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Three North Mexican Folk Saint Movements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Barbara June Macklin  and
N. Ross Crumrine
Barbara June Macklin
Affiliation:
Connecticut College
N. Ross Crumrine
Affiliation:
University of Victoria
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Extract

In each of the three cases presented, the changing role of the folk saint as well as the development of the movement indicate that a four-stage transformation is in operation:

(1) The ‘call’ by means of a supernatural experience or ‘vocational struggle’ occurs in the future folk saint's life and initiates his career.

(2) Offering a practical religion with solutions to physical and personal problems, the saint attracts individuals who are seeking such solace and remedy. Common purpose, journey and encampment near the curer foster group identity.

(3)Myths about the miracle worker grow in the group and circulate abroad, intensifying group solidarity and attracting new adherents. Administrators and would-be exploiters enter. A transcendent ideology is introduced with social, political, and religious ramifications. These may be at once restorative and innovative. The success of the folk saint spawns other saints who also attract followers.

(4) External, traditional power structures are threatened, and retaliate by applying political pressure, so that the last stage sees the decline and eclipse of the movement, and the loss of its innovative elements. The saint, no longer a potential secular power, devotes himself to curing, thus reemphasizing the culturally defined, traditional role of curandero or hitolio.

Type
Folk Saints
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , January 1973 , pp. 89 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1973

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3 A brief version of this paper was presented at the 39 Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, Lima, Peru, August 4, 1970. The field researches on which this paper is based are as follows. BJM: June 1965–September 1966, the summers of 1967 and 1969, as well as the October fiestas, 1967, in honor of El Niño Fidencio—all in northern Mexico; financial support from two National Institute of Mental Health grants and some assistance with travel and secretarial expenses from Connecticut College. NRC: November 1960–December 1961 in Sonora, Mexico; financial support from a Social Science Research Council Predoctoral Fellowship, plus a National Institute of Mental Health Fellowship, Lynne S. Crumrine, recipient. The support of these various institutions is gratefully acknowledged.

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