Virgin of El Barrio

Kristy Nabhan-Warren is assistant professor of American religions at Augustana College, Rock Island, IL.

"This wonderfully written study, one of the most comprehensive and insightful books about modern Marian apparitions in North America, takes the story from the Virgin's first appearance to a feminist professional woman distressed by family burdens, through the widening sphere of the apparitions' impact on family and community, to the cult's ultimate role as a national and international vehicle for Catholic evangelizing, especially among Hispanics." (CHOICE, highly recommended) "This is a respectful, sensitive, clearly written book in which the author seeks to resolve the alien ethnographer's dilemma by & writing like a relative. The reader's reward is a rich sense of the circumstances and struggles of at least some Mexican Americans in South Phoenix to make a good life in the contemporary United States that balances faith and family with education, material strivings, professional growth, discrimination, and personal suffering in ways that begin to bridge the conceptual divide between official and popular religion." (American Ethnologist) "A thorough ethnography that sweeps the reader into the world of Marian visionary Estela Ruiz, her family and followers, and the evangelizing ministries they have created in South Phoenix. . . . Fascinating." - Timothy Matovina,Director, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, University of Notre Dame "This book stands as an intimate portrait of the visionary; 'a woman torn between the individualism she enjoyed in the & Anglo world and her familial commitments in her Mexican-American home" (Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion) "A compelling account of Marian devotion as 'lived religion'" (Sociology of Religion)

• Acknowledgments' IntroductionFe(Faith), Familia (Family), and Communidad (Community): Mexican American Devotion to the Virgin Mary Estela Ruiz and the Virgin of the Americas: An Intimate Relationship From the Devil to Mary: The Ruiz Family Narratives Battling Satan: The Blessed Mother's Messages of Healing, Hope, and Urgency "On Fire for Mary and Jesus!": Becoming New Men and Women in Mary's Ministries Catholic Evangelization: Fighting "Fire with Fire" Corporate Evangelizers:A Family's "Vision" for South Phoenix Hope and Healing: The Dialectics of Faith and Place Conclusion: Grassroots Catholicism Notes Bibliography Index About the Author