The article analyzes the novel Daughter of the Road (Hija del camino, 2019) by Lucía-Asué Mbomío Rubio from a cognitive-discursive perspective to explain how conceptual metaphors contribute to the construction of Afrodiasporic identity. The protagonist, Sandra, is not portrayed as possessing a fixed identity; rather, her identity is presented as a dynamic process shaped by mobility, memory, racialization, and the search for belonging. The study adopts a qualitative approach that combines discourse analysis, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, and postcolonial studies to identify the novel’s main symbolic resources. The analysis identifies four central metaphorical domains: the road or journey, the suitcase, the skin, and the hair. The journey represents identity as a continuous process of movement; the suitcase symbolizes memory, inheritance, and the burden of the past; the skin functions as a symbolic boundary upon which experiences of racism and exclusion are inscribed; and the hair becomes a symbol of resistance and self-affirmation against dominant aesthetic norms. These metaphors are complemented by those of water and language, which express the fluidity of identity and the complex relationship between home, exile, and linguistic belonging. The article concludes that Daughter of the Road constructs an Afro-descendant subjectivity characterized by constant movement and the ongoing negotiation between different cultural and social spaces. Migration is understood not merely as a geographical displacement but as an existential condition that permeates the body, memory, and language. In this sense, the metaphors examined function as both cognitive and political tools that reveal the enduring effects of colonialism, everyday racism, and the search for identity, establishing the novel as a key work for understanding the Afrodiasporic experience in contemporary Spanish literature.
Identidad en tránsito: metáforas migratorias y construcción afrodiaspórica en Hija del camino de Lucía-Assué Mbomío .
Maria Candida Munoz Medrano
2026-01-01
Abstract
The article analyzes the novel Daughter of the Road (Hija del camino, 2019) by Lucía-Asué Mbomío Rubio from a cognitive-discursive perspective to explain how conceptual metaphors contribute to the construction of Afrodiasporic identity. The protagonist, Sandra, is not portrayed as possessing a fixed identity; rather, her identity is presented as a dynamic process shaped by mobility, memory, racialization, and the search for belonging. The study adopts a qualitative approach that combines discourse analysis, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, and postcolonial studies to identify the novel’s main symbolic resources. The analysis identifies four central metaphorical domains: the road or journey, the suitcase, the skin, and the hair. The journey represents identity as a continuous process of movement; the suitcase symbolizes memory, inheritance, and the burden of the past; the skin functions as a symbolic boundary upon which experiences of racism and exclusion are inscribed; and the hair becomes a symbol of resistance and self-affirmation against dominant aesthetic norms. These metaphors are complemented by those of water and language, which express the fluidity of identity and the complex relationship between home, exile, and linguistic belonging. The article concludes that Daughter of the Road constructs an Afro-descendant subjectivity characterized by constant movement and the ongoing negotiation between different cultural and social spaces. Migration is understood not merely as a geographical displacement but as an existential condition that permeates the body, memory, and language. In this sense, the metaphors examined function as both cognitive and political tools that reveal the enduring effects of colonialism, everyday racism, and the search for identity, establishing the novel as a key work for understanding the Afrodiasporic experience in contemporary Spanish literature.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
