1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910453511903321

Autore

Martín Desirée A. <1972->

Titolo

Borderlands saints : secular sanctity in Chicano/a and Mexican culture / / Desirée A. Martín

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Brunswick, New Jersey : , : Rutgers University Press, , [2014]

©2014

ISBN

0-8135-6235-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (268 p.)

Collana

Latinidad: Transnational Cultures in the United States

Disciplina

810.9/868

Soggetti

American literature - Mexican American authors - History and criticism

Mexican American literature (Spanish) - History and criticism

Mexican literature - History and criticism

Secularism in literature

Holy, The, in literature

Heroes in literature

Electronic books.

Mexican-American Border Region Civilization

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: The secular sanctity of borderlands saints -- Saint of contradiction: Teresa Urrea, La Santa de Cabora -- The remains of Pancho Villa -- Canonizing César Chávez -- Todos somos santos: Subcomandante Marcos and the EZLN -- Illegal marginalizations: La Santísima Muerte -- Conclusion: Narrative devotion.

Sommario/riassunto

In Borderlands Saints, Desirée A. Martín examines the rise and fall of popular saints and saint-like figures in the borderlands of the United States and Mexico. Focusing specifically on Teresa Urrea (La Santa de Cabora), Pancho Villa, César Chávez, Subcomandante Marcos, and Santa Muerte, she traces the intersections of these figures, their devotees, artistic representations, and dominant institutions with an eye for the ways in which such unofficial saints mirror traditional spiritual practices and serve specific cultural needs. Popular spirituality of this kind engages the use and exchange of relics, faith healing, pilgrimages, and spirit possession, exemplifying the contradictions



between high and popular culture, human and divine, and secular and sacred. Martín focuses upon a wide range of Mexican and Chicano/a cultural works drawn from the nineteenth century to the present, covering such diverse genres as the novel, the communiqué, drama, the essay or crónica, film, and contemporary digital media. She argues that spiritual practice is often represented as narrative, while narrative-whether literary, historical, visual, or oral-may modify or even function as devotional practice.