Description
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: Jesus 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.
About the Author
William A. Calvo-Quiros is Assistant Professor of American Culture and Latinx Studies at the University of Michigan. His current research investigates the relationship between state violence, imagination, religiosity, and spirituality along the U.S. - Mexico border region during the twentieth century. His work studies the evolution and the politics of surveillance and control around Latino religiosity.
Reviews
Spanning a historical period of over a hundred years, this study demonstrates how crucial religiosity is for cross cultural identity and cultural practices. Weaving a discussion of folk Catholic religious practices with themes of sexuality, gender, and violence, Undocumented Saints does what good folklore always does, reflect on the folk and folk practices with respect and serious attention to the myriad realities found in the community. * Norma E. Cantu, Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison Distinguished Professor of the Humanities, Trinity University *
In this brilliant and beautiful book, William A. Calvo-Quiros 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 Jesus 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-Quiros 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 *
Awards
Winner of Winner, Best First Book in the History of Religions, American Academy of Religion Winner, 2023 The Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize, American Society of Church History.
Book Information
ISBN 9780197630235
Author William A. Calvo-Quiros
Format Paperback
Page Count 370
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 1g
Dimensions(mm) 156mm * 237mm * 24mm
About the Author
William A. Calvo-Quiros is Assistant Professor of American Culture and Latinx Studies at the University of Michigan. His current research investigates the relationship between state violence, imagination, religiosity, and spirituality along the U.S. - Mexico border region during the twentieth century. His work studies the evolution and the politics of surveillance and control around Latino religiosity.
Reviews
Spanning a historical period of over a hundred years, this study demonstrates how crucial religiosity is for cross cultural identity and cultural practices. Weaving a discussion of folk Catholic religious practices with themes of sexuality, gender, and violence, Undocumented Saints does what good folklore always does, reflect on the folk and folk practices with respect and serious attention to the myriad realities found in the community. * Norma E. Cantu, Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison Distinguished Professor of the Humanities, Trinity University *
In this brilliant and beautiful book, William A. Calvo-Quiros 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 Jesus 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-Quiros 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 *
Awards
Winner of Winner, Best First Book in the History of Religions, American Academy of Religion Winner, 2023 The Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize, American Society of Church History.
Book Information
ISBN 9780197630235
Author William A. Calvo-Quiros
Format Paperback
Page Count 370
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 1g
Dimensions(mm) 156mm * 237mm * 24mm
