The Ontology of Love in Late Modernity: From Romantic Sacrifice to Reflexive Self- Constitution Through the Category of "Migajero"

Abstract

This research examines the ontological transformation of the loving-being in late modernity through the philosophical analysis of the category migajero (crumb-taker), an emerging concept in contemporary digital discourse that designates the subject who accepts asymmetric and fragmented affective relationships. From an ontological perspective grounded in existential phenomenology, Foucauldian archaeology of discourse, and linguistic performativity theory, it is argued that this term constitutes a conceptual operator that makes visible the transition from a metaphysics of love as surrender and sacrifice toward a reflexive ethics of self-constitution and self-care. The analysis reveals that the category migajero represents not merely a sociological or linguistic phenomenon, but a profound reconfiguration of the ontological structures that enable amorous experience under the conditions of emotional capitalism and digital communication. The methodology employed articulates phenomenological hermeneutics with genealogical critique to examine the conditions of possibility of contemporary affective discourse. Results indicate that love in late modernity is constituted as a field of tension between the emancipation of the self-reflexive subject and new forms of affective normalization produced by regimes of digital visibility and emotional commodification. It is concluded that the emergence of this category manifests a paradigmatic transformation in the understanding of the loving-being, where romantic vulnerability is replaced by a rationality of self-care that, paradoxically, reproduces neoliberal logics of emotional self-optimization while promising liberation from oppressive relational patterns.