Stolen children in the State of Mexico. A narrative approach to production and variability of a rumor

Abstract

This is a linguistic and discursive research of a rumor that, in 2015, spread through the urban zone adjacent to Mexico City and the State of Mexico. The rumor said: “children are being kidnapped”. In a corpus, gathered through interviews with people living in
those areas, and by doing online research on public profiles on Facebook, common narrative structures and repetitive topics were identified, as well as languages that organize and construct the social experience. Finally, three versions of the rumor were identified and named as: 1) the vehicle of kidnap, 2) violent irruptions, and 3) discoveries of corpses. The analysis highlights the similarities and differences of the linguistic and narrative resources among these three versions, as well as some common patterns shared with urban legends told in the area. At the end, the rumors emerge as a part of a wide narrative ecology that exchanges resources and thematic elements that produces new stories used by people to construct the sense of their social world.