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Sociological Perspectives, Volume 47, Number 2, pages 133159.

Copyright 2004 by Pacific Sociological Association. All rights reserved.

Send requests for permission to reprint to: Rights and Permissions, University of California Press,

Journals Division, 2000 Center St., Ste. 303, Berkeley, CA 94704-1223.

ISSN: 0731-1214; online ISSN: 1533-8673

THERES A SPIRIT THAT TRANSCENDS THEBORDER: FAITH, RITUAL, AND POSTNATIONAL

PROTEST AT THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDERPIERRETTE HONDAGNEU-SOTELO*

GENELLE GAUDINEZHECTOR LARABILLIE C. ORTIZ

University of Southern California

ABSTRACT:

Religion is increasingly moving beyond private confinesto public venues, where it challenges and informs public morality and civilsociety. This article focuses on the Posada Sin Fronteras, an annual politi-cal and religious-informed event that calls attention to the rising death tollat the U.S.-Mexico border caused by changes in U.S. border enforcementpolicies. Based on ethnographic data and on-the-spot interviews with par-ticipants at the event, this article analyzes the Posada as a collective ritualand examines the meanings it holds for its varied participants. The crisis inU.S. immigration and border enforcement policies, and the cultural influ-ences brought about by Mexican and, to lesser extent, Central Americanimmigration provide the conditions for the Posada. Interfaith religiousmorality allows for the adoption of Mexican and Catholic cultural forms by

diverse groups, including people who are of neither Mexican nor Catholicheritage. We refer to this process as religio-ethnic cultural expansion,and we suggest that religious discourse of Christian kinship, unity, andshared humanity constitute one of the key forces animating the post-national challenge to nation-state border and citizenship policies.

Its a Saturday afternoon, about ten days before Christmas, and several hundredpeople have gathered at a desolate spot in San Ysidro, California, where the fencedividing the United States from Mexico extends into the Pacific Ocean. This is one

of the few places in the San Diego area, a woman tells us, where you can actuallysee through the chain-link fence to other side. If your hands are small, you canstick your wrists through to touch people on the other side, as well do later thatevening as part of the ceremony. In other areas, thick air landing mats from theGulf War now block visual and human access.

Were here for the annual Posada Sin Fronteras, an interfaith, predominantly

* Direct all correspondence to: Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Department of Sociology, University of Southern

California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-2539; e-mail

: [email protected].

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134 SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES Volume 47, Number 2, 2004

Christian, celebration of cross-border unity and protest against the social injusticeof U.S. border policies. People from as far away as Los Angeles and northern Cal-ifornia, but mostly from San Diego County, have driven to Border Field State

Park, an antiseptic-looking grassy field scattered with picnic tables. Built in the1960s, it was informally christened friendship park, a cruel irony. Its not reallya park for frolicking families and friends but rather a site of surveillance, a parkwhere two lone Border Patrol agents are typically the only people present to enjoythe panoramic ocean views. Peering through the fence, we can see people gath-ered on the Mexican side of fence, where homes in the affluent middle-classneighborhood Playas de Tijuana straddle up next to the bullring and the light-house. From where we stand we cant see it, but on the Mexican side of the borderfence there is a billboard-sized plaque listing the names, places of origin, and agesof those who have died trying to cross the border in recent years. Like the Viet-

nam Memorial, its a haunting reminder of the human price paid for senselesswars. A diverse group of people has gathered on the U.S. side to address this borderwar. Today is the ninth annual Posada Sin Fronteras.

Aposada

is a traditional Catholic, Mexican procession that reenacts Joseph andMarys search for shelter in Bethlehem. Its a familiar cultural tradition in Mexicoand the U.S. Southwest. During the Advent season, just before Christmas, a groupcarrying a doll, which symbolizes the Christ child, spend eight or nine eveningsprocessing through neighborhoods, stopping at previously selected homes to askfor lodging. Sometimes adults or children are dressed as Mary and Joseph, andthey are rejected various times before they are met with hospitality. Its a joyous

occasion. Participants sing special posada songs, read Scriptures, and end theevening with refreshments.The Posada Sin Fronteras, sponsored by various faith-based and immigrant

rights groups, readapts the traditional posada procession to commemorate theplight of migrant families traveling from the south to the north in what has

become one of the most dangerous border regions in the world. The event is morethan a commemoration; it is a call to welcome the migrants and to protest borderpolicies that kill. Every year hundreds of people die as they attempt to cross theU.S.-Mexico border. Just as Mary and Joseph sought hospitality in a foreign,inhospitable land, so too, organizers tell us, are Mexican and Central Americanmigrants from the south seeking hospitality in the north. One Methodist bishop

who attended the Posada event described the analogy this way:

When Mary and Joseph left Bethlehem to return to Nazareth to raise their child,they crossed borders as undocumented refugees. They fled to Egypt, thenreturned to Nazareth. They were at risk, and their child was at risk. In her arms,Mary cradled the savior of the world. She held our hope. She held the Light in allits vulnerability. They could have died crossing borders as others have died. . . . Ipray that we will be people of hospitality and welcome. (Swenson 2003:2)

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

In this article we examine the intersection of religion, ethnicity, and politics, par-ticularly the way in which religion can inform, inspire, and even galvanize public

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Theres a Spirit that Transcends the Border

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protest. Protest events are a defining feature of social movements, and protestorsdevelop repertoires of contention (Tilly 1995), constellations of routine tacticsand strategies (see also Taylor and Van Dyke 2004). Social movement theorists

have focused on the resources necessary for mobilization, the political opportuni-ties that give rise to collective action, and the ways in which organizers frame col-lective grievances to be in alignment with mainstream beliefs and values, but whypeople protest and the meanings they derive from collective action have receivedrelatively scant attention. In The Art of Moral Protest (1997), James M. Jasper under-scores that protestors find pleasure and satisfaction in exerting moral voice.Doing so collectively and in public enhances their feelings of satisfaction.Through protest, people learn a moral language by which to define social issues(Pulido 2003). Protest actions are one means by which groups develop an opposi-tional consciousness and craft and reaffirm both individual and collective identi-

ties (Jasper 1997; Snow and McAdam 2000; Taylor and Whittier 1992).The Posada Sin Fronteras is not solely political or religious but rather a hybrid

event that combines political protest and religious ceremony. It is well known thatprotestors deploy novel, unorthodox forms of political expression to captivatepublic attention. They also, however, must rely on symbols, ideas, and beliefs thatresonate with the participants (Snow and Benford 1988). Religion and ethnicityprovide a fertile source for these symbols and beliefs. We examine how symbolsand rituals from Mexican Catholic traditions mesh with interdenominationalChristian beliefs to galvanize moral voice against U.S. policy vis--vis its borderwith Mexico. In conclusion, we suggest the emergence of a politicized spiritual-

ity that is collectively and publicly expressed, and we explain why this appealsto participants of diverse religious and ethnic origins who converge to formulatea postnational challenge to U.S. immigration and border policies.

As a political and religious-informed event, perhaps the Posada Sin Fronterasmost striking sociological feature is this: it is a Mexican Catholic cultural form thatis enthusiastically embraced by many people, including those who are neitherCatholic nor Latino. Yet the Mexican and Catholic cultural elements remain pal-pable and immediately observable. These include a procession, pageantry, reen-actment, songs and poems in Spanish, and luminarias.

What explains this cultural inversion? Clearly, the Posada

does not represent anassimilationist cultural form. Rather, it stands in sharp contrast to the long legacy

of U.S. religious institutions incorporating immigrants into mainstream U.S. cul-ture by requiring them to forfeit ethnic allegiances for religious ones. While thetriple melting pot of Protestantism, Catholicism, and Judaism incorporated Euro-pean immigrants of the early twentieth century (Herberg 1961), todays morediverse Asian and Latino immigrant population has resulted in a new era of reli-gious plurality. Religious identities often intensify after immigration, and distinc-tive immigrant and ethnic congregations, rather than assimilationist religiousforms, now prevail (Eck 2001; Warner and Wittner 1998).

Alternatively, the Posada

might be seen as a form of ethnic resilience, as one ofthe many ways in which Mexican and other Latino immigrants are transforming

American cultural practices and social space (Gutierrez 1998). Since VaticanII, Euro-American Catholics celebrate ritualistic devotions less, while Mexican

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American and Mexican immigrant Catholics have expanded these collective ritu-als and devotions (Matovina and Riebe-Estrella 2002), for they fortify Latino com-munity solidarity and belonging (Ramirez 2003). Some of these public rituals

incorporate critiques of social injustice, as has been noted in Da de los Muertoscelebrations in Los Angeles (Medina and Cadena 2002), Guadalupan devotions inSan Antonio (Matovina 2002a), and in Via Crucis Good Friday enactments in thePilsen neighborhood of Chicago (Davalos 2002).

The Posada Sin Fronteras, however, is distinct from ethnic resilience or culturalreplenishment as it is embraced by a diverse group of participants and is ani-mated by interdenominational Christian moral and political meaning. It thereforeprovides an indicator of how Mexican immigration has led to both the prolifera-tion of Mexican cultural practices in the United States and to new crises and con-testations over the governance of immigration and border enforcement. The crisis

in U.S. immigration and border enforcement policies and the cultural transforma-tions brought about by Mexican and, to a lesser extent, Central American immi-gration provide the conditions for the Posada Sin Fronteras. InterdenominationalChristian religious morality allows for the adoption of these practices by peoplewho are of neither Mexican nor Catholic heritage. It is one of several Latino Cath-olic public rituals that are being embraced beyond traditional ethnic and denomi-national boundaries (Matovinas 2002b). We argue that the appeal of religiousauthenticity combined with the political message allows persons with diverseidentities to coalesce in these events.

The collective plea to replace hostility with hospitality at the U.S.-Mexico bor-

der draws on plainly biblical and Mexican Catholic ritual symbols. It is one of agrowing number of instances in which religion is moving beyond the narrow, pri-vate confines of prayer and pews to public venues. In the United States andaround the world, from the left of center and from the right of center, religion isincreasingly moving beyond an exclusive focus on private salvation, spirituality,and worship to challenge and inform public morality. The sociologist Jose Casanova(1994) refers to this process as the deprivatization of religion. The Posada SinFronteras represents a collective enactment of this proposition in a particularlystark manner because it incorporates ritual and takes place at the U.S.-Mexico

border that was created and is maintained by state-sponsored military force. Infact, the gathering spatially straddles both sides of the border. The site itself, as

discussed below, is key to both political and religious articulations. The event isinformed by religious-based morality and incorporates Scripture and biblicalmandates about what is right and wrong into a collective condemnation and chal-lenge to the U.S. governments border policies.

This is certainly not the first instance of faith-based morality calling into ques-tion U.S. immigration and border policing practices. The Sanctuary Movement, aninterfaith movement against U.S. foreign policy and Central American refugeepolicy, began along the border in Arizona (Coutin 1993). The Quakers, throughthe American Friends Service Committee, have monitored human and civil rightsabuses along the U.S.-Mexico border for many years. More recently, Catholic bishops

from the United States and Mexico issued a rare joint statement calling on Bush toresume talks with Mexico to establish a new amnesty-legalization program, and

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they urged American Catholics to welcome undocumented immigrants in theirparishes (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops 2003).

A growing body of scholarship examines the intersections of religion and polit-

ical mobilization by and for immigrants, refugees, the poor, and ethnic communi-ties. Most of these studies focus on the organizational forms and the leadershipdevelopment strategies of faith-based community associations (Coutin 1993; Goldenand McConnell 1986; Warren 2001; Warren and Wood 2001; Wood 2002). Somestudies show how faith-based community organizing generates democratic insti-tutions and practices (Warren 2001; Wood 2002). Instead, we focus on a public,largely expressive, symbolic event. Our interest is in viewing the Posada SinFrontereas as a collective protest ritual and examining the meaning it holds for itsvaried participants.

We introduce the term religio-ethnic cultural expansion to refer to the ways

in which a distinctively ethnic and religious form is adopted, transformed, andexpanded to new inclusiveness in the United States. What makes this process pos-sible? In the case discussed here, religious morality and political protest are theglue that mediates the event. Increasingly, clergy are seeking ways to relate ethnicreligious forms to contemporary social problems. They are attracting diverse audi-ences who find in these events spiritual, religious transcendence and social, politi-cal relevance. In Pasadena, California, the annual, bilingual AIDS Posada (started

by a Latino AIDS activist and a non-Catholic church) has included a processionthat marches to City Hall asking for shelter and assistance for AIDS victims(Ramirez 2003). In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a Good Friday reenactment of Christs

crucifixion occurred on the same spot where a teenage boy had been shot dead(Matovina 2002b).In all of these instances, there is a clear political position advocated by the orga-

nizers and, presumably, the participants. There is also a strong religious, moralcomponent behind both the objective and the collective, corporeal ritual. Theevents combine the sacred with the secular, the moral with the political. A public,collective dimension contributes to feelings of authenticity. As Matovina (2002b:67)keenly observes in his analysis of these events, these rituals are not only anexpression of political protest, nor merely sources of cultural affirmation andretention, but practioners treasured means of encountering the sacred in theirlives. In this regard, the Posada Sin Fronteras is a collective, corporeal enactment

of a politicized spirituality.In recent years some scholars of immigration have contended that we have now

entered a phase marked by the decline of nation-states and the emergence of post-national citizenship. Although there are various strains of thought, postnational-ists argue that migrants now sustain claims to residency, welfare, and work rightsnot by virtue of nation-state citizenship but rather by reference to universalhuman rights and notions of personhood (Sassen 1998; Soysal 1994). An alter-native position holds that international borders and national immigration policiescontinue to yield tremendous power, even in this era of mass immigration andglobalization (Freeman 1998; Joppke 1997). It is our position here that there is irre-

futable evidence for the continued power of the nation-state. The Posada SinFronteras is organized precisely to challenge the current regime of U.S. national

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citizenship and unilaterally imposed immigration and border policies. Nationalgovernment enforcement of these policies is the primary reason that one to twopeople are dying at the U.S.-Mexico border each day. Although nation-state

regimes continue to exert tremendous power, they are facing significant post-nationalist contestations.

What the postnationalists have ignored is the extent to which religious dis-course, in particular, notions of Christian kinship and humanity, animate the post-nationalist challenge. Participants at the Posada Sin Fronteras are submitting apostnationalist discourse of universal personhood. These claims derive not onlyfrom ethnic solidarity or human rights discourse, as the postnationalists haveindicated (Soysal 1994), but also from religious beliefs and morality. The questionof culture or ethnicity aside, the Posada Sin Fronteras represents a postnationalist,interfaith challenge to national policies that are construed as immoral and injust.

Wea sociology professor and three students from the University of SouthernCaliforniaattended the Posada Sin Fronteras on December 14, 2002, because ofour research interest in faith-based mobilizations for immigrant rights and advo-cacy. A group we had been studying, the Interfaith Coalition for ImmigrantRights, has been one of several principal sponsors of this event since its inception.Our interests are not in analyzing the theology or motives of the organizers butrather in understanding the Posada as a popular event, one experienced by hun-dreds of people. We arrived at the Posada Sin Fronteras with two primary researchinterests: first, its panoply of cultural symbols, icons, and collective rituals, includ-ing candles, songs readapted for the occasion, theater skits, luminarias, candy,

clergy in collars, a procession through areas that symbolize the various stateswhere many border deaths occur, and inscribed bracelets; second, the variedmotivations that draw participants to the event and the multiple meanings theparticipants attach to it. Although we initially expected all participants to say thatthey were attending the Posada for religious or faith-based reasons, we discov-ered that political, humanitarian, and ethnic-cultural identities, as well as religion,find expression through the Posada.

Below, we first describe the interview and ethnography techniques used togather data. Then, largely relying on secondary sources, we review the escalationof military enforcement of the U.S.-Mexico border and some of the outcomes.Subsequent sections draw from our primary observations to provide an analysis

of the Posada Sin Fronteras, and we rely on short, audio-recorded interviews withforty-four respondents to sketch some conclusions about what the Posada meansto those who participate.

RESEARCH DESCRIPTION

This article is based on an ethnography of one event, the 2002 Posada SinFronteras. One of us had attended and videotaped the event the previous year,when rain, flooding, and construction of a reinforced fence forced relocation to alocal church parking lot. Two of us had also conducted participant-observation at

a similar October 2002 interfaith-sponsored event, held on a scorching day in anImperial Valley cemetery, to commemorate Saint Francis of Assisi and those who

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have died crossing the border. That event, which included a full Mass at the Holts-ville cemetery, was much more somber than the Posada. We use those two eventsas contrasts, but our primary material derives from observations and interviews

conducted on December 14, 2002, at the Posada Sin Fronteras.Four of us arrived just moments before the Posada began, about three oclock

on a Saturday afternoon. One of us documented the event with still photographs,and one of us chronicled the event with a digital video camcorder. All of us beganthe event by attentively hovering around the clergy who served as the mainspeakers and the singers, and then three of us fanned out to the edges of the grow-ing crowd. Equipped with small audiocassette recorders, each of us randomlyapproached people in the crowd to ask why they were there and what meaning thePosada Sin Fronteras held for them. We introduced ourselves as sociologists fromthe University of Southern California and told people that we were interested in

understanding why people come to this event. We did not ask for or record theirnames, organizational membership, or demographic dataalthough we recordedour approximation of the respondents age, sex, and race-ethnicity. In total, werecorded mini-interviews with forty-seven people, and forty-four of these weretranscribed verbatim (three were lost in the audiotaping). In addition, two of thefield researchers wrote up extensive, descriptive field notes after the event, andone researcher used the video recording to later write up descriptive field notes.At the conclusion of the Posada, around nine oclock, three of us accepted an invi-tation to gather at the nearby home of some of the organizers of the event, Fran-ciscan brothers, where we met for soup, conversation, and the singing of protest

songs. Like the Posada itself, the informal gathering was bilingual and bicultural.The methods used in this project are innovative in at least three ways. First, sev-eral ethnographers were deployed. This allowed us to check our observationswith one another and gain access to observations that one ethnographer workingalone may have missed. Second, the mini-interviews were conducted on site, asthe respondents were participating in and experiencing the event. Third, thevisual documentation provided an important supplement to on-site ethnography.

Visual documentation, field notes based on participant observations, andrecorded, transcribed mini-interviews provide the basis for our analysis in thisarticle. What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of our approach? Themini-interviews are powerful indicators of the diverse meanings people attached

to the Posada because we asked people to reflect on the event in the moment, insitu, as they were experiencing it. More conventional interviewing techniquesgenerally occur in isolated, private venues and typically pose questions aboutoccurrences that have long since passed. This impinges on validity, as respon-dents must necessarily reconstruct their narratives and reflections. A limitation ofour mini-interview innovation, however, is that we received forty-seven shortresponses. We did not seek out or gain access to our respondents biographicaltrajectories and social locations. A few of them told us about their political andreligious affiliations, but we did not consistently map this out for all of the inter-viewees. Since our focus was not organizational strategies or leadership develop-

ment, this omission does not negatively affect the parameters of our study.Another limitation of our research is that all of us stayed on the U.S. side of the

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fence, where the majority of the Posada participants gathered. The much smallergroup that convened on the Mexican side was composed of both Mexican andU.S. residents, but we do not know much else about them.

It is important to note that at the Posada Sin Fronteras, which spans the publicand the sacred, there were moments when we sensed it was clearly inappropriateto act as researchers. During solemn prayers, hymns, or a particularly emotionalmoment after a skit, we did not actively jot notes in our notebooks or approachpotential respondents. Since several other individuals were photographing andvideotaping during these moments, we continued our photo documentation. Thisallowed us to construct better field notes later. In the next section, we examine theconditions that prompted the emergence of the Posada Sin Fronteras.

MILITARIZATION AT THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER

Militarization at the U.S.-Mexico border is not new, but it has intensified dramati-cally in recent years. As history reminds us, the border between Mexico and theUnited States was born through military violence with the conclusion of the Mexican-American War in 1848.

1

Between the establishment of the border in 1848 and theestablishment of the Border Patrol as a policing agent in 1924, the U.S.-Mexico

border was relatively easy to cross. Even after 1924 the border remained perme-able and only loosely policed. In many instances the Border Patrol facilitatedthe migration of Mexicans seeking to find work and join family members in theUnited States. Even during periods of vitriolic campaigns against Mexican

migrant workers, U.S. government authorities often helped U.S. employers, espe-cially the agricultural sector, to obtain migrant workers (Calavita 1994).

2

In a classic essay, the poet and social commentator Gloria Anzalda (1987:25)refers to the U.S.-Mexico border as an open wound,

una herrida abierta

where theThird World grates against the first and bleeds. She continues: And beforea scab forms it hemorrages again, the lifeblood of two worlds merging to form athird countrya border culture. The Posada can be construed as forming part ofthat emerging third culture, but before analyzing it, it is important to considersome of the recent changes in the borders enforcement and maintenance.

Regardless of whether we conceive of the U.S.-Mexico border as a political fic-tion, as a scar on the land, or as an increasingly irrelevant boundary in the face of

neoliberalization policies such as the North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA), it remains a powerful reality in the lives of millions of Mexicans, Cen-tral Americans, and others who try to cross the line surreptiously, without docu-ments. Under these conditions, the border can only be construed as a borderless

border in a figurative and symbolic way.Since the 1980s and particularly during the 1990s, the United States tightened

border control enforcement at the southern border. The escalation of border polic-ing began in the late 1970s, at a historical moment when Mexican migration wasincreasing in number and visibility and eliciting harsh public reactions. Duringthe Bush and Reagan administrations, congressionally appropriated funds for

INS enforcement were increased and directed into military-like maneuvers andhardware. The sociologist Timothy J. Dunn (1996) chronicles how U.S. enforcement

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agencies in the 1980s gradually incorporated U.S. military doctrines of low-intensityconflictsome of these honed in Central Americato control the flow of illegalmigration and drugs at the U.S.-Mexico border. This involved the use of military

rhetoric, tactics, and technology. Between 1978 and 1992 the INS added equip-ment such as military helicopters outfitted with radar, night-vision scopes, elec-tronic intrusion-detection ground sensors, and instituted military training of localforces (Dunn 1996:150).

U.S. government expenditures to finance the INS and new border policing pro-grams escalated. From 1978 to 1992 INS fundsmost of it for enforcementeffortsexpanded 240 percent (Dunn 1996:149). The INS budget then nearly tri-pled between 1993 and 1999, from $1.5 billion to $4.2 billion. The Border Patrolan agency under the jurisdiction of the INSsaw its budget increase nearly 150percent, from $354 million in 1993 to $877 million in 1998. The number of Border

Patrol agents in the Southwest region more than doubled in the same period,reaching 8,200 in 1999 (Andreas 2000:89). It was estimated in 2001 that by the endof the 2003 fiscal year, the Border Patrol would have 11,000 agents (Cornelius2001).

3

The deployment of military-like operationswith aggresively militarizednames such as Operation Gatekeeperat a number of key crossing points accom-panied the escalation in Border Patrol funds and personnel.

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This escalation has been bolstered by anti-immigration legislation such as thehard-hitting Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA)of 1996, which diminished the rights of legal permanent resident immigrants(Hagan and Rodriguez 2002).

5

IIRIRA called for hiring more than one thousand

Border Patrol agents per year; it also contained provisions for building new phys-ical barriers

with the help of army engineers and reservists (Andreas 2000). Con-sequently, there are now more than ten thousand Border Patrol officers workingwith an annual budget of $1 billion. They are now the nations largest armedpolice force (Massey, Durand, and Malone 2002:114).

Why has border militarization come about at this time? The reasons are com-plex and multifaceted. Clearly, it is a response to the perception that illegal immi-grants, especially those from Mexico and Central America, must be preventedfrom entering the United States. Latino and more specifically Mexican immi-grants are blamedand serve as convenient scapegoatsfor a host of social andeconomic ills, and the legislative outcomes have been significant.

6

Public outcry about the loss of control at the border have accompanied thepast two decades of restrictive campaigns against immigrants. Illegal bordercrossings are seen as evidence that the United States has lost state sovereignty andthat anarchistic, chaotic regimes prevail at the border. Although political scientistsand theorists have underscored the ways in which the U.S. government actuallyenables clandestine border crossings (Andreas 2000; Calavita 1994), these per-spectives receive little media attention.

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Consequences of Border Militarization

Border militarization has prompted an increase in human and civil rights viola-tions, in the number and types of migrant crossing points, and deaths caused by

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these new, more dangerous crossing points. Border militarization has exacerbatedalready serious problems. Observers have compiled evidence of grotesque humanand civil rights violationsrape, sexual extortion, murdercommitted by law

enforcement agents and by groups of gangs and thieves who roam both sides ofthe border. Law enforcement officials have engaged in illegal searches, physicaland psychological abuse, deprivation of food and needed medical attention, andassault, battery, and murder (Huspeck, Martinez, and Jimenez 1998).

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According to the best estimates of survey researchers and demographers, illegalmigrant crossings have not been deterred since the inauguration of OperationGatekeeper and other enforcement programs (Cornelius 2002; Eschbach, Hagan,and Rodriguez 2001; Massey, Durand, and Malone 2002). Rather, the migrationcrossing points have been rerouted to more dangerous terrain, redirectingmigrants away from the older, more established crossing points near San Diego

and El Paso and toward new, more environmentally treacherous crossing pointsin Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

The increase in deaths is a direct result of border militarization and the concom-itant crossings in more dangerous terrain. Dyhydration in the desert, suffocationand heatstroke in locked auto or rail compartments, and drowning and hypother-mia are common causes of death. In October 2002 eleven people were found in alocked railway car in Iowa; they had been stowed and locked away by a coyote(smuggler) who did not anticipate that the train would be rerouted to a destina-tion in a different state.

Precisely estimating how many migrants die is difficult because no one knows

how many bodies are never found. A landmark study from the University ofHouston estimates that there were more than 1,600 fatalities of would-be bordercrossers between 1993 and 1997 (Eschbach et al. 1999; Eschbach, Hagan, and Rod-riguez 2001).

The increased enforcement and fortification of the U.S.-Mexico border has drawnpublic approval and has proven politically successful in affirming an image of U.S.sovereignty. However, given that it has not deterred illegal migration and that ithas resulted in human and civil rights violations and untold deaths, it constitutesa policy failure (Andreas 2000). In response, various groups have mobilized toprotest U.S. border policies and to assist migrants on their journey.

THE 2002 POSADA SIN FRONTERAS

Posadas originated in colonial Mexico and incorporate both indigenous and Span-ish Catholic rituals. They were used by the Spaniards to evangelize and teachChristian biblical morals to the Aztecs. In the sixteenth century posadas devel-oped as rituals in which the larger community, not only the clergy, could partici-pate.

The posadas and pastorelas (miracle plays that were also introduced to theIndians by Spanish clergy) were initially very solemn, sacred affairs, but oncethey moved into the streets and homes, they acquired a collective, joyous spirit(Castro 2001:190; Elizondo 2000; West 1988). Posadas vary across space and time,

but they always include the reenactment of Mary and Joseph searching for shelter,their rejection at various homes, and the final extension of hospitality.

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In 1994 the first annual Posada Sin Fronteras was organized by groups workingin the San Diego and Tijuana areas. Since then, interfaith groups along other pointsof the U.S.-Mexico border and as far north as Seattle, San Francisco, and Washing-

ton, D.C., have sponsored similar events to draw attention to the plight of thosewho cross the border during this regime of heightened enforcement and danger.

9

In this regard, it constitutes a modular protest repertoire that is borrowed by dif-ferent groups (Tarrow 1993) and bolstered by Mexican religious folk tradition.

The 2002 Posada Sin Fronteras was organized as an experience with rich visual,aural, and symbolic elements. Participants did not passively stand but were urgedto sing, stand, process with lighted candles, and engage in simple ceremonial ritu-als such as singing a special pilgrimage song and throwing candy across the fenceto those congregated on the other side. The setting alone was both inspiring andhaunting. Despite the antiseptic look of Border Field State Park, it was a uniquely

picturesque spot, with views of the waves crashing along the shoreline and thebullring and the illuminatedfaro

, or lighthouse, on the Mexican side. A windingwalkway separates the park from the shoreline, and all along the seawall, Posadaorganizers had placed hundreds of luminarias, paper bags with candles and sandinside them. At sunset the luminarias were lit, and the crowd that congregatedalong the chain-link fence could easily see that each one bore the name of a personwho had died trying to cross the border. Bags bearing names such as Juan Car-los or Andres were interspersed with bags that read no olvidado (not forgotten)and no identificado

(not identified).The Posada drew an audience diverse in age, denomination, and ethnicity. At

the peak time, about three hundred peoplethe majority of them Anglo-Americanand Latinogathered on the U.S. side of the fence, and a smaller group of per-haps fifty to seventy-five gathered on the Mexican side. The group included abouta dozen clergy in collars, Franciscan brothers dressed in brown robes and sandals,plenty of children with parents, older adults, and college students from churchyouth groups. The musicians Francisco Javier Herrera and Rosa Marta Zarate

began by singing to the accompaniment of an acoustic guitar. The group gatheredaround them, facing the chain-link fence and looking toward Mexico, and thenBrother Ed Dunn, a key organizer and initiator of the Posada Sin Fronteras, intro-duced the emcee for the event. Reverend Arthur Cribbs, who is African American,had emceed the previous year. He began by underscoring the events central

theme. Why are we here? he asked rhetorically. Were here to experience hos-pitality and inhospitality. Were here to know what it means to be friends andstrangers. Finally, he proclaimed to an attentive audience, There is a spirit thattranscends the border.

Reverend Cribbs introduced a series of speakers who addressed related issues.They commemorated the recent passing of the radical Jesuit priest and antiwarprotestor Phil Barrigan; they announced the INS denial of entry to refugees whohad been approved for entry prior to 9/11, and they made strong statementsagainst the looming war with Iraq. Most of the speeches were delivered in Englishand in Spanish. A seven-page program listing the names of the key musicians,

speakers, and song lyrics and the cosponsors of the event was passed out to thecrowd.

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The event began with this familiar, routinized, political rally format, but

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it quickly hit an emotional crescendo with a theater skit that dramatized recentborder death tragedies.

A church youth group from Escondido, located near San Diego, approached,

and the crowd was asked to make way for the young actors. Most people in thecrowd sat on the ground cross-legged; others stood behind them. The youngactors performed a skit based on the true story of eleven migrants who boarded aU.S.-bound freight car in Mexico, expecting to disembark in Houston. The trainsdestination was changed, and four months later, in October 2002, the train car wasfound in Iowa with eleven badly decomposed bodies (Associated Press 2002).

Using only two-by-fours draped with plastic tarps and sheets, the youth grouphad constructed a railroad car. They performed the play in Spanish, and a Fran-ciscan brother standing nearby translated into English. They opened with an actorplaying a coyote talking on a cell phone. Next a group, including a young child,

ran across the makeshift stage holding hands. That was the last we, the audience,saw of them. They disappeared into the makeshift railroad car, and for the dura-tion of the skit we could not see them; we only heard their conversations and criesthrough a microphone. The actors playing the migrants began with simple, hope-ful conversations about their American dreams; they talked about the jobs await-ing them, and a child asked his mother what language he would need to speak inschool in el norte.

As the days passed without the coyote coming for them, theyoung actors dramatized the agony that the migrant captives must have suffered.There were loud cries of hunger, howls of desperation, a mother pleading to herchild that she had no water and only one piece of bread to share. The sheet served

as an effective prop when the actors inside the tentlike structure clawed with theirhands for release. The audience saw only the ripples on the sheet and heard the ago-nizing and amplified cries. A narrator informed us that on the fourth day, the tem-perature reached 105 degrees. We heard loud sobbing, more cries, and then theanguish of a mother when she discovered her son was no longer breathing. Morecries followed and then silence.

The skit raised emotions among the audience. At the conclusion the audienceremained frozen, shrouded in silence. We ourselves were deeply moved by theskit, and when we looked around, expressions of sorrow and sympathy could beseen on the faces of most of those in attendance. One young woman, from Europewe later learned, watched with a deeply mournful expression and tears streaming

down her cheeks. The drama ended with these words: Many never make it.Many leave their dreams at the border itself.

After the dramatization, two young Mexican adults read a poem in Spanishcritical of the Mexican government, and then the crowd, led by the two singers,sang a song imploring everyone to help theirpaisanos.

Then the crowd turned tohear a priest from the Mexican side of the border. In heavily accented Spanish,Polish perhaps, he urged the crowd to have open hearts to receive brothers andsisters crossing from the south, and he decried the shootings of migrants in Ari-zona by both the Border Patrol and armed militias. He was followed by a teen-ager, also speaking from the Mexican side of the border, but this time in Span-

glish. He read a poem about terrorism and the terrorism that migrants experiencefrom U.S. border control strategies. After the poem, small woven bracelets that

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read no olvidado (not forgotten) were passed out to the crowd on the U.S. sideand, we were instructed to tie them on the wrists of those congregated on theMexican side of the fence. It was a panoramic sunset hour, and along the shoreline

wall, we could see the lighted luminarias against the backdrop of the crashingwaves. A chilly ocean mist moved onshore; people shivered, but no one seemedto complain of the cold.

As it grew dark, candles were passed out for the principal part of the Posadaritual, the procession. The crowd of several hundred people, mostly congregatedon the U.S. side but with growing numbers on the Mexican side, marched east-ward along the chain-link fence. It was dark, and the ground was uneven. Alongthe fence, organizers had placed cardboard placards with the names of the princi-pal states where migrants cross. Rather than go to a house seeking shelter, wemarched to different points symbolizing the states where migrants seek shelter,

beginning with California. Through a portable microphone and amplifier, indi-viduals on both sides of the fence took turns reciting the names of those who haddied the previous year while trying to cross into those states. After each name wasread, the crowd chanted presente, here, to signify the remembrance of thatperson. The group reenacted migrants rejection and acceptance at various statecrossing points. According to the theologian Virgilio Elizondo (1983:38), theposadas two key experiencesthe rejection of the poor from an inferior land andthe joy of welcoming Gods chosen onesreflect key gospel proclamations.

Song was a key element at the Posada Sin Fronteras. In between walking to thedifferent stations, the crowd sangin Spanish but observing the English transla-

tion in our brochurethe special Las Posadas del Barrio song that the singershad adapted from the traditional posada song.

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Like the traditional posada song,it represents a dialogue between those seeking shelter and those rejecting them.The adapted lyrics, instead of reflecting an exchange between Joseph and the inn-keeper, tell of an exchange between a would-be migrant and an inhospitable per-son, apparently an earlier migrant.

En el nombre de la justicia In the name of justiceBusco apoyo solidario I am looking for some helpCruce la linea de noche I crossed the border at nightAndo de indocumentado/a And I dont have papers yet

No vengas con tu miseria Dont come to me with your povertyNi vengas a molestar Dont come here to bother meTe voy a echar la migra I am going to call the MigraPa que te mande a volar And get you out of here quick

Paisana/o soy de tu tierra Hey, countryman, Im from your landComo tu vine a buscar As you did, I came to look Con mi familia el trabajo For work to support my familyMira mi necessidad Notice how needy we are

No me interesa quien seas I dont care who you areDeja ya de mendigar So stop your begging

Yo ya soy cuidadana(o) I am a citizen alreadyY te voy a reportar And Im going to report you

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The song continues until a third voice enters with this:

Ya no les siga rogando Do not beg them anymore

Venga a la comunidad Come with us to our communityDonde juntos trabajamos Where we all work togetherPor justicia y dignidad For justice and dignity

In total, there are nine stanzas, and also a posada chorus that ends the song withthe promise that justice, like a star, will shine in the barrio. At the conclusion ofthe posada, the crowd threw handfuls of candy across the chain-link fence in bothdirections and sang the final chorus of Las Posadas del Barrio. It was a joyful,spirited moment.

Vamos juntos como Pueblo Let us go together, as PeopleComo hermanos/as As brothers

Vamos todos a sembrar Let us go to sow justiceLa justicia que en el barrio That in the barrio, in the barrio

como estrella Will shine as a starBrillara

Multiple Participants, Multiple Responses

How do the participants experience the Posada Sin Frontera? Why do they par-ticipate, and what meaning do they create out of their experience? Equipped withour audiocassette recorders, three of us fanned out among the crowd immediately

after the theater skit, but before the procession began, to find answers to thesequestions. The responses were varied, and we quickly discovered that for manyparticipants, there were multiple meanings and motives.

Christian Faith and Religion

Religion and the promise of fulfilling the dictates of Christian kinship andmorality emerged as the central theme. For many, faith-based convictions arewhat drew them to the remote Posada Sin Fronteras on a busy Saturday, and faithis what fueled their challenge of border policies. This is no surprise, as the Posada

was sponsored by various faith-based organizations and the reenactment, theprocession based on Mary and Josephs search for shelter, is perhaps the worlds best-known Bible story. What is striking is the extent to which their Christianidentities and beliefs dictate inclusion, equality, and hospitality, as the excerptspresented below attest. Their religious identities and beliefs resonate with thereenactments and supersede government-established definitions about who should

be accepted into the United States as a migrant or refugee.

Im a Catholic Christian and, um, I believe in inclusivity. I believe all peopleare equal in worth as a human being. And I dont like the idea of refugees not

being able to come into our country. (Older white woman)

I am a Christian. Were all, I guess, illegal here in some way, so we want to betogether. (Middle-aged white woman accompanied by four children)

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Its important, like, as a Christian to be, like what they were talking about, howthere shouldnt be borders and were all one people. (Young white woman)

It comes from also my belief in Jesus. I think, I think Jesus would stand at theborder and would not accept it. . . . He was very much coming also for thepoor and for the widowed, for the orphaned, and for the sick to help, and forthe prisoners. And I think that it is the call. (Young European woman)

Several of the respondents invoked the idea that people on both sides of theborder are children of God, and they suggested that nation-state borders violatethe notion of a common humanity and a higher law of nature and spirituality. Asone older white woman put it, It [the U.S.-Mexico border] goes out into theocean, its just like a sin against the planet, and against Gods earth. . . . Surelythere is room for everyone on Gods earth. It does not belong to us; it belongs to

all of his children. Two female college students, one white and one Asian Ameri-can, attending the event with a Christian youth group, also stressed the theme of acommon humanity and noted that divisions of race and nation should not divide.Were all children of God, observed one of them. Were all here. We breathe thesame air. Her friend concurred: It doesnt matter what country youre from orwhat color skin we are because we all have the same blood running through ourveins. We all still need the same things.

With the exception of the one Asian American college student, all of the respon-dents who emphasized only faith-based convictions and rationales appeared to usto be white (we did not ask them to state their racial-ethnic identities), and with

the exception of two European women, they all seemed to be American. For thisgroup, Christian religious ideals and morals serve as a bridge that enabled themnot only to identify with alien others but also to stand alongside immigrants intheir struggle for human rights and equality. Faith provided them with a moral

blueprint for criticizing unjust government border policies directed against peopleof color, primarily Mexicans and Central Americans, and for reimagining these pol-icies. Faith, in particular, the example of Jesus compassion for the poor and down-trodden and the idea that people on both sides of the border are children of God,allowed them to challenge injustices that they themselves have not experienced.

The act of participating in the Posada Sin Fronteras and challenging social injus-tice became, for them, an act of religious affirmation. As one young man reflected,

Its directly motivated by our commitment to find what it means to be Christianmy commitment to find what it means to be Christian in the context of, you know,gross disparities in income and in the context of racism. As he continued his self-inquiry, he suggested that moral questioning of societal injustice and divisionsconstitute a key part of his religious quest: I think part of what it means to beChristian is to cross borders that normally arent crossed intentionally and withthe intention of being reconciled. So I think those are deeply Christian themes.Here, redemption is brought about through social action. Christian identities arereaffirmed not only through identification with disadvantaged others but alsothrough questioning of the secular sphere.

One man, perhaps in his sixties, voiced his concern for alien others morestrongly. For him, Christian faith prescribed not only identification with the

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suffering of migrants but also a biblical duty to help the aliens. As he said, Ijust feel compelled by the dictates of my religion, which is Christian, to help thesepeople. [I believe in] this injunction in the Bible such as, Remember you were an

alien yourself in Egypt. And you have to help the aliens. This is spread outthroughout the, the Bible. And I feel just a duty, really, a religious duty to try toease the burden of some of these people. . . . I do what I can to try and help.Another interviewee, a middle-aged white man, told us of his recent trip to helpmigrants in the desert. Here, the theme of Christian redemption through socialaction was expressed more strongly:

I visited a water tank a couple weeks ago in the Arizona desert and I talked tomore immigrants and helped them make contact through the use of the cellphone. . . . I was embraced with tears and great gratitude. It was a very tendermoment. The struggle in the desert is to be humbled. It is just horrific. It is so

shameful there. Tax dollars are going to that. Just to meet someone who is walk-ing to cross the desert is a very poignant moment, so it is very special to be here.

In this instance, he suggests that the experience provided him with a moment ofspiritual realization and transcendence.

Certainly not all of the participants at the Posada are ready to call for a radicalreconfiguration of U.S. immigration and border policies, nor are they necessarilyactivists. One college-aged young woman echoed the strong notions of Christianunity but voiced skepticism about totally changing U.S. immigration policies. Ihave faith that as Christians, we are supposed to be, open our hearts and open oursdoors to people, she offered. She also acknowledged, Maybe we cant accept allthe Mexican immigrants into our country, but at least we can be open-minded andopen our hearts and see them as, you know, people from other countries that donthave a lot of money, maybe arent the same as us, but (they) still have human rights.Although many of the participants shared faith-based ideals, they do not seem tohave a shared plan for how to accomplish a more just policy. Many participants toldus they were also attending the Posada as a learning experience. The informationthey receive at the Posada helps them to formulate their emergent critiques.

Religious faith and morality enable the emergence of alliances and the chal-lenge to government immigration and border policies. Notions of Christian kin-ship, inclusivity, and a moral duty to take action against injustice allow white

Americans to participate in the Posada. While their privileges of whiteness andU.S. citizenship remain, they simultaneously embrace Mexican and Catholic cul-tural forms and

they loudly reject the current regime United States governmentimmigration and border enforcement policies.

Religio-Ethnic Identities

Latino respondents were as likely to mention the religious impulse, but theyalso said they attended the Posada as an ethnic event that connected them to Mex-ico and to their sense of Mexicanness. It made them feel closer to Mexico and

brought out strong emotions about family connections.Family figured heavily in the narratives we collected from Latino respondents.

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Mexican and Latino parents reported that the Posada Sin Fronteras was a way toconnect their children to the past and the present. One Latina mother, with hertwo young children in tow, spoke emotionally, almost tearfully:

La Posada is something that is traditional within the Mexican/Latino culture.But it has a special meaning. . . . How do we look at, at people that are different?What are the barriers that we put? Like Joseph and Mary, they were denied lodg-ing, love, and acceptance because they were poor. Because of the way theylooked, and they were from another country, another area. Border stuff . . . whatit does is destroy. . . . I bring my children because I want to teach them as well.

For this woman, family participation in the Posada Sin Fronteras helped to con-nect the children to the past through an important cultural tradition, but it alsoserved as an opportune pedagogical moment. It provided a way to teach her chil-dren about the ways in which the doors to the United States are closed for somepeople because of race, class, and citizenship. The border fence site was a particu-larly effective instructional tool. I can tell them [the children] about the waythings are all day long, she said, but to bring them here to the border and forthem to see the people on the other side of this border and for them to learn first-hand that these Border Patrolmen are here to keep them out does so much more.

Some parents also hoped the Posada would serve a disciplinary function fortheir children, by reminding them that they enjoy the privileges of U.S. citizen-ship that others lack. Being born here, I hope it will help them to realize that theyare very fortunate to be here, said the mother quoted above. Another woman,speaking in Spanish, suggested that the Posada helped to instill ethnic pride in

her children:

Pero para mi esto es muy bonito para ellos, traerlos. . . . Well, for me its reallybeautiful to bring them [the children] here, to teach them so they know how tovalue everything thats happening day after day. As Mexicans, right, so thatthey know we come to the United States to try to make something of ourselves,

to do good things, right.

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Unlike the white respondents, many Latino interviewees had personally experi-enced painful separations from family members because of the U.S.-Mexico border.For them, religious faith and ethnic identity were confirmed through the Posada,

but the event also held special meaning. In one way or another, they had livedthrough what the clergy and speakers and the songs related during the ceremony.They had experienced the pain of border separations, and some had crossed ille-gally. They were now celebrating the hope of unity across borders, which for themheld real familial meaning and consequences. A young Latino man said that thePosada helped him to commemorate and heal previous family separations:

[The Posada is] related with Mexico . . . like exactly what the Bible says: Onepeople, one land. And I wanna experience that, you know. I want to feelthat. . . . I was born in Mexico, you know, I used to see my dad crossing the

border, and all I [could] see was a border between you know, my dad and I.

An older woman, perhaps in her seventies, began by saying that she was attend-ing the Posada, because, well, this was a tradition among all Catholic Latinos and

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Mexicans. For her, the posada was a way of collectively expressing ethnic and reli-gious identity. Llevamos todos los Mexicanos, los Latinos. All of us Mexicans,Latinos carry the case of Las Posadas of Jose and Maria! Its a tradition that we

have and we do it every year, and its very important to all of us. She also echoedthe experience of having her own family life transformed by border policies. Sherelated how easy it had once been to cross the line, when she herself had lived onthe Mexican side but crossed over to work in the fields and a packing plant in SanYsidro. Pointing to the luminarias she had just been lighting, she drew the con-trast with todays regime: Todas estas bolsas . . . Each one of those bags repre-sents a dead person. When she saw the theater skit, she said could not stop cry-ing because she knew those who suffered were her countrymen. Since they aremypaisanos

, that was more reason to feel very badly about it. I couldnt believe it.When I saw the roles the youth were playing, well, it pleased me, but I couldnt

stop crying! Her friend, another elderly Latina who had been lighting the lumi-naria candles with her, recalled the same experience of crossing the border easily:Solo era un alambre. There was just a wire. We would cross, work, leave tiredfrom working, and we would cross back on foot because there was no other way.She decried the changes that had come about: Pues, es triste. Well, its sadall ofour brothers who have died with this battle. Before it wasnt so difficult.

Another Mexican woman, perhaps in her thirties, who was attending thePosada with her husband and a friend, spoke in very animated manner aboutfamily separations caused and prolonged by border militarization. She empha-sized that the border enforcement not only presented particular dangers to U.S.-

bound migrants but also trapped undocumented immigrants in the United States.Some cant cross and some cant leave, she said, affirming research that showsthat border militarization has led to prolonged settlement by undocumentedimmigrants who are now less likely to return to visit their families in Mexico orCentral America because of the increased dangers and costs associated withmigration (Cornelius 2001; Massey, Durand, and Malone 2002).

Vengo apoyar a mis hermanos paisanos aqui en esta Posada. I come to supportmy fellow countrymen in this Posada. It means a lot for me to be participatingin this. There are many people who cannot cross and they cannot be seen.There are also those who cant leave [the United States], and this is an opportu-

nity for us to see each other. We can greet each other and seek shelter. . . . Apartfrom their families! So now this border divides us, but its only a fence. Butwith the Christmas spirit and heart, we are paisanos and thats why we arehere supporting them.

Her husband and her friend echoed her sentiments, but they emphasized the dan-gers of crossing. Her husband said:

Pues para mi significa algo muy grande. Well, for me this means somethingreally big, because paisanos suffer a lot when they cross the border. They risktheir lives, people who try to cheat them, other people steal from them, andthey are left without money, without anything! So to use this as a message so

that . . . people can look at their families and have more hope . . . we are allbrothers, all children of God.

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She

suggested that this was part of a larger prayer, a specific supplication to Godto change immigration policies so that family members might be able to gain legalpermanent residency and thus be reunited with loved ones. Here we are asking

God to allow many people to get [their papers] fixed so they can leave and go seetheir families and so that others can come and see a new future. As interviewers,we did not ask respondents about their own migration histories and documentedstatus, but it is quite possible that she was praying for legal papers for herself. Sheexplained, We always look for greater hope for the family and a better future.

The couples friend, a middle-aged Mexican woman who also spoke only Spanish,also referred to the theme of legal rights and asking God for help with legal papers.

Yo creo que todos tienen un derecho. I think that everybody has a right. Ithurts me to see so many deathsthere are so many! So we have to unite anddedicate ourselves to God and our brothers for support because we all need it.

We all need support and a permit to work or whatever for the glory of God,and so that we can stop so many deaths.

Regardless of whether they themselves had felt the pain of family separation orthe precariousness of working in the United States without authorization, all ofthe Latino and Mexican respondents said the Posada reaffirmed their ethnic andreligious identities. One young man put it this way:

Were all aware of the implications that this border hasnamely, that, you know,it, it is dividing a lot of people. Its categorizing people as illegal, somehow differ-ent from who we are. And I think that really undermines just the whole conceptof, you know, human dignity and my needs are no, no more important than thepeople and their needs across the border. I think for me also as a Catholic, and

being a Hispanic myself, this is just a way for me to maintain that connection withmy native land. . . . I think the unity for me is what brings me to it every time.

Another Latino who appeared to be in his twenties said that the Posada allowedhim to show solidarity with others on both sides of the border.

Being here for me is really important to be able to establish, not only to thepeople who are here in the U.S., but people who are across the border in Mexicoand Tijuana, create a solidarity between the faith traditions that are repre-sented here. But also the struggle in the lives of migrants who attempt to crossthe border and have died as a result of unjust policy implemented by the U.S.Its really important for me to be here and to show solidarity on both sides.

Immigrant Solidarity

A few of the respondents who were not Latino but who were immigrantsexpressed special solidarity based on their immigrant identities and experiences.They emphasized difference by noting the different migration routes allocated byrace and nation (admittedly, we only spoke with three individuals). Rather thanunderline their own foreignness or alienness, they emphasized how their experi-ences as non-Mexican and non-Latino immigrants had been relatively privileged

in that they were allowed to migrate legally. When we asked a middle-aged Fili-pino man what the Posada meant to him, he responded: It means a big thing for

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me. Im an immigrant myself. I came from the Philippines. Although, you know,we went through the legal process of coming here, seeing the border that was cre-ated by United States, it really hits the heart to see people who are less fortunate

to be separated by a border.Two European immigrant women stressed how easy and privileged their own

migration experiences were compared to those of Mexican and Latino migrants. Awoman from England who had spent considerable time in Mexico and nowresided in San Diego suggested that racial and national discrimination determinedthese differences: Its easy for me to go, European, the right kind of immigrant.The injustice itself is hideous [like the] hideous fence. A woman from Austria con-curred: Coming from Europe, its very easy. She added a comparison to theemergence of a more postnationally oriented Europe: The Iron Gate camedown. . . . We slowly learned the lessons. I feel very sad that this fence is here, that

it divides, you know, the two people.

Secular Humanists and Political Activists

A small handful of people reported that neither faith nor religio-ethnic identi-ties prompted them to come to the Posada Sin Fronteras. Instead, they said thattheir own secular-based morality and political views fueled their opposition toU.S. border enforcement policies. They joined with others who expressed opposi-tion through a faith-based event, but the religious symbolism held no specialmeaning for them. The British woman who had noted how different her ownimmigration experience had been observed: Im not Christian or anything likethat, but it [the Posada] is certainly in terms of my beliefs in terms of right andwrong. Two political activists and organizers, one a middle-aged white man whois a member of a leftist political organization and one a Latina, reported similarreasons. The man said:

We believe that immigrants are human beings and that they have the right tosurvive, and their right to survive is being impaired by things like this triplefence and Operation Gatekeeper. . . . That has to be defended by people whohave papers or who have legal standing in the community.

And the woman told us:

This is my ninth year and I help organize the event. It is significant to mebecause of the location, the fact that we are able to still interface with the peopleon the Mexican side. . . . People have lost their life on this, trying to cross the

border. . . . I live on the Mexican side, but I work on the U.S. side, so comingacross everyday is a constant reminder of this horrible, horrible fence that iserected on a border with a friendly country. There is an element of hope that

just refuses to die. We are here year after year and we are asking that they sus-pend these kinds of operations that put peoples lives in danger.

Transcendence

As we have seen, the various participants find meaning and affirmationthrough their participation in the Posada Sin Fronteras. Many of the respondents,

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Catholic Latinos, Christian white Americans, and secularly oriented politicalactivists, said that attending the Posada inspires them. The collective gatheringand the reenactment not only allowed them to imagine and call for the end of bor-

der divisions, but the event allowed them to actually experience a world withoutborder divisions. For many of the participants, this was a transcendent moment,one that was predicated on extending the hospitality of the posada story. In thiscollective venue, structured with religious ritual and symbolism of shared human-ity, they experienced a transcendent moment together with their friends andloved ones and with many strangers. Joy and unity, rather than grief, was whatthe participants felt

It is very sad but at the same time it is really wonderful because people are try-ing to do something about this lineborder. . . . Like they have been saying allafternoon, we are just one people . . . one, one, we are just one! Like He wants

us to be. (Mexican immigrant woman)

I love the feeling that we are one people without borders. You know, it is one ofthe few times that people on both sides of the border can reach across andexpress their humanity without the confines of human created boundaries. . . .This is probably the eighth or ninth year that Ive been a part of this. It isalways an inspiration. (Middle-aged white man)

This is my first Posada. . . . I am a faith-based person, the gathering of peoplewith so different values has a great deal of significance to me, and to act a simplestory in this context is a very important way for us to reach deep into the his-tory of humanity, so it is very special to be here. (Middle-aged white man,

quoted earlier on helping migrants in the desert)

For me I think its, its like other songs. You know, once in the United States theymake these songs bilingual, like it is something that really gets you in your heart

because I mean it just, it just moves you right there [motions toward his heart]. Imean because when its bilingual, we sing on this side, and they sing on that side,its like an answer. Its like an invitation that we answer. But everything goes forme, like with my faith, all the prayer goes . . . to heaven! (Young Latino, quotedearlier on how the border once separated him from his father in the United States)

The Posada Sin Fronteras is experienced as an authentic way of expressing faithbecause it is collective, involves social action, and occurs in a noninstitutionalizedvenue. A striking feature of Western modernity, noted by many observers, is themovement toward secularization and personal spirituality. The philosopherCharles Taylor (2002), revisiting William Jamess The Varieties of Religious Experience,notes that many people privilege the primacy of individual religious experienceand feelings as the most authentic form of worship and reject church. Many people,for instance, claim they are spiritual but not religious. In Taylors and Jamess view,personal devotion and inward inherence to Christ are superior to collective ritual.The distinction is important, but in the instance at hand, the opposite is occurring.At the Posada, the Euro-American Christians and the Catholics of Mexican originalike relish the authenticity of the collective enactment and gathering. They expe-

rience it as a moment of transcendence, finding enchantment and joy in the enact-ment of unity across racial-ethnic, citizenship, and national borders.

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In this regard, Emile Durkheims dictum about the power of rituals to coalescecommunity and obtain collective effervescence is apt. The singing, processing,and collective ritual enactment create solidarity, feelings of unison, and joy.

Rather than personal spirituality, participants realize a politicized spirituality,one that is realized collectively in a public venue and is directed at a social andpolitical issue but yet resonates with religious beliefs. The symbolism and enact-ment drawn from Mexican Catholic traditions may also lend an exotic whiff ofOrientalism to the Euro-American participants, deepening the feelings of authen-ticity. The Posada may feel more real and participatory than a routinized, staidSunday church service.

The fact that the Posada Sin Fronteras occurs at the U.S.-Mexico border isimportant both for political articulation and for religious expression. Political pro-test, as Jasper (1997) has noted, often relies on the symbolism of place. Protestors

commonly assemble at monuments or seats of government where they can visit,touch, and smell these sites, and somehow be persuaded of the reality of historythrough the reality of the physical objects and places (Jasper 1997:93). The U.S.-Mexico border is the site where rejection, death, and border enforcement occur ona daily basis, and it is the site where redemption, a postborder world of hospitalityand the sharing of shelter, can be imagined and even experienced for a fewmoments. The site, then, contributes to the articulation of a political statementthat simultaneously symbolizes the reality of border enforcement and deaths andtransgresses and transcends it. As one Latina who helped to organize the eventexplained: Just having this is almost like it makes it [the border] invisible just for

this couple of hours that we are here. We are able to talk to people, we know thepeople on the other side so it can get pretty emotional.Traveling to the site also contributes to feelings of religious authenticity, as it is

not viewed as a mandatory site of inauthentic worship. The Posada constitutesboth a political and a sacred pilgrimage. To participate in the Posada, people mustgive up a Saturday afternoon and evening before Christmas and drive freewaysand then on a rocky, winding road to convene at Border Field State Park in SanYsidro. Traveling in families and groups of friends, coming to the Posada involvesa modest outlay of time and effort. Yet unlike traditional sites of pilgrimage, the

border fence is a profane, secular place. Through the Posada Sin Fronteras cere-mony this profane, even offensive place is transformed, for a few hours, into a

sacred space. The Posada participants make sacred what is otherwise a site of sep-aration, surveillance, violence, and death.

CONCLUSION

The annual Posada Sin Fronteras is many things to many people. It encompassesboth performance and participation, and it provides participants with a didacticexperience, an opportunity to learn about the consequences of U.S. borderenforcement policies, as well as an opportunity to reaffirm and consolidate identi-ties based on faith and ethnicity. It offers a poetic, Mexican Catholic ritual experi-

ence that is simultaneously aesthetic and inclusive of sacred elements and anaction of protest and mobilization of civil society. The Posada is a moment for

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remembering and reenacting past injustices, as well as a moment for collectivelyimagining and calling for a more just future. As such, it is a political action and anethnic religious event.

People protest and come to events such as the Posada because it is meaningfulto them. Listening to the multiple voices at the Posada Sin Fronteras underscoresthe multivocality of meaning and resistance to current U.S. border policies. Differ-ent subjects are grounded in different experiences and identities. Some are exclu-sively faith-based, some combine faith and ethnicity, and still others are rooted inmore secular notions of morality. Religion and ethnicity are particularly powerfulsources for drawing diverse groups to these collective actions. Some observersmight see this lack of unanimity as a weakness of resistance, but we suggest it is asource of strength. Lisa Lowe (1996:167), discussing the possibility for coalition

building across national boundaries, believes that this entails processes of learn-

ing, translation and transformation of perspective. In this regard, we suggestthat faith-based ideals and particular cultural forms and rituals offer promisingroutes both for challenging unilateral nation-state immigration and border poli-cies and for reaffirming diverse identities. Difference and distinct social locationsamong the participants at the Posada can serve as a more powerful coalition ofresistance than one that is constituted by homogeneity. One shared collectiveidentity is not necessary for protest, nor is it a necessary or desirable outcome.

A key issue in the social movement literature concerns determining the effec-tiveness of mobilizations. Is movement success determined by the achievement ofconcrete, instrumental goals or by enhancement of shared political consciousness

about what is wrong? Clearly, the Posada did not bring an end to border militari-zation. Yet through involvement in the Posada, participants are learning aboutborder policies and collectively sharing and signaling a faith-based challenge tonational policies that they interpret as immoral and unjust. In this time of post-9/11hypernationalism and militarization, the counterhegemonic vision promoted byevents such as the Posada Sin Fronteras and the bringing together of diversegroups should not be underestimated.

The religious, moral impulse against border militarization and the strong Mexicancultural influence in the U.S.-Mexico border areawhich has been heightenedduring the last thirty years of immigrationallow participants who are neitherMexican nor Catholic to embrace Mexican and Catholic ritual forms. This religio-

cultural expansion appeals to participants because it provides not only social andpolitical relevance but also deep spiritual meaning and transcendence. The collec-tive, public, and highly ritualistic elements of the event and the site itself yieldfeelings of authenticity.

Religious symbols strengthen moral beliefs and postnational political positions.For Euro-American Christians and Latino Catholics alike, the Posada SinFronteras allows for the experience and enactment of unity and for the expressionof a politicized spirituality. Faith informs the Posada, but it does not exclude.

NOTES

1. It was established with military force first in Texas in 1836. Later a new line was estab-lished by the outcome of the Mexican-American War of 184648 and finalized with the

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Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848. The provisions allowed forthe annexation and colonization of more than half of Mexicos territory by the UnitedStates. This included what is today Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, and parts

of Colorado, Nevada, and Utah (Library of Congress 2002).2. During the Bracero Program in the 1950s, for example, the Border Patrol regularly par-

ticipated in what was called drying out the wetbacks. Border Patrol agents escortedand deported Mexican men across the line only to escort them back into the arms ofeager agricultural employers (Calavita 1994).

3. The Border Patrol now has nearly as many personnel as the nations principal federalpolice force, the FBI, which numbered 11,428 agents in 2000 (Cornelius 2001). Compli-cating the view of unity and shared culture across borders, about one-third of the U.S.INS officers and Border Patrol agents working along the U.S.-Mexico border are Mexi-can Americans (Heyman 2002:479).

4. This began with Operation Blockade (later renamed Operation Hold-the-Line) in El

Paso, Texas, in 1993, and continued with Operation Gatekeeper in San Diego in 1994;Operation Safeguard in Nogales, Arizona, in 1995; Operation Hard Line in New Mex-ico in 1997; and Operation Rio Grande, complete with floodlights, twenty-foot watch-towers, and video cameras, in Texas in 1997. Most of these were expanded to nearbyareas (Andreas 2000). During these years, the Border Patrol also adopted the navysDeployable Mass Population Identification and Tracking System for record keeping(Andreas 2000).

5. This policy includes components that restrict public services access for legal perma-nent resident immigrants, establish new financial limits for immigrant sponsors,expand criminal alien enforcement and mandatory detentions, and, critically for ourdiscussion here, expand border enforcement.

6. During the early 1980s recession, some politicians and interest groups seized on thissentiment with the Simpson-Mazzoli and Simpson-Rodino bills, which eventually ledto the employer sanctions provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act(IRCA) in 1986. Then, in 1994, incumbent gubernatorial candidate Pete Wilson built hisreelection campaign by urging California voters to pass Proposition 187; some observ-ers will recall his television campaign ads, which featured footage of anarchistic scenesof migrants openly defying authorities and running through crowded INS checkpointsin San Diego. Proposition 187 promised to deny public education and health servicesto undocumented immigrants and their children. Although ultimately found unconsti-tutional and never implemented, Proposition 187 spurred the restrictive IIRIRA legis-lation of 1996, which, among other things, fortified border enforcement.

7. Anxieties prompted by larger processes of globalization form the backdrop for thepublic support of border enforcement. As Peter Andreas (2000:x) notes in his remark-able book, Border Games , the tightening of controls at the U.S.-Mexico border hasoccurred at a time and place otherwise defined by the relaxation of state controls andthe opening of the border. According to this perspective, the politics of policing the

border for illegal migrants is intimately connected to neoliberalization strategies suchas NAFTA, which lessen tariffs and other controls over cross-border flows of capitaland trade. Seen from this perspective, border enforcement and militarization is lessabout stopping illegal immigration and more about symbolically affirming the imageof the United States as a nation defending national territory. It is intended, according toAndreas, to project the image that the U.S. government is actually doing something

about illegal flows. In other words, it is symbolically and politically expedient but notan effective deterrent to migration.

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8. Assaults have been committed by officers in the U.S. Border Patrol, the U.S. military,and Sheriffs Departments. The most notorious and the first of the documented shoot-ings by U.S. armed forces occurred on May 20, 1997, when Marine Corporal Clemente

Banuelos shot and killed eighteen-year-old Esequiel Hernandez, who was then tend-ing his goats near Redford, Texas. According to Dunn (2001), the Marines failed toidentify themselves or issue warning shots and then failed to administer aid to Her-nandez. The federal government did not subpoena any of the Marines involved in thekilling.

9. One Washington, D.C., based interfaith group, the Border Working Group, hasattempted to organize a national Posadas campaign to draw public attention to the ris-ing number of human rights violations and the rising death toll. Their Web site featuresa Las Posadas Packet with instructional information on how to put one together andhow to issue press releases and write congressional representatives about border poli-cies (www.rtfcam.org/resources/packets/posadas).

10. On the program for the 2002 Posada Sin Frontera, Towards a World Without Borders:Hacia un Mundo Sin Fronteras, the cosponsors were listed on the back page. Theyinclude American Friends Service Committee, Interfaith Coalition for ImmigrantRights, Catholic Diocese of San Diego, Ecumenical Council of San Diego, SouthernCalifornia/Nevada Conference, United Church of Christ, Peace Resource Center,Immigration Ministry TeamPacifica Lutheran Synod, Casa del Migrante, Casa YMCAde Menores Migrantes, El Centro Madre Assunta, Centro de Pastoral Migratoria,Frailes Franciscanos, and Procuraduria de los Derechos Humanos.

11. The lyrics of Las Posadas del Barrio are reproduced here with permission from thesongwriters, Rosa Martha Zarate and Francisco Javier Herrerra (telephone communi-cation, February 26, 2003).

12. The respondents who spoke in Spanish are represented here by quotations that beginin Spanish and follow with an English-language translation.

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