre of the Border novel that curiously had not been addressed by writers of the two countries before.