“There's a Spirit That Transcends the Border”: Faith, Ritual, and Postnational Protest at the U.S.-Mexico Border

Abstract

Religion is increasingly moving beyond private confines to public venues, where it challenges and informs public morality and civil society. This article focuses on the Posada Sin Fronteras, an annual political and religious-informed event that calls attention to the rising death toll at the U.S.-Mexico border caused by changes in U.S. border enforcement policies. Based on ethnographic data and on-the-spot interviews with participants at the event, this article analyzes the Posada as a collective ritual and examines the meanings it holds for its varied participants. The crisis in U.S. immigration and border enforcement policies, and the cultural influences brought about by Mexican and, to lesser extent, Central American immigration provide the conditions for the Posada. Interfaith religious morality allows for the adoption of Mexican and Catholic cultural forms by diverse groups, including people who are of neither Mexican nor Catholic heritage. We refer to this process as “religio-ethnic cultural expansion,” and we suggest that religious discourse of Christian kinship, unity, and shared humanity constitute one of the key forces animating the post-national challenge to nation-state border and citizenship policies.