Metaphors, discursive representation and Venezuelan migration in Peru: towards a critical-cognitive analysis of the discourse of the Peruvian written press.

Abstract

Within the theoretical trend called Cognitive Linguistics, we develop a critical-cognitive analysis of the discourse on how the national written press discursively represents Venezuelan immigration in Peru. Specifically, we analyze the metaphors involved with a series of ideologies in relation to this foreign population, recently settled in that country. The discourses analyzed show collective beliefs in which these minority groups constitute a threat to the local population in two ways. In the first place, the conceptualization of the territory as a recipient, among other metaphors, implies a risk in which the migrant begins to saturate geographical spaces. Second, the conceptualization of the migrant as an unhealthy organism, among other metaphors, also implies a threat, but not to the territory, but to its inhabitants. From these metaphorical mechanisms, among others, the Peruvian press (re)creates a series of negative images around these migrants.