THE DEVOTION TO A LIVING SANTO AND HIS RELIGIOUS HEALING:AN INTERDISCPLINARY STUDY OF EL NIÑO FIDENCIOAND HIS RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTByJosé Maria Villarreal This dissertation outlines a fresh approach to the inter-disciplinary study of El Niño Fidencio (the healer) and El Niño Fidencio religious movement as seen under the conceptual lens of an indigenized Christianity that distinguishes itself from mainstream Christianity. Apart from consulting an extended body of literature related to world religions, religious theory, curanderismo, popular religion and their analytical relationship to El Niño Fidencio, I also employed the inside research methodology to conduct my ethnographic work. My extensive fieldwork experience metamorphosed into a theoretical model centered on cultural rupture, and indigenous practices as symbolic resistance. The inside research methods allowed me to live among the devotees of El Niño Fidencio and participate in their rituals and ceremonies. Taking this into account, I posit the following theoretical framework: El Niño Fidencio and El Niño Fidencio’s religious movement represent a cultural rupture from mainstream Catholicism and Western forms of Christianity as evidenced by Fidencista’s belief in the spirit world and the belief that El Niño Fidencio is a living saint and at times seen as synonymous with Jesus Christ by hardline Fidencistas. El Niño is accessible through the intervention of a spiritual medium known as a materia. El Niño Fidencio gained prominence as a popular traditional indigenous healer (curandero espiritual) since his appearance in the early twentieth century. This time period represents a period marked by turbulence and despair as Mexican President Elias Calles persecutes the Catholic Church, challenging its accumulated wealth and authority. At the same, El Niño Fidencio appears abruptly — becoming a messiah for thousands by addressing the material, spiritual, and health needs of the poor, needs that the nation-state and the Church had failed to fulfill after the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Subsequent to his death in 1938, Espinazo, Nuevo León, México, was transformed into a pilgrimage community that ultimately gave rise El Niño Fidencio religious movement, a religious insurgency that continues to persevere. The dissertation is organized into an introduction, three chapters and a conclusion. I divide my work into five parts. The introduction provides an overview of the study of El Niño Fidencio and the literature review details the extensive scholarly literature related to this study. Chapter one presents a biography of the life of El Niño Fidencio and traces the interconnections of his emergence to the Cristero War. I delve into the Cristero War during the mid-twentieth century and examine State and Church relations. I analyze how a healer like El Niño Fidencio challenges these societal institutions. In chapter two, I present analysis of my ethnographic research, focusing on of El Niño’s healings, traditions, rituals and ceremonies that shape his character. Chapter three untangles the participant’s interviews and constructs conceptual analysis. I trace the participant’s multiple views, challenging established mythologies and ultimately bring the Fidencista perspective to a conceptual model. In the conclusion chapter, I present theses to support the claim of El Niño Fidencio’s distinctiveness by emphasizing his successful accommodations to gain religious space within mainstream religion.
Read
