Asking for charity in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City. An analysis from body narratives of its protagonists

Abstract

The article aims to generate a contribution to the study of begging through the dialogue between the
Sociology of the body and emotions. To achieve this objective, we use the ethnographic work carried out
with a group of beggars settled in the vicinity of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City, whose common
denominator is the pain and suffering of their bodies. Based on the observations made, the fundamental
premise suggests that the beggars of the cathedral, Through the story of their bodies they form a
communicating vessel with their beneficiaries, who, guided by feelings of guilt and moral debt, come to help
using a coin. The configuration of this body narrative - category that we propose to analyze the discourse of
bodies- It allows us to observe begging as an economic-moral activity in which corporeal-affective resources
are deployed that generate greater certainty in the face of the accumulation of disadvantages to which the
protagonists of this story are exposed.