They carry the border on their backs: Atypical commerce and bodies’ policing in Barrio Chino, Melilla

This paper contributes to discussion of the embodied border and demonstrates how the border becomes spatial through violence. It sheds light on the construction of spaces of violence in border zones in the context of the exploitation of the bodies of porteadoras (cross‐border workers in Melilla). Narratives of border guards, porteadoras , and Melillan citizens demonstrate how violent discourse around the border pass of Barrio Chino is produced and normalised. The paper argues that a set of behaviours performed by the participants of the border spectacle, as well as media tools, contribute to the social construction of Barrio Chino as a space of normalised violence. The paper makes this case in three ways. First, I elaborate on how the Spanish–Moroccan border is embodied by porteadoras and how this process is gendered. Then, I analyse how border violence is spatial and how it is normalised in a particular territorial setting. In conclusion, I point towards how the state utilises such spaces of normalised violence to strengthen its borders and to reinforce its territoriality. By problematising spaces of normalised violence, the paper provides an alternative vision of border‐zone construction.