Undocumented Saints The Politics of Migrating Devotions

The Politics of Migrating Devotions

By: William A. Calvo-Quirós

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Paperback | 16 December 2022

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Paperback
336 Pages

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23.72 x 15.62 x 2.41

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This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

Undocumented Saints follows the migration of popular saints from Mexico into the US and the evolution of their meaning. The book explores how Latinx battles for survival are performed in the worlds of faith, religiosity, and the imaginary, and how the socio-political realities of exploitation and racial segregation frame their popular religious expressions. It also tracks the emergence of inter-religious states, transnational ethnic and cultural enclaves unified by faith.

The book looks at five vernacular saints that have emerged in Mexico and whose devotions have migrated into the US in the last one hundred years: Jes s Malverde, a popular bandido turned saint caudillo; Santa Olguita, an emerging feminist saint linked to border women's experiences of sexual violence; Juan Soldado, a murder-rapist soldier who is now a patron for undocumented immigrants and the main suspect in the death of an eight-year-old victim known now as Santa Olguita; Toribio Romo, a Catholic priest whose ghost/spirit has been helping people cross the border into the US since the 1990s; and La Santa Muerte, a controversial personification of death who is particularly popular among LGBTQ migrants. Each chapter contextualizes a particular popular saint within broader discourses about the construction of masculinity and the state, the long history of violence against Latina and migrant women, female erasure from history, discrimination against non-normative sexualities, and as US and Mexican investment in the control of religiosity within the discourses of immigration.

Industry Reviews

"In this brilliant and beautiful book, William A. Calvo-Quirós shows how for more than a century the miracles of migrant survival, subsistence, resistance, and affirmation have been fueled by the veneration of vernacular saints, most of whom remain not canonized by the Church. In the midst of exploitation, criminalization, and demonization, narratives about and appeals to Jesùs Malverde, Juan Soldado, Olga Camacho, Toribio Romo, and La Santa Muerte have enabled migrants to envision a future beyond oppression. The specific case studies in this book evoke a larger truth: that as people migrate, faith accompanies them, and becomes transformed in the process." -- George Lipsitz, Author of The Possessive Investment in Whiteness "Through the storied figures of Jesus Malverde, Juan Soldado, Toribio Romo and La Santa Muerte, William Calvo-Quirós tracks popular religiosity as a force in the Mexican migrant experience. The message on vernacular saints is clear : don't leave home without them. A rich and often riveting account that belongs in any conversation on transborder mexicanidad." -- Mary Louise Pratt, Author of Planetary Longings "Readers will enjoy the gathering of voices that appear as epigraphs to set the tone for each chapter, offering wisdom and witticisms on sainthood." -- James Padilioni Jr., American Catholic Studies

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