I already knew before reading this chapter that many immigrant use religion to help cope with the struggles that come with moving to a new country. However, I was surprised at how Mexican immigrants mold aspects of their religion, particularly their Viacrucis performances. Gaalvez writes, “parishes have long viewed the Way of the Cross as an opportunity to make Christ’s life and suffering more comprehensible and applicable to the trials faced by his faithful today” (111). This is accomplished especially by El Viacrucis del Inmigrante, the procession that begins at the offices of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. This is an interesting place to start a religious procession, because for many Mexican immigrants, this “represents the site of their most humiliating and yet most crucial interactions with the U.S. nation-state” (130). They are revisiting the place where they faced humiliation and the feeling of being an other, but this time, they have hundreds of immigrants who went through the same struggle, the church, and God on their side.
The time of the procession is also strategically planned, and allows for the most people to walk in the procession. It is also planned so that the procession occupies the street just as Wall Street’s white-collar workers are leaving work. Many of the immigrants in the procession actually work in the financial district, selling flowers, working in delicatessens, or delivering food. And while they are usually anonymous because they do not have their papers, the procession is their opportunity to “visibly and vocally decry their exploitation and the multiple injustices they suffer as a result of their efforts to earn a living for themselves and their families” (131). Once again, with the strength and support of other fellow immigrants, the church and God, Mexican immigrants can finally speak out on the injustice they face. El Viacrucis del Inmigrante is not just a religious procession, but a time for Mexican immigrants to finally have their voices heard.
