Search Results

This book explores how the issue of migration intertwines with religion and ethnicity across the U.S.-Mexico border. Drawing on qualitative, semi-structured interviews combined with informal conversations and extensive participant observation in El Alberto, Mexico City, and in Phoenix, Arizona, the book examines the complex story of immigrants turning to religion as they cross the border in pursuit of a better life. It links Pentecostalism in El Alberto, an Otomí community located several hours north of Mexico City, to the challenges of the undocumented journey and the daily fabric of cross-border life. It argues that even religion is no longer enough to help potential migrants navigate the complex choices they face. This introduction provides an overview of the Caminata Nocturna, a U.S.-Mexico border crossing simulation that invites tourists to become an undocumented migrant for a night, as well as El Alberto, the methodology used in the study, and the chapters contained in this book.

This chapter examines the arrival of Pentecostalism in El Alberto. In particular, it explores the stories of Pentecostals in El Alberto who witnessed development and religious change that began in the early 1960s, well before migration to the United States became commonplace. Focusing on national development in the Valle del Mezquital and the perspectives of Don Cipriano, El Alberto's first Pentecostal pastor, the chapter considers early conversion that coincided with a process of socioeconomic development in Mexico and how it altered the material circumstances of people's day-to-day lives. It shows how Pentecostalism introduced a narrative of progress that instilled the socioeconomic development process with a sense of higher purpose. It also discusses the significance of Pentecostal narratives of the past for understanding today’s migration dynamics.

This chapter examines religious and material change in El Alberto from Catholic perspectives. More specifically, it considers the transformation of El Alberto's patron saint festival and the emergence of a collective labor system that exists today. It explores the dilemma faced by Catholics and other non-evangelicals in El Alberto with respect to keeping their patron saint festival afloat in the face of the increasing number of people converting to Pentecostalism or leaving for the United States. It shows that the town's Catholics attribute socioeconomic development to a diverse combination of political and material causes, rather than religion. It explains how Catholics managed to retain the solidarity-building function of the traditional festivals by transferring it to the secular realm, as El Alberto's system of collective labor came to provide an infrastructure for community projects. The chapter concludes by focusing on how an ethic of collective participation made way for cooperation between Catholics and Protestants as they generate alternatives to migration.

This chapter examines the collective vision that drives the Caminata Nocturna: the Mexican Dream. It shows that residents of El Alberto are finding within their ethnic heritage a tradition of endurance and collective survival that bridges religious divides and offers an antidote to the individualism and materialism of American life. Through the Caminata Nocturna, residents of El Alberto call upon one another in hopes of realizing a future in which they will no longer depend on international migration. They embrace varied understandings of ethnic identity, consumerism, migrant labor, and the ultimate horizon of human life. However, evangelicals and non-evangelicals alike are bound together by a deep loyalty to their town and to their tradition of collective labor. This chapter also considers the right of indigenous people, both in El Alberto and in Mexico as a whole, to exist as a comunidad and manage land on their own terms.

This chapter examines the rise of migration from El Alberto to the United States amid religious and socioeconomic change that swept the town in the 1960s and 1970s. Beginning with internal migration in the 1960s and continuing with U.S. migration in the late 1980s, an increasing numer of residents left El Alberto in search of work and a better life. The material changes experienced by those who left were so pronounced that religious concerns could momentarily be put aside. This chapter tells the stories of women who left home as children to work as domestic servants within Mexico, and men who left home as teenagers to work in Mexico City, Texas, and beyond. It explores changing gender relations and new forms of subjectivity that emerged and how the hardships of migration inspired religious responses from emigrants.

This chapter examines the vision and planning process behind the Caminata Nocturna, which began from a “Night Hike” in El Alberto as a response to the increased danger of crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Using rigorous embodied action, the Caminata simulation of border crossing urges both tourists and the youth of El Alberto to set their sights not on the United States, but rather on the “Mexican Dream”—the dream of a future in which migration will no longer be a necessity. This chapter suggests that the Caminata does not only protest the trend of U.S. border militarization that has rendered undocumented passage increasingly difficult, but also unlocks the creative potential of the undocumented journey and channels it toward new ends. It argues that the Caminata humanizes migrants, whereas U.S. border enforcement policy objectifies them.

This book concludes with a discussion of the relationship between the Caminata Nocturna and the religious beliefs of the Pentecostals in El Alberto who are striving to help make it a reality and achieve the Mexican Dream. It highlights the contradictions between Pentecostal doctrine and the vision of social change embodied in the Caminata. It considers how the very promise of individual salvation inspires some of the key architects of the Caminata to dream of a better life for the future generations. It suggests that Pentecostalism and the Mexican Dream represent two interrelated calls for action in the face of migration's many challenges. It also reflects on how the case of El Alberto can contribute to the larger literature on religion, migration, and the U.S.-Mexico border.

This chapter examines how religion enables Pentecostals of El Alberto to negotiate the day-to-day challenges of transnational life. Focusing on the religious practices of the relatives of those who migrated to the United States, it considers how Pentecostalism in El Alberto came to be intertwined with the daily, relational challenges of migration. It shows that Pentecostalism's embodied practices resonate with indigenous notions of reciprocity and exchange and explains how prosperity theology paved the way for emigrants' relatives in El Alberto to embrace a spiritual economy in which dollars interlace with prayers. As migrants send remittances home, their loved ones back in Mexico implore God to protect their relatives and help them find work by resorting to fasting, faith healing, and prayer.

This chapter examines how Pentecostals in El Alberto respond to the challenges of the undocumented journey. In particular, it considers the ways that Pentecostals make sense of the heightened danger they face while attempting to cross an increasingly militarized U.S.-Mexico border. It describes how changes in U.S. border enforcement over the last few decades have led to an increasingly dangerous border situation that is sparking new theological reflection and even religious conversion. It shows that Pentecostals resort to prayer and worship to prepare migrants for departure and make sense of unsuccessful border crossing attempts. It also looks at Pentecostals' ad hoc theology of migration that addresses the contradictions of citizenship and exclusion in a bordered world. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the narratives and practices surrounding one man's near-death accident at the U.S.-Mexico border.

This chapter examines spiritual warfare as a way for Pentecostals of El Alberto to deal with the dangerous effects of mobility and globalization upon the bodies of the faithful, especially the youth. The logic of spiritual warfare is grounded in the assumption that a person's moral and physical states are seamlessly combined. Drawing upon the tools of spiritual battle, Pentecostals seek to control the many unseen threats introduced by the global movement of people, products, and images. This chapter considers the Pentecostals' attitudes toward witchcraft, sorcery, and Satan as well as Pentecostalism's relationship with the hñähñu notion of cosmos.