Devotion in Motion

Reviews / Votes

"Few scholars have had the patience, knowledge, compassion, and analytic power to explore this subject as brilliantly as Wright-Rios has. If you have never been on a pilgrimage, reading Devotion in Motion, and enjoying its stunning, glossy plates, is certainly the next best thing." * The Americas * "An immersive exploration into lived religion, faith, masculinity, and community in modern Latin America." * The Catholic Historical Review * "This book . . . combines historical analysis with community-based research, tracing the devotion's evolution and highlighting the complex interplay among faith, commerce, and conflicts involving the Catholic Church and local communities." * Choice * "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-Rios's hands." -- Margaret Chowning, University of California, Berkeley "With good-natured erudition, Wright-Rios 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-Rios neatly draws together the ways in which this devotion offers a microcosm of religious belief and practice in both contemporary Mexican and Mexico 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-Rios 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