The God Without Borders and the Mexican Dream: Religion, Space, and Migration in El Alberto, Hidalgo
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THE GOD WITHOUT BORDERS AND THE MEXICAN DREAM: RELIGION, SPACE, AND MIGRATION IN EL ALBERTO, HIDALGO By LEAH M. SARAT A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2010 1 © 2010 Leah M. Sarat 2 To the residents of El Alberto and to my family 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Primeramente, agradezco a la gente del la comunidad del Alberto, tanto a los que mencionados en el trabajo y a las personas que me alentaron y ofrecieron hospedaje y amistad durante mi estancia en el pueblo. Ofrezco el presente trabajo con la esperanza de que nos ayudará a encontrar soluciones binacionales a la migración, y de que algún día el ―sueño Mexicano‖ sea realidad. Si hay alguna falta este, les pido su comprensión y sugerencias para que lo siga mejorando. I thank my parents, Melissa and Frank Sarat, for their editing assistance and much more. I am grateful to my mother for passing on her creativity and deep appreciation for the stories of others, and to my father for teaching me to question the lenses through which we look at the world. I thank my sister Evangeline for setting a brave example of putting one‘s dreams into practice. Finally, I thank my extended family, especially my neice, for their ongoing love and support. A heartfelt thanks to Manuel Vásquez and Robin Wright in the Department of Religion at the University of Florida for their mentorship and invaluable contributions to the manuscript, as well as Philip Williams and Pablo Vila for their careful reading and final comments. Many thanks to Anne Newman and Ronald Ozbun for their practical support. I also thank my other instructors at the University of Florida, especially Anna Peterson and David Hackett. I offer my appreciation to the many graduate students at the University of Florida and Wilfried Laurier University with whom I have been privileged to share the journey. In particular, I thank Robin Globus and Rose Caraway for their friendship and for the insights on religion that our countless informal conversations have helped to uncover. I 4 thank Guadalupe Rivera Garay and Gilberto Rescher for their collaborative spirit and insights on migration in the Valle del Mezquital. I also thank Salvador García Angulo and Oralia Cárdenas Zacarías as well as the the staff at Hmunts'a Hem'I in Ixmiquilpan for offering research support. Finally, to all of the good folks at Annunciation House in El Paso and the Gainesville Catholic Worker in Florida, I owe a heartfelt thanks for the reminder that the best knowledge is that which is applied toward bringing about justice and fostering spaces of loving community in this world. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 11 Background: Religion and the Undocumented Journey .......................................... 13 Overview and Context of the Community................................................................ 18 Research Questions ............................................................................................... 25 Methodology ........................................................................................................... 27 Chapter Summary ................................................................................................... 31 2 MIGRA, MOSCAS, AND MIGRANTES: PERFORMING BORDER MILITARIZATION IN THE CAMINATA NOCTURNA .............................................. 34 El Alberto ................................................................................................................ 34 The Caminata ......................................................................................................... 38 United States-Mexico Border Militarization ............................................................. 41 Performative Dimensions of U.S.-Mexico Border Enforcement .............................. 49 Performing the Border in the Caminata................................................................... 52 3 LIFE IS SURVIVAL ................................................................................................. 61 The Origins of Migration in El Alberto ..................................................................... 62 Early Internal and U.S. Migration ............................................................................ 65 The Origins of the Caminata Nocturna ................................................................... 72 ―I Lift up my Eyes to the North‖ ............................................................................... 78 A Habitus of Migration............................................................................................. 82 Work, Survival, Living Well ..................................................................................... 87 4 ―THIS RELIGION OPENED PEOPLE‘S EYES:‖ PROTESTANT NARRATIVES OF CONVERSION AND DEVELOPMENT ............................................................. 95 Pentecostal Narratives of the Past .......................................................................... 97 The Arrival of Pentecostalism in El Alberto ........................................................... 104 Religious Conflict and Social Change ................................................................... 110 Conversion, Development, and Indigenous Religiosity ......................................... 116 5 DON BETO: WORK, SACRIFICE, AND THE TIES THAT BIND .......................... 124 Don Beto ............................................................................................................... 124 6 ―Un Pueblo Unido‖ ................................................................................................ 128 The Comunidad in Mexican History ...................................................................... 132 Government and Citizenship in El Alberto ............................................................ 136 Collective Labor in El Alberto ................................................................................ 143 Migration, Work, and the Year of Service ............................................................. 147 Negotiating Transnational Belonging .................................................................... 153 6 ―PARA DIOS, NO HAY FRONTERAS:‖ PENTECOSTALISM AND THE MIGRATION JOURNEY ....................................................................................... 158 Migration as a ―Theologizing Experience‖ ............................................................. 159 Pentecostalism and the Undocumented Journey .................................................. 162 Narrating the Border: Francisco‘s Story ................................................................ 170 Performing the Border: A Ritual Fast .................................................................... 176 Pentecostalism and the Caminata Nocturna ......................................................... 180 7 ―TO CRUSH THE DEVIL‘S HEAD, YOU NEED THE POWER OF GOD:‖ GLOBALIZATION, SPIRITUAL WARFARE, AND HÑÄÑU COSMOS .................. 183 Local Evil, Global Expression ............................................................................... 184 Conversion Revisited ............................................................................................ 186 The Hñähñu Cosmos ............................................................................................ 188 Hñähñu Witchcraft, Sorcery, and Healing ............................................................. 192 Mapping the Global Sacred Landscape ................................................................ 197 Navigating Satan‘s Web........................................................................................ 204 8 INDIAN TERRITORY ............................................................................................ 209 Crossing through Indian Territory ......................................................................... 209 Past Indians, Border Indians ................................................................................. 211 ―Playing Indian‖ in Mexico and Beyond ................................................................. 213 Don Beto, Don Caco, and Doña Petra .................................................................. 220 Crossed by the Border: Indians, Aliens, and the State ......................................... 227 Border Territory, Border Space ............................................................................. 233 9 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 237 Border Embodied, Border Imagined ..................................................................... 237 Religion, Ritual, and the Caminata Nocturna ........................................................ 241 The Migration Journey .......................................................................................... 243 Indigenous Experience and the Migration Journey ............................................... 247 Transnationalism and Globalization ...................................................................... 249 The God without Borders and the