Abstract
This essay focuses on the folklore surrounding Toribio Romo, a young priest from Jalostotitlán, Mexico, who was killed during the Cristero War in 1928 and canonized in 2000. Recognized as the patron saint of migrants and popularly known as el Padre Pollero, or the Holy Coyote, Santo Toribio has evolved into a popular or folk saint who appears mysteriously in the desert and helps immigrants cross the border safely into the United States. The folklore surrounding el Padre Pollero is consistent with that associated with various Mexican virgins and saints but is unique in that el Padre Toribio is a transnational figure who appears at the international border rather than in a particular locale in Mexico. Transcending conventional borders and nation-states, he embodies the “practical spirituality” or cultural spiritual economy that migrants have constructed to help them deal not only with suffering and adversity during their migration but with the inequities they face in the United States.
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