Devotion in Motion

“I was completely blown away by this book. I do not think I have ever read a book that better combines academic insight with such fascinating eyewitness detail that you have no choice but to slow down and read every word. The foreignness and unrelatability of pilgrimage disappear in Wright-Ríos’s hands.” -- Margaret Chowning, University of California, Berkeley “With good-natured erudition, Wright-Ríos has crafted a multitextured study of pilgrimage to Our Lady of Juquila, a shrine in Oaxaca, Mexico. He explores how devotees make their way to this sacred location that holds deep affective spiritual power, as well as opportunities for religious tourism and commerce. Wright-Ríos neatly draws together the ways in which this devotion offers a microcosm of religious belief and practice in both contemporary Mexican and México ancestral.” -- Virginia Garrard, University of Texas at Austin “Part history, part participatory research, part documentation of lived religion, this highly original work shows how pilgrims enact faith as a journey through community, family, and livelihood, often beyond formal structures of the church. Wright-Ríos shows how a historian can engage in present-day lived experiences that are immersed in history. The book is grounded in diligent research and an acute eye for narrative detail.” -- Robert Weis, University of North Colorado