CJMC 11 (2) pp. 217–230 Intellect Limited 2020 Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture Volume 11 Number 2 www.intellectbooks.com 217 © 2020 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. https://doi.org/10.1386/cjmc_00026_1 OANA SABO Tulane University Documenting the undocumented: Valeria Luiselli’s refugee children archives ABSTRACT This article reads comparatively Valeria Luiselli’s essay Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions and her novel Lost Children Archive in the context of critical debates about the uses of archival documents in contemporary literature and in relation to archival theory (Foucault, Derrida, Farge). Both texts draw on a wealth of archival materials to explore the causes of mass migration from Mexico and Central America to the United States since 2014, and especially the plight of refugee children who disappear in the desert, in detention centres, and through deportation. I argue that these texts use the archive as a compositional method to confront restricted representations of Mexican and Central American migration with a plethora of documents that propose a historical and transnational perspec- tive. The proliferation of archives stands in for missing evidence and foregrounds multiple points of view on the refugee children, compelling readers to imagine their migrant journeys more vividly. KEYWORDS Valeria Luiselli Central American migration refugee children archival theory border crossing intertextuality