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Friction, Conversion, and Contention: Prophetic Politics in the Tohono O'odham Borderlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

José Antonio Lucero
José Antonio Lucero*
Affiliation:
University of Washington
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Abstract

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As a consequence of US border policies that funnel migrants through the harsh Sonoran Desert, migrants since the 1990s have been crossing and dying in large numbers on Tohono O'odham lands. This article examines the spiritual and political journey of Mike Wilson, a tribal member of the Tohono O'odham Nation, who puts water out for migrants against the wishes of his tribal council. Wilson's road to human rights activism was a winding one. In the 1980s, he was a member of the US Army Special Forces stationed in El Salvador; politically, he was, in his words, “to the right of Attila the Hun.” How did a Green Beret become an outspoken human rights activist? This article argues that religion provided the material and cultural conditions of possibility for Wilson's conversions and was an important source of “friction” that both enabled and constrained his prophetic style of activism.

Resumen

Resumen

A raíz de la política fronteriza de los Estados Unidos que canaliza a migrantes por el desierto de Sonora, un número alarmante de personas ha cruzado por y muerto en las tierras del pueblo Tohono O'odham. En oposición a los deseos del concejo tribal, Mike Wilson, un miembro del pueblo, mantiene estaciones de agua para los migrantes cruzando el desierto. Este artículo explora los caminos políticos y espirituales recorridos por Wilson, los cuales han sido sinuosos. En la década de los ochenta, Wilson formaba parte de las Fuerzas Especiales estadounidenses colocadas en El Salvador; ideológicamente Wilson se ubicaba “a la derecha de Atila el Huno”. ¿Cómo se convierte un militar derechista en un activista de los derechos humanos? Este artículo explora la hipótesis que la religión proporcionó la “fricción” y las condiciones culturales y materiales que posibilitan y limitan el estilo profético del activismo de Wilson.

Type
Part 3: Zones of Crisis
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 49 , Issue S1: Special Issue: Lived Religion and Lived Citizenship in Latin America's Zones of Crisis , 2014 , pp. 168 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

María Elena García, Jeremy Levine, Jeff Rubin, David Smilde, Ben Junge, and the members of the Religion and Social Movements working group greatly improved this paper. Hannah Dolph and Marcus Johnson provided exceptional research assistance. MA students in the comparative religion symposium at UW were excellent interlocutors and teachers. A Mellon-LASA grant and research funds from the UW made this research possible. I thank Mike Wilson and Susan Ruff for their hospitality in Tucson.

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