Desirée A. Martín - Borderlands Saints

Latinidad

Transnational Cultures in the United States

This series publishes books that deepen and expand our knowledge and understanding of the various Latina/o populations in the United States in the context of their transnational relationships with cultures of the broader Americas. The focus is on the history and analysis of Latino cultural systems and practices in national and transnational spheres of influence from the nineteenth century to the present. The series is open to scholarship in political science, economics, anthropology, linguistics, history, cinema and television, literary and cultural studies, and popular culture and encourages interdisciplinary approaches, methods, and theories. The series grew out of discussions with faculty at the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University, where an interdisciplinary emphasis is being placed on transborder and transnational dynamics.

Matthew Garcia, Series Editor, School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies; and Director of Comparative Border Studies

Rodolfo F. Acua, In the Trenches of Academe: The Making of Chicana/o Studies

Adriana Cruz-Manjarrez, Zapotecs on the Move: Cultural, Social, and Political Processes in Transnational Perspective

Marivel T. Danielson, Homecoming Queers: Desire and Difference in Chicana Latina Cultural Production

Rudy P. Guevarra Jr., Becoming Mexipino: Multiethnic Identities and Communities in San Diego

Lisa Jarvinen, The Rise of Spanish-Language Filmmaking: Out from Hollywoods Shadow, 19291939

Regina M. Marchi, Day of the Dead in the USA: The Migration and Transformation of a Cultural Phenomenon

Desire A. Martn, Borderlands Saints: Secular Sanctity in Chicano/a and Mexican Culture

Marci R. McMahon, Domestic Negotiations: Gender, Nation, and Self-Fashioning in US Mexicana and Chicana Literature and Art

A. Gabriel Melendez, Hidden Chicano Cinema: Film Dramas in the Borderlands

Priscilla Pea Ovalle, Dance and the Hollywood Latina: Race, Sex, and Stardom

Luis F. B. Plascencia, Disenchanting Citizenship: Mexican Migrants and the Boundaries of Belonging

Maya Socolovsky, Troubling Nationhood in US Latina Literature: Explorations of Place and Belonging

Borderlands Saints

Secular Sanctity in Chicano/a and Mexican Culture

Desire A. Martn

Rutgers University Press

New Brunswick, New Jersey and London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Martn, Desire A., 1972

Borderlands saints : secular sanctity in Chicano/a and Mexican culture / Desire A. Martn, Rutgers University Press.

pages cm. (Latinidad: Transnational Cultures in the United States)

Includes .

ISBN 9780813562346 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 9780813562339 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 9780813562353 (e-book)

1. American literatureMexican American authorsHistory and criticism. 2. Mexican American literature (Spanish)History and criticism. 3. Mexican-American Border RegionCivilization. 4. Mexican literatureHistory and criticism. 5. Secularism in literature. 6. Holy, The, in literature. 7. Heroes in literature. I. Title.

PQ7070.5.M37 2013

810.9'868dc23 2013000429

A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.

Copyright 2014 by Desire A. Martn

All rights reserved

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This book has been many years in the making. Over that time I have incurred many debts to family, friends, teachers, mentors, students, and colleagues. These relationships are formative, and I am humbled by the generosity that so many people have shown me. Before I acknowledge these debts, however, I want to express gratitude for the privilege of research and writing itself. While the process of writing this book has often been frustrating, it has also, quite unexpectedly, been a companion and a refuge for me through some very hard times. Looking back, I can say that writing this book has reinvigorated me for the work ahead even as it has taught me to embrace my time with loved ones, especially my children, all the more.

I thank Walter Mignolo, Carolyn Porter, and Antonio Viego for guiding me through different stages of my academic journey. Special thanks go to Alberto Moreiras, Gabriela Nouzeilles, and Janice Radway, who saw the earliest incarnations of this project at Duke University and inspired me to embrace the borderlands condition in every sense. At UC Davis, I have been fortunate to work alongside brilliant and indomitable colleagues. I am especially grateful for the intellectual, professional, and moral support provided me by Emilio Bejel, Nathan Brown, Miroslava Chvez-Garca, Seeta Chaganti, Chen-Nee Chuah, Frances Dolan, Margaret Ferguson, Kathleen Frederickson, Elizabeth Freeman, Bishnupriya Ghosh, Danielle Heard, Hsuan Hsu, Mark Jerng, Michael Lazzara, David Lloyd, Christopher Loar, Colin Milburn, Elizabeth Miller, Ana Peluffo, Rich Richardson, Matthew Stratton, Julie Sze, Cecilia Tsu, Louis Warren, Claire Waters, and Michael Ziser. I must single out Scott Simmon for his support and friendship; he has been the best chair I could have hoped for during my tenure year. Lastly, I have learned much from the students I have taught and mentored at UC Davis, especially Sharada Balachandran-Orihuela, Emily Davidson, Isabel Porras, and Kaitlin Walker. I look forward to seeing their careers develop.

I am deeply grateful to Leslie Mitchner and everyone at Rutgers University Press for their expert stewardship of my project, and to Pippa Letsky for her excellent editorial work. Special thanks go to the anonymous readers of my manuscript and tenure file for their incisive and helpful comments. Many other friends throughout the academy have been important interlocutors and have provided much needed support. Thanks to Aimee Bahng, Rafael Daz, Ricardo Domnguez, Kirsten Silva Gruesz, Laura G. Gutirrez, Simon Hay, Javier Krauel, Jorge Marturano, Claudia Milian, Gabriela Nuez, Catherine Ramrez, Jos David Saldvar, Alanna Thain, Christian Thorne, Virginia Tuma, and Maarten Van Delden for their inspirational friendship. Most of all, I thank mis hermanas del alma Amy Sara Carroll and Tabea Linhard, who have always been ready to listen and share their love with me through good times and bad. Finally, I am so blessed to be friends with Robert McKee Irwin (gracias por todo, querido) and Valeria La Saponara (grazie, bellissima).

My family and oldest friends deserve special mention. Thank you to the Dobbins family: Maureen, Terry, and especially Greg, for the love and support they showed me over the years. Steve Otroshkin, thank you for always making me laugh when I need it most. To Jean Rebholz, hermana de otra madre, I hope that you know what you mean to me. Thank you for always being there. Nothing would have been possible without