Crossing borders with the Santo Niño de Atocha
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

This book journeys through the genesis, development, and various metamorphoses in the veneration of the Holy Child of Atocha, from its origins in Zacatecas in the late colonial period through its different transformations over the centuries, across lands and borders, and to the ultimate rising as a defining religious devotion for the Mexican/Chicano experience in the United States. It is an account of the historical origins of the Santo Niño de Atocha and his transformations "Everywhere He ever walked," first in the nineteenth century, along the Camino de Tierra Adentro between Zacatecas and New Mexico, to his consolidation as a saint for the Borderlands, and finally, to his contemporary metamorphosis as a border-crossing religious symbol for the immigrant experience and the Mexican/Chicano communities in the U.S.