“Joyful Suffering”: Religious Experience in the Periphery

This paper examines religious experience in the October fiestas commemorating the spiritual birth (initiation) of world-famous magico-religious healer and miracle worker, el Niño Fidencio (1898-1938). It situates contemporary Fidencista religious practices in the periphery as a response to the violence inflected by political and religious centers of power. An ethnographic engagement with the primary sources will demonstrate that for Fidencio’s followers—pilgrims attending the fiestas—“imposed suffering” is transformed into “joyful suffering” precisely because Fidencio himself is regarded as a divine presence. They acknowledge the crucial ways God and Fidencio have intervened in the violent yet mundane events that constitute life in the U.S-Mexico borderlands: border-crossing, detention, and deportation. I argue, therefore, that joyful suffering is an expression of religious experience in the periphery. Overall, this paper contributes to the growing interdisciplinary dialogue on migration, religion, and state-sanctioned violence in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.